Managing Solution Orders

When you log on to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition using business role Solution Order Specialist (SAP_BR_SOLN_ORDER_SPCLST), you can find the SAP Fiori app called Manage Solution Orders under the header Solution Order Management.

When no solution orders have yet been created in the system, you can immediately select the Create option to start creating a solution order for a customer. Otherwise, you are presented with a list of solution orders and a filter area to filter the solution orders you want to work with (as a solution order specialist). From there, you can also select Create, to add a new solution order to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

The filtered list of solution orders contains many functions. You can navigate to various other screens, such as the solution order progress screen (see later) and the solution order details screen.

The filtered list of solution orders contains many functions. You can navigate to various other screens, such as the solution order progress screen (see later) and the solution order details screen.

As illustrated in the figure, you first enter header data, such as the sold-to-party and the customer reference number. Then, the different items are added: sales materials, sales service items, service parts, expense items, external service items, service contract items with price adaptation, and so on.

As mentioned before, creating relationships between items is supported. If applicable, maintain the item relationships as well.

Key features of a sales item in a solution order:

• Simulate sales order creation:
  • Check data completion
  • Simulate ATP check
• Influence shipping information
• Display schedule lines

You can use sales items in solution orders to sell tangible goods to your customer. Products with item category group NORM are supported, leading to stock items with item category TAN in the sales order. Sales service items are also allowed, leading to sales order items with item category TAD.

Besides these, non-stock sales items are supported (item category TAX in the sales order) and also configurable sales items (item category CBTC in the sales order). The product used for the non-stock sales item (SOS5 in the solution order) needs to use item category group NLAG in its product master record.

With the result from the simulation of the sales order creation you can validate if the follow-up sales order (document type SOR) can successfully be created. Incomplete messages are returned and can be corrected, even before the item is released. Available To Promise (ATP) information returned from the simulation allows you to request dependent services and set the contract start dates accordingly. When the sales order is created, it contains the solution order ID. The items inside the sales order refer to the corresponding solution order items.

Key features of a service item in a solution order:

• Service contract determination
• Accounting indicator
• Reference object
• Overtime category

Key limitations of a service item in a solution order:

• There is no support for service bundles.
• A fixed price service order cannot be created as a follow-up to a solution order.

You can use service items, service part items, external service items, non-stock service part items and expense items to sell one-time services and service parts to your customers and charge expenses occurred during service execution.

Different item categories can be used in a solution order. For example:

• Service Item
• Service Part Item
• Expense Item
• External Service Item
• Service Part (Non-Stock)

When you work with service orders as follow-up transactions of solution orders, certain restrictions apply. You cannot edit the following data defined for the service order:

• Sold-to party
• Service contract
• Pricing
• Item Category
• Organizational data related to sales

The solution order number is stored in the service order created from within the solution order. It is visible in the service order and you can navigate from the service order back to the solution order.

While you cannot delete items from the service order, you can reject them. When you reject an item, the solution order is updated. You can also add unplanned items to a service order that references a solution order. Unplanned items are assigned to the sold-to party and sales organization defined in the solution order. You can change the bill-to party, payer, payment terms, and the ship-to party defined for the item.

Concerning service contract determination, when a service order is created in the context of a solution order, contract determination is only executed in the solution order. The contract that is assigned in the solution order is forwarded to the service order. If no service contract is assigned in the solution order, no contract re-determination is executed during service order creation.

Key features of a service contract item in a solution order:

• Service level agreement
• Product list
• Object list
• Billing plan

You can use service contract items in a solution order to sell long-term service agreements to your customer. Solution order orchestration tries to create the follow-up service contract in released status, provided that the service contract is created without error.

Similar restrictions as for the service order apply. You cannot edit the following data defined for the service contract:

• Sold-to party
• Service contract
• Pricing
• Item Category
• Organizational data related to sales

It is also possible to add service contract items with price adaptation to a solution order.

Items created from the solution order cannot be deleted, but new items can be added to the service contract.

Scope item Subscription Management with Sales Billing (57Z) describes all the details concerning the inclusion of a subscription item in a solution order.

If the pricing models and prices from the Price Calculation service for SAP Subscription Billing are applied to your subscription products, you can view the price details in the Price Calculation area of the subscription billing item in the solution order.

