You must set the Enterprise Structure of your company (commonly referred to as the "organizational data" in SAP) before you can process SD transactions. For example, without a sales area it is not possible to create a salea order in SAP.
This organizational data reflects the structure of your business. Every transaction occurs within this structure. The organizational data is like the steel girders in a building, so setting it up correctly is essential. Once it is set, changing the Enterprise Structure of the business will be time consuming.
The more thought you give to the organizational structure, the easier mySAP ERP SD will be to configure and use. You must understand how the business functions and have exhaustive knowledge of the impact of using specific elements to map the companies organizational structure into mySAP ERP.
Organizational data is comprised of:
- A Sales Organization An organizational unit that sells and distributes products, negotiates terms of sale, and is responsible for these transactions.
- A Distribution Channel The channel through which materials or services reach customers. Typical distribution channels include Internet sales, wholesale, retail, and direct sales. You can assign a distribution channel to one or more sales organizations. A customer can be delivered from multiple distribution channels. A material master record can be maintained with different sales organization and distribution channel views, allowing different data to be accessed-for example, the delivering plant.
- A Division Product groups can be defined for a wide-ranging spectrum of products. For every division you can make customer-specific agreements on, for example, partial deliveries, priving, and terms of payment. Within a division you can carry out statistical analyses or set up separate marketing.
Figure 1-14 shows a basic organizational structure. In sales organization 1000, SD business transactions can be carried out for distribution channel 10 and 20 and division 01 and 02. In sales organization 2000 transactions can only be processed through distribution channel 10 and division 01 and 02. Likewise, transactions in sales organization 3000 can only be done through distribution channel 10 division 01.
Sales organizations should be kept to a minimum; try to have only one per company code. You should have a very good business reason to have more than one sales organization per company code. For example, only have another sales organization if the company sells completely differently in an area-for example, if sales processed in Los Angeles are handled differently to sales processed in San Francisco.
A rule of thumb is that if the material can be sold in both sales organizations and there is one company code, them there should only be one sales organization.
(FIGURE 1-14 Organizational data in SAP)
Master data records are multiplied by each additional organizational elemen you have. Thus, 10 customer master records with 2 sales organizations, 2 distribution channels, and 2 divisions would have a total of 80 customer master record views. Add another sales organization and you have 120 customer master record views.
Adding divisions does not multiply the material master views; however, it does multiply the customer master views. For example, add a division to our 80 customer master views and we suddenly have 120 customer master views. However, add the division to the material master views, and we still end up with 80.
TIP To reduce the master data you require, you can combine sales areas for customer master data purposes-see the Implementation Guide (IMG | Sales and Distribution | Master Data | Define Common Distribution Channels (and Division)).
We know a sales area is compiled of a sales organization, a distribution channel, and a division. A sales area is used for reporting purposes; all data relevant for sales can be defined per sales area. For example, you can define pricing per sales area, or do your sales information analyses per sales area. You can also control configuration based on the sales area-for example, you can allow some sales processes for one sales area (for example, product samples), but not for another.