The flexibility to create individualized customer offerings is the foundation of the transition towards selling higher-revenue and higher-margin solutions. This goes beyond selling different combinations of items as part of a solution, instead, it is important to have flexibility at the item level to configure and define products specific to customer needs to create a truly tailor-made solution. With the 2208 release of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, we’ve enhanced the scope of Solution Order Management to support the creation of solutions that truly reflect your customers’ demands, and in this blog, we’ll look at them in more detail.
For a brief summary, check out my Release Highlights video below:
Configurable Sales items in Solution Order Management (6HY)
As of the 2208 release, it is now possible to add configurable products to a solution order and configure them directly in solution order management. Underpinned by advanced variant configuration functionality, new item categories have been added to enable configurable sales items (item category SOS6), configurable service items (item category SOSR) and configurable fixed price service items (item category SOFS). Adding a configurable product requires the solution order specialist to define the configurable parameters via the configuration UI, where they can select characteristics and characteristic values as defined in the product master data. The system determines variant prices for configurable products; however solution order specialists can adapt prices as required and the solution order value is automatically changed.
View the below video for a short preview of this process:
Sale of Non-Stock Items in Solution Orders
Another new feature with 2208, we have enhanced the sales order in solution orders with the introduction of new sales item category SOS5 for non-stock sales items. This integrates scope item 2ET into solution order management and allows solution order specialists to sell items that are not included in inventory management as part of a solution order. Sales items in solution orders can now be processed for delivery and items can be invoiced where no maintenance in inventory management is required. Upon releasing this new sales item, the system creates a follow-up non-stock sales order item of item category TAX. Solution Order Progress has also been updated at both header and item level to display the processing of non-stock items with material replenishment planning and production order processing.
(fig. 1 - Sale of Non-Stock Items in the solution Order progress monitor)
Enhanced multistep Pricing and Discount Capabilities for Subscription Items
Selling subscription items is a key facet of solution orders. With 2208, we have enhanced the subscription billing integration to support subscription items that utilize pricing models based on the Price Calculation service for SAP Subscription Billing. This powerful pricing engine supports advanced pricing and discounting capabilities, giving solution order specialists more flexibility to configure subscription prices and discounts based on their business requirements. Initially, the pricing information is retrieved from the corresponding subscription product in the SAP subscription billing system, and in Solution Order Management, it is initially possible to view a detailed breakdown of the subscription price under the price calculation block of the subscription item. With the 2208.1 release of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, the feature will be enhanced to enable specialists to adapt and configure these pricing parameters in Solution Order Management itself.
Linking of existing professional service projects into solution orders
In the 2108 release, we make a significant expansion to the footprint of solution order management with the professional services project integration. This integration made it possible to sell professional services projects alongside subscriptions, goods, and services as part of a solution order. With 2208, we revisit this integration, and have enhanced it to enable the linking of an existing project to a solution order. Existing projects can be linked provided they are in the planning stage and have not been already linked to a solution order. Linking a project imports project information such as the responsible Project Manager, project description, project value and the project duration to the solution order project item details. When the link relationship is established, releasing the project item does not create a new project as a follow-up transaction, but instead only updates the linked project with the solution order reference. If changes are made to the linked project, relevant information of the corresponding project item is updated accordingly via backward orchestration. Now the connection to the project is fixed, which ensures revenue and costs of the project are accounted for in the solution order profitability analysis.
UI / UX Enhancements
To round off the new features in the 2208 release, we’ve made some design enhancements around solution orders to provide a more intuitive user experience. Firstly, on the solution order specialist role, we have re-designed the My Home page to focus on usability. Now, when opening the My Home page, the most relevant information and tools for the solution order specialist are displayed immediately and the user can take actions with just one click. Users can also configure the page to suit their personalized needs.
A further useability enhancement coming with the 2208 release is the ability to share a solution order more easily with colleagues via an integration with MS Teams.
Be an early adopter
Solution Order Management is designed to enable business transformations from selling single products or services towards providing higher-revenue bundled solutions, driving higher profits and delivering customer success. To help you on your transformation journey, we have introduced the SAP Early Adopter Care program for solution order management. Participation in this program connects your company to a team of experts and helps you successfully implement them more efficiently. Find out more here and benefit from hands-on coaching and monitoring.
That's my summary of 2208 - thanks for reading and see you next release!
Greg
For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud release info here
- Sven Denecken’s SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208 Release Blog
- The Link Collection for Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management here
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2208 Early Release Series Webinars here
- Latest SAP S/4HANA Cloud Release Blogs here
- Product videos on our SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA YouTube playlist
- Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
- Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud here
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud Community: here
- Feature Scope Description here
- What’s New here
- Help Portal Product Page here
- Implementation Portal here
- SAP Managed Tags:
