2.0 Business Process

There are four types of commission processes:

• variable commissions to external agents or non-integrated Solvay agents (Solvay companies not in PF1 or WP1)
• variable commissions to integrated Solvay agents (Solvay companies in PF1 or WP1):
  • inter-company process: commissions between companies in the same SAP system
  • bridge process: commissions between companies in different SAP systems
• fixed commissions for non-integrated Solvay agents
• fixed commissions for integrated Solvay agents 

The "6155 - Training March 2017 - global overview" presentation gives a good explanation of the processes.

The current agent commission process has been implemented by the project 6155 "New agency contract management and remuneration" that went live on January 2017.  Please note these processes are common across PF1 and WP1.

Agent Master Data

Each Agent is represented by both a customer and a vendor because the customer is needed for the commission note (see below) and the vendor is needed for the payment in FI.

• Non-integrated agents have a customer and a vendor that share the same code starting with 39. Both the customer account group and the vendor account group is ZXAG. They have the same code in all systems (PF1, PRS, PI1, WP1).
• Integrated agents are represented by the usual intercompany customer and vendor of the company code.

TODO : self-invoicing / ITI vendors

Variable Commissions

Variable Commissions setup:

Variable commissions are set up using sales pricing condition records so that a pricing condition is created automatically in the sales order. The commission rate is a percentage of the sales price.

• For non-integrated agents, the condition types are CV and CV2 (there can be maximum 2 non-integrated agents for the same sales order).
  The search term of these condition records is the agent customer number (always starting with 39*).
  
  
• For integrated agents, the condition types are CVA and CV1 (there can be maximum 2 integrated agents for the same sales order).
  The search term of these condition records is split in two parts:
  • company code of the Solvay company who is the agent, preceded by a "P" if this company is in PF1 or a "W" if this company is in WP1.
  • company code of the Solvay company pays the commission, preceded by a "P" if this company is in PF1 or a "W" if this company is in WP1.

For example, sales in sales org CGDE (company 0005) with company code 7523 in WP1 as agent will have a pricing condition record of type CVA or CV1 with the search term "W7523P0005".

Creation of the Commission notes:

The program ZZV_COMM_VAR will runs once a month in the background to automatically create the commission notes to pay the agents based on the billing docs with condition types CV, CV2, CVA and CV1.

• For non-integrated agents, an credit note (order type CC/CD) is generated in the "commission" sales area of the paying company.
• For integrated agents, a sales order (order type ZCO/ZCR)  is generated in the "commission" sales area of the agent company. 

For PF1 companies, the "commission" sales area is ccPn/99/99 where "cc" is the company's country code and "n" is running number. For example, KRP1/99/99 is the "commission" sales area for Solvay Specialty Polymers Korea. For WP1 companies, the "commission" sales area is ccZn/TA/99 where "cc" is the company's country code and "n" is running number. For example, BRZ1/TA/99 is the "commission" sales area for Rhodia Brasil.

The sales office and sales group are both "MBU".

The material used in this sales order depends on the BFC market / activity 1 of the sold materials (see view ZZV_COMM_MAT_V for the list of materials). The BFC market / activity 1 is linked with the business area (itself coming from the plant and the material division via the table T134H) through the table ZZF_BFC_DIV_CONV.

The plant is linked to the company code via the table Z1FCYWERKS.

Examples of flows

Fixed Commissions

TBC - no info can be found

Transactions

• ZZV_COMM_LOG : log of past commissions (variable and fixed)
• ZPV_PR_COM : list of CV* pricing condition records
• ZZV_COMM_VAR : create the commission notes for variable commissions
• ZZV_COMM_FIX : create the commission notes for fixed commissions

The User guide on errors of ZZV_COMM_VAR and ZZV_COMM_FIX explains how to manage common errors in these two transactions.

Tables / views

• View ZZV_COMM_MAT_V : materials used in the commission credit/debit notes
• Table ZZF_BFC_DIV_CONV : conversion business area → BFC market / activity 1
• Table ZZV_COMM_CTRL : log of the commission notes created via ZZV_COMM_VAR
• Table ZZV_COMM_FIX_CTR : log of the commission notes created via ZZV_COMM_FIX

Project Playbook

Procedures

Procedures for the rollout, merger, carve-in/carve-out of Solvay company and its impact on the agent commission processes can be found in the folder "Rollout: Useful documents" of the project 6155. Some documents in the project folder need to be updated when implementing a project.

The APDM team and the IS-RtR-Interco team are also involved in the set up of commission in case of rollout, merger, carve-in/carve-out of Solvay company.

