Solution Order Management in SAP S/4HANA Cloud 220...
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Solution Orders in SAP S/4HANA Cloud help your enterprise along the path towards greater profitability by combining sales of products, services, and service contracts, subscriptions, and projects under one order. Starting the new year with the 2202 release, we’ve increased the scope of Solution Order Management with some smart new features and functions which I'm excited to share with you in more detail in this blog.
For a quick summary, check out the highlights of the release in this video.
Accelerated Customer Returns in Solution Orders
A typical requirement of our customers is the possibility to return ordered goods and from the 2202 release, it is now possible to initiate customer returns based on the solution order invoice. Taking the invoice number of the solution order, the solution order specialist can create a customer return as required. We have incorporated the return processes under scope item BKP for accelerated returns, comprising three customer return scenarios that are now supported. Solution Order Specialists can initiate a return directly to the supplier of the goods, or initiate returns with inspection either at the customer location or with inspection at the vendor. The solution order specialist must also define the type of return being processed, creating either a delivery of the replacement product or creating a credit memo for a customer refund. After the customer return has been created, the follow-up documents are visible in solution order progress for tracking.
Here's a quick demo of one variant of the returns process:
New Sales Item for Services
The next enhancement I want to highlight in this release has been much requested by our customers. We have added a new sales order item category, Sales Item for Services, which supports the sale of services as part of a solution order with order-related billing but without the creation of an outbound service delivery. Upon release, the solution order creates a follow-up sales order where the sales item for service is represented as a sales item with item category TAD. As there is no delivery, billing can be processed immediately via billing document type F2. This is a useful addition for situations where a service is ordered alongside the sale of a physical product or subscription, but which doesn’t require a separate delivery – for example, a software license.
Changing Business Partners in Subscription Billing Items
A key component of solution orders is the ability to sell subscription items as part of a solution, enabled via integration with the BTP application for SAP subscription billing. With 2202 we revisit the subscription billing item in solution orders, giving greater flexibility by making it possible to change and define business partners directly in solution order management at the item level. Navigating to the subscription item, the relevant business partners are displayed under the parties involved header. Here, it is possible to change the ship-to-party, bill-to-party, and payer directly in the application. The enhanced integration means changes made are automatically forwarded to the follow-up subscription after you release the subscription billing item, making it easier and faster to work with subscription items in solution orders.
UI Enhancements in Solution Order Management
To conclude this blog, let’s take a look at some enhancements made to the UI in the management solution orders app, designed to improve your experience when using the application. An important function in solution orders is the ability to define item relationships on an order. These are maintained by selecting the define item relationship button. From 2202, solution order specialists will notice that fields are automatically populated when opening the define item relationships field, making it easier and faster to define item relationships.
Another change we have made is the introduction of a new global edit button. On the item view, it was possible to edit sections via the edit button at the header level. From 2202, the new global edit button enables all sections to be maintained simultaneously for an enhanced user experience.
For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links: