Enhancing the transparency of warranty claims
Warranty claims processing is quite inefficient in many companies. This has many reasons. One of the main reasons is that data related to warranty claims is spread among many IT systems. It is not easy to gather all information related to a single warranty case and it is even more complicated to do general warranty reporting comprising thousands of claims. Gathering information means to switch among diverse systems and to collect data manually. This raises the error rate and makes the collected data less reliable.
One file, one point of entry
In the SAP warranty application, all data related to a warranty case is linked to one document, the warranty claim. The claim is the single point of entry for all questions related to one specific warranty case. Any changes or actions applied to the warranty claim will be logged. Thus, it is always possible to reconstruct who has changed what, when and for which reason. The original claim that came from the customer will still be available. Last not least, recovery claims are also linked to this original claim. But this will be the subject of a separate blog.
Fig 1: All information that is related to the claim is being displayed in it, e.g. information coming from the claimant and information going back to the claimant.
Integration
Of course, master data that is available in the SAP system such as customers, parts, vehicles / serialized components, defect codes are linked to the claim. This eases claim assessment and it makes reporting a lot easier.
Fig 2: External documents such as invoices can easily be attached to a claim and viewed within a claim.
Attach documents
Also any external documents such as photographs of the defect, external invoices, analysis reports etc. can also be linked to the warranty claim using the SAP Business Document Navigator. Claimants can upload their external documents via an internet application. No information will be lost.
