Action profiles in sap

Action Profiles Action profiles and determination
Action profiles in SAP-CRM
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Actions are important for maintaining and improving business relationships. You can schedule and
start predefined processes with the Actions component by means of user-definable conditions from
transaction and marketing objects.
You can tailor the type and time of actions to the requirements of your customers and the processes
in your company. This component enables you to match your service, sales and distribution
management, and your campaign management even more closely to customer needs, and,
simultaneously, to automate them.
The Actions component also provides the technique of controlling output. It thereby
replaces Output Determination of the SAP ECC System.
Integration
Actions in SAP CRM use the Basis Post Processing Framework (PPF) component as the uniform
interface for different processing methods.
Date types and date rules for CRM Date Management are used for time-dependent conditions.
The following components use the actions component in SAP CRM for processing subsequent
functions and output:
• Sales: Opportunity (Sales Assistant), Quotation, Sales Order, Task, Rebates, Billing, Pricing
• Contracts: Sales Contract, Service Contract, Lease
• Service: Complaints
• Industry Business Solutions: Telecommunication
• Marketing: Campaign, Trade Promotion
• Grantor Management
Features
You can define actions dependent on conditions so that the system automatically schedules and
starts them when the conditions are fulfilled.
With actions you can:
• Create follow-up transactions automatically
• Execute changes in the transaction or marketing object currently being processed, for
example, create new items, or status inheritance by subordinate elements in marketing
objects
• Output in print, by faxing or e-mail
• The system processes the actions automatically. You can, however, also schedule and start
actions manually. You can use as conditions the attributes of the transaction type used in
the business object. You can create time-dependent conditions using the dates and date
rules from the appropriate date profile. You can also define partner-dependent actions, for
example, to send a reminder e-mail to the employee responsible.
• The system uses different processing types of the PPF during processing. There are various
processing types for actions:
• Methods (Business Add-Ins)

• This is suitable for simpler processes, such as follow-up transactions or creating positions,
for example, calling a customer when you have received a cancellation.
• Templates are delivered for defining methods. You can use these to create as many follow-
up transactions as you require, and to define your own methods.
• The Business Add-Ins COPY_DOCUMENT and COPY_ITEM_LOCAL are available in sales, and
the Business Add-Ins CREATE_CHILD_OBJECT_FROM_PARENT and CASCADE_CHANGE_STAT
are available in marketing.
• The copy control is used when processing methods. You can use the BAdIs in the copy
control to influence follow-up transactions freely.
• SAP Business Workflow
• This is suitable for more complex processes, for example, a follow-up transaction that
includes an approval process.
• Smart Forms
Use this for printing, faxing or e-mailing documents.
Example
Examples of actions in SAP Customer Relationship Management:
• Revising Quotations
• Two weeks after a quotation has been created, the system generates an activity for the sales
employee responsible to call the customer to remind the him or her of the quotation and to
answer any questions which may have arisen.
• Quotation for a new contract
• Four weeks before a contract expires, or, when 80% of the value of a value contract has
been reached, the customer automatically receives a quotation for a new contract with the
same conditions as for the current product.
• Cancellation Notification
• The sales manager is automatically notified by e-mail if a contract with a value of EUR 1
million or more is cancelled.
• Sub item
• When a contract for a switchboard system is completed, a position to install the system free
of charge to business partners is created automatically.
• Credit Memos
• Credit memos are created automatically, without checking, for complaints with a value of
less than EUR 10.
• Sales Assistant for Sales Employees
• Within the frame of sales methodology, you can formulate a plan with recommended
activities for each phase of the sales cycle.
• Escalation Management
• A customer with a maintenance contract is called back according to the reaction times
agreed upon when he or she sends a problem message.
1.1 ACTIONS
Actions are used in maintaining and improving business relationships. We can schedule and start
predefined conditions with the Actions component by means of user-definable conditions from
transaction and marketing objects.

Actions use the Post Processing Framework (PPF), a Basis component, which can be automated with
the initiation of outputs, follow-on documents or workflows. Using the Actions tab page within a
business document, you can display a list of actions that can be included in the business transaction.
• An action profile is determined from the corresponding transaction type or item category.
• Actions are stored as action definitions within an action profile.
• You can control action processing using different settings and parameters:
• Action changeable or executable in dialog
• Action displayed in toolbar (SAP GUI)
• Processing time (when saving the document or via selection report)
• Partner dependence
• Determination technique
• Action merging
• Processing types (with entry of the desired form name)
1.2 FEATURES OF ACTIONS
You can define actions dependent on conditions so that the system automatically schedules and
starts them when the conditions are fulfilled.
With actions you can:
• Create follow-up transactions automatically
• Execute changes in the transaction or marketing object currently being processed, for
example, create new items, or status inheritance by subordinate elements in marketing
objects
• Output in print, by faxing or e-mail
Actions are displayed in transaction documents that support actions and to which an action profile is
assigned. You can display a list of actions scheduled for the document on the Actions tab page of a
transaction document. The following information is displayed in the list for each action:
• Status (action scheduled, action processed)
• Description (purpose of action)
• Conditions (settings for action definition and conditions are displayed)
• Creator, Creation date
There are various processing types for actions:
• Methods (Business Add-Ins)
Methods are Business Add-In (BADI) implementations. You can define your own BADI
implementation to adapt actions to your processes and needs. (EXEC_METHODCALL_PPF is
the relevant BADI.)
Examples for standard methods include the following:
1. COPY_DOCUMENT (create a follow-up document)

