Topic overview

The application Cockpit: Partners serves to search for, display and select partners. In this application, you can search for all partners that were created in the system, irrespective of their partner category or partner role. You can assign the partners to existing campaigns and documents as well as generate new campaigns and documents.

For a general description of what a cockpit is, including an explanation of how query panes and work panes are commonly used, please refer to the Cockpits documentation. In the documentation for the Partners application, you will find information on the relevant business entities. The following chapters concern specific topics that are relevant for the Cockpit: Partners application.

Application description

In the Cockpit: Partners application, you get an overview of the partners created in the system, in order to edit them further as part of the relationship management. The application has a query pane and a work pane for this purpose.

Query pane

The query pane does not contain any special query fields. For a general description of query panes, please refer to the Cockpits documentation.

Work pane

The work pane contains a table without any special columns. For a general description of work panes, please refer to the Cockpits documentation.

Application-based actions

The following application-based actions are available in the Cockpit: Partners application:

• Action [Assign to campaign]
• Action [Generate campaign]
• Action [Assign to]
• Action [Generate document]

Action [Assign to campaign]

With this action, you can assign selected partners as addressees to an existing campaign. If you select an individual person, they will be accepted as a contact person and the field Partner will remain empty.

After you have executed the action, a dialog window will open, displaying the following fields:

• Campaign – Indicate the type and the number of the campaign to which you want to assign the selected partners.
• Accept partners with invalid addresses (Check box) – This function lets you define whether partners with invalid addresses are to be accepted into the campaign. If you activate the check box, the campaign receives the status Addressee verification required. For more information, refer to the Campaigns documentation.

Action [Generate campaign]

By means of this action, you can generate a new campaign. The selected partners are added to the campaign as addressees. If you select an individual person, they will be accepted as a contact person and the field “Partner” will remain empty. Going forward, you can edit the campaign in the application Campaigns.

After you have executed the action, a dialog window will open, displaying the following fields:

• Campaign type – Indicate an existing campaign type for the new campaign. In combination with the campaign number, the campaign type used serves to identify the campaign. The system automatically generates a campaign number based on the number range specified in the campaign type. Once you have generated the campaign, you cannot change the campaign type anymore.
• Description – The description serves as an additional distinguishing characteristic. It can consist of any user- defined text. Enter a meaningful description that is as unique as possible in order to facilitate searching for it.
• Begin date – Indicate the date on which the campaign is to begin. The begin date serves as information and helps in the search for campaigns.
• End date – Indicate the date on which the campaign is to end. The end date serves as information and helps in the search for campaigns.
• Sales stage – Indicate a sales stage if you have selected a campaign type of the category Sales campaign. The sales stage is used as default for the opportunities generated by the sales campaign.
• Accept partners with invalid addresses (Checkbox) – This function lets you define whether partners with invalid addresses are to be accepted into the campaign. If you activate the check box, the campaign receives the status Addressee verification required. For more information, refer to the Campaigns documentation.

Action [Assign to document]

With this action, you can assign the selected partners as addressees to an existing document.

When you execute the action, a dialog window opens, displaying the following fields:

• Document – Indicate the type and the number of the document to which you want to assign the selected partners.
• Accept partners with invalid addresses – This function lets you define whether partners with invalid addresses are to be accepted into the document. If you activate the check box, the document receives the status Addressee verification required. For more information, refer to the Documents documentation.
• Use employer’s address – This function lets you determine whether the business address of a person’s employer is to be accepted into the document instead of the contact person’s address. The partner number and the partner name are part of the address. The person selected will serve as contact person. Only those organizations are relevant as employers to whom the person in question is assigned as a preferred contact person of the classification General. If the person is not assigned to any organization as preferred contact person of the classification General, the person’s own address is used in spite of the check box being activated, and the partner data will remain blank. If the person is assigned to several organizations as preferred contact person of the classification General, the system generates a separate entry in the Addressees list for each of the organizations.

Action [Generate document]

This action generates a new document. The selected partners are added to the document as addressees. If you select an individual person, they will be accepted as a contact person and the field Partner will remain empty. You can edit the new document in the application Documents.

After you have executed the action, a dialog window will open, displaying the following fields:

• Type – Indicate an existing document type for the new document. Along with the document number, the document type used serves to identify the document. The system automatically generates a document number based on the number range specified in the document type. Once you have generated the document, you cannot change the document type anymore.
• Description – The description serves as an additional distinguishing characteristic. It can consist of any user- defined text. Enter a meaningful description that is as unique as possible to facilitate searches for it.
• Employee responsible – Indicate a partner with the Employee role as the employee responsible.
• Accept partners with invalid addresses (Check box) – This function lets you define whether partners with invalid addresses are to be accepted into the document. If you activate the check box, the document receives the status Addressee verification required. For more information, refer to the Documents documentation.
• Use employer’s address (Check box) – This function lets you determine whether the business address of a person’s employer is to be accepted into the document instead of the contact person’s address. The partner number and the partner name are part of the address. The person selected will serve as contact person. Only those organizations are relevant as employers to whom the person in question is assigned as a preferred contact person of the classification General. If the person is not assigned to any organization as preferred contact person of the classification General, the person’s own address is used in spite of the check box being activated, and the partner data will remain blank. If the person is assigned to several organizations as preferred contact person of the classification General, the system generates a separate entry in the Addressees list for each of the organizations.
• Use document type data (Check box) – This function lets you determine whether the defaults of the document type specified are to be used to generate the document. If you deactivate the check box, you either have to select an existing document file or indicate a name for a new document file as well as a document template.
• Document template – If required, specify an existing document as a template. If you also specify the name of a new document file, i.e. do not select an existing document file, you can create a document file based on the template in the Documents application. If you want to generate a document for an existing document file, leave this field empty. The field only accepts input if the check box Accept data of the document type is deactivated.
• Document file – Indicate the file path and the name of the document file. You can either select an existing file or enter a name for a new file. The path begins with kstore://. The folder has to be located in the work pane of the database in which you are currently working. Once the document has been generated, you can no longer change the name of the document file. The field only accepts input if the check box Accept data of the document type is deactivated.
• Reviewer – Indicate one or several partners with the role Employee who are to be responsible for approval. The field only accepts input if the check box Accept data of the document type is deactivated.

Customizing

No settings need to be made in the Customizing application for the Cockpit: Partners application.

Business entities

The following business entities are relevant to the Cockpit: Partners application. They are used, for example, to assign authorizations:

• cisag.app.sales.obj.Customer
• cisag.app.general.obj.Partner
• cisag.app.purchasing.obj.Supplier
• cisag.app.financials.obj.PartnerAccountingData
• cisag.app.crm.obj.PartnerMarketingInfo
• cisag.app.general.obj.AddressData

Authorizations

Authorizations can be granted by means of authorization roles as well as by assigning an organization. The authorization concept is described in the Authorizations technical documentation.

Special capabilities

The Cockpit: Partners application has no special capabilities.

Organizational assignments

If the function Content-based authorizations in the Customizing application is activated, the Cockpit: Partners application is only visible for persons to whom an organization that is linked to at least one of the following organizational structures has been assigned in the partner master data:

• Sales

Special features

The Cockpit: Partners application has no special features.

Authorizations for business partners

The Cockpit: Partners application is released for business partners of the External sales representatives category.