CIMdata review on SAP's PLM cPDm program (PDF) - Large ...

e exported to other STEP-compliant systems. This has
obvious relevance to the automotive and aerospace
industries, as well as the process-related industries.
SAP Internet Pricing and Configurator (IPC). A number
of key technologies (e.g., Internet, intranet, extranet,
and mobile devices) are now available and enable
applications to be built that exploit their benefits.
These applications are starting to rely heavily on the
capabilities offered in a typical cPDm solution to provide
controlled access to data and configuration and
option management. SAP has gained experience in the
provision of sales configuration tools within its
mySAP.com e-business solution offering. Now with its
cPDm capabilities, it can provide a means for a company's
sales representatives to download to a laptop
computer, product structures, rules, and classification
data they need to take with them when discussing sales
opportunities.
Because of SAP's end-to-end business process integration,
the SAP Internet Pricing and Configurator has
access to product structures, documents, and pricing
information that can be downloaded to either a Web
site or enterprise portal for access over the Internet, or
onto a laptop for the mobile sales force, allowing for
extended customer relationship (CRM) capabilities.
Figure 12-PVS as Bills-of-Materials within iPPE
Not only are the data provided, but also the rules defining
permissible sales configurations and pricing information.
The creation and management of product configurations
enable features and modules to be established along with
the rules that govern the permissible configurations
and dependencies that are available.
An offline scenario for the use of IPC is as follows:
• Master data such as products, classes, characteristics,
values, and dependencies are created and
downloaded to a notebook PC under the control of
mySAP PLM.
• Product configuration then takes place on the PC
and provides consistency of product and pricing.
• Modifications can be made to the attributes that are
displayed on the user interface of the SAP IPC.
• Graphical representation of products and
components can be integrated to the information
presented to the customer.
• The sales engineer is able to create and change configurations,
determine order items, calculate variant
prices, and provide alternative quotations and configurations.
• When completed, the quotations and order
information can be uploaded to mySAP PLM.
<strong>CIMdata</strong> Program Assessment SAP’s mySAP PLM Page 27