- SAP Managed Tags
In modern businesses, especially large organizations, the hierarchical structure of the sales team is crucial. Managers at various levels are responsible for their subordinates, and for effective management, they need access to data about the entire team structure. However, SAP’s standard reporting capabilities may not be sufficient if reports need to display only certain hierarchy levels instead of the entire management structure.
Business Case
A company has a five-level hierarchy (CEO – Region Manager – Channel Manager – Supervisor – Sales Executive). For a sales report, the business requires data grouping and display of product volume in active Leads as follows: Region Manager \ Channel Manager \ Sales Executive. The CEO and Supervisor levels should be excluded.
Key Challenges
- Complexity in Reporting: Standard SAP reports and data sources do not allow selective display of the required hierarchy levels. For example, the business may need to see sales or lead data for mid-level managers (Region Manager, Channel Manager, Sales Executive) but excluding CEO and Supervisor levels.
- Limitations of SAP Standard Tools: Standard data sources in SAP either display only the direct manager of an employee or the entire organizational hierarchy, which does not align with business needs.
In standard SAP reports and data sources, when displaying information about responsible persons, the available options are usually limited to:
- The individual (Employee/Sales Executive/Lead Owner).
- Their functional manager.
This does not resolve the need for a selective hierarchy display. As a result, the data remains unstructured, and managers cannot get a clear picture of their teams' work.
Typically, consultants create a separate combined data source for each report to include the required manager levels. This approach is used repeatedly for every specific report.
Solution
To address this challenge, SAP standard tools can be used with some enhancements. Specifically, a new datasource can be created that includes multiple levels of managers at once. This can be achieved using Join Type = Left Outer Join with the "Employee master data" source.
Steps to Implement:
- Create a new data source with Join Type = Left Outer Join.
- Use "Employee master data" as the base data source.
- Sequentially join additional levels, where the manager from the previous data source becomes the Employee in the next data source.
- Continue this process until the required hierarchy depth is reached.
- Keep in mind that a Left Outer Join can include no more than five data sources in a single join.
As a result, the new data source will include the full list of employees along with all relevant management levels for each employee. This data source can be universally used for various analytical reports, allowing different hierarchy levels to be displayed as needed.
This is especially useful in cases where the business has not predefined the exact hierarchy level required for reporting. Managers can independently adjust the grouping and data presentation, ensuring access to the necessary organizational structure levels. This approach enhances team visibility, simplifies decision-making, and improves overall management transparency.
Conclusion
Properly structured sales team hierarchy reporting is a key factor in effectively managing large teams. By leveraging SAP standard tools with additional enhancements, businesses can significantly improve the quality and usability of reports. This, in turn, enhances managerial efficiency and provides deeper insights into team performance.
