Using Service Order Management with Advanced Variant Configuration

You can create service orders or quotations containing configurable products. Configurable products can be added as standard service items, fixed price service items, as part of a service bundle and as partial billing items.

You can add and configure a configurable product as a service item using the SAP Fiori app Manage Service Orders. You can do this by using the icon Configure Product, which is available on the items tab in a service order.

Configurable products in service orders and service confirmations can be used with or without solution orders. When a service order is created as a follow-up transaction of a solution order, the configuration of the configurable product is copied from the solution order to the service order. You cannot change the configuration in the service order or its follow-up service confirmation when a solution order is used. You can, however, change the configuration in a follow-up service confirmation if no solution order is used.

Configurable products can also be used in a service order template, but the actual configuration can only be done in the service order itself.

Complete the following steps to access and download all the documentation that is available from SAP for solution process Service Management with Advanced Variant Configuration (6GS):

1. Navigate to the list of solution processes on the SAP Signavio Process Navigator website. Use URL https://me.sap.com/processnavigator and choose Solution Process. You can now see a list of all available solution processes.
   Note

   Log on to SAP for ME if needed.
2. Using the Search in SAP Signavio Process Navigator field (in the top right corner of your screen), search for solution process 6GS.
3. In the resulting list, select the entry for the current (i.e. the most recent) version of the solution process for solution scenario Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud. You can now see the details for the solution process.
4. Choose Accelerators.
5. Choose (for example) Test Script to download the test script as a Microsoft Word file. Look for any other options/documents available.

1. Create a service quotation or order with a configurable product in one or more of the items.
2. Check the net value of the service document item(s) with the configurable product.
3. Plan costs and revenues on the service order.
4. Release the service order line items (optional).
5. Change the service order (optional).
6. Release the service order containing the configurable item(s).
7. Receive and enter a service confirmation for the service order. Update the configuration if needed.
8. Post the time sheet for the service technician and expenses incurred automatically based on the confirmation.
9. Cancel the confirmation along with the follow-up documents (optional).
10. Release the service order (for fixed price services) or confirmation (for time and material services) for billing and automatic creation of the billing document request.
11. Copy procurement costs automatically into the confirmation, based on the posted supplier invoice or purchase order for billing to the customer in case of time and material services.
12. Create a billing document from the billing document request for invoicing the customer.
13. Post revenues automatically against the service order line item.
14. Analyze service order fulfillment.

• Reduced complexity: Work with variant configuration in service orders to cover many (complex) cases and combinations regarding service document items and their pricing with a relatively simple set-up.
• Flexibility in pricing: Depending on the product definition, the selection of characteristics and characteristic values of a configurable product can impact the price of a service document item based on the defined variant conditions.
• Integration with a solution order is possible.
• Depending on the scenario used, the configuration can be updated once a service confirmation is entered.

The figure depicts a service order as an example. The presented functionality is however also available for service quotations

The main characteristic of the business process supported by scope item Service Management with Advanced Variant Configuration (6GS) is that it allows for the use of a configurable product in the service quotation, the service order and the service confirmation that is being created.

The variant configuration functionality used in this context is Advanced Variant Configuration. Currently, single-level configurations are supported.

Advanced variant configuration functionality is also supported in service contracts. Scope item Service Contract Management with Advanced Variant Configuration (6GU) supports this process. For use of advanced variant configuration in a solution order, see scope item Solution Order Management with Advanced Variant Configuration (6HY).

After creating the order with the configurable product in it as an item (step 1), and entering the configuration (i.e. choosing the values for the characteristics with which the product is configured: step 2), the pricing of the service order item can be checked (step 3). After this, the service order is released and can be output (e.g. printed). Once a technician worked on the order, a service confirmation can be entered. It is possible (if needed) to update the configuration of the configurable service product item(s) when entering the service confirmation.

Updating the configuration in a service confirmation is NOT possible if the service order was created out of a solution order.

The rest of the process is very similar to the standard process as described for scope item Service Order Management and Monitoring (3D2). For example the way billing is handled after step 5.

The above table provides an overview of all the standard business roles that are used when testing and executing the complete Service Management with Advanced Variant Configuration (6GS) scope item, including all follow-up steps as supported by scope item Service Order Management and Monitoring (3D2).

These roles can be used as a template to create your own business roles for your business users working with Service Management with Advanced Variant Configuration (6GS).

The two main roles are the role for the service manager and the role for the service technician. These are the same roles as used when testing and executing scope item Service Order Management and Monitoring (3D2). The other roles are needed for process steps supporting the main process covered by the scope item. An example is an inventory manager who can post goods receipts and goods issues related to service orders.

Certain complex service businesses sometimes require the use of service products that are configurable. Single-level variant configuration functionality using Advanced Variant Configuration is available for this in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

Solution process Service Management with Advanced Variant Configuration (6GS) supports the functionality described here. It is very similar to scope item Service Order Management and Monitoring (3D2) in terms of its process steps. The main difference is the use of configurable service products in scope item Service Order Management with Advanced Variant Configuration (6GS). And the fact that this functionality is not only available for service orders, but also for service quotations.

Other scope items supporting the use of configurable service products are Service Contract Management with Advanced Variant Configuration (6GU) and Solution Order Management with Advanced Variant Configuration (6HY).

Using the SAP Fiori app called Manage Your Solution, you can access an option called View Solution Scope. Here, you can check which scope items are active in your system. In the figure above, you can see for example that the Service Management with Advanced Variant Configuration (6GS) scope item is active. As well as the scope item Service Contract Management with Advanced Variant Configuration (6GU), which also supports the use of configurable products.

Using the SAP Fiori app called Manage Product Master Data, the master record of a service product can be accessed. This master record contains a setting indicating that the product is configurable, and also a link to the class (of class type Variants (300)) to be used for the configuration, since Advanced Variant Configuration (AVC) uses classification functionality.

Under the area called Configuration the different characteristics of the class can be seen.

The tile group Classification Handling contains all of the apps required to set-up classification data (characteristics, classes, and so on) that are required for the scenario presented here. One example is the app Manage Classes. All these apps can be accessed when the user has a business role assigned based on template role SAP_BR_PRODUCT_CONFIG_MODELER. Another example app is Manage Characteristics, where you can define the characteristics (and their values) to be used when defining the class(es) required.

The configurable product can then be used in a service order, a service order template (without configuration), a service contract (see scope item Service Contract Management with Advanced Variant Configuration (6GU)), a service confirmation and a solution order (see scope item Solution Order Management with Advanced Variant Configuration (6HY)).

For a service order containing a configurable product: if the service technician delivers a different configuration of the service as planned, it is possible to change the configuration again when entering the service confirmation. After this, the rest of the process steps follow the standard steps as in the process of scope item Service Order Management and Monitoring (3D2).

Standard pricing for Service in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition uses condition type Price (PPR0). For a configurable service product (like CAR-WASH_CONF in our training tenant), an additional condition type is used, which acts like a surcharge on top of condition type PPR0. This is condition type Variant Price (PVA0).

A user that has business role BR_PRICING_SPECIALIST (based on template role SAP_BR_PRICING_SPECIALIST) assigned, can use the app Set Material Prices - Sales to maintain pricing information for condition type PVA0.