Service Management - Notification Creation - Set Screen Templates for the Notification Types

[michael_piehl]

This section is another critical piece for service notifications.  This portion of configuration allows you to define the exact look and feel your notification will have.  It allows to define tabs, and even the sequence of fields to show in each tab.  So let’s get to it.

IMG-->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service-->Maintenance and Service Processing-->Maintenance and Service Notifications-->Notification Creation-->Notification Types-->Set Screen Templates for the Notification Type

Personally, I dislike these search criteria.  Unlike most searches in SAP, if you leave everything blank, you get nothing. So, be sure to enter in your notification type at a minimum (typically that’s all you ever need to enter into box).

 

Now, the next piece will show you all the tabs you currently have configured for you the particular notification type you chose.  This example has quite a few tabs.  The number of tabs is totally dependent on what information you intend to capture on the notification.  At a minimum, you should always configure 10\TAB01, as this is your base screen. In addition, you can define multiple other header tabs, and if you notice the tabs that start with 20\ are actually embedded tabs within a tab.  The important thing to keep in mind with this section is not to overdo it. Remember, if you expect your call center to enter in all this information, you need to keep it as simple as possible.  If you have too many tabs, you are likely to confuse, and ultimately end up with little to no information.

 

Here is a list of the tabs provide.  Notice, this is quite an extensive list.  Including all of these tabs provides for a lot of data, which would be overwhelming to your call center if they are not properly trained.

 

Next up, we drill into one of the tabs.  I picked the most important, to show you exactly what you can do.  There are a lot of fields here, so let me walk you through them.

• Activity Cat. – This allows you to say if the tab is visible in create, change or display mode.  If you leave it blank, it’s available all the time.  This could be important if during creation you want to hide some options, but present them only if the notification is opened at a later time in change mode.  Just remember, you probably want to always make a display version if you make a create or change version.
• Tab header – this is the title of your tab.
• Icon – do you want an icon displayed in front of your title?  If so, pick it here.
• Tab – this defines if tabs will be active in the notification.  This is the easiest way to turn on and turn off a tab without deleting it.
• Tab Page Allocation – you can use this field to define how many screen areas should be displayed.  If you leave it at 0, all 5 are available, otherwise enter in a value from 1-5. This is a field I personally never use. I just define what screen areas below I want.  If I don’t use all five, I just leave them blank.
• Screen Area 1 – 5 – this is the where the fun begins.  You have a wide assortment of screens you can choose from here. Keep in mind, depending on what tab you are dealing with, will define how easy to see each section is.  So in this example, we’re looking at the first tab. This is what will be shown when the notification is created, and how you sequence these will define what you need to scroll down to see.  You’ll want to play around with this to find the optimal balance for your call center.

 

This is the list of screen areas that SAP provides out of the box.  Like everything, you can customize your own. In general, this list has everything you are likely to need.

This is a powerful section and the best advice I can give you is to experiment with this, and work closely with your call center.  You truly need to balance ease of entry with amount of data to capture.

If you're interested in great tips and tricks on SAP service management, variant configuration or production planning, check out my blog at: http://paperstreetenterprises.com/blog/ There is also a link to some SAP Easy Buttons 😃

Thanks for reading,

Mike CTO - JaveLLin Solutions, LLC