2. COMPLETE_DOCUMENT (set status completed within document)
3. CREDIT_MEMO (create credit memo item)
4. REPAIR_ITEM (create a repair item)
5. 1O_EVENT_CREATE (create a workflow event)
• SAP Business Workflow
This is suitable for more complex processes, for example, a follow-up transaction that
includes an approval process.
• Smart Forms
SAP Smart Forms must be used to print, e-mail or fax documents such as an order
confirmation. You can use the graphics tool, SAP Smart Forms, to design the layout of
output forms. SAP delivers several Smart Forms for outputs in SAP CRM:
1. Form CRM_ORDER_CONFIRMATION_01 (suitable for faxes, letters, and e-mail)
2. Form CRM_ORDER_LEASING_01 (suitable for faxes, letters, and e-mail)
3. Form CRM_OPPORTUNITY_01 (suitable for faxes, letters, and e-mail)
SAP Smart Forms offer the advantage of adapting forms without requiring programming knowledge,
thanks to a completely graphical user interface. When you request a printout of a form, the
application program obtains the relevant data to be used and prints it on the form. Data retrieval
and form logic are separated from one another. SAP Smart Forms replace SAP-Script forms
(migration from SAP-Script forms to Smart Forms is supported).
2.0 HOW TO CREATE AN ACTION
2.1 STEP-BY-STEP PROCEDURE
2.1.1 Enter into any SAP-CRM Server and move to Transaction SPRO.
2.1.2 Press SAP Reference IMG -> Customer Relationship Management ->Basic Functions -> Actions
-> Actions in Transactions.

2.1.3 To create an Action Profile - Click on CREATE ACTIONS WITH WIZARD. First read the
documentation.
2.1.4 Now Press the Execute Buttonto start creating an Action Profile.
2.1.5 Click CONTINUE. Enter the Details to create Action Profile.

2.1.6 Click CONTINUE. Enter the Details to create Action.
2.1.7 Click CONTINUE. Enter the Details to set Action.

In the Processing Time Details, there are 3 Options.
Processing Using Selection Report gets started after a selection report is executed if the start
condition has been fulfilled.
Immediate Processing gets started as soon as the start condition is fulfilled.
Processing when saving a Document gets started when the document is saved*.*
2.1.8 Click CONTINUE. Enter the Details to Set Up Partner Determination.

Partner Dependent makes this Action as dependent on Partner. The partner you choose is the one,
for which the action triggers. It first checks whether that Partner exists or not. If not, it throws an
ERROR.
2.1.9 Click CONTINUE and select the Processing. The processing that we select is the one on which
we want the Action to work on.
2.1.10 Click CONTINUE and Enter the Workflow Number that you want to assign with this Action.

2.1.11 Click CONTINUE and Enter Action Description.
2.1.12 Click CONTINUE and assign Schedule Condition.
Schedule Condition decides whether an action should be scheduled for processing or not. An action
is therefore generated only if the schedule condition is met. It is not mandatory to assign a schedule
condition.

Select anyone that suits your requirement and proceed further.
2.1.13 Click CONTINUE and assign Start Condition.
Start Condition is checked before an action is executed. The Action is executed only if the Start
Condition is satisfied.

Here you won't be able to assign a Start Condition; there is another tab in Actions where we can
assign Start Condition.
2.1.14 Click CONTINUE and Action Configuration is complete.
Click CONTINUE and save it in a Transport Request.
2.1.15 To assign Start Condition -> Go-to step 2.1.2 -> Click on Change Actions and Conditions ->
Define Conditions.
In Scheduling of Actions, find your Action - Test an Action Profile.

It shows you the entire Action that you created till now.
To assign start condition, Click on Start Condition Tab.
Click Edit Condition to enter a condition.
Enter a Condition.

Click 'v'.
Click on SAVE. Save it in the same Transport Request as Earlier.

