Overview of SAP CRM moduleIntroductionIn today's highly competitive business environment, the focus of top companies is increasing on its most valuable assets customers. Thus, the companies require a suitable software solution to cater to its customers which is user-friendly, easily customizable, fully integrated, and can be implemented flexibly.

Customer Relationship Management is a business strategy for optimizing customer interactions. It helps in understanding your customers, their needs and requirements.

SAP Business Suite is a suite of business applications that enable your company to handle total value chain across the business and its partners.

SAP CRM is a part of SAP business suite. It can implement customized business processes, integrate to other SAP and non-SAP systems, help achieve CRM strategies.

SAP CRM can help an organization to stay connected to customers. This way organization can achieve customer expectations with the types of services and products that he or she actually needs.

It also helps to achieve 'Single face to customer', which means the customer get regular & actual information independent of channel through which the he or she is contacting your company.

SAP CRM OverviewAs a part of SAP Business Suite, SAP provides solutions which are flexible and open, and which support applications, databases, hardware platforms, & operating systems from most of the major vendors.

Following SAP solutions are the constituents of SAP Business Suite: SAP CRM Customer Relationship Management SAP PLM Product Lifecycle Management SAP SCM Supply Chain Management SAP SRM Supplier Relationship Management SAP ERP Enterprise Resource PlanningSAP Business Suite is based on SAP NetWeaver .NetWeaver provides the development and runtime environment for SAP applications and is used for the custom development and integration with other applications and systems.

SAP CRM is embedded in the business environment of the SAP Business Suite.Features of SAP CRM It is a part of SAP Business Suite to manage customer relationship. It supports all customer-focused business areas such as marketing, sales and service. It is implemented for different customer interaction channels, such as Interaction Centre, Internet, and mobile clients (hand-held devices like laptop, mobile, etc.). CRM Analytics, a component of SAP CRM, enables your organization to gather all relevant information about various key factors such as a customer and analyze this knowledgebase to incorporate insights into operational processes and strategic decision-making.SAP CRM Marketing

SAP CRM has provided extensive marketing functionalities It automates the marketing planning, campaign execution, & measurement of the marketing effort. SAP CRM unites the following key functions related to marketing on a user-friendly and configurable interface: Marketing Planning, Campaign Management, Lead Management, E-Marketing, Market Analytics, Customer Segmentation.SAP CRM Sales SAP CRM is developed for handling customer contact anytime, anywhere. The companies can choose one or more of these SAP CRM Sales implementation: Telesales, Enterprise Sales, E-Selling and Field Sales. SAP CRM sales support the sales force of your business to be time efficient & effective in working. It provides information which leads an insight into action, & maintains focus on productive activity. Thus, SAP CRM Sales helps the sales force of your business to secure customers, and then to develop and maintain beneficial relationship with them.

SAP CRM also provides aspect of sales forecasting and analytics that helps your business to collect historical & predictive information. It includes territory and account management which can be used to optimize & increase the effectiveness of your sales organization. It also includes Opportunity and pipeline management processes which provide maximum visibility in to the potential sales, sales processes, & methodologies which can lead to standardization of the company-specific best practices. It also provides seamless order to cash processes that enable your sales organization to manage the customer demands most effectively.Thus, SAP CRM Sales have a lot of features like dedicated interactions, seamless integration, insightful information, always accessible, and is user-friendly.SAP CRM Service

All aspects related to the processing of the service order supported by SAP CRM service starts with responding to customer's initial inquiry till the confirmation & billing of the service provided to the customer. SAP CRM service also provides your organization with quotation creation & processing, creation of service order and assignment to field service representative.SAP CRM ChannelsSAP CRM provides implementations for different channels within your business such as Internet, telephony, field sales, and partners which leads to the optimization of your customer interactions. For all the different channels supported, SAP CRM provides your employee with an intuitive and user-friendly interface to carry out their daily work.

