topic Re: Number Range scenario...best way of handling? in SAP for Higher Education and Research Discussions

Number Range scenario...best way of handling?

Former Member — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 08:03:20 GMT

I was looking at a possible scenario:

There is one university with 100 colleges under it which is implementing HE-R.These colleges offer 500 programs of study in all.( 100 colleges * 5 programs each).Each register around 400 students to a program around the same time( Total students=500*400=20000).

In this scenario,how will the university administrator register students in a way that using the number range,he can differentiate a student on the basis of his college and program?

Some options which came to my mind was that he would create 500 number ranges and assign the same whenever a student is to be booked to the respective programs.The other option probably is that the administrator would change the 'current number'in the number range interval node. Do send your thoughts on the same.

Re: Number Range scenario...best way of handling?

Former Member — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:45:45 GMT

Generally it is not expected at all that a student ID number would carry so much information. Mass processes and reports in the system can easily be filtered by college, program of study, etc. So, the first thing I would do is re-evaluate whether this 'intelligent' numbering is really critical.

Automatic number assignment is done when the student record is initially created, which must occur prior to assigning the student to a program, of course. Therefore, the number would already be in place.

There is also a Badi available for determining the student number that should be assigned. This is called during the initial creation of the student. When you fill in the student data, you could look at the Organization Unit assignment that was entered, and use that to construct an appropriate Student Number.

Re: Number Range scenario...best way of handling?

Former Member — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 07:33:43 GMT

Thanks a lot Michael.

What you mentioned is exactly right that we can always filter data using reports. Fortunately or unfortunately for us, in India, under the university system where generally every university has around 100 -200 colleges under it if not more, the legacy number range is such that it incorporates all data. Universities say that for administrative purposes, they require the number range and it is non-negotiable. In such a scenario it would be great if we can design our no. range accordingly. I’l give an example:

ABC University in India has around 240 colleges delivering programs under the Engineering stream. The student ids are designed such that at one view they are able to get all data. For eg. Student no : 12303121456.Here first 3 digits (123)= college code. The next two (03) = year of joining. Subsequent three (121) = name of department and the last three (456) = student roll number.

The present design they have seems pretty good as in one go both the administrators as well as the students with one look at the student no. can determine most of the student’s administrative details. Now, assuming that Anna University wants to implement SAP how would we go about designing the number range? Any suggestions? I still suggest that we need to do something about accommodating the details.

Re: Number Range scenario...best way of handling?

Former Member — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:47:52 GMT

Hi Ramesh,

I perfectly understand your requirement as we have faced that situation with other home built legacy systems in other parts of the world and the requirement is similar. Still the advice Michael is posting is very strong due to some arguments:

- What should be the student number if the student changes department or college?

- When maintaining historical data is it expected that a student may have different student numbers?

There are many advantages of having a numering system where you can be sure that only one number is always assigned to one single person. Still if the customer wants to enter business logic to implement number ranges that you are mentioning into the number assignment you should look into the BAdI mentioned by Michael previously. The path on Student Lifecycle Mgmt 6.0 is:

Campus Management --> Campus Management MasterData --> Student Numbers --> Student Numbers and Object IDs --> BAdI: Student Number Assignment

regards,

Diego

Re: Number Range scenario...best way of handling?

Former Member — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 05:58:59 GMT

Hi Diego ,

One more query related to your question ?

-What should be the student number if the student changes department or college?

If the student changes the department or college , as far my understanding the student number should be changed which is always easy to track.

- When maintaining historical data is it expected that a student may have different student numbers?

The data is of course not going to change , only the student number will be changed using piqstu1 transaction .So automatically only one number is assigned to a student .

If anything is wrong in my understanding , kindly correct the same .

Regards,

Gajalakshmi

Re: Number Range scenario...best way of handling?

Former Member — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 21:05:40 GMT

There is no facility in Student Lifecycle Management to CHANGE a student's ID number. In this case, my suggestion is that you allow the system to automatically assign the Student ID number.

In the Student Master Data, there are other fields called 'ID Number' and 'Additional ID Number'. You should use one of these fields then to hold the 'intelligently coded' student number you described. These fields are easily searchable via the delivered Search Helps in the system.

Re: Number Range scenario...best way of handling?

Former Member — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 05:12:03 GMT

Thanks Michael.

However,in Campus Management (IS-HER-CM) Release 6.0 and help.sap.com,( Campus Management ->Student Administration -> Student as a business partner ->Student Number ) it is mentioned that " The student number can be changed with transaction PIQSTU1".

Re: Number Range scenario...best way of handling?

Former Member — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 16:20:28 GMT

Yes, that is true for externally assigned ranges. However, if you use an internally managed number range, then the only thing you can change the number to is an externally managed number range. You could not change it to a number that is in any the INTERNAL number range.

The intelligent numbering is possible of course, but still introduces more problems than it addresses, and also much complexity, as you can see. Whenever an administrator pulls up a student record, all of the relevant organization and program data are displayed prominently in the student header. It is much easier to see that information directly than it is to remember the several dozen or hundreds of coded ranges.

Consider the analogy to general ledger accounts. Almost every legacy financial system uses intelligent G/L account numbering. Almost every customer that migrates to SAP starts off believing that those intelligent numbers are needed in SAP. In the end, though, it almost always becomes clear to all users (except for the most stubborn ones who will never be happy with any change whatsoever) that the SAP G/L structure is far more flexible and easier to report off of than any intelligent numbering scheme could be.

Perhaps in the legacy student system, the intelligent numbering is NECESSARY, because it is otherwise cumbersome and difficult to see the organization and program context of the student. This just isn't the case with SAP Student Lifecycle Management. We cannot take all the 'requirements' at face value. I would suspect that the real requirement is not 'We need intelligent numbering', but that 'We need to be able to easily and quickly ascertain the student's school and program'.

Re: Number Range scenario...best way of handling?

Former Member — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 06:14:12 GMT

Thanks a ton Michael.

You got it right..the requirement is "need to be able to easily and quickly ascertain the student's school and program ".