And hence, this completes your Action Profile Creation for a Workflow.
Similarly, we can create Action Profiles for other processing also.
Action Profiles and determination
Within SAP CRM, actions are pieces of logic that are related to a transaction. They are executed
conditionally, either automatically or manually. Examples of actions are: sending out an order
confirmation after saving the order, creating a follow-up task when a certain status has been set, or
completing an order after a period of time. These actions are all available in the standard system,
but you can easily create your own actions and assign them to your own pieces of logic (called:
action method) and conditions. Besides giving a quick overview of what actions are about in this
blog, I’d like to share some ‘expert’ tips and tricks that I’ve learned over the years, including action
profile determination, a relatively new and little known functionality that was introduced in CRM
7.0. In this blog, I'll focus on action profiles and action determination. In the next blog, you'll read all
about action conditions.
Action profiles
Actions are defined within an action profile, which in turn is linked to a transaction type or an item
category (see also the next paragraph on determination). In the action, you can set up a number of
parameters, including:
1. When the action should be executed (manually/automatically, for instance)
2. Whether the action is partner dependent or not (and, if so, for which partner function)
3. How often the action should be executed
4. What should the action do? Options include:
a) send out a mail/fax/print
b) execute a method (either standard or self-made)
c) trigger an alert

Example of action details
Common profiles
If you want to reuse action profiles you can setup a common profile and assign it to other profiles.
This can be very helpful if you have some (but not completely) overlapping action requirements for
similar objects. Maybe an example clarifies this:
• In a quotation you’ve set up two item categories. In both cases, you’d like a follow-up task to
be created in case the item status is set to ‘Lost’.
• In only one of the item categories, you’d also like to setup an additional action send out an
e-mail too.
You should then create one common profile with the follow-up task action, and create two action
profiles in which this common profile is linked. In one action profile, you also set up a second action
for sending out the mail. Advantages of such a setup with a common profile include:
1. unique actions can be maintained more easily, and
2. Additional requirements can be made available with less effort (think of a third item
category with yet another combination of actions).
Setting up common profiles
In the picture above you see how to work with common profiles. Creating a common profile is
simple: you create an action profile and flag the Common Profile-flag. You can then select the profile
for use in a normal action profile.
Hint: conditions are setup for the 'complete' profile, i.e. a combination of the actions from the used
common profile and the actions of the normal action profile. So: you can reuse a common profile in
several action profiles and still have flexibility in the prerequisites (conditions)!

Action profile determination
In older versions of SAP CRM, you could simply assign an action profile to a transaction type or an
item category. Once linked, every new object would include all the actions of the profile that is
linked to it, and that's that. Being quite rigid, this sometimes necessitated the creation of another
item category or transaction type, only because you needed more flexibility. This has been overcome
by the introduction of action profile determination.
Where to find action profile determination in IMG
The principle is quite simple: instead of linking an action profile directly, you can opt to link an action
profile determination procedure to a transaction type or an item category. It works exactly like a
price procedure: you can use fields from the field catalog to set up condition tables and you set up a
number of access sequences to find the correct action profile(s). Please note the (s) in the last
sentence: it is possible to find multiple action profiles, or to both assign a profile directly and have
one found through the determination. This can easily be called a small revolution in action
customizing in CRM: it is now no longer required to put all the actions you need in one single action
profile! Companies can use action profiles in much more flexible ways by combining the action
profiles they need in specific scenarios. I've used this determination technique to be able to have
one single item category with different action profiles based on the product that was entered. In the
example below you see how this was done. Please note that in this case, we put the product ID
directly into the condition, but you could also use product groups or hierarchy levels to set up this
functionality. Because a field catalog is available, you can use any of the fields you use in pricing to
determine action profiles.

Example of determination
The picture above shows how action profile determination works. As usual within SAP CRM, the logic
at runtime needs to be configured the 'other way around':
1. Create or re-use one or more condition types
a) You can create your own condition tables
b) Do not forget to link the condition type(s) to a (new) condition maintenance group
2. Create the conditions
a) This can be done via general condition maintenance
3. Setup an action determination procedure
4. Assign the procedure to the transaction type or item category
Action Conditions
So, actions have been created and correctly linked (or determined) via the profile. Time to focus
when to execute them. This is done with action conditions. You can base them on attributes from
the transaction or item at hand. Probably most often used are attributes like user or system status,
priority, or a milestone.
There are a few tips and tricks here that I'd like to share, but let's start with the difference between
the two types of conditions that are available in SAP CRM.
Schedule vs start conditions
Schedule conditions define when an action is put on the list of executable actions within the object.
Once it is put there, it will be executed as soon as the start condition is met.