SAP CRM enables customers to implement different customer-specific requirements and industry-specific processes. For interaction with these implementations customers have different interaction channels offered by SAP CRM:

Back-office: This is Role based web access. For each relevant task in the service, sales and marketing it represents the single point of entry. All relevant systems are assigned to a Business Role which is assigned to employees. Thus, an employee can get all the relevant systems into a single UI. Field Service or Offline-User: SAP CRM offers several field applications for field service representatives which they can access anywhere, anytime. These applications are developed for handheld devices. Interaction Center: SAP CRM provides the customer care employees with an interface which is comprehensively integrated with different communication channels like phone and E-mails. Also, it includes various features with which the employee can use while in communication with the customer for making note or working on the transaction itself. WebChannel Management: with this SAP CRM enables E-service, E-commerce, and E-marketing platform. These platforms are to provide personalized, reliable and convenient service to the target customers 24x7x365. This enables end customers to access & research data and with that as per requirement purchase services or products anytime, anywhere. PCM Partner Channel Management: This interface is provided to support collaboration with resellers, dealers, agents etc. It combines the Web Channel Management with regular CRM to provide a complete solution for partner management.Overview of SAP CRM Architecture

The SAP CRM solution incorporates the CRM components along with the SAP ERP, SAP SCM and SAP BI components. SAP CRM contains a central CRM system with access through various channels and a connection to other systems.

Following are the fully-integrated connections offered asSAP CRM Solution: SAP CRM Systemwhich provides corresponding software components of SAP CRM solution as a central CRM server. SAP ERP Systemwhich provides all the ERP functionalities can be integrated with SAP CRM system as a back-end system. The data exchange between these connected systems can be configured and implemented with the help of CRM Middleware. SAP BIprovides functionalities for detailed statistical and analysis functions. It can be integrated with the SAP CRM in order to use its features for the SAP CRM reporting and analysis function. For demand planning solution and global Available-to-Promise (ATP) check SAP CRM system can be integrated with the SAP SCM system. For example: For a Sales Order entered through any of the implemented UIs, check on delivery needs to be performed. For this, Available-to-Promise (ATP) checks are implemented on connected SAP SCM system. At runtime CRM system connects to SAP SCM to verify if it is possible to deliver items requested on time. SAP NetWeaver Portal provides integrated access to all systems.Channel ArchitectureThe SAP CRM channels architecture includes: Internet applications: Internet Sales Internet Customer Self-Service Internet Pricing Configurator Mobile applications: Mobile Sales Mobile Service Interaction center

Internet Applications The Internet software components of SAP CRM solution are J2EE technology based (which is open, non-SAP platform). These are provided as a ready-to-run solution with the shipped, standard template. Also, these applications can be further adjusted in order to meet customer-specific requirements. For these Internet applications, necessary CRM data needs to be maintained and set up with in the CRM system. SAP CRM solutions offers Internet Sales software component which presents published catalogs to the end user who can use them to configure and purchase the product. It also offers Internet Self-Service software component where end users can request for a particular service. The Internet Pricing & Configurator (IPC) component is another J2EE based web application for product configuration and pricing data.Interaction Centre The Interaction Centre is provided with tools and features required while in communication with the end customer. Various communication channels are supported by the Interaction Centre such as fax, e-mail, telephone and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Interaction Centre is linked with the CRM WebClient and thus an employee in contact with the customer can make notes, trigger e-mails, create activities, and work upon the business transactions like service order, etc. Interaction Centre connects to different communication channels using a Communication Management System, which can be SAP Business Communication Manager (BCM) or a third party product. In order to strengthen IC WebClient multichannel options in the Interaction Centre, Integrated Communication Interface (ICI) is used.Mobile Applications SAP CRM Mobile Sales and Mobile Service components help a company's mobile field sales and service representatives. Depending upon the area of responsibility, users have access to all the relevant data in their device. These devices connect briefly to the central CRM servers for the synchronization of the data. This data transfer occurs through the SAP CRM Middleware. SAP Mobile Application Studio can be used in order to customize these mobile applications.Introduction to CRM WebClient User InterfaceSAP CRM User Interface started with SAPGUI, and its growth has resulted in SAP CRM Web Client User Interface. CRM Web Client user interface is an enhanced version of the IC Web Client UI. Also, it is business role based UI; therefore, the content which will be visible to the user logged-in depends upon the business roles assigned to the user. This results in a simpler UI for the user, who will be able to access and process only those tasks which are relevant for him or her. With this, the Sales representative who is not concerned with the marketing process will only be able to access and work the Sales related process as per the authorizations assigned.

