12/6/2017 IS Retail Master Data - SAP for Retail - SCN Wiki

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IS Retail Master Data

Created by Heike Rawe, last modified by Mohamed Amer on Jul 23, 2014

Master Data in SAP for Retail: Accurate, Reliable and Timely

Master data is crucial as the foundation for all operational processes in all areas of SAP for Retail. Accurate, reliable and timely information that integrates core business processes across multiple channels
is needed everyw here. The assortment of articles, business partners, and the retail companies structure w ith its branches, w arehouses, stores, and other sales channels, are all built on master data. The
relationship betw een the company and its vendors is also recorded in master data as is the basic data for identifying articles.

Key Master Data Objects and Features

Below is a list of the key master data objects and their features. Click the object name for further detailed information.

Object Sub- Com m ent Target in SAP

Category Library - SAP
for Retail

Organizational n/a The organizational structure offers the possibility to maintain the legal and the internal structure of a company. Organizational
structure Structure

Vendor n/a A business partner from w hom goods or services can be ordered. In retail companies the term vendor can have a similar expression such Business Partner
as supplier. In the follow ing, the term vendor is used. Master Data
Vendor

Custom er n/a A business partner w ith w hom a business relationship exists, involving the issue of goods or services. Customer

Site Distribution Distrubtion center enables other sites and/or customers to be supplied w ith goods. Site Master Data
Center Store is a location in w hich goods are put on sale to the consumer.
Store Department/shop concept offers the possibility to treat the existing departments in a store as standalone units. The departments have
Department / to be defined as shops, and the store site category as a department store. In this context, the department store represents the
Shop organizational grouping of individual shops.
Concept

Item n/a In Retail Companies the term item can have similar expressions like article, products, material, styles, sku, etc. In the follow ing the term item Article Master
is used. Data

Hierarchies Article The tw o hierarchies offer the possibility to group articles. Grouping
Hierarchy Articles
Merchandise
Category
Hierarchy

Assortm ent n/a Assortment management in this document is identical w ith listing. Listing means the assignment of articles to the assortment. Assortment
Managem ent

Business n/a Optional w ay to maintain customer and vendor data in one transaction. Business Partner
Partner Master Data

Key Master Data Objects and Features in Detail

Organizational Structure
Organizational Description
Structure

Finance Company Code - An independent accounting unit that represents an independent company in the legal sense. It is the central organizational element in
Financial Accounting.

Purchasing Purchasing Organization - Procures articles for multiple sites and negotiates purchasing conditions w ith the vendors.
Purchase Group - Contains one or more purchasers in the sense of a purchasing department. Purchasing groups are responsible for the maintenance
of master data and control parameters as w ell as the operational processing of purchasing. Authorizations can be assigned for each purchasing
group.
Purchasing Area - Can be used as a connection betw een purchasing organization and purchasing group. A purchasing group can only be assigned to
one purchasing area in a purchasing organization.

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Sales Sales Organization - Stands for a selling unit in the legal sense. Sales transactions are alw ays processed w ithin a sales organization.
Distribution Channel - Means through w hich items reach the customer, e.g. retail trade, w holesales, direct sales.
Distribution Chain - Combination of a sales organization and a distribution channel. The distribution chain is used for reporting and pricing.
Division - Represents a product line. A division must be defined, although SAP Retail does not make use of it for retailing functions
Sales Area - The combination of distribution channel and division creates a sales area.

Valuation/Inventory Valuation Area - Organizational unit in logistics subdividing an enterprise for the purpose of uniform and complete valuation of item stocks. In retail
Managem ent valuation area, it needs to correspond to a site.
Inventory Management w ithout Warehouse Management - To control goods flow w ithin an enterprise it is necessary to maintain items stocks in a
system. Quantity base stock keeping is done at the level of storage location.
Inventory Management w ith Warehouse Management - For complex distribution centers the w arehouse management system allow s visibility of stocks
at the level of storage bins.

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Vendor
A vendor is a business partner from w hom goods and services can be procured. The follow ing types of vendors can be distinguished:

Internal Vendor - When sites carry out vendor functions, they provide goods for other customers or sites. Additional to site master data vendor master data are created, too.
Normally only distribution centers are maintained as internal vendors.
External Vendor

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Customer
A customer is a business partner w ith w hom you exchange goods and services. The follow ing types of customers can be distinguished:

Internal Custom er - When sites carry out customer functions, they receive goods or services from external vendors or other sites. Additional to the site master customer master
data are created, too.
External Custom er

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Site
A site is an organizational unit used to document goods stored in distribution centers and stores for the purposes of inventory management, and to model the associated business
processes, such as goods receipt, physical inventory and goods issue. There are tw o types of sites:

Distribution Center - Enables other sites and/or customers to be supplied w ith goods
Store - Location in w hich goods are put on sale to the consumer

Departm ent Shop Concept

The target groups are retail companies that w ant to perform detailed inventory management, e.g. the existing departments in a store should be treated in as standalone units. The
departments have to be defined as Shops, and the store as Department Store.