Mass maintenance of CV* pricing condition records

For most key combinations, there is a LSMW to create or change the validity end date of CV* pricing condition records. The templates are also available in the folder "Rollout: Useful documents" of the project 6155.

Data cut-over

Open orders containing a CV* pricing condition which has been modified needs to be corrected manually. The CV* condition types in the billing documents are copied from the sales order rather than being re-determined based on the pricing condition records so old CV* conditions may remain in the system after the condition records have been updated.

The sales orders containing a CV* pricing condition can be listed with the transaction ZZV_PR_CHECK_PC then the ones that are open can be found with the transaction Z1V_LIST_ORDERS.

3.0 Application Feature Overview

Information about the existent Workbooks and the respective BW queries.

4.0 Functional Specification

4.1 General Data/Calculations 

This section will approach the concepts/definitions that will be used in all the reports and required to understand the data from the reports.

Could be specific fields, closing activities, additional information to work and understand the reports.

4.2 Process Detail 

4.2.1.  Report/Process Definition 

This section represents the process with detail information for the application. Can include specific or special cases, complex logics , calculations, flows, among others.

5.0 Non-functional Descriptions 

5.1 Usability

Usability is about the ease with which a User can learn to start using the solution and the ease with which they can use the system.  In addition to ease of learning and ease of use, usability also includes areas such as ease of recall, error avoidance and handling, accessibility among others e.g., 99% of metadata entry Users who have use the Maintenance Dashboard should be able to change filters, extract etc., when required.  Maintenance data will be centrally stored in the Google Cloud platform, which will be available to other applications e.g., and Dashboards if needed.

5.2 Regulatory Compliance

Software systems must comply with legal and regulatory e.g., GDPR requirements, this can change depending on country, organisation industry and / or region.  The software systems must be secure from unauthorized access.  The Maintenance Dashboard will comply with Solvay’s regulations and compliance e.g., access only granted to authorized Users.

5.3 Security

Security refers to essential aspects that assure a solution and its components will be protected against unauthorized access or malware attacks.  Important considerations related to security aspects of a system are User authentication, User authorization or User access privileges, data theft, malware attacks, data encryption, and maintaining audit trails, e.g., only Users with administrator access shall be able to create new accounts and assign data access privileges to the new accounts e.g.,

• All data will be encrypted in the dashboard
• Only authorised Users / Administrative Users will be able to access data.
• Maintenance data will be split between either SCO or ECO, and Users will only have authority to one Entity data.

5.4 Performance

Performance defines how fast a software system or a particular section of it responds to certain User actions under a certain workload.  In most cases, this metric explains how long a User must wait before the target operation happens e.g., the page renders, a transaction is processed, etc., given the overall number of Users now.  Performance requirements may describe background processes invisible to Users, e.g., backup and speed of data transfers. 

5.5 Reliability

Reliability is the ability of a solution or its component to perform its required functions without failure under predefined conditions for a specified time / period.  Reliability can possibly be specified in terms of average time system runs before failure occurs, percentage of operations completed successfully within a time / period, maximum acceptable failure probability, or number of failures within a period.  Reliability aspects are in reference to (but not limited to) evaluation of the system to be considered as reliable, classification of reliability defining failures vs. regular failures, and the impact of failure on business operations.  The Maintenance Dashboard will display data from the previous refresh of data.   

5.6 Scalability

Scalability refers to the degree to which a solution can evolve to handle increased amounts of work.  The increased amount of work could be in terms of the user base, transactions, data, network traffic, or other factors e.g., the system should be able to handle an additional load of a maximum of 5,000 Users every month for the next 6 months without any noticeable performance impacts.  

5.7 Compatibility

Interoperability is the degree to which the solution is compatible with other components.  It is a measure of how effectively the system interoperates with other software systems and how easily it integrates with external hardware devices.

Interoperability aspects to be discussed during elicitation are in reference to (but not limited to) software systems to be interfaced with along with data / messages to be exchanged and any standard data formats, hardware components to be integrated with, and any standard communication protocols to be followed e.g., Order Management system will push the order file into a secured file transfer protocol server from where it will be loaded into the system through a daily job.  To guarantee between Google Cloud platform and SAP BW Queries e.g., BW_QRY_MVPMOR01_0002, Solvay has introduced a new tool called Xtract (Xtract).

5.8 Availability

Availability is the degree to which the solution is operable and accessible when required. It is a measure of time during which the system is fully operational e.g., available for use and sometimes included as a Service Level Agreement (SLA) considering its criticality to the business, e.g., the system shall be at least 99% available on weekdays between 09:00 to 18:30 Central European Time (CET).

5.9 Refresh of the Data

Frequency, data, and time of the data refresh in the data product.