CRM Web Client UI is component based software, which presents the CRM UI to the user in L-Shape. It contains Header in the top row and Navigation Bar on the left side, this constitutes the L-Shape. The remaining space on the CRM Web UI page is called Work Area. The Header area contains predefined system link like Log Off hyperlink.

Following are the components of the Header area:1. System Links2. Saved Searches3. Work Area Title4. History

The position of the Header Area is fixed and cannot be changed. Navigation Bar contains links to various applications that are assigned to the logged-in user. The content of the Work Area gets updated with user action on the links available in Header area, Navigation bar or within the work area itself. The views are displayed in the CRM Web UI as Assignment Blocks. There are separate pages offered as implementation of the SAP CRM Web UI: Home page Worklist page Calendar E-Mail inbox Work Center Advanced Search Page Overview Page Assignment blocksUser can navigate between these pages using the links available in navigation bar, work centre or hyperlinks available in the search pages, applications or business transactions. As soon as a user logs in, he or she will be able to see the Home page. Further navigation to other pages or specific application can be accomplished with the navigation links in the Navigation Bar or in the work center. For example, user can access the below Work Centre for Account Management from the link available in the navigation bar:

User can navigate to the below Account search using the link in the work center or using the Account Search link available in the second level of navigation bar:

How to increase Sales using SAP CRMSAP CRM supports the implementation of complete sales cycle as per the customer-specific requirements which leads to maximize sales force productivity, ensure customer satisfaction, and thus quickly increase revenues.

With SAP CRM Sales the complete sales cycle could be managed across different sales channels, i.e. direct sales, channel sales, telesales and e-selling.

SAP CRM Sales Business Role:

SAP CRM offers predefined Business Role [Sales Professional - SALESPRO] for the sales representatives of an organization

With this role SAP standard functionalities related to the Account Management, Activities, Sales Cycle, Pipeline Management and Sales Management can be performed by the Sales representatives.

SAP CRM sales also offers Sales Assistant which could be used by the sales representative to plan sales activities within sales cycle processes, and sales methodologies elements such as buying centre, competitor analysis, project goals, etc. which could be used in an opportunity by the sales representative while preparing value proposition for the customer.

General Sales Cycle steps: A Sales representative receives a qualified lead (Hot Lead). When this Hot Lead is accepted by the sales representative, the system creates an Opportunity. Within SAP CRM actual sales process begin with an opportunity. It is not mandatory to use Lead to create the Opportunity. The sales representative then contacts the customer and updates the opportunity with further data. Also there is option to activate activities available in the Sales Assistant or create new activities. These activities can be configured for different stages of the Opportunity.

The Opportunity needs to be evaluated by the sales representative with positive or negative decision. Opportunity ends with the creation the quotation, or rejection from the customer. The solution derived from the opportunity is presented to the customer and the sales representative creates quotation. Once the sale representative secures agreement based upon the quotation, sales order can then be created. Delivery is not part of the SAP CRM and for that it is integrated with a back-end SAP ERP system. Billing for the sales orders can be performed within the SAP CRM. Also SAP CRM offers SAP BI in order to analyze the complete sales project based on the outcome of the opportunities.Opportunity Management An opportunity represents possibility for sale of services or products. A bid invitation, a sales deal or a trade fair can result into opportunity. Also Opportunity can be created with the Hot Lead, which is a business transaction in the Marketing process. SAP CRM offers Opportunity as a business transaction document that presents various aspects of the sales prospects (customers) such as the products and services which they have requested, their budget, expected sales volume and option to estimate the sales probability.

