Sales Order Enhancement Series: The Material View

[ingo_woesner]

The Material View is probably among the most unknown Sales Order Enhancements in SD.
Let's change that - your sales reps will love it!

The Material View improves the sales order entry experience significantly as it helps sales reps to reduce their navigation effort back and forth down to a few clicks when answering customer's and their own questions.

And the best is: The Material View is configured and activated in just 30min!

Did I make you curious? Good!

Let's first start with the business problem:
I'm sure you heard common customer questions like these a million times:

• 
  
  "I need more items than you have in stock in your store. Could you please check if more are available in other stores?"


• 
  
  "Why is the product so expensive? Last time I paid 50 dollars, and now it's 58. Has there been a price change recently,
  or is there a scale price I could benefit from when I increase my order quantity?"


• 
  
  "I urgently need 100 pieces in two days delivered. If you haven't so many in stock, could you please call your supplier to make sure I get'em in time?"


• 
  
  "Are there any alternative or upselling/downselling/cross selling products?"

Lots of navigation is required you might think.
NO, it's not - it's one click when you have the Material View activated in va01!

Just mark the corresponding sales item(s) in your ERP sales order and click on a new button "Material View" in the lower toolbar (see red circle below):

A consolidated page appears, the Material View, from which you'll get all the information you need to answer all those types of questions:

 

(The picture is taken from an IS Retail system, that's why it says "Article" instead of "Material" and some other terms. However, this ERP core feature works with all ERP 6.0 EhP2+ systems, regardless of whether it is an industry solution or ERP standard.)

So with one click in the ERP Sales Order the Material View gives you a consolidated 1-page view with the most important material and sales data,
like the most important material basic data, dimensions, alternative/up/down/cross selling materials, basic and sales texts, regular vendor information, ATP stock availability, list prices and customer sales prices incl. scales, plus an overview of the last sales orders of the customer for the selected material.

Where does all this information come from?

The information is pulled out of the corresponding standard tables in ERP in the moment you call the Material View for a selected sales order item.
Material Data are from Material Master tables, prices are calculated using the org data and conditions in customizing, scale prices are read from the corresponding tables, etc...
Everything is pulled out of the very same ERP tables the sales rep would access via the  corresponding applications. Up- and downselling products are determined using new BAdIs, as the calculation of the margin. No BW, CRM or TREX index is required, just ERP.

Will the Material View potentially mess up my Sales Order?

No. The Material View is called via RFC from the Sales Order. It is a pure display functionality, without affecting the Sales Order in any way. In fact the Material View uses information provided by the Sales Order, like Org Data, conditions, etc, but does not transfer any information back to the Sales Order. So your Sales Order configuration and behavior remains untouched - promised!

All my questions answered with one click, alright. So where's the hitch?

Trust me, there is none!

• All you need is a SAP ERP 6.0 system with Enhancement Package 2 or higher. No BW, no CRM, no search engine, no services, no NetWeaver, no limitation to specific industry solutions, no nothing! It's a generic ERP core function!


• No extra costs or licenses. It's a continuous ERP improvement.


• No performance decrease - on the contrary! Your sales reps get the required information faster, without a further need to navigate.


• Simple installation, done in 30 min max.

OK, I want it. How do I get it?

Here you find everything you need:

• 
  
  Material View Info Kit
  A presentation, solution briefs, a config guide and an offline demo about the Material View is available here.
  
  


• 
  
  Business Function
  First you need to make sure the required Business Function of the ERP Enhancement Package is activated. The Material View is part of SAP ERP Core 6.0 EhP2, contained in component SAP_APPL 602 in Business Function SD_01. The business function can be activated with transaction SFW5.
  In EhP5 you need to activate business function LOG_SD_CI_02.


• 
  
  SAP Online Help Documentation
  http://help.sap.com/SCENARIOS_BUS2009/helpdata/EN/46/8c04a5e4c70ad3e10000000a11466f/frameset.htm

• How to add customer specific tabs in Material View?
  You can add one customer specific tab per frame which already contains tabs. Therefore you have to enhance the existing coding using the enhancement spots. For EhP2 and 3 please read SAP note 1096359. For EhP4 and 5 please read SAP note 1470088.

• How can I use alternative materials and cross-/up-/down-sessling proposals in ERP. Isn't this a SAP CRM functionality?
  This functionality has been implemented as BAdIs to be used in the Material View. You can find these BAdIs in Customizing IMG > Sales and Distribution > Basic Functions > Additional Functions for Material > Enhancements using Business Add-Ins > Business Add-Ins for Material View.
  In our demo system we have I implemented all relations in a single Z-table.

Any questions are welcome!

Enjoy and post your experiences with the Material View!

Best regards,

Dr. Ingo Woesner
Product Manager
Suite Development - Multi Channel
SAP AG

P.S. All my blogs about Sales Order Enhancements are collected here:
Sales Order Enhancement Series: Overview