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DBM 8.0 SP03 is here – check it out!

Should you be interested – well, if you are into Automotive and in particular Distributor and Retail Business you should be.

A lot has happened to SAP DBM since release 7.0 – DBM 8.0 comes fully loaded with a lot of improvements to existing processes / functionalities and a whole suite of new exiting capabilities. Now with DBM 8.0 SP03 released November 2014 a long waited exiting functionality was released – the Vehicle Sales Assistant.

In this post I will take you through the highlights in DBM 8.0 just to show you  some of the many great new features that have been incorporated in the new release. I will not make a detailed description of the new features – this will happen in different posts we are planning to write. What you will get here is more of an appetizer. Below I will provide an overview of the new functionalities grouped into areas for easier orientation. At the end I will provide links for you to find more information enabling you to explore the new capabilities of particular interest on our own.

Cross Topic FeaturesNew / EnhancedHow this feature will support your business
Credit Limit CheckEnhanced

Based on standard SAP Credit Management (FIN-FSCM-CR) following can now be achieved:

  • Automatic credit worthiness check in DBM order
  • Block order execution depending on check result
  • Up-to-date credit exposure of customer
  • Ongoing real time scoring of customers
  • Traceability
Minimum Margin CheckNew

In order to enable a profitable business various rules for minimum margin checks can be defined.

If the minimum margin is not achieved the system can be set-up to show a relevant error message.

Price Limit CheckNewThis functionality supports the situation when e.g. a customer wants to allow unexpected work to be done, but only if the cost is within a defined price limit. An early alert will be given if the price limit is reached, this will happen even in the planning phase.
Enhanced order Search and Mass processing of OrdersEnhancedThese functionalities greatly increases the efficiency in the daily work. The improved search capability works on all levels: Order Header, Job, Item, split and task. Based on the results of the search a Mass Processing of the selected orders can be triggered, or maybe you just want to get an overview of orders according to certain selection criteria’s.
Up- & Cross-SellNew

This is an easy way to support increased sales with effective cross- and up-sell strategies.


Up-Selling:

convince customer to purchase a more expensive item, upgrades or additional add-ons

Cross-Selling:

increase the number of products or services sold to a customer

Customer Advance PaymentNewAdds the ability to handle the situation when a customer pays a lump-sum up front to cover several future invoices for Vehicles, Services and/or parts. In DBM there is an overview for your customer showing the advance payments and corresponding how much has been used, and what remains of an advance payment.

Vehicle Sales and Administration 

Features

New / EnhancedHow this feature will support your business
Vehicle Sales AssistantNew

This is the new exiting functionality released with SP03. The Vehicle Sales Assistant has been designed to be the workplace for sales persons supporting the whole sales cycle. The Vehicle Sales Assistant is a cockpit supporting

  • management of vehicles
  • maintenance of customer data
  • activity management for structured sales methodologies
  • selling of both new and used vehicles for retail and fleet customers with/without trade-in
  • capturing customer requirements and generation of one or more alternative quotations
  • premium offering to tune the vehicle with accessories based on individual customer requirements (dealer fitted accessories)
  • possibility to sell additional services together with vehicle sales
  • calculation sheet providing real time information on deal’s profitability
  • intuitive, simple and easy to consume user interface

In addition to all this there is also a possibility to integrate to SAP CRM. This allows you to carry out all your marketing activities in SAP CRM. When the leads have a certain likelyhood to turn into orders you can push these to DBM where the execution will take place.

For more information on the Vehicle Sales Assistant please check the link below:

Vehicle Sales Assistant powered by SAP Dealer Business Management - part 1 - by Claudiu Cioroboui

Bulk Procurement & Stock Age CalculationEnhancedWith these enhancements the vehicle administrator can work more efficiently and faster. Multiple vehicles can be processed in one step and allows retailers to carry out wholesale vehicle logistics processes.
Additional Vehicle CostsEnhancedDBM supports the process to collect costs from 3rd party suppliers for vehicles e.g. delivery costs which are not relevant for increasing the vehicle value after the vehicle is handed over to the customer. These costs however are important to be able to carry out a correct profitability analysis.