With SAP CRM's Opportunity Management, an organization can maintain and track a sales project at different stages. Thus it provides an option for analysis and optimization of customer-specific business process.

For a Sales Cycle, various sales stages can be configured in customizing as per the customer-specific business process. Each sales stage can have planned activities which can be activated by the sales employee using the Sales Assistant.

Above 2 images display Assignment Blocks in Create page for an Opportunity

Mainly an opportunity document in SAP CRM contains data related to the Sales cycle, forecast data, classification of opportunity, product data (maintained inItemsAssignment Block), and information related to activities, competitor products, sale team, attachments, etc. Change in sales stage for an Opportunity result in calculation of the forecast data, thus the completion of a Sales stage determines the probability of sale. Forecast data contains the expected volume of the sale in terms of product quantity and product value.An opportunity can be classified based upon the Opportunity Group (such as existing customer or new customer), its origin (such as trade fair), and its priority. These data could be used in the analysis of the Opportunity management in your company.In product data (maintained within Items assignment block), expected product quantity and product value can be maintained at each item level.

This also reflects in the expected value of the Opportunity in the forecast data as a complete document. It is possible to save an Opportunity with incorrect product id or description. This is useful in the cases where product information is not clear at the early stage of sales cycle.

CRM also provides functionality to search and maintain the competitor product in the Opportunity document. This relationship between products needs to be maintained in CRM product master data.

As displayed in the above create page images, SAP CRM Sales offers Sales Stage History which presents data related to each sales stage which are completed for the Opportunity. Along with this, SAP CRM is also integrated with SAP BI for the analysis of the Opportunity Management data at different Sales stages and from the forecast data.Quotation ManagementQuotation is a legally binding agreement of your company with your customer to deliver specific product in a specified timeframe at a pre-defined price.

In SAP CRM Sales Quotations are created as follow-up documents for opportunities. A quotation can be copied or converted to a sales order. It is also possible to create quotation with reference to the inquiry. For a quotation, validation period is maintained within which customer can place or modify the order, or can cancel the order.Quotation Management includes following processes: Create a quotation in the system Create items for the quotation You can add products requested by the customer You can perform ATP check of products for each item in the quotation Determine the pricing of individual items Send the quotation to the customer You can create activities as part of a Quotation document

The data maintained in the Quotation document also includes order probability, validity, alternative items, actions and availability check.Product Proposal

SAP CRM offers the functionality of product proposal in a Quotation document. With this you can propose products that your customer may be interested in, while entering the Quotation.Product proposal functionality can be implemented using: Transaction history of the customer which includes previous sales orders of the customer. Marketing projects in which the customer has been involved. For these proposed products, it is possible to perform ATP check and the price calculation.

You can have following types of the product proposals: Cross-selling Up-selling Down-selling Accessories Top-n product lists

Sales Order ManagementSAP CRM Sales order processing is used to create and process a sales order and also to trigger logistics processing in the integrated back-end SAP ERP system. Following are the possible sources for creating Sales Orders in CRM:

SAP ERP Directly in CRM IC Web Client Mobile Sales Internet Sales Application (E-Commerce) Handhelds

Sales order can be created as follow-up documents to an existing quotation or multiple existing quotations. In order to create a sales order from multiple existing quotations, organizational data of all these quotations must match. Rest of the header data is copied from first quotation selected.Sales order processing in SAP CRM consists of following steps: Create sales order with requested product Perform ATP check Maintain and determine the pricing conditions Integrated ERP system helps to perform credit check System replicates it to and receives it from the SAP ERP Order confirmation is sent to the customerOutbound delivery activities such as picking, packing, transport, and goods issue takes place in the integrated SAP ERP system.

Billing process provided within SAP CRM could be used for creating customer invoices. Billing document can be created with reference to the sales order, deliver, or contract depending upon the customizing settings.General data entered at the header level of the sales order includes transaction types, requested delivery date, employee responsible, contact person, sold-to party and ship-to party. Required products and quantities are entered at the item level.

