My Learning —– Introduction to SRM
This blog is just my learning and it will keep on changing as per my knowledge. Please don’t find it final and refer to actual SAP document before coming to any conclusion. Please add comments which will always help me…………………..
SRM —–> Supplier Relationship Management
What Extra in SAP SRM from SAP ERP
- Strategic Sourcing
- Self-Service Procurement
- Demand Aggregation
- Sourcing Cockpit (SOCO)
Different Documents in SRM
1) PR (Purchase Requisition)
2) RFx —> Quotations, Bidding
3) PO (Purchase Order)
4) Goods Receipt
5) Invoice
SRM Architecture Overview
SAP SRM Deployment Scenarios
The scenarios depends on the system in which your purchasing department wants to work and, consequently, where the follow-on documents are to be created.
- Classic Scenarios —> SC is created in SRM and while others documents are created in ERP
This scenario suits customers:
• Who want a wide user group, for example employees not necessarily working in the purchasing department, to be able to enter their requirements quickly and easily. SAP SRM’s functionality and ease of navigation allow this, as it requires only minimal training
• Who want their purchasing department to operate solely with the functionality offered by the backend system(s)
• For whom a transfer of purchasing activities to SAP SRM is not viable
- Extended Classic Scenarios —> PO is created in SRM and copy in done ERP
This scenario suits customers:
• Who want their purchasing department to save time and money by using the streamlined purchasing functionality of SAP SRM
• Who want to use the full sourcing capabilities offered by SAP SRM, yet who also want to be able to confirm and invoice direct materials
• Who want the flexibility of being able to pre-enter confirmations and invoices in SAP SRM
- Stand-alone Scenarios —> PO is created in SRM
- Decouple Scenario——-> Based on Product Category, Classic or Extended Classic Scenario can be used
SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM) offers the following business scenarios:
- Self-Service Procurement
- Plan-Driven Procurement
- Service Procurement
- Strategic Sourcing
- Operational Contract Management
- Supplier Qualification
- Catalog Content Management
- Analytic
Roles in SRM
Roles describe the activities that internal employees or external business partners perform in a business scenario. Independent of the role, all users need a user master record in order to be able to log on to the system. After logging onto the system, users see all functions that they need to process their tasks.
Setting up SRM system.
Most of the cases when you set up a SRM system, you have a corresponding ERP system.Following things need to copied from ERP to SRM system.
| Sr No |
ERP | SRM |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Material Master | Product Master |
| 2 | Service Master |
Product Master |
| 3 | Material Groups | Product Category |
| 4 | Vendor | Vendor Group |
| 5 | Payment Terms | Payment Terms |
| 6 | Supplier master records | Business partner |
Different Terms Used
|
Business Object |
BO |
A Business object represents a specific view on well defined & outlined business content Example: Shopping Cart |
|
Dependent Object |
DO |
A Dependent Object represents a concept that cannot stand by itself from a business point of view. It always references a BO. Sometimes dependent objects can be used in the context of multiple BOs. Example: Account Assignment |
|
Master Data Object |
MO |
Master Data Objects are special business objects that refer to Master Data. Example: Supplier |
|
Supporting Object |
SO |
Supporting Objects are objects that provide supporting functionality to business objects. Example: Sourcing Cockpit, Workflow |
|
Master Data |
Information describing characteristics of information such as customers and vendors. Master Data is created seldom, changed sometimes and read or referenced often. |
Product Category Hierarchies
You can use hierarchies to group together related product categories and suppliers, making them easier to find and report on. SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM) has three types of multilevel hierarchy:
- Product category hierarchies
- Supplier hierarchies
- Central contract hierarchies
Tx COMM_HIERARCHY ->Create new product hierarchies and product categories
Business Partners
SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM) uses the SAP business partner concept. An internal or external business partner is created in SAP SRM for every person, organization, or group of people that could be involved in a business transaction, such as a bid invitation or a purchase order. Within the context of business transactions, business partners can adopt various partner functions, as long as they have fulfilled the relevant requirements.
Business partners aggregate the master data of a person, organization, or group of people.
There can be internal Business Partners or External Business Partners
Self-Service Procurement
Self service Procurement can be Classic or Extended.
The employees can use this business scenario to create and manage their own requisitions. This relieves the purchasing department of a huge administrative burden while making the procurement process faster and more responsive.
Sourcing
- Supplier contact: When one or more suitable suppliers have been identified, requests for quotation, requests for proposals, requests for information or requests for tender may be advertised, or direct contact may be made with the suppliers.
Commonly Used Transactions in SRM and MM
1) ME51N-TO CREATE PR