Request for Change Management

in SAP CRM 7.0

Detailed View
 Agenda

1. Request for Change – Overview

2. Request for Change – Details

© SAP 2008 / Request for Change Management / Page 2

 IT Service Management with SAP CRM –
Process Overview

IT Service
Service Level Desk Incident
Management 11 Management

77 22
Integration to
SAP Solution
Manager
Service Desk

Problem
IBase and Management
Object Mgmt.
Enhanced
Integration to 33
66 SAP ERP
Enterprise
Asset Mgmt.

55 44 Knowledge
Change
Article Mgmt.
Management
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 Change Management – Concept

CMS

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 Change Management – Process Flow
Process step
Create request for change (RfC)
Assign configuration item/s
Review and approve RfC
Plan execution (time, people,
material)
Release request for change
Test and implement change
Update configuration information
Confirm request for change
© SAP 2008 / Request for Change Management / Page 5
Mapping in CRM system
Create request for change, categorize and
prioritize it.
Assign installed base/s, installed base
component/s, object/s, or product/s to the request
for change.
Assign approval procedure to RfC and have it
approved by approvers, optionally with SAP
Workflow integration.
Enter service products, spare parts and
necessary resources on item level.
Update the request for change status.
Process the request for change, update it as
necessary.
Maintain changes in installed base/s, installed
base component/s, object/s, product/s.
Create a service confirmation for the request for
change and – optionally – bill it.
 Change Management – Overview

ƒ A request for change (RfC) is a formal proposal for a change in the

infrastructure, usually related to one or more configuration items, or to services,
procedures, and items associated with the infrastructure
ƒ With SAP CRM 7.0 a default transaction type “Request for Change“ is available
ƒ The request for change is a transaction of the transaction category “Service
Process” classified as “Request for Change”
ƒ Requests for change can be categorized and prioritized according to the ITIL
guidelines
ƒ Approval management integration ensures that the request for change is
approved by all relevant parties before its implementation can start
ƒ A pre-defined SAP Workflow template can be used to inform the relevant parties
that they need to approve the RfC
ƒ Planning on item level with optional resource management as well as integration
into SAP ERP processes like purchasing is available

© SAP 2008 / Request for Change Management / Page 6

 Agenda

1. Request for Change – Overview

2. Request for Change – Details

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 Request for Change – Details

In the RfC Details you can document

ƒ who requests the change and who in IT is
responsible for it
ƒ the processing status and requested start and
end date
ƒ the impact, urgency, priority, change category,
risk, and subject/reason categories
ƒ textual descriptions of what needs to be
changed (several text types)
ƒ which objects / configuration items are affected
Furthermore, here you select the appropriate
approval procedure.

© SAP 2008 / Request for Change Management / Page 8

 Request for Change – Functions

ƒ You can create an RfC ‚from

scratch‘ or from a template.
ƒ You can copy an existing RfC
ƒ You can create follow-up
transactions from the RfC, for
example, a service confirmation

You have access to:

ƒ Dispatch
ƒ Auto Complete
ƒ Find Related Problems
ƒ Find Knowledge Articles
ƒ Send E-Mail
ƒ Print / Print Preview
ƒ Display Object Relationships

© SAP 2008 / Request for Change Management / Page 9

 Request for Change – Approval Process

To start the approval process,

ƒ select an approval procedure
ƒ enter the approval step partners

Then set the RfC status to ”Awaiting Approval“

→ The approval step partners can approve or reject the relevant
steps (both sequential and parallel mode can be set up)
→ Approvers can be informed via SAP Workflow

© SAP 2008 / Request for Change Management / Page 10

 Approval Procedure and Step Partner
Determination by Rules

For approval procedure determination and approval step partner determination you
can set up rules in the rule modeler. If you do so,
ƒ the approval procedure for a request for change can be determined automatically, e.g. based
on categorization, priority, and other parameters
ƒ the approval step partners for the approval procedure can be determined automatically, e.g.
based on the approval procedure, categorization, and other parameters

© SAP 2008 / Request for Change Management / Page 11

 Request for Change – Status Management

The following status in the default standard request for change transaction
type represent different phases in the request for change‘s life cycle.

Request for Change‘s Status Request for Change‘s Phase

New Initial Status

Awaiting Approval Can only be set if the approval information is

complete.

Can trigger SAP Business Workflow for

approval management.
Approved Can be set manually; if all approval steps are
approved, the request for change (RfC)
automatically turns to ”Approved“.
Build Starts the implementation phase.

Implementation Represents the release of the RfC.

Customer Action States that the request for change has been
implemented and the customer should check
whether everything is ok.
Completed The request for change has been executed.

