FAQs for Installed Base Management in SAP Cloud for Service

Disclaimer: The aim of this document is to provide a better understanding of the installed base management feature in SAP Cloud for Service.
This is not the product documentation and the content included here may get updated over time.

Question 1: What is Installed Base? What is Installed Base Item?

Answer: Installed Base is a hierarchical arrangement of items installed at your customer’s location. For example: You can maintain an installed base for Company ABC where your servers are installed. Certain information can be maintained at the installed base header level, for example, Involved Parties, Attachments, Notes and Competitor Products.

The following can be added as items in an installed base:

• Registered Product
• Product
• Text

Registered Product: It is a unique instance of a Product with a serial ID. It is possible to maintain a warranty for a Registered Product. One registered product can exist only in one Installed Base at a time.

Product : An instance of a Product. Same product can be added in multiple installed bases.

Text : A flexible category which can represent, for example, a location or a grouping.

On the UI, the “Category” field differentiates the types of items. (Technically, an Installed Base item is an installation point of the specific category).

An example of Installed Base set up:

Question 2: Is there any limit to the number of levels when creating the installed base hierarchy?

Answer: There is no limit to the number of levels that can be created in an installed base hierarchy. However, too many levels may become incomprehensible or difficult to maintain. Decide on an optimal number based on your scenario.

Question 3: How is installed base used in the service process?

Answer: Installed Base Management provides the ability to create a Ticket from an Installed Base at the header level or at the item level. Certain information (if) maintained in the Installed Base (header or item level) is automatically copied over to the Ticket, for example the customer, contact, service
technician, service technician team and location.

The list of all tickets where an installed base or installed base item is included is seen in the TICKETS facet on installed base.

Question 4: I see multiple views – Registered Products, Installed Base, and Installation Points. How are they different? When to use what?

Answer: Registered Products view was available (under Products work center) prior to Installed Base. Registered Products can be used standalone if you need to track serialized products as individual items.

Use Installed Base if you need a hierarchical representation and a consolidated view of installed items.

When you enable Installed Base feature, the Registered Products view is automatically enabled and is shown under Installed Base Work Center as well (since Registered Product can be an item in Installed Base).

Installation Points has been built to enable replication of ERP Functional Locations to C4C. But it can be used standalone also without ERP integration. Currently this view shows Installation Points of category “Functional Location”. In future, installation points of other categories (product and
text) will also be shown here.

When you enable Installed Base feature, the Installation Points view is automatically enabled.

Question 5: Is there any integration with SAP ERP available for Installed Base management?

Answer: Replication from SAP ERP is available for the following:

Equipments in SAP ERP are replicated as Registered Products in SAP Cloud for Service.

Functional Locations in SAP ERP are replicated as Installation Points of category ‘Functional Location’.

Information such as Party Information, Notes, Address etc. maintained for both Equipment and Functional Location gets replicated to SAP Cloud for Service.

Please note that only uni-directional replication, from SAP ERP to Cloud for Service is available.

Question 6: Can I migrate installed base related data from another system into C4C?

Answer: Installed Base and Installation Points (installed base items) migration templates are available that can be used to migrate installed base related data to SAP Cloud for Service.

Question 7: Is functional location equivalent to installed Base?

Answer: No. In SAP Cloud for Service, a Functional Location is an Installation Point of category/type “Functional Location” and is shown in the Installation
Point UI.

Question 8: I see ITEMS in Registered Product and Installation Point as well, what are these?

Answer: The Items in Registered Product and Installation Point show the structure (child items). This is a flat list (no hierarchy) so one level of items is
shown.

In SAP ERP, a functional location can have equipments and other functional locations under it. Similarly, an equipment can have other equipments under it. This is supported in SAP Cloud for Service as well. The registered product can have other registered products as Items.

The Installation point (Functional Location) can have other functional locations or registered products as Items.

In SAP Cloud for Service : For a pure registered product scenario (if installed base is not scoped in):

These items can only be registered products.

For installed base scenario:

These are all items (can be registered products, products or text) added directly under this registered product in the Installed base hierarchy.

Question 9: What is the “Belongs to Installation Point ID” field ?

Answer: The “Belongs to Installation Point ID” field (if filled) indicates that the Installation Point is part of the structure (is a child) of another Installation Point (registered product or functional location)

This field is a hyperlink and will open the parent Installation Point.

For example: Belongs to Installation Point ID for registered product Coffee Machine “CM01” shows “21”. When you click on 21, the UI for Installation Point
21 is launched which is a functional location “Floor 1”. The ITEMS facet of Floor 1 shows CM01. This means that coffee machine CM01 is under Floor 1.

Question 10: Can Registered Products or Installed Base be added to contracts?

Answer: Currently, you can add a registered product as a covered object in a Contract. In future, you will be able to add installed base as well into a contract.