The Design And Implementation Of SAP-based Trade Promotion System For A Multinational Food Manufacturer

The ERP industry is in a stage when ERP system is supporting business function at amore detailed level, and it is required that integration of ERP central component system withits supporting systems such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, SRM（Supplier Relationship Management), and BW (Business Information Warehouse) becometighter. It is under this background that the concept of TPM (Trade Promotion Management)solution was raised. TPM means to manage trade promotion fund for a packaged consumerproduct manufacturer via a information system. The packaged consumer productmanufacturer establish an incentive mechanism (meaning, to pay certain amount of fund tochannel partners) to its distribution channel partner, in order to increase sales volume. TPMsupports business scenarios of full-cycle management and control of trade promotionincluding budget determination and assignment, trade promotion application, approval, andexecution, as well as claim and finance posting to ERP Finance module. TPM’s realization isbased on its core system CRM, and the integration between CRM and ERP, as well asintegration between CRM and BW. This thesis is based on a SAP TPM implementation project in a world’s leading foodmanufacturer (hereafter referred to as company R). Company R’s core ERP systems are SAPECC (ERP Central Component) system, SAP CRM system, and SAP BW system. Before theproject, Company R manually managed its trade promotion fund via Excel, Email, andmanual accounting work in ECC FICO module. There was no system integration among thesesystems or tools. Company R had great problems. It was difficult to review operation historyand data flow history record. Finance data were not always accurate. It was very difficult forfinance dept. to review claim, which brought high financial risk. There was not authorizationcontrol. Reports generation was time consuming.To resolve above problems, based on research of SAP standard TPM solution, CRMWeb Client UI (User Interface) technology, CRM middleware technology, and Company R’strade promotion management pain points, this thesis designs and implements a TPM solutionto accommodate Company R’s business processes (hereafter referred to as RTPM system).Based on company R’s core CRM system, this solution supports system management forbusiness processes of trade fund budget determination, promotion application, approval,execution, and claim management. The whole operation processes can be easily traced insystem. The solution supports efficient and accurate financial control, and promotion fundaccrual at day-level via integration between CRM system and ECC system. It supportsvarious BW reports based on integration of CRM system and BW system. It supportsauthorization control via Web Client UI Business Role function. This system has been testedand is now supporting company R’s real business processes. Testing results and applicationsituation show that this system works effectively and efficiently to support Company R’sbusiness.Compared to other same type systems, the research work in this thesis has followingfeatures:(1)Authorization control——Trade promotion business process is complicated.There are various business scenarios. And data are dispersed in many systems and aredifficult to be traced. Therefore authorization control can be very difficult. This thesisproposes a solution for TPM authorization control based on Web Client UI Business Role,which resolve the issue.(2)Trade promotion information sharing——It is difficult to support in-time, accurateinformation sharing and record operation history among marketing department and otherdepartments based on traditional manual process of Excel and Email. This thesis proposes aTPM solution based on SAP functionality. The solution supports SAP transaction history,Checkbook function at Fund and Trade Promotion doc level, and the integration betweenCompany R’s CRM and ECC system. Via these functions, marketing department is able to get fund usage information during the trade promotion process quickly, and makecorresponding adjustment for marketing strategies in time.(3)Financial control——The manual TPM process cannot generate accruals whichleads to inaccurate accounting information. As finance posting is made manually, financedepartment has a high possibility of making mistakes in finance data processing. It is verydifficult for finance dept. to check promotion information during claim settlement. This thesisproposes a solution that support system automatic FI accrual generation and system automaticFI posting, which enhance the financial control.(4)Business reports——This thesis proposes report solution including TradePromotion Overlap Report which is based on SAP CRM Configuration, as well as TradePromotion Information report, Fund Usage Report, and Claim Information Report which arebased on BW system configuration and enhancement.