• By not assigning a schedule condition, the action will be added to the list of executable
actions automatically or manually.
• By not assigning a start condition, it is possible to execute the action automatically or
manually.
This seems quite straightforward, but there's more to it:
1. Once an action is scheduled, it will be considered during a (background) run of the action
selection report. This impacts performance of the jobs you plan to use.
2. If you want to trigger actions based on a milestone (e.g., contract end date has passed), you
should use a Start Condition: schedule conditions are only checked if there is a change in the
transaction and this means that the contract end date has long passed before the
transaction is 'touched' again and the action is finally executed.
3. You can assign both a schedule and a start condition to one action. In such cases, the start
condition is only considered if the action's schedule condition was fulfilled.
As these points show, there is a conflict here: using too many schedule conditions may impact
performance, but only using start conditions disallows you to plan actions based on milestones.
Later, we will look into the solution that SAP provides for this, and milestone-based actions in
general. Let's first discuss setting up conditions in general, and running a background job.
Setting up action conditions
When you click on Define Conditions in the customizing, you will see the following screen:
Action Condition Maintenance
I won't go into all the details of this screen, but I would like to highlight a few elements:
• With the Technical Names-button you can switch between the description of the action and
action profile to the technical names. This can be very handy if you have non-unique
descriptions
• Setting up conditions is done with an editor in which you link attributes to values with help
of expressions.

• You can reuse conditions after you created them (you can get an overview of all conditions
by clicking on the schedule Conditions or Start Conditions-buttons).
a. Reusing conditions is particularly useful if you are using common profiles. As
highlighted in my blog on action profiles, common profiles can be used to reuse
actions in various action profiles without having to configure them again and again.
These embedded actions' conditions need to be set up per action profile that uses
them. By reusing these conditions, you can easily do this.
b. Please note that reusing conditions is only possible within:
i. the same type of condition (schedule / start)
ii. the same item category
c. As a general rule of thumb you should consider a naming convention for your
conditions (e.g.: [item category] [description of condition]). Too often you see
condition names that tell more about the action that they are linked to, than what
they actually check. Reusing them will then be quite hard!
• If you want to setup an action without any conditions, you should still add it in this screen
(right top corner). If you forget this, the action will not work.
Executing actions
Now that the action profiles, its actions and conditions are set up, it is time to see how actions are
executed. As you recall, there are three moments on which actions are executed:
• Immediate processing: As soon as the action should be executed (either by an automatic or
a manual trigger), it will be executed. Typically, an end user is working in the transaction
when this occurs.
o This option will lead to wait time for the end user. Therefore, I would only advise it if
user feedback is required or if the action is highly time critical.
• Processing when saving the document: When the user or a background process saves the
order, the action is executed.
o This option may also impact the end user's experience.
• Processing using selection report: During order processing, the action(s) will only
be scheduled. Execution will be done by running the action processing program (transaction
code: CRMC_ACTION_JOB).
o Within action customizing you can allow end users to execute the action directly, so
they don't need to wait for the program to run.
o Let's look into the action selection report with some more detail.

Action selection report
The selection report can be run once or periodically, both in the foreground and the background. If
you plan to run it periodically in the background, you should use set the Processing Settings
accordingly
• 'Processing without dialog': if set, the selected actions are executed directly. This should be
set in case of a background job.
• 'Restricted Log': will prevent a spool to be created. The action processing logs (that can also
be found in SLG1) will still be filled.
You then save these entries as a variant and create a new job via SM36 (program = RSPPFPROCESS).
Basically, this sums up how to set up actions. Now I'll focus on some more specific topics: milestone-
based actions and the optimization rule.
Milestone-based actions
Setting up an action that should be executed after a period of time can seem quite tricky at first. This
is because a number of elements should be correctly setup before the action is actually scheduled at
the right moment. These are the things you should get straight:
1. Set up a date profile to calculate your milestone
1. Hint: give different names to the date types and date rules, even though this is not
required
2. Be sure to include the standard date rule TODAYTIME in your profile (this will always
give the current date+time when executed; we will need it in the next step)
2. In action condition maintenance, create a start condition that checks whether TODAYTIME is
greater than or equal to the date type

Start condition with milestone
The picture shows an example of a start condition in which a milestone is checked. Please note that
TODAYTIME is shown as &Current Date + Time& when you do not show technical names.
Now let's assume we want to run a hourly background job that executes actions. This would have to
check all start conditions with milestones again and again, even if the milestone will not be reached
within another 6 months! That's why optimization rules were introduced.
Optimization rules
With help of optimization rules, you can have the background job calculate when the start
condition will be met. In the example above, in six months’ time. The system will write this in a table
and, the next time the job is executed, simply skip the start condition because it already found that
this condition is not yet met. This functionality improves performance and requires two
configuration activities:
1. In the action condition maintenance, select the date type that you want to use as an
Optimization Rule. If you look at the previous picture, you can already see that an
Optimization Rule was linked.
2. In the action job, be sure to flag the Use Optimization Rules option.
1. Note: typically you run this report in a background job. Make sure to set up the
variant attributes like in the picture below. It ensures that each time the job is run,
the current date and time are considered.

Using Optimization Rules in action processing

Action profiles in sap

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Action profiles in sap