© SAP 2008 / Request for Change Management / Page 12

 Request for Change – Planning on Item Level

As for the standard service order, in the request for change you can
carry out detailed planning on item level:

ƒ Plan work with service products, and assign qualifications where relevant
ƒ Enter spare parts for repairs
ƒ Optionally integrate entered products with SAP ERP purchasing
ƒ Use templates, for example for standard changes
ƒ Schedule IT service engineers with integration to resource planning
ƒ Charge back with amount allocation
ƒ Create service confirmations to bill work and spare parts

© SAP 2008 / Request for Change Management / Page 13

 Request for Change – Reference Objects

Changes have an impact on the infrastructure, therefore it needs to be transparent

which infrastructure objects are affected by a request for change. Furthermore, after
the change has been carried out, the infrastructure information needs to be updated.

You can map infrastructure objects in SAP CRM with

ƒ Installed Bases / IBase Components
ƒ Objects and Object Relationships
ƒ Products

ƒ You can assign all relevant infrastructure objects to the request for change
ƒ You can display the object details and relationships from the request for change
ƒ The request for change‘s status can automatically update an IT item‘s status

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 Display Object Relationships

If object relationships exist for an object entered on the request for change’s
header, you can display the relationships from the request.

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 Request for Change – Related Incidents

Sometimes requests for change are related to one or more incidents. For these
cases, incidents can be assigned and ”locked“ to a request for change. The locked
incidents are not processed individually anymore, but they will be automatically
updated once the request for change is completed.

With ”Find Related Incidents“, incidents with the same categorization can be proposed by the system.
© SAP 2008 / Request for Change Management / Page 16
 Functions Based on Multilevel Categorization
Auto Complete, Find Related Problems, Find Knowledge Articles

The request for change can be categorized on multiple levels with several
categorization blocks.

ƒ To “auto complete“ a request for change, the processor needs to select a

categorization and the system can then find and copy a template which was
assigned to this categorization

ƒ Problems with the same categorization as entered in the request for change
can be proposed by the system when choosing “Find Related Problems“

ƒ Knowledge articles with the same categorization as entered in the request for
change can be proposed by the system when choosing “Find Knowledge
Articles“

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 Dispatch

Dispatching allows to assign a request for change to another employee or service

team based on flexibly definable rules.

Rules for dispatching are set up in the Rule Modeler.

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 Knowledge Article Integration

To help process the request for change, the processor can search for knowledge
articles in the request for change:
ƒ Knowledge Articles assignment block: Search for relevant knowledge articles via F4 help
ƒ Find knowledge articles (from the „More“ button on header level): Proposes knowledge
articles which have the same categorization as the request for change
ƒ Suggest knowledge articles (from the Knowledge Articles assignment block):
Proposes knowledge articles which are assigned to a category in the categorization
schema

© SAP 2008 / Request for Change Management / Page 19

 Durations

The system can automatically calculate the duration of a request for change’s item.

Per default, two duration types are delivered:

ƒ Work duration: Calculates the time a transaction was in work, but not in status „Customer Action“
ƒ Total duration: Calculates the total time it took to complete the transaction

You can display durations in the Dates assignment block as well as in the Service Level
Agreement assignment block.

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 Change Category / Risk

„ You can categorize the request for change with a change category, e.g.
“Emergency Change”

„ You can assign a risk level to a request for change, e.g. “High”

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 Escalation

When the due date of a request

for change is exceeded it can be
escalated by a background
action.
Due < Current? „ Escalation level is increased
„ Escalation date is set

The request for change can be

escalated in two levels.

Escalations can be lowered by a

manual action in the transaction.
„ Escalation level is reduced
„ Escalation date is deleted

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 Related Transactions

In the Related Transactions assignment block,

ƒ the system automatically updates links to transactions which are related to the
request for change processing, e.g. the Interaction Record, a service contract, or a
service confirmation which was created as follow-up of the request for change
ƒ you can manually add any further transactions which are relevant for the request for
change to refer to them

© SAP 2008 / Request for Change Management / Page 23

 Processing Log

„ The processing log provides a consolidated audit trail of changes made to a

transaction
„ Various log types are available for selection
„ One type can be defaulted for viewing
„ Changes to fields can be logged selectively

© SAP 2008 / Request for Change Management / Page 24

 Request for Change – Further Functions

ƒ Create all sorts of follow-up transactions, for example, service

confirmations
ƒ Assign knowledge articles to document implemented solutions
or workarounds
ƒ Assign qualification requirements to enable skill-based resource
planning
ƒ Add attachments and notes
ƒ Schedule and execute actions
ƒ Escalate requests for change if they are not processed in time
ƒ Access detailed change history and processing log information
ƒ Confirm requests for change to document working time and
used spare parts
ƒ Bill confirmation and allocate costs

© SAP 2008 / Request for Change Management / Page 25

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