Vehicle Service FeaturesNew / EnhancedHow this feature will support your business
Service Contract managementNew

The new feature Service Contract supports building long-term relationships with your customers.

You specify/list the services and spare parts covered by the service contract. In addition the Service Contract can contain price agreements for parts and services.

The Service contract helps you driving additional revenue e.g. by offering a complete package when selling a vehicle (vehicle + service packages + extended warranty). The Service Contract allows for a better Service Business forecast based on the service history.

Appointment Scheduling and Detailed SchedulingEnhanced

The enhancements have been done in two areas: The Appointment Scheduling and the Detailed Scheduling.

The detailed scheduling makes use of SAP Multi-Resource Scheduling (MRS).

MRS is an optional component for DBM and required to be able to perform detailed scheduling.

Appointment Scheduling:

Ensures that a structured process is followed every time a customer appointment is booked. The feature has been developed in a way so as to support service agents not overly familiar with the system. This means for example that date and time for a service is proposed by the system. Appointment Booking allows for a high level capacity planning.

Detailed Scheduling:

Helps the workshop controller (or the person responsible for this function) to efficiently and optimally allocate resources to the tasks/demands. The planned and actual task assignment situation is displayed. This is intended to be performed by someone very familiar with the system. The functionality is based on the integration of the MRS planning board.

Time Recording for Service OrdersEnhanced

The time recording for Service Orders has been enhanced as follows:

Technician Clocking Terminal:

This is a centralized clocking terminal for technicians based on the personnel number and a PIN (optional).

Two UI’s are provided, SAP GUI UI as well as a touch screen enabled WebDynpro UI.

This allows you to utilize tablets as time clocking device allowing for easy to use big buttons.

Time Recording Integration:

The time clocking information is now included in the MRS Planning Board.

Workshop Controllers CockpitNew

The workshop controller’s cockpit helps the workshop controller to:

  • Control the daily execution in his workshop
  • Monitor orders and identify critical situations
  • Get transparency about which technician is working on what and who has free capacity
  • Respond flexibly to shortfalls by re-assigning technicians to critical orders
  • Support walk-in customer business by providing detailed information about free capacity
Additional and Deferred WorkEnhanced

This supports two scenarios: After release of a service order the technician often identifies additional issues with the vehicle. In order to carry out this additional work the technician must contact the customer to get an approval.

Customer agrees:

If the customer agrees this will be added to the order in the form of additional work (not part of the original order).

Customer does not agree:

If the customer wants to postpone this additional work a new deferred work order quotation will be created.

The deferred work will show up the next time the customer turns in his vehicle for inspection.

Vehicle Service HistoryNew

The DBM vehicle service history contains important information about vehicle’s service past.

  • Quick overview over vehicle service history incl. drilldown possibilities
  • Tailored information based on process
  • Low/none effort for history creation

Parts Management  FeatureNew / EnhancedHow this feature will support your business
Dirty CoreNew

CORE is short for Cash On Return and refers to parts being returned.

Dirty Core indicates that the parts being returned can be refurbished.

A Dirty Core can be sold as a used part after having been refurbished. Examples of Dirty Cores are crankshafts, whole engines, Alternators, gearboxes etc.

DBM 8.0 supports a number of scenarios concerning CORE and Dirty CORE, some examples are listed below:

  • Customer buys a new part with a core surcharge
  • Customer buys a new part and returns the core/used part
  • Customer simply wants to return the Core/used part
  • Customer buys a remanufactured part
  • During a service the customer decides he wants alternatively does not want the core / used part returned


Other interesting posts on Automotive and DBM 8.0

    Vehicle Sales Assistant powered by SAP Dealer Business Management - part 1 - by Claudiu Cioroboui

    Dealer Business Management: tips and tricks for end users - by Matthias Kirtschig

    An Overview of Automotive Dealer Market in China

    DBM8.0 ==>  Integration with SAP CRM

Where to find more information on DBM 8.0:

     SAP Solution explorer

     Dealer Business Management 8.0: Whats new  - Here you will find the next level of details

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