Project-based service items can also be included in a solution order. They have also been included in the test script for scope item Solution Order (4GT). See the following scope items for more details concerning the items (belonging to the Professional Services line of business in SAP S/4HANA Cloud):

• Customer Project Management - Project-Based Services (J11)
• Project Billing - Project-Based Services (4E9)

A customer project that already exists in the system, can also be linked to a single project item in a solution order. Linking an existing project to a solution order item is only possible when the following criteria are met:

• The project is in the in-planning stage.
• The project uses the new billing process.
• The customer of the project matches the sold-to party of the project item in the solution order.
• The service organization of the project matches the sales organization of the project item in the solution order.
• The project was not created out of a solution order.
• The project has not already been linked to another project item in a solution order.

When all items that make up the total solution sold to the customer are added, the items are released. Releasing the items and saving the solution order, creates the follow-on documents, such as the sales orders and service orders.

When viewing the solution order in display mode (from within the Manage Solution Orders app), open the Transaction History to show the created follow-on documents.

Standard processing of these document can then be executed by users with the relevant business roles assigned, such as Internal Sales Representative (SAP_BR_INTERNAL_SALES_REP) or Customer Service Manager (SAP_BR_CUSTOMER_SRVC_MGR).

For a solution order, you can access the Solution Order Progress. This solution order progress can be used to monitor the process and identify and solve any issues that have occurred for the solution order.

The solution order progress provides a detailed overview of the end-to-end process and status in the form of a color-coded graphic showing follow-up documents of a solution order. From the graphic, you can navigate to the respective business objects/documents to solve any issues directly.

The graphic in the Solution Order Progress displays for example the following business objects:

• Solution order
• Service order
• Service contract
• Service confirmation
• Outbound delivery
• Billing document request
• Billing document/Invoice
• Journal entries

The Solution Order Progress also contains a list of the items from the solution order. You can choose to display all solution order items in this list or only the ones that contain situations.

Several types of returns related documents have been integrated into the solution order progress. Examples are a returns delivery and an inspection document.

From a solution order item in the item list, you can navigate to an overview of the corresponding item. The item specific view allows a more detailed look at the execution of an individual item, including status and any existing situations. It also allows you to navigate to the follow-up transactions to identify and solve issues. Depending on the item type of the selected solution order item, the following items from the follow-up transactions are displayed:

• If you select a sales item, the sales item from the solution order, the sales order item, the outbound delivery item, and the billing document item are displayed.
• If you select a service item, the solution order service item, the service order item, the service confirmation item, the billing document request item, and the billing document item are displayed.
• If you select a service contract item, the solution order contract item, the service contract item, the billing document request item, and the billing document item are displayed.

The figure explains some of the features available at the node level for a node within the solution order progress graphical display.

The following list summarizes the more important features of the solution order progress:

• It provides a complete follow-up process view of a solution order at header level.
• It provides an item-specific process flow at item level.
• Navigation to the individual follow-up documents is possible.
• Color-coding indicates errors/situations.
• You can expand/collapse nodes/groups.
• You can search for and locate documents by their ID.
• You can use zoom/fit to screen and a full-screen mode is also available.

It is possible to maintain item relationships and visualize them in the Solution Order Progress.

The following table describes the various condition types that are part of the standard pricing procedure used for a solution order (pricing procedure A17024/A10024):

Solution orders use the situations framework in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition to handle situations. The following scenarios are included:

• Solution order delivery date changed
• Planned execution date changed
• Solution order item not delivered
• Service item not completed
• Service order not scheduled

In the Manage Solution Orders app, the search/filter results list indicates which solution orders contain situations. In the case of a situation, the user is notified by a SAP Fiori launchpad notification, with a link to the solution order progress item containing the situation. Users can also see all situations using the My Situations SAP Fiori app.

Once a situation occurs for an item, a user can be alerted to it and take action via one of the following ways (see also the figure above):

1. The user sees and resolves the individual situation and marks the situation as resolved. Once the situation is set to Resolved/Obsolete/Invalid, the situation is removed from the item.
2. The user can access the situation from the Notification Area and then try and solve it.
3. A situation indicator in the search results page highlights solution orders containing a certain situation, including also the number of situations occurring for a certain solution order.

The Solution Order Profitability dashboard helps sales managers visualize the performance of solution orders for analysis and tracking purposes. It is possible to analyze solution orders using multiple KPIs and filters, for example Net Value, Revenue and/or Profit Margin. Drill down features are available on particular segments and it is possible to access the KPI explorer for further drill down dimensions and deeper insights.

The solution order profitability dashboard has three pages. The first page includes a chart which shows the net value of the solution order items over time.

A second option that the app offers is the analysis of the profitability of individual solution orders by reviewing the revenue, cost, profit margin, and profitability of these individual orders. This information is shown on the second page of the three available pages within this app.