External Services Management (MM-SRV)

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Data Interchange

Use

SAP provides interfaces allowing data to be exchanged between your system and the vendor’s and for importing external standard service catalogs from data carriers into the SAP System.

You can exchange the following data with your service providers:
·RFQs and quotations

·Service master data, contracts, purchase orders, and service entry sheets

The following media are available:
·File transfer protocol (FTP)
·SAP e-mail or Internet mail
·Data carriers (diskettes, CDs)
Standard Service Catalog (SSC)

Standard service catalogs are catalogs listing standardized services that are frequently used in specific areas.

The service descriptions are broken down into individual text modules, each with its own number.

The standard service number is assembled from the numbers of all the text modules that are necessary to uniquely define the service in question.

The advantage of this is that very many similar service descriptions can be stored in the system without any data redundancy.

Standard service numbers are master records which, like service master records, can be used in the creation of purchasing documents.

In German-speaking countries, a large number of standard service catalogs are offered on data carriers (e.g. masonry work and electrical work in the field of construction services).

These catalogs are structured according to standards laid down by the German Gemeinsamer Ausschuss Elektronik im Bauwesen (GAEB) (which can be roughly translated as the Joint Committee for Electronics in Building Construction).

The advantage of such standard service catalogs is that you do not have to compile and maintain voluminous service specifications in the system yourself. Instead you can simply import already existing ones into the SAP System from data carriers.

However, the interface of the external standard service catalog must be adjusted to the SAP format for such catalogs.

Working with standardized service specifications has the further advantage of straightforward communication with a wide variety of service providers.

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RFQs and Quotations

Instead of sending RFQs to your service providers in the conventional way, you can send the RFQs created in the SAP System to potential service providers via diskette, for example.

The service providers can then import the data into their systems and subsequently enter their prices against the relevant items. They then return the completed quotations and you adopt their data in the SAP System.

This approach can save you a lot of time and effort in sending voluminous specifications containing possibly thousands of services to a large number of potential bidders and then entering the data you receive in response.

Entry of Services Performed

Exchanging data with the service provider enables you to considerably simplify and accelerate the process of entering (recording) the services actually performed.

The process is as follows:

·You transmit service specifications to the vendor in the form of purchase orders, contracts, or service master records, via e-mail for example.

·When the service has been performed, the vendor creates the service entry sheet and sends it to you, via FTP for example.

·You import the entry sheet into the SAP System.

·You then carry out the acceptance process. The release (approval) procedure, which you can define according to your own criteria, is especially suitable in this connection.


·You employ the Evaluated Receipt Settlement (ERS) procedure.
This means: you do not wait for invoices from service providers, but pay directly via credit memos based on the data contained in the service entry sheet.

The advantages of this approach are as follows:
You have no data entry and invoice verification effort.

The likelihood of variances between the service entry sheets and the invoice is minimal, since the entry sheets originate from the service providers themselves.

The service provider receives payment without delay.

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Distribution of Service Master Records

Use

You can use Application Link Enabling (ALE) to distribute service master records from a central system among several local systems (Tools ® ALE ® Master data distribution ® Logistics ® Service ® Send). The service master records are identical in all systems.
The distribution of service master records is a prerequisite for the distribution of contracts with services.
Features

In the distribution of a service master record via the message category SRVMAS, the following data is transmitted:

# Basic service data
# Short texts (multilingual)
# Long texts (multilingual)

The service master conditions are transmitted separately via the condition distribution facility.

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IACs for External Services Management (MM-SRV)

Use

Simplification of the process of recording services performed by service providers.
Type of Internet Application Component

Intranet/Internet

Working with this component makes particular sense if you do not intend to record services performed for your firm by external sources yourself, but wish to adopt the data recorded by the service provider and enter it in the SAP System.

Via user parameters, the user is presented with a purchase order against which he or she may enter services performed (as a rule, a blanket purchase order with a long validity period).

This Internet Application Component does not include any provision for the acceptance of the services entered, since this step should be carried out by your person responsible in Purchasing in order to maintain a degree of control over the service provider.

Advantages of the Internet Application Component

# You need not carry out the service entry process yourself. Instead, you use the data on work done that has already been recorded by the service provider. This eliminates any service entry effort on your part.

# No training necessary - thanks to the easy-to-use, self-explanatory user interface. Knowledge of the R/3 transaction for creating service entry sheets is not required.

# Virtually no possibility of errors.

Prerequisites

Authorizations/Security

The following authorizations must be assigned to the user who enters services performed:

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Authorization object	Description
M_BEST_BSA	Document type in purchase order
M_BEST_EKG	Purchasing group in purchase order
M_BEST_EKO	Purchasing organization in purchase order
M_BEST_WRK	Plant in purchase order

Standard Settings and Default Values

The following settings are necessary before you can work with the Internet Application Component:

• The following parameters must be stored in the SAP user master record:

• • SRVPO (purchase order number)
  • SRVPOITEM (purchase order item)

Features

Differences Between Use of this IAC and the Creation of Service Entry Sheets

The R/3 transaction is more extensive and provides more input fields and functions. Among other things, this Internet Application Component does not include the following R/3 standard transaction functions:

• Selection of services from a variety of reference documents (e.g. from model service specifications or contract).
• Acceptance of services (because this should be done by a suitable member of your own firm, not by employees of the service provider).

Activities

R/3 Development Objects and Customizing Options

The data recorded in the Intranet/Internet is passed on to the R/3 System via Business Application Programming Interfaces (BAPIs). A simplified R/3 transaction with screens has been created for the Internet Application Component, involving the following development objects:

Transaction:	MEW10
Program:	SAPLMEW5
BAPIs (with function group):	EntrySheet.Create (MLBO) PO.GetDetail (MEWP)

Service Name

The service name of this Internet Application Component is MEW10. You can find all the relevant data under this service name in the SAP@Web Studio.

In addition to the possibility of changing the layout, this Internet Application Component provides a number of other adjustment options.
Any change made to the R/3 development objects used for the Internet Application Component counts as a modification.
Under no circumstances should you change the development objects themselves.
The following options are available if you wish to create a transaction of your own based on the Internet Application Component of the standard system:

# You use less than the functionality offered (by deactivating fields)
# You use more than the functionality offered

For this purpose, you analyze the possibilities afforded by the SAP transaction MEW10 using the ABAP Workbench and add the desired further possible uses to your Internet Application Component.

You can create a completely independent transaction with other screens. If you do so, you must satisfy the technical preconditions for Web transactions. You can then design your own Web pages.