In almost every SAP implementation, customers have the requirement for mass maintenance capabilities. This can be mass creation of sites (usually stores) during go-live preparation or mass changes of article master. This document is supposed to give an overview about the possibilities in SAP standard to mass create or mass maintain different master data objects. As there are no differences in vendor and customer maintenance in IS Retail compared to SAP ERP solution, the focus of this document will be Site Master and Article Master.
1. Site master
1.1 Create Site master:
For a retailer with many stores, especially in go live preparation, there is the need to create a huge amount of stores. As SAP Standard noes not provide an IDoc or LSMW for the creation of site master (also see SAP Note 1274501 - Batch input and eCATT in site master), customer often has to find a way around this restrictions.
Some customers use transaction WTBI / WTBE to export and import SAP Retail site master via ASCII files. As the distribution of site master was has been replaced by ALE distribution and customizing distribution after SAP R/3 4.6c, this transaction are no longer state-of-the-art.
With SAP ERP 6.0 Enhancement Package 4, SAP released a new function module WR01_SAVESITEDATA. This function module can be used as the basis for a customer-specific solution for a mass creation of retail sites. Further information can be found in SAP Note 1865903 - WR01_SAVESITEDATA module for creating sites.
1. 2 Change Site master:
After creating many stores and DC's, there will sometimes will be the necessity to mass change some sites. This can be the case if new processes are set in place in a productive environment. As site master in IS Retail consists of (mostly) three parts, there are - depending on the use-case and the requirements - three options to maintain the site master.
a) Change Site master - Site:
Field changes: The main restriction using e.g. batch-input while creation site master is the creation of site master vendor oder site master customer. There,
one cannot exit specific screens or identify the flag item for a specific distribution chain as unique when using batch-input. So, if one restricts the changes to the entry screens of WB02 without jumping into site master vendor / site master customer, the use of batch-input via LSMW is possible.
[Please note, that changes, which result in customizing settings maybe restricted and not possible via this way]
Mass maintenance merchandise categories / sites: with transaction WB30, SAP provides a possibily to mass change the parameters on merchandise category / site level. Also, an assignment of a new merchandise category to multiple site is possible. Via fast entry, it is possible to easily maintain e.g. department, retail revalution profile or competitor group.
[Please note, that supplying sites cannot be changed via this way]
b) Change Site master - Vendor:
Mass Maintenance Vendors: For changes in the vendor master of a site, SAP standard transaction XK99 - Mass Maintenance Vendors can be used.
If the question comes to extending vendor master to a new company code or purchasing organization, this is possible via transaction XK01 or MK01. As in this transaction, there is no check against the connection to a site (error message WX700), it is also possible to extend the site master vendor via LSMW with batch-input using the above mentioned transactions.
c) Change Site master - Customer:
Mass Maintenance Customers: For changes in the customer master of a site, SAP standard transaction XD99 - Mass Maintenance Customers can be used.
If the question comes to extending customer master to a new company code or distribution chain, this is possible via transaction XD01. As in this transaction, there is no check against the connection to a site (error message WX700), it is also possible to extend the site master customer via LSMW with batch-input using the above mentioned transactions.