Introduced in February 2006 and designed for midsize to large organizations, SAP CRM on-demand offers a Web-based sales force automation (SFA) system to manage customers, contacts, sales pipeline, and daily activities. SAP CRM Sales on-demand provides lean core features to enhance sales productivity that are inherent in mySAP CRM Sales 5.0. Unlike the on-premise mySAP CRM, SAP CRM on-demand exists in a hosted environment.

SAP CRM Sales on-demand includes the following functionality:

• Account and contact management
• Activity management
• Opportunity management
• Sales reporting
• Administration and configuration
• Predefined roles for sales managers and sales representatives

When compared to an on-premise system, SAP CRM on-demand has fewer hardware, software, and maintenance requirements. You access the functionality via the Web, so you do not need additional hardware. SAP automatically upgrades SAP CRM on-demand centrally, which means that your IT staff does not need to maintain it.

SAP CRM on-demand also offers lower implementation costs, with no additional consulting fees connected with activating and operating the system. However, as with any solution, companies are at their discretion to employ consultants to assist with best practices and strategies for a successful CRM implementation.

As your business grows and you require a greater depth of functionality and integration, you can migrate from the hosted SAP CRM on-demand to the on-premise mySAP CRM seamlessly with minimal downtime. SAP CRM on-demand is based on the same architecture and data model as mySAP CRM, which reduces (and in some cases eliminates) many time-consuming aspects of a migration. These include data mapping and conversion, migration of configurations and business processes, and retraining and change management for users.

Currently SAP CRM Sales on-demand is the only on-demand component available. Additional SAP CRM on-demand offerings intended for 2006 include SAP CRM Marketing on-demand and SAP CRM Service on-demand. Users of SAP CRM on-demand will receive the additional offerings as part of the automatic upgrades. This article focuses on the SAP CRM Sales on-demand features and functionalities.

User Interface

SAP CRM on-demand’s Web-based user interface (UI) includes links to user-specific searches, appointment reminders, alerts, and reports. Each user, including sales representatives and sales managers, can personalize the Home page (Figure 1) to change the look and feel and content shown within the work area. You can move the various sections (Today’s Appointments, Today’s Tasks, Reports, Quick Links, and groupware Synchronization) to different areas, as well as hide and resize them. In the Reports section, you can list the predelivered reports you access most often. In the Today’s Tasks section, you can identify overdue tasks by the color of the traffic light icon next to each task.

Figure 1

SAP CRM Sales on-demand Home page click here to view a larger version of this image

User documentation and eLearning Macromedia Flash tutorials are available to help new users. Tutorials available for sales representatives and sales managers include key functional features in the system such as Account and Opportunity Management, as well as general features, including the navigation concept and reporting. Sales representative and managers can be up and running on the system with one to two hours of training.

Account and Contact Management

SAP CRM Sales on-demand manages the critical information necessary to maintain accounts including customers, prospects, and competitors. This information consists of address information, notes, document attachments, key contact information, as well as a chronological listing of planned and completed interactions (activities) between the sales team and the customer. Search capabilities allow users to find accounts and contacts (based on their predefined roles) and download the results into Microsoft Excel.

The Account summary page (Figure 2) includes account information on a single screen that you can print and use when visiting customers. From this page, you can maintain the account as well as create and maintain contacts, activities, and opportunities through links. In addition, SAP CRM on-demand can import and export customer data from other SAP and external systems with real-time integration for R/3 back-end systems. The system conducts standard basic checks when creating accounts to help avoid duplication, although to conduct more sophisticated checks, you need to use a third-party tool.

Figure 2

SAP CRM Sales on-demand Account summary page click here to view a larger version of this image

Activity Management

Activity Management tracks and prioritizes the activities related to your team, accounts, contacts, and opportunities during the sales lifecycle. Your sales team members can view their own activities and, based on their authorization profiles, others’ activities. The power user assigns user authorization profiles based on your company’s organizational rules. As with Account and Contact Management, you can search and download the results into Excel.

Activities consist of appointments, tasks, sales calls, and emails that include groupware integration with either Microsoft Outlook or IBM Lotus Notes. The integrated CRM Calendar lets you view appointments in daily, weekly, or monthly formats (Figure 3). You can schedule and synchronize appointments and tasks with Outlook or Lotus Notes.

Figure 3

SAP CRM Sales on-demand Appointment click here to view a larger version of this image

With Activity Management, you can create a customer interaction history by relating inbound and outbound emails to accounts, contacts, and opportunities. In this case, the system places outbound emails in the interaction history of all contacts derived from the email addresses in the To and Cc fields, the related accounts, and the sender’s interaction history. The system places inbound emails in the interaction history of the account filled in with the From (contact and related account), account, contact, and owner information. SAP CRM on-demand includes an inbound screen that allows you to capture inbound emails from the groupware client. You can select individual emails and transfer them to SAP CRM by clicking on the Transfer button.

