Understand SAP CRM Products type Services
Recently I had involved in a project where different SAP CRM Products were used (Material, Services, Warranty, etc.) and I discovered that the majority of consultants, were not clear about the differences between SAP Service Master and SAP CRM Services standalone Products .
This blog aims to explain SAP CRM Products type services.
In SAP CRM, according to SAP definition, products are goods which are the object of a company’s business activities. Products can be tangible, such as a PC, or intangible, such as services like PC maintenance.
In SAP CRM, the following product types are available:
- Material
- Service
- Warranty
- Financing
- Financial Service
- Intellectual Property (IP)
SAP CRM Material (commonly named Product in SAP CRM 7 screens), represent tangible goods that a company procures produces or sells. Materials are typically created in SAP ERP Tx MM01, or can exist standalone in SAP CRM. Materials are replicated using Middleware object MATERIAL
SAP CRM Service, represent a service that is to be performed. A service product includes information about the planned duration and conditions.
Example of Services are:
- Labor charges
- Repair charges
- Working hours
ERP Services Masters are replicated to SAP CRM as CRM Services. Here is where I want to clarify the functionality. In SAP ERP, Service Masters contains the details of services that can be procured from externals vendors.
A service master record contains the following information:
- Service number (Activity Number)
- Service category
- Descriptive texts (short and long text)
- Base unit of measure
- Material group
- Valuation class
Service Master are created in SAP ERP Tx AC03, and can be replicated to SAP CRM using CRM Middleware. The relevant middleware object is SERVICE_MASTER.
Now, here is where is the main confusion. SAP ERP Service Masters are replicated to SAP CRM as Service Products. However, not all SAP CRM Service Products are Service Masters.
CRM offers richer functionality and is possible to create different SAP CRM Services. The following table explains the sources for different products types.
As mentioned, not all Service Products are Service Masters. For example, to register time/working hours, a service product is created in SAP CRM (e.g. LABOUR). Others services offered by the company also are created as Service Products, such as “Repairs”, “Maintenance”, etc. In those cases, those are services offered by the company, and not necessary procured externally (Service Masters).
ERP Service Master therefore only represent services procured externally and not supply by internal employees, whereas SAP CRM Services products describes services to be performed (externally or internally).
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The blog was very subjective and it clears the idea about SAP.
In addition it should be mentioned
- an ERP material master comprises various data and views, some of which cannot be processed in the CRM system (for example, accounting data). It is usually only general/basic data and sales-specific data that can be transferred to the CRM system.
If the material master data of a connected ERP system is transferred to the CRM system, only limited changes can be made to the corresponding products. Exceptions to this rule can be specified in Customizing: SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Customer Relationship Management → Master Data → Products → Business Add-Ins → BAdI: Allow Changes to Product Data
Material master data is replicated from the ERP system to the CRM system by the CRM Middleware. The adapter object in question is called MATERIAL.
An initial download must be made first to download the required materials and to display them as products in SAPCRM.
For information about how to do this, see the application help. Subsequent changes and new materials in ERP are then transferred by a delta download. If you set up new systems with product master data, or if you want to create or change the connection between existing systems, you must read SAP Note 418886 (and related notes). These notes contain important information about how to avoid database inconsistencies.
You can allow or disallow uploads of each product in Customizing: SAP Implementation Guide→Customer Relationship Management→Master Data→ Products→Settings for Product Type→Allow Upload for a Product Type. CRM product data is not uploaded automatically in standard systems. It must be carried out manually and individually for each product.