How to make use of checklists in SAP CRM service transactions

[TinaGi]

With SAP Enhancement Package 1 (EHP1) for SAP CRM 7.0, there is a new feature available for service requests, master service requests, requests for change and service orders: The checklist. You can make use of this feature for a variety of use cases. Generally speaking, you can use a checklist every time a number of routine activities need to be carried out and you want to make sure that all parties involved are informed about their tasks.

 

To use an easy example for making use of a checklist, let’s assume that a notebook was stolen from one of your colleagues, and he reports this to the shared service center. A service request is created – either by the employee himself, or by the shared service center agent – explaining the situation and stating all relevant details, e.g. whether the police have already been informed.

In the service request, a checklist can then be assigned to ensure that no relevant activity is forgotten and all relevant parties are informed. The checklist can be assigned automatically via rules, or it can be assigned manually. For rule-based determination, as an example you could have a category ‘Lost/Stolen Equipment’ set up, and once this is selected in the service request, the appropriate checklist will be assigned automatically.

 

A checklist consists of 1-n “steps” (checklist items), which you configure in Customizing. For our stolen equipment example, the checklist could consist of the following steps:

1. Write theft report


2. Inform insurance


3. Inform asset accounting


4. Enter request for replacement equipment


5. Deliver replacement equipment

 

 



 

The parties responsible to carry out the steps can be assigned automatically via rules, or they can be entered manually.

As can be seen in the process flow chart below the checklist, there is one step which needs to be executed first, and only then the other four steps will be executable. In our case the theft report needs to be written first by Lou Windham before the other colleagues can carry out their steps.

Lou is informed via SAP Workflow that he needs to execute a checklist step. Once he has completed the step, all other checklist parties will also receive workflow items to inform them about the required actions.

 



 

Per checklist step you can display a variety of information, not only the step description, the responsible party, and the status, but also whether there is a sequence which needs to be followed (‘previous step’) when processing the checklist, whether there is a due date for the step, who completed the step at which date and time, etc. In addition, per step you can enter a long text, you can define and display a pre-defined work instruction, and you can assign 1-n actions, for example to enable creation of a follow-up transaction with one click.

 



 

To conclude, let me point out some of the main benefits of the checklist. If you use checklists,

• it is transparent to everyone involved who needs to carry out which activity


• the overall status of work is easily accessible


• all parties involved are informed in real-time via workflow when they need to process a checklist step

 

Technical information:

If you want to make use of the checklist, you need to activate one of the following business functions: IC and Communication-Enabled Business Processes or Multifunctional Shared Service Interaction Center

A new business object has been created for the checklist: BUS2000199.

You can find the configuration settings for the checklist in the Customer Relationship Management Customizing if you follow this path:

 



 

Further reading:

What’s New with SAP EHP1 for SAP CRM 7.0 – Service Request Management:

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