Opportunity Management

Opportunity Management helps you manage your organization’s sales cycle by providing full visibility into your sales pipeline. SAP CRM Sales on-demand enables you to document and track opportunities throughout the various sale stages from inception to close. The more information documented within an opportunity (such as expected revenue, probability of success, and sales stage), the better you can predict corporate performance based on your sales pipeline. Opportunity Management features the same search capabilities as the other management areas.

The Sales Assistant in SAP CRM Sales on-demand helps you manage your opportunities by recommending activities to guide the sales representative through each stage of the sales cycle, giving structure to the sales process. You can configure the Sales Assistant with your standardized sales methodology to propose the configured recommended activities for sales execution (Figure 4). The system automatically creates the activities you select for the opportunity into corresponding standardized sales execution steps. The sales representative can create additional activities to supplement the standard activities.

Figure 4

SAP CRM Sales on-demand Sales Assistant within an opportunity

Sales Reporting

With SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (BI), you can run limited reports on opportunities, accounts, contacts, and activities. The Home page includes Web-based reports such as Win/Loss Analysis, Opportunity Pipeline Analysis (Figure 5), and Accounts with Open Opportunities. Sales representatives can personalize the reports. Sales managers can view these same reports as well as a portfolio of team reports. You can click on the Excel Download button to download the results to Excel or click on the Send button to share the report with others.

Figure 5

Opportunity Pipeline Analysis report click here to view a larger version of this image

The predefined reports have simple and advanced analysis to drill down on the report data. Clicking on the Advanced Analysis link allows you to access the advanced features. The system offers several options for viewing the reports, which you can select from the drop-down menu next to Show. For example, you may display reports graphically in a table format, then save the report drill-down views for repeated access. You can also restrict the data available in the report by defining exceptions, a set of predetermined threshold values.

Entering various parameter information and filtering can be time consuming for a report you run often. With the Search functionality, you can save queries for easy access. Then, go to My Search or personalized Quick Links on the Home page to access the queries. This reduces administrative costs related to sales reporting by empowering sales representatives to run their own reports.

Administration and Configuration

The Administration page (Figure 6) gives you an overview of the administration activities that power users can access and perform. These activities consist of four areas:

• Authorizations
  
• Configuration/Organization
  
• Policies
  
• Users

Figure 6

Power user Administration page click here to view a larger version of this image

Each area within the Administration page contains tasks with a description of the configuration activities for each task. Only a power user may access and perform these tasks.

The power user provides support to both the overall company and the individual users who sign on SAP CRM on-demand. Depending on the size and resources within your company, power users may ensure that:

• All employees who need to use the system are valid users in SAP CRM on-demand
• The correct roles and authorizations are in place to effectively manage and support your users
• Your users do not inadvertently lock themselves out while working within the system
• Your company has developed an organizational model that best supports its business
• The pages and fields within SAP CRM on-demand meet your company’s requirements

SAP CRM on-demand delivers customizable, Web-based administration and configuration tools for your power users. These tools allow them to tailor the application to meet your organization’s needs. With these tools, power users can conduct many tasks including:

• Configure custom fields through use of marketing attributes, including maintaining field labels and pick-list values
• Customize screen layouts by role, including rearranging fields, setting field lengths, setting default values, and identifying fields as editable or display only (Figure 7).
• Create and maintain users
• Manage authorization and permission profiles for data access and visibility
• Manage organization model and assign users to positions within the model
• Dynamic and flexible data access modeling and visibility according to level in organizational hierarchy and manager versus employee position
• Delegate user management

Figure 7

User administration: Maintain Account page for sales manager click here to view a larger version of this image

SAP CRM on-demand offers power users eLearning tutorials and a detailed Power User’s Guide within the end-user documentation. The materials provide an introduction to the configuration options available as well as on-boarding and organizational management.

Services and Support

SAP CRM on-demand is software as a service (SaaS) and offered through a subscription-based licensing model. If you transition to the on-premise mySAP CRM solution, normal upgrade licensing applies. SAP offers support services that address both business and IT requirements, including educational and business consulting services.

Initial set-up for companies as part of support services includes company creation and related configuration, power user creation and permissions profile setup, authorization management policies, CRM-to-BW integration, Central User Administration (CUA) between CRM and BW, and email server integration setup. Power users normally perform administrative services. If your company prefers not to handle this, Application Managed Services (AMS) can perform these tasks as a value-added service (VAS). You can read more about SAP CRM on-demand and the support services SAP offers by visiting www.sap.com/crmondemand.