CRM Service vs Customer Service or SM

[Former Member]

Hello

I´ve been trying to learn the diferences between CRM service and Service Management in ERP, how to decide which of them implement in a business process, what are the advantage and disadvantage to use one or other one.

Could someone give a explanation, please

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Efrain,

It would be great if you could eloborate your question in-detail. Please find a standard scenario (of Equipment Master) below and I hope it helps you:

u2022 Equipment is created in SAP ERP, either from a delivery (serialized material where the serial number profile is configured to create equipment) or from the production order

u2022 On saving the equipment, the data is replicated to SAP CRM via middleware

- On the SAP CRM side, an iObject of type u201C0401u201Dis created and an IBase component is also created

u2022 If the equipment is a child of another equipment, for example, a sub-item in a Bill of Materials (BOM), and the parent equipment has previously been distributed to SAP CRM, then the child equipment is attached to the parent

- As a result, the IBase component for the child is attached into the IBase of the parent

- Standard information from the equipment such as serial number, material number, and so on is copied over

u2022 If the parent has not yet been replicated to SAP CRM, then a new IBase is created with a new component

- The moment the parent becomes available in CRM, the child component is moved under the parent, and the IBase for the child is marked as u201CDeletedu201D

u2022 If there are partner records to the equipment in SAP ERP, then the partners are also replicated across

- The partners can be assigned either to the IBase component itself or to the iObject (depends on configuration of the object family)

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Aditya, thank you for your answera that is clear also, really there is no a precise scenario just one to clearify myself some concepts, as you for sure know in R3 you also can create Service Order and Equipments which you can bind Warranties, Meassure points, so suppose the following scenarios:

I provide and maintenance certaint manufacturer machines and set up service contract to provide maintenance service (plans) also warranties, measure points, all of this is also possible with CRM Service or do I need R3 integration to provide some of above services?

Can I have plans on CRM for example to maintenance certain Customer Equipment as a part of Service Contracts?

Could I feed IObject´s meassure points on CRM (IC or Service Order) without use/have R3?

Which scenarios is not consider in CRM?

Thank you for your patience

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Aditya

Do you happen to have some documentation on the equipment integration? Unfortunately the best practice guide does not get you very far. Can you send it to my mailing adress as seen on the SDN business card?

Regards, Kai

[gustavo_prez · Accepted solution]

Hello Kevin,

Thank you very much for your answer, that helped me to understand the differences; nevertheless, this answer is a bit old. All you said here is still valid?.

Can we contact you to get a deeper visión?, my email is: Gustavo.perez@empresas-polar.com

Thanks and best regards,

Gustavo Pérez

[Former Member]

Kai,

You are probably right that the best practice guide does not get you very far on the equipment integration.

I have very limited docmentation which I can send you and I hope it is useful.

Regards,

Aditya.

[Former Member]

CRM Service and CS have different orientations, but somehow their functionalities are somewhat actually overlapped.

Overall, functions in CRM service are more toward the customer orientation where you can integrate the service with all marketing-sales-service-interaction center functionality. furthermore, CRM service is not limited to service contract and service orders only, but it also has complaint management, resource management, etc. therefore, in terms of breadth of functionalities, the award goes to CRM.

but when you're talking specifically about service management, ERP CS has more depth. Eventhough CS has CIC as well, but SAP has no longer improved the functionality for quite some time.

Which module to choose? depending on how deep is your requirement. If you don't require extensive functionality, then you can use CRM. But, if you require some heavy integration to other process such as MM, FICO, SD then you probably better off with ERP CS.

whatever you choose, make sure you make it right. because these two have totally different structures, and changing the module to another will consume alot of your time.

Hope it helps.

[Former Member]

Hi

Jushan, very good your answer, as you said some funtionalities are somewhat overlapped, but which of them exactly are?, what about when you need a service/maintenance plan over Equipments/individual objects where you have operations and reading docs, are both solutions integrated as SD-CRM sales does?

Could you give me more details, I think it is a good topics for discussion, thanks