How to suppress the automatic creation of interaction records in SAP CRM 7.0
Especially in the scenario fo the interaction centre, SAP has extended the use of the interaction record with version 7.0.
Once a customer record has been confirmed in the interaction centre, an interaction record is automatically created in the background once the user clicks the "end“ button in the Webclient. The confirmed account, contact person and registered product, all business transactions created and accessed (in edit mode), selected solutions from the knowledge search, and all processed inbound and outbound emails are linked to the interaction record via the activity clipboard.
From a technical perspective, the interaction record basically functions as an anchor object. During the creation of an interaction record, a document flow link of relationship type "INTO“ with object type "CRMCICANCH“ is created which is heavily used during navigation. Everytime the user is navigating from the interaction history or inbox to an interaction record, the system will use this anchor to determine whether an activity is of type interaction record or not. The BW extractor makes also use of this anchor object to differentiate interaction record related statistics from regular business activities.
Basically SAP assumes that everytime you confirm a customer record in the interaction centre, you must be interacting with a customer. Unfortunately this is not applicable in all project scenarios, so at times some of the events that automatically create interaction records need to be de-activated.
When and How is an Interaction Record Automatically Created?
The system will automatically create an interaction record, if the user
- confirms a business partner in the Webclient
- presses the "interact“ button
- sends an email, fax or letter
- accepts a new inbound communication
- creates a dependent business transaction
- executes a call from a call list
- creates an interaction record directly within the Webclient
Technically, the key object is hereby the class "Interaction Manager“. The mentioned user behaviour will trigger a number of events in the system which call the "interaction manager“ class. The class then triggers the event INTERACTION_STARTED and will create the interaction record.
The follwoing table lists the events which trigger the creation of an interaction record:
|
System Step |
Event |
Source |
|
Account confirmation |
BPConfirmed |
Business Partner |
|
Interact from Inbox for business transaction |
BPConfirmed |
Business Partner |
|
Interact from Inbox for email, fax, letter |
AUI_Interact |
Inbox |
|
Accept inbound communication |
ContactAccepted |
Contact |
|
New or reply email (fax, letter) |
MailCreated |
Outbound email of fax |
|
Manual Interaction Record |
InteractionRequested |
Interaction Record |
|
Dependent Business Transaction |
InteractionRequested |
Business Transaction |
|
Call from a call list (*) |
CallListCallSelected |
Call List |
What Role do the dependent business transactions play?
Dependent business transactions are CRM Business Transactions for which there are Interaction Center specific UI components. They are configured via the Business Transaction Profile.
A dependent business transaction can only be created when an interaction record exists. If no interaction record exists when the agent tries to create a dependent business transaction, the system will create the interaction record in the background.
An interaction record is needed before creating a dependent business transaction because the confirmed account and contact person data is transferred from the interaction record into the dependent business transaction. Additionally there is a document flow link (type INTA) between the interaction record and the dependent business transaction created.
The following dependent business transactions exist:
- Sales Order (UI Component: ICCMP_BT_SLO)
- Sales Ticket (ICCMP_BT_SLT)
- Service Order (ICCMP_BT_SVO)
- Service Ticket (ICCMP_BT_SVT)
- Complaint (ICCMP_BT_COM)
- Lead (ICCMP_BT_LEAD)
How do you supress the creation of the interaction record?
The creation of the interaction record can be supressed via the BADI „CRM_IC_IARECORD“. This BADI allows you to suppress the creation of the interaction record based on a number of conditons or parameters, like the interaction source. SAP provides an example that suppresses the creation of the interaction record for email interactions started from the inbox.
Considerations
Be aware that without an interaction record the content of the activity clipboard cannot be linked when the interaction is ended.Specific attention must be paid to the dependent businesss transactions. If the intecation record creation related to a dependent businesss transactions is suppressed, the creation of the dependent businesss transactions itself will fail.
Conclusion
While it was always gap that CRM could not create interaction records automatically through standard, SAP has now swung to the other extreme by having the system create interaction records automatically all the time. While this can be de-activated, it needs to be handled with care. Let’s hope that with the next version of CRM, SAP gets the balance right …
Article written by Jens Tonn, CRM Service Line Leader, Oxygen
