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Customer Relationship Management (SAPCRM): Actions in SAP CRM Part 1: Actionprofiles and determination

Posted by Joost Janssens 2 Nov, 2012

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 orderconfirmation after saving the order, creating a follow-up task when a certain status has beenset, or completing an order after a period of time. These actions are all available in the standardsystem, 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 areabout 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 wasintroduced in CRM 7.0.  In this blog, I'll focus on action profiles and action determination. In thenext 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 executed4. What should the action do? Options include:

1. send out a mail/fax/print2. execute a method (either standard or self-made)3. trigger an alert

Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM): Actions in SAP CRM Part 1: Action profiles anddetermination

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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, and2. additional requirements can be made available with less effort (think of a third item category with yet

another combination of actions).

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Setting up common profilesIn 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.

Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM): Actions in SAP CRM Part 1: Action profiles anddetermination

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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.

Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM): Actions in SAP CRM Part 1: Action profiles anddetermination

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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

1. You can create your own condition tables2. Do not forget to link the condition type(s) to a (new) condition maintenance group

2. Create the conditions1. This can be done via general condition maintenance

3. Setup an action determination procedure4. Assign the procedure to the transaction type or item category

This ends this blog. In the next blog, I'll focus on action conditions.15196 Views Tags: profile, actions, action, crm, determination, customizing,customer_relationship_management, tips, tricks, cloud_on-demand_and_saas

ANAIS JAUSSAUD12 Dec, 2014 12:39 AM

Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM): Actions in SAP CRM Part 1: Action profiles anddetermination

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Thank you very much for this post !

I have created my action profile and link it to the item as my date profile on service request is on the item level.

However, when executing the action, i've got the following error:

"Recipient partner function type was not passed as action parameter".

However, i did not tick the box for partner determination in the action profile and either added a partner function

into action parameter.

Would you know what the error referring to?

Thanks a lot,

Regards,

Anaïs

Joost Janssens in response to Ramesh Mudigiri on page 63 Jun, 2014 2:51 PM

Hi Ramesh,

The way I understood it, these two options give you the option to allow an end user to change (i.e., remove/

add) and execute (immediately by pressing a button) a certain action. If you don't set the flags, the end

user cannot do these things himself. So basically it is a way to allow your users to influence the automatic

scheduling and starting of actions.

Probably it's best to play around with it when your setting it up, so you can see if it is of interest for you.

Best,

Joost

Ramesh Mudigiri in response to Joost Janssens on page 728 May, 2014 2:52 PM

Dear Joost,

Thank you for your instant replies.

I have a query about the action profile i.e,.."Changeable in dialog" and "Exe in dialog" these are the two

options which were checked during the action profile creation.Kindly let me know the importance of these two

and what does it lead to if these are unchecked.Thanks in advance,..

Monika Hoffmann in response to Venu Parvatam on page 61 Feb, 2013 9:12 PM

Determination Log, should be under Schedule Actions in sales document or other, that you opened.

Venu Parvatam in response to Joost Janssens on page 71 Feb, 2013 7:07 PM

Thanks Joost. I will try to establish this with an enhancement.

Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM): Actions in SAP CRM Part 1: Action profiles anddetermination

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Other than that, I have another question.

Where can I see the the 'Determination Log'?

I did not find it any where in the webUI screen like how it is shown in this blog.

Regards,

Venu Parvatam

Joost Janssens in response to Monika Hoffmann on page 71 Feb, 2013 12:50 PM

Hi Monika,

You can check the following:• Did you set the action to Immediate Processing?• Did you add the action in the condition customizing? Even if you don't want a start condition, you

should add an entry for it to be considered (see also the second blog I wrote, there is a part aboutSetting up action conditions, last bullet describes this.

Good luck!

Joost

Monika Hoffmann1 Feb, 2013 9:08 AM

Hi, I have a problem with creation of simple action with Method call. What I need is to get method working right

away after clicking by user New Opportunity (to work in background and make some changes before He/She

will see new opportunity forms to fill). I can't make it automative, it works only when I select it from Assignment

block Shedule Actions. How to configure this kind of action? (no start conditions we tried is working for us, so it

must be sth at the beginning of action definition).

Regards,

Monika

Joost Janssens in response to Venu Parvatam on page 831 Jan, 2013 12:10 PM

Hi Venu,

This is a very specific case, so I am not sure I can be of help. Adding the partner function is a good idea,but

as only a combination of function + partner ID should lead to a profile to be linked, this might be hard to

establish without an enhancement. Because in the end this is just condition technique, you should look into the

possibility to assign a requirement in the determination procedure. For documentation see IMG: CRM > Basic

Functions > Actions > Actions in Transaction > Business Add-Ins > Add-In: Requirements for Determination

Procedure.

Good luck!

Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM): Actions in SAP CRM Part 1: Action profiles anddetermination

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Regards,

Joost

Venu Parvatam in response to Joost Janssens on page 830 Jan, 2013 2:33 PM

Hi Joost,

Thanks for your update. I have created two condition tables as you said, created condition records and execute

the process.Action profile determined but I got a different issue in this determination process.

In our Return item category application data there are two different partnet functions one is 'Ship to party

Return Vendor' and another one is "Vendor". Both will have different partner IDs but both are Vendors. But the

action profile determination procedure assigned to this item category is considering 'Ship to party return vendor'

ID always to determine action profiles. But in my requirement It should consider 'Vendor' ID.

And another strainge thing is if I delete 'Ship to party return Vendor' from partner functions then the system is

considering 'Vendor' partner id to determine action profile.

In my case both partners are mandatory. I tried by included additional field 'Partner function' along with 'Vendor

ID' in condition table. But it is also does not work.

Please help me to sort it out

Why this determination procedure always considering 'Ship to party returns Vendor' first? Is there any other

way to make the system to consider a specific partner function ID?

Thanks In Advance,

Venu Parvatam.

Joost Janssens in response to Venu Parvatam on page 823 Jan, 2013 4:10 PM

Hi Venu,

Yes it is possible to assign both an action profile and an action profile determination procedure. The system will

then use both (if an action profile was determined as well). So in your case I would advise to create another

condition table without the vendor ID which should be used for all other vendors. You can create an access

sequence with two steps: first check if a condition record can be found for the specific vendor. If not, the

second step in the access sequence should return you the 'backup' action profile.

Good luck!

Regards,

Joost

Venu Parvatam23 Jan, 2013 3:51 PM

Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM): Actions in SAP CRM Part 1: Action profiles anddetermination

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Hi Joost Janssens,

I have a question on action profile determination process, please help me.

I have 4 action profiles and action profile-1 asssigned directly to the item category at definition level.

And for remaining 3 action profiles I have created action profile determination procedure and created condition

records with 'Vendor' field specific like below..

1. vendor=xxxx then action profile-2

2. vendor=yyyy then action profile-3

2. vendor=zzzz then action profile-4.

Is it possible to assign both action profile and action profile determination procedure to one item category/

transaction type?

If yes how it works, which one will consider first?

Best Regards,

Venu Parvatam.