Procurement Release Process - Licenses and users for releasing managers

[Dart, Jocelyn]

Hi Karsten,
Usually the litmus test for whether or not you need SAP users is whether or not what those users do impacts the data in your system.  In other words, sending out - probably not, sending in - probably needs license, even if sent in under a generic id.

So yes you may need licensing and yes you do need to discuss it with your relevant contacts at your local SAP office.
In such a scenario the users will usually only need a limited license and there are many options for this.

You may even find they are already covered under your existing license depending on what type of license has been negotiated for your site.

So I'd strongly suggest you at least ask the question officially so that you know your legal position.

As to the rest - yes you can have employee ids with email addresses and no user ids. No you don't need Duet - although you should at least consider that option as it could make your scenario a lot easier.

You should also consider NW BPM as a potential option.  Although again you don't need this,  there's an offline Adobe form scenario that is similar to what you are suggesting.  There was a good teched presentation on this (BPM263 I think was the session id).

Regards,
Jocelyn


________________________________
From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf Of Ernst, Karsten [Karsten.Ernst at fhp-ww.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 19 May 2010 5:34 PM
To: sap-wug at mit.edu
Subject: Procurement Release Process - Licenses and users for releasing managers

Hi all!

We are thinking of a system support for the release process for purchase requisitions and purchase order. One solution approach could be the SAP Business Workflow, creating the respective document in our ERP system  (SAP ECC 6.0).
Most of the relevant releasing managers are today not using SAP and therefore do not have a SAP user and license. My idea is to send them the workitem with all required information (content of the purch. requisition, material description, text, quantity, value etc) as text and if possible as PDF attachment into their outlook exchange system. So they can send back a YES / NO answer from Outlook without signing-in to SAP.
Now my questions on this approach:
1) Is this a valid approach, which could work? Is there anybody who has implemented a WF like this?
2) Do I need a license / user for every release manager or is there an alternative way if the release step is the only activity they have? Is it possible to have a person maintained in the organization model just with a name and email address but without a SAP user?
3) Do I need to implement Duet for this? Or is there an alternative?

I appreciate every feedback and idea and would like to get in contact with everybody who is facing a similar issue and has a solution proposal.

Best regards

Karsten


Karsten Ernst
IT Project Manager
Supply Chain Management Processes & Systems
FHP KG
Im Technologiepark 19
69469 Weinheim
Germany
Tel.:   +49 6201 80-87 1 178
Fax:    +49 6201 88-87 1 178
Mobile: +49 172 634 1910
eMail:  Karsten.Ernst at fhp-ww.com


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