Purpose

This process enables you as a sales employee or customer to configure a product in line with your requirements.

You can navigate between the characteristics of a product and any components that exist, and assign values to these. For more information, see Characteristic Selection.

The system ensures that you make all the necessary entries. If conflicts occur during the configuration, the system provides explanations and notes to help you to remove these conflicts. For more information, see Conflict Handling.

During configuration, you can also search for any product variants that may exist. This search is based on the information that you previously entered. See Product Variants

You can use the Interactive Configuration process to either generate a new configuration or change an existing one.

Prerequisites

· You have selected a specific configurable product.

· The required master data is available in the correct version of a knowledge base. For more information, see Configurable Products.

· If you use pricing: the order context is defined (for example, customer and sales area).

Process Flow

From the point of view of the customer or sales employee, a typical process is as follows:

...

1. You call interactive configuration.

Example

You do this in the Quotation and Order Management in CRM E-Commerce (Backend CRM only) scenario, for example from the shopping basket. In other scenarios, you call interactive configuration from the order or catalog.

2. The characteristics of the configurable product are displayed. Any default values that were defined are used automatically. Inferences in the configuration that result from the default values are made automatically. If you are changing an existing configuration, this configuration is loaded. The current status of the configuration with regard to completeness and accuracy is displayed.

3. You assign values to the characteristics, that is to say, you select product options. Here, you can refer to a value range or a list that displays which values can be selected at the current time.

4. Further characteristic value assignments are inferred from the characteristic value assignments and using the dependencies stored in the master data. In addition, any required components are selected in the BOM. The current status of the configuration with regard to completeness and accuracy is displayed.

5. You navigate between the characteristics, characteristic groups and/or any components that are available, and set further characteristic valuations. Steps 3-5 can be repeated any number of times.

6. If conflicts arise, you must remove them. The system tells you the reason for the conflict and provides you with information to help you remove it. In some cases, the system proposes a way of removing the conflict.

7. If you trigger the search for variants, the system searches for product variants that match your current entries. You can define in advance the degree to which the hits match your entries. If the system finds variants that match your search criteria, it displays them for comparison, and you can replace your current configuration with one of the variants.

8. You specify that the configuration is complete and conflict-free, and accept the configuration.

Example

In the Quotation and Order Management in CRME-Commerce (Backend CRM only) scenario, the configuration is then copied to the shopping basket, or the shopping basket is updated to take account of the changes you made to the configuration. In other scenarios, the order or catalog entry is changed accordingly.
Result

At the end of the process, a new configuration has been created. This configuration should be complete and correct – in certain scenarios, however, it is also possible to process a configuration that is incomplete or contains conflicts (for example, if you put together a configuration within an order template on the Internet).

Depending on the scenario, you can then call up the Interactive Configuration process any number of times in order to change the configuration. There are also circumstances in which further changes are not possible – for example if production of the configurable product has already started.
Example

As a dealer, you are ordering a new car for a customer.

You choose the color of the car, the engine, and the features. During the configuration, you discover that if you choose red as the car color, you can only choose the pale or dark interior, but not the gray interior. You also discover the price of the individual features and feature package, and can inform the customer of the lowest-cost option.

You can search your own stocks and those of other dealers in the area for a similar car, or forward the order directly to the plant for production.