A Brief History Lesson
Long time users of the SAP CRM Interaction Center are familiar with the concept of IC-specific business transactions such as the IC Service Ticket, IC Sales Order, IC Lead, IC Complaint and so on. These IC-specific versions of the various SAP CRM business transactions look and behave slightly different than the standard CRM transactions - whether accessed from the old SAP GUI transaction CRMD_ORDER or from one of the new CRM WebClient business roles such as Sales Pro, Service Pro, or Marketing Pro.
These old IC-specific business transactions shared the same underlying business object types (BUS types) as their non-IC equivalents. For example the IC Service Ticket and IC Service Order both used BUS2000116, the same business object type that the CRM Service Order is built on. However, the IC-specific transactions used different transaction types than the standard CRM transactions. For example, the IC Service Order used transaction type TSVO and the IC Service Ticket used TSRV, while the standard CRM Service Order uses TSVO. For readers who are not familiar with the concepts of business object types and transaction types, the business object type controls which fields and methods (i.e., functions) are available, while the transaction type defines the properties and characteristics such as partner determination procedure, organization data profile, and status profile.
The rational for having two different sets of transaction types was based on the assumption that front-office contact center agents worked differently than back-office users like sales professionals or service professionals, and thus required slightly different functionality and display of data.
The New Strategy Starting with CRM 7.0
Based on customer feedback SAP made the decision to shift away from delivering IC-specific versions of business transactions and instead to deliver a single set of business transactions that could be used consistently across all CRM business roles. To that end, SAP rolled out an internal development effort dubbed "UIU (user interface unification)" designed to allow standard business transactions to run inside the Interaction Center just like native IC transactions. Care was taken to make sure these CRM WebClient transactions behave like the old native IC transactions in terms of automatic partner determination, activity clipboard integration, scratchpad integration, automatic saving at End contact, and so on.
AS of CRM 7.0, SAP has removed the old IC-specific business transactions from the default delivery customizing (i.e., default business roles like IC_AGENT) and replaced them with the generic CRM WebClient business transactions (the same transactions delivered with other non-IC roles like Sales Pro, Service Pro, and Marketing Pro).
Which CRM WebClient Business Transactions are Available in IC?
As of SAP CRM 7.0, the following standard CRM WebClient business transactions are now integrated into the IC by default and replace some of the IC-specific business transactions that existed in previous releases. The CRM WebClient business transactions are displayed in the IC with a tiled layout so that they are in line with the overall IC user experience.
- CRM sales order
- ERP sales order
- ERP quotation
- ERP sales contract
- Service order
- Complaint
- Lead
- Case
- Opportunity
- Service request/Incident
- Problem
- Request for change
The following CRM WebClient business transactions have also been enabled for integration into the IC, but are not integrated into the standard IC business roles by default. You can integrate these transactions into the IC with a tiled layout using the navigation bar Customizing and the UI configuration tool.
- Quotation
- Sales contract
- Service quotation
- Service contract
- Service contract quotation
- Activity (appointment, task)
What If We Still Prefer to Use the Old IC-Specific Transactions?
The old IC-specific transactions are still available for use in the IC and can be switched back on through configuration. To use the old IC-specific business transactions, assign the navigation bar profile IC_AGENT_U to your business role in the customizing activity Define Business Role. SAP will continue to support the old IC-specific business transactions during CRM 7.0. However, please note that these old IC-specific transactions will no longer be maintained and will not receive additional features or improvement (such as performance enhancements). SAP recommends that customers consider using the new CRM WebClient transactions. Although there is not a perfect one-to-one mapping of functionality and features between the old IC-specific transaction and new CRM WebClient transactions, in most cases customers will benefit from the increased flexibility and additional functionality provided by the new CRM WebClient transactions
Notes for Upgrading Customers
Please be aware that upgrading customers who have created their own business roles will need to adjust their configuration using the default-delivered roles (for example, IC_AGENT) as an example in order to replace the old IC-specific transactions with the new recommended CRM WebClient business transactions.
Further Information
