In this process customers try to solve their product problems through searches of frequently asked questions (FAQs). FAQs are sorted by product. Each FAQ is linked to a list of possible solutions. FAQ Search is a self-service tool that reduces interaction costs, increases customer satisfaction and improves efficiency and profitability.

Customers use installed bases to manage service-relevant information for products or services that they have acquired. For example, components in an installed base could represent a credit card in the financial industry or a car in the automotive industry.

Allows customer service agents to handle complaints, address customer concerns, answer technical questions, assist with returned materials, and make exchanges. Customers can be identified using the relevant partner information or data about their installed base. Agents use the solution database to search for a suitable solution for their customer’s problem, create service orders, determine existing contracts, and select products from proposals if needed.

In this process customers create a service request. Having previously selected an installed base component, they choose a service product and a service contract, schedule an appointment, and upload attachments. They can also monitor the status of their request.

This process reduces interaction costs and increases customer satisfaction.

Remote Service Support has emerged to provide condition-based early warning. Quite simply, Predictive Maintenance and Equipment Condition Monitoring provide advanced, equipment-specific warning of deteriorating conditions leading to failure or poor performance using SAP Exchange Infrastructure. In the IM&C industry, these provide early warning of asset failure such as combustion turbines, steam turbines, boiler feed water pumps and cooling water pumps.

You use this process to offer customers a service order quotation before concluding the actual service order. This gives customers the opportunity to find out more about prices and delivery conditions before agreeing to the service order.

You can use amount allocation to allocate items to multiple external and internal recipients. These items may be either billable or non-billable because of warranty claims, and they may stem from service orders or service confirmations. You can assign internal and external recipients when you create the service order or service confirmation.

When you create an amount allocation document, the bill-to party and invoice value are copied from the service order or service confirmation. You can still process or edit this data in amount allocation.

You use resource planning to create assignments for the items of a service order that are relevant for resource planning. You do this by using the resource planning tool to allocate service tasks to available employees. Service employees can either accept, or reject the assignments.

If you work with mobile terminals (laptops or handhelds), your employees can download their assignments onto these devices.

You can use this business process to confirm working times, materials used, and expenses for services performed. To simplify the task of confirmation, you can plan these confirmation items in a service process (for example, a service order) or an in-house repair order. The field service representative then references the process or order and copies the relevant planned items to a service confirmation document.

Confirmation data is automatically posted to integrated SAP R/3 systems to enable an update of stock data, working times, and controlling data.

You use this business process in order to create customer invoices in SAP CRM. Here, one or more than one billing due list item is copied into a billing document. You can either create the billing document with reference to the delivery, or to the sales order. It is also possible to create billing documents with reference to contracts. You make the necessary setting in Customizing. The following describes delivery-related billing.

Monitors customer satisfaction with services performed under contracts. Identifies contract products with a high net value and gives an overview of the value and volume of active service contracts. Shows which particular contracts the service employees are responsible for.

Gives an overview of current order volumes. Supports predictions about fluctuations in business volumes for the forthcoming year. Enables user to take measures, e.g., to plan resources according to seasonal peaks or offer customers special service packages during quiet periods.

You can use this business process to analyze the operational performance of your service organization from the following perspectives:

· Financial · Customer · Internal · Employee

This enables you get a balanced view of the current situation, taking into account the goals of your organization in each of these areas. The analyses described in this process for each of the above analytical perspectives are examples of the many different analyses of service performance that you can perform in SAP BW with data extracted from your operational systems.