Departm ent store - Organizational unit that unifies the various goods groups of the company under one umbrella. The department store has no inventory-managing character for
goods that are intended for the consumer.
Shop - Shop is a grouping of goods of various article groups that ought to be presented to the consumer in a consistent overall picture. The shop is part of a department store.
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Item Management
Solution Map for Retail (Merchandise Lifecycle Item Management) - This business scenario supports various functions for creating and maintaining items w ith all business related
attributes needed in your company. It includes also all discontinuation-related functions to remove items from assortments.

The follow ing processes contribute to the Item Managem ent scenario:

Global Data Synchronization (PRICAT - Inbound) - The item inbound process offers import functionality and mass adoption of item data w here the item data comes from external
data pools or from suppliers (peer-to-peer scenario). Efficient maintenance is of major importance for retailers because of high data volumes.
Item Introduction - This process contains various functions for creating items w ith all business-related attributes needed in your company. This includes functions to create and
change item data.
Item Mass Maintenance - Item Mass Maintenance process contains various functions for maintaining several item data in one step.
Item Discontinuation - Item Discontinuation process contains various functions to exclude items from the assortment of your company as of a certain date, for example, if you no
longer sell certain items or if they can no longer be delivered.

Additional Docum entation for Item Managem ent

Master Guide for SAP for Retail Business Suite 2007- (Assortment on page 15, Category Business Planning on page 18, Chainw ide Inventory Management on page 20, Item
Management on page 30) (SMP credentials required).
Article Master Data of ERP Retail - Deep dive into some secrets. This article gives a short introduction into the overall "Integrated Article Master". It is not another kind of help
documentation, but a deep dive into the architecture, process flow and influence factors. It w ill show you the idea behind mass data processing, reference handling, inherit and
copy handling, performance influence factors and some best practices to avoid critical situations.

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Structured Article maintenance in SAP ERP- This article gives some basic information about the maintenance of structured articles in SAP ERP and hints on w here to find more
information.
EAN/GTIN (European Article Number/ Global Trade Item Number) - This document gives you an overview about the capabilities of SAP to handle EAN/GTIN. It is not another type
of help documentation, but a deep dive into the architecture, process flow and influence factors. It w ill give you tips and tricks about customizing, number ranges, additional
external know ledge sources and a kind of trouble shooting guide.
Article Master Data - mass creation for testing - Learn from this blog the easiest w ay to create 300 fresh articles. Ever asked yourself w hat RWRFMATCOPY stands for? Read
on and learn how to use it.
Blog - Angry about the ugly product hierarchy in SD screens - Learn very quickly how to sw itch from "usual" product hierarchy navigation to tree navigation.

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Hierarchies

Merchandise Category Hierarchy

Each article has to be assigned to only one merchandise category. Merchandise categories can be grouped into merchandise category hierarchy levels. Merchandise category
hierarchy levels can, in turn, be assigned to higher hierarchy levels. The result is a merchandise category hierarchy. This allow s you to classify and structure the entire range of goods
offered for sale by your company (breadth and depth).

Article Hierarchy
An Article Hierarchy can be used to hold any given hierarchical article grouping e.g. a combination of articles in groups from a sales perspective.
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Assortment Management
An assortment is an object to w hich articles are assigned for a specific time frame (validity period), so that they can be managed in distribution centers or stores or for customers. The
follow ing types of assortment are available:

Local Assortm ents - When a site (store or distribution center) is created, the system automatically creates a local assortment w hich it then assigns to the site. This local
assortment is site-specific and cannot be assigned to any other site. Each site has exactly one local assortment.
General Assortm ents - General Assortments are created manually. General assortments can be assigned to any number of customers, stores and distribution center. By this a
significant reduction of data volumes of listing conditions and an increased performance of listing procedures it can be achieved.

The assignment of the individual articles to assortments is recorded in w hat are called listing conditions. These listing conditions determine w hich articles can be bought and/or sold
for each store. Listing procedures determine how the system checks the assignment of articles to assortments.

Additional Docum entation for Assortm ent Managem ent

Category Management - Are best practices possible? Read this blog by Dieter Becker to gain more insight about category management.

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Business Partner
This is of prime interest if a business partner plays different roles for a company, such as vendor and customer. It is possible to create and manage the business partners centrally for
different business transactions. Example address and bank data are only created once in a system.

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Qualification
SAP IRT 310 Master Data in SAP for Retail (SMP credentials required)

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Related Topics

Run SAP for Retail - Best Practices for Solution Operation

For retailer's global end-to-end solutions w ith typically high data volumes, an optimized operational concept is key for low ering operating costs, proactively avoiding incidents, ensuring a stable system
performance and enabling grow th and innovation. "Run SAP for Retail" provides Best Practices for Solution Operations helping you to set up an operational concept for Retail solutions. Find more
information, go to Run SAP for Retail.

Data Volume Management for SAP Retail w iki page (SMP credentials required) - This document describes main retail business processes and their contribution to data grow th in a retail environment. As
data volume management strategies, it contains specific possibilities of data avoidance, summarisation, deletion and archiving. This also refers to master data.

Direct Store Delivery for Retail

Direct Store Delivery for Retail is a business process to sell and distribute goods via distributors directly to the retailer's store, typically bypassing the retailer's w arehouses. The manufacturer determines

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the regional coverage responsibilities of the concerned distributors, the direct business relationships exist betw een the retailer and the distributors w hich act as vendors.

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3 Child Pages
Article Master Steps
How to rename EAN into GTIN
IS Retail Article Master Data

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