Exercise: Display and Change Customer Information

Task
Locate a customer master record, find and maintain various information located in the sales area, accounting, or general views of the customer master record.

• Display the a customer master record based on the information provided below:

Let's Exercise!

If you have access to SAP IDES, you can start practice by follow the cases from this lessons.
SAP IDES – the "Internet Demonstration and Evaluation System" in the R/3 System, represents a model company. It consists of an international group with subsidiaries in several countries. IDES contains application data for various business scenarios that can be run in the SAP System. The business processes in the IDES system are designed to reflect real-life business requirements, and have access to many realistic characteristics. IDES uses easy-to-follow business scenarios to show you the comprehensive functions of the R/3 System. The focal point of IDES, however, is not the functionality itself, but the business processes and their integration.

For all of You who live in Indonesia, you can get IDES access "murah meriah" (very low access fee) from Komputer Teknologi www.komputer-teknologi.net.

Reporting

Information system must provide information about the important factors that an enterprise’s management needs for its business decisions. Documents (Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Production Orders, and Material Documents) are captured and stored in SAP with various amounts of information while reports can be run at any time. In the SAP information systems, key figures are derived from the master and operative data and incorporated into the key figure system. These key figures describe both corporate factors such as the revenue situation, financials, personnel structure, and so on, as well as external factors such as prices, customer, vendors, and so on. By selecting, assigning, and aggregating the information available in the operational area, the key
figure system can be customized to meet a company’s specific reporting needs. The SAP information systems provide numerous predefined reports, as well as options for enabling the user to define their own report structures.

Distinction is made between different reporting types:

• Standard reports list documents, master data, and combinations of these objects (characteristics) to be selected in the report request
• Reporting via information systems in the applications: Standard analyses from FIS (Financials), LIS (Logistics), HIS (Human Resources)
• Reporting via information systems with separate databases and tools for generating flexible report structures: EIS (Executive Information System) and BW (Business Warehouse)

To introduce participants to some of the various reporting options available, this lesson examines two of the reporting tools in detail, List Displays and Information Systems (for example, Logistics).

List Displays

List display is one of the reporting tools available throughout the SAP system. List display enables the user to request a listing of documents or master data information, as well as combinations of these objects (characteristics). List displays are reports generated directly from the online transactions or other various sources of summarized data. From these lists, the user can access the source documents directly.

Information Systems

Key reporting tools available in SAP include the Information Systems available within each of the applications (such as Logistics, Accounting, Human Resources). Detail transaction information is stored in the SAP system
and aggregated for the Information Systems for statistical purposes. Data from other systems can also be input for analytical purposes.

The application reporting trees provide numerous predefined reports that have been defined by SAP according to business requirements (Standard Analysis). The application information systems also enable you to define your own information structures in the SAP system to meet your enterprise’s individual requirements (Flexible Analysis).

Workflow

The SAP BusinessWorkflowis a support tool that can be used to optimize the execution of activities. Work steps carried out consecutively can be automated to coordinate flow of information. Workflows enable the electronic workflow management of structured flows that:

• Cover a sequence of activities
• Always occur in the same or similar form
• Involve several departments or people

Workflows control the information process flow according to a predefined model. Workflows are especially suited for structured organizations divided into departments or divisions.

Workflows bring the right work in the right order at the right time to the right people. This can be achieved through automated mail or through a workflow item.

Output

Each time a user saves a sales order, purchase order, production order, or delivery note, an output format is generated by the document. This output format represents a message in the SAP system. The message is then placed in the message queue. The message can be released either automatically or manually using a message control program.

The key parameters of the message control program are:

• Time – When? (Options: immediately, on demand, batch run)

• Message Type – How? (Options: online/screen, printer, fax, e-mail, EDI)

The default value for message control can be set in the master record of the business partner or at higher organizational levels.

Transactions

Transactions are application programs that execute business processes in the SAP system. Whenever possible, master data is copied during transaction processing thus avoiding re-entry of data. For example, when executing the transaction, Create Sales Order, the user must enter the Customer Master number; this copy is in all of the relevant customer information. Likewise, once the material master numbers are entered for the items being ordered, then the relevant material data will be copied into the sales order. In addition, when performing each transaction, applicable organizational elements must be entered. For example, by specifying the sales organization information, the appropriate sales group is given credit for the sales activity, and similarly, the designation of the plant/storage location determines product sourcing.

Whenever a transaction is executed in the system, a document is created. That document, a data record of that transaction, contains all of the relevant predefined information from the master data and organizational elements.

Material Master

The Material Master contains all of the key information a company needs to manage a material within its organization. The material master defines among other things, how a product is sold, manufactured, purchased, inventoried, accounted, and costed. The information in the material master is grouped into views that are organized by business function.

Note: The majority of the views in a material master are at plant level.