SAP CRM offers functionality to configure products as part of Internet Pricing and Configurator (IPC) application. This application can be integrated with the SAP CRM Sales application such that user can configure the product and can place a sales order for it in the same place. A configurable product is maintained with characteristics which can have multiple values. Thus customer can set the values for the characteristics as per requirement. Once configured, customer can place order for this configured product.For analysing quotation and sales order processing, SAP BI provides standard reports. For example: 0CRM_QUTO_Q0001- To monitor top 5 quotations 0CSAL_C03_Q0001- To monitor incoming sales ordersSAP CRM offers functionality to determine pricing information for a sales order. The system automatically calculates the gross price, discounts, surcharges that are applicable for your customer at a specific time. SAP CRM uses pricing condition techniques for maintaining and determining the pricing. A condition group can be assigned to the Business Partner, Product or customer hierarchy.

Other Features in Quotation and Sales Order ManagementIn the SAP CRM Sales processing there are certain functionalities which are well featured by SAP. Some of these are product determination, listing and exclusion, free goods and availability check. These features are used at different stages of Sales processing within SAP CRM Sales.

Product DeterminationDuring the sales document processing, system can automatically determine and substitute the products. With the help of condition technique, it is possible to configure a product determination procedure. This product determination procedure can then be assigned to a transaction type. When a sales document is created for this transaction type and a product is entered, this will trigger the product determination procedure. This configuration is used when there is a requirement to have product substitution in a sales document. Product determination is not used to substitute a product which is not available with another available product.

For this purpose you can use the rule-based ATP check in the SAP APO. Product determination feature is supported with the CRM Mobile Sales or the IC WebClient.

Listing and Exclusion

Listing and Exclusion for a particular account represents which products are permissible or not permissible for that account in a specific timeframe for a particular business transaction.

There are two possible approached to implement this: PPR - Partner/Product Range (without condition technique) A newer approach using condition technique

In case of PPR, assignment of business partners, products and timeframe is done. The necessary settings for the PPR are done in the customizing.

In the newer approach Listing determines a product valid or invalid. This Listing consists of header and item. Header contains the condition technique and item contains PPR information.

With free goods you can implement quantity discount. That is, you can offer a product for free to your customer when a certain quantity of product has been ordered. This feature is also implemented using the condition technique. It could be implemented in two ways:

Inclusive free good: the discount is applied when certain quantity of product is purchased. Exclusive free good: certain amount of product is offered for free when some predefined quantity of product is purchased.

Contract Management

Through different SAP CRM channels, SAP CRM Sales offers Contract Management which is embedded into the sales cycle. Contract is an agreement with your customer based upon agreed conditions related to price, target value, or target quantity. It allows your company to release products or services based upon these conditions. It could be created based upon an opportunity which is won by the sales employee responsible. Further to this opportunity sales employee responsible and the customer agrees to favourable conditions, based upon which the sales order is then created. Customer needs to accept this contract and then the sales manager releases this contract. Customer can then order products against this released contract. Around completion date of the contract, Sales representative can contact the customer to renew the contract.

The sales orders created are linked to the contract as follow-up documents and thus it keeps record of the entire required information from all the sales orders created.

SAP CRM offers two types of contract: Quantity contractis an agreement with a customer that he or she will buy certain quantity of particular in a specified timeframe. WhereasValue Contractis an agreement with a customer that he or she will buy certain value of particular in a specified timeframe.

Contract Management includes following functions related to the sales orders created against it:

Following are relevant status values for a CRM sales contract: Open - This is set by default when contract is created. In Process - You can set this status while negotiating the contract with customer. Released - This status needs to be set, when an item in the contract is ready and can be used to release products and create sales orders against it. Completed - This status is set for the items whose validity has expired or, whose target value or quantity has been released completely. It could be set automatically or manually. Once an item in contract is in this status it will not be possible to release products against it.In order to create an order against a contract, you can open the contract and create the order as a follow-up document. Also, you can create the order and use the contract determination to fetch the possible contracts and then select the appropriate one. The order maintains release order list and keeps the check against the agreed maximum quantity and value.Bottom of Form