Customer Relationship Management (SAP

CRM): Actions in SAP CRM Part 1: Action

profiles 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 order
confirmation after saving the order, creating a follow-up task when a certain status has been
set, or completing an order after a period of time. These actions are all available in the standard
system, 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 are
about in this blog, Id like to share some expert tips and tricks that Ive learned over the years,
including action profile determination, a relatively new and little known functionality that was
introduced in CRM 7.0. In this blog, I'll focus on action profiles and action determination. In the
next 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 executed
4. What should the action do? Options include:
1. send out a mail/fax/print
2. execute a method (either standard or self-made)
3. trigger an alert

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Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM): Actions in SAP CRM Part 1: Action profiles and
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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 youve set up two item categories. In both cases, youd like a follow-up
task to be created in case the item status is set to Lost.
In only one of the item categories, youd 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, and
2. 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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Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM): Actions in SAP CRM Part 1: Action profiles and
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Setting up common profiles

In 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.

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

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Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM): Actions in SAP CRM Part 1: Action profiles and
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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 tables
2. Do not forget to link the condition type(s) to a (new) condition maintenance group
2. Create the conditions
1. This can be done via general condition maintenance
3. Setup an action determination procedure
4. 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 JAUSSAUD
12 Dec, 2014 12:39 AM

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Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM): Actions in SAP CRM Part 1: Action profiles and
determination
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,
Anas
Joost Janssens in response to Ramesh Mudigiri on page 6
3 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 7
28 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 6
1 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 7
1 Feb, 2013 7:07 PM
Thanks Joost. I will try to establish this with an enhancement.

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Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM): Actions in SAP CRM Part 1: Action profiles and
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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 7
1 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 about
Setting up action conditions, last bullet describes this.

Good luck!
Joost
Monika Hoffmann
1 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 8
31 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!

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Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM): Actions in SAP CRM Part 1: Action profiles and
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Regards,
Joost
Venu Parvatam in response to Joost Janssens on page 8
30 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 8
23 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 Parvatam
23 Jan, 2013 3:51 PM

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

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