SAP CRM Business roles are defined in customizing. SAP delivers a great number of business roles that are defined based on a logical grouping of tasks and functionalities an end-user should be able to perform within the SAP CRM system, based on his “function” within the organization.
Therefore it makes sense that SAP actually provides standard CRM business roles such as:
- SALESPRO
- SERVICEPRO
- MARKETINGPRO
- IC_AGENT
These are the ones I personally used most, but there are many more !!
As I said, business roles are defined in customizing.
You can either use the navigation path in customizing:
SPRO >> Customer relationship management >> UI Framework >> Business Roles>>Define business roles
Or
directly access these customizing settings using the transaction code CRMC_UI_PROFILE
If we take a look at 1 specific business role, e.g. SALESPRO, we see the following:
For today, it’s important that you remember that each business role has a “Navigation Bar Profile” assigned, in this case SLS-PRO.
Now, to really enable me to explain what aspects you really should comprehend, let’s first take a dive into the system.
When I log on to the SAP CRM WEBUI, after having entered my User ID and password I see the following screen:
What you actually see in the above screenshot is a list of Standard SAP CRM delivered business roles.
The reason I see this large list is because I set the User Parameter CRM_UI_PROFILE with value * in my User Master Record, just for illustration purposes.
When I click on such a link, I will actually logon with a specific business role, so the one I selected.
I this example I will choose SALESPRO (which is not visible in the screenshot – but it was somewhat down in the list).
Now during the few seconds that I am now actually waiting, before I actually get to see the landing page of that particular business role, the system is reading through several customizing tables, especially those related to the Business Role definition. The system will verify which navigation bar is assigned to this business role. Furthermore it will also check all the PFCG roles that are assigned to my User ID!
And there it is – I now can see my default landing page called “the Home page” and on the left I also see a navigation bar, that consists out of multiple Work Centers.
Behind several workcenters, I can also find several navigation links on its turn.
Lesson 1: the fact that I am able to see these workcenters is actually defined by the navigation bar assigned to the business role I have logged on with.
If for example I would have logged on with another business role like e.g. SERVICEPRO, my navigation bar might be pretty different.
I hope it’s clear that within the SERVICEPRO business role, you have by default access to more“service” related workcenters and navigation links. (e.g. Service Orders/Service Contracts).
In my SALESPRO business role I have workcenters like “Sales Cycle” and “Sales Operations”.
If you read my article “Overview of the SAP CRM User Interface” you will understand what I mean by work centers, navigation links and direct create links.
Now let’s do a short quiz!
- Suppose you would have the authorization profile SAP_ALL. Do you think you would be able to see ALL the workcenters and navigation links that are combined in both these 2 business roles? This is actually the logic that we see for example in SAP ECC when combining authorizations using our PFCG roles. Add 1 single role that allows create access for transaction code VA01 for document type XYZ, and combine this with a single role having access to VA01 for document type ZZZ, results in having access to VA01 for both document types.
Answer: NO ! It is really the business role definition (especially based on the assigned navigation bar profile) that will determine what you can SEE in the CRM WEBUI. If the workcenter “Service Orders” is not made available in the navigation bar profile belonging to the business Role SALESPRO, I will never ever be able to see that particular workcenter, and the navigation links behind it.
2. If I logon with the standard business role SALESPRO, I am always going to see let’s say the work center “Sales Cycle”?
Answer: NO! The business role determines actually what you “MIGHT” be able to see. But in essence it is the combination of my assigned Business Role together with my assigned PFCG roles that really determine what I can see and do within SAP CRM. In this particular question I am referring to the fact that you also have an authorization object called UIU_COMP. With this object you can actually control if a user has access to certain Work Centers, navigation links and/or certain buttons in the CRM WEBUI, assuming that this access was already made available by your navigation bar profile (and therefore your SAP CRM Business Role) in the first place.
So what should you remember from this article?
A business role already limits your access to what has been defined in the navigation bar profile that is assigned to it. Workcenters , navigation links that are not contained in the navigation bar profile itself, will NEVER EVER be visible to the user that logs on with that particular business Role.
3. In the screenshot below, you can see that multiple business roles can actually USE the same navigation bar profile.
Does this mean that when I logon with both business roles I therefore will see the same workcenters and/or navigation links?
Answer: NO! The screenshot you saw was actually “Business Role Customizing”. Within this configuration I can actually define that I do not want certain work centers and/or navigation links to be visible for that particular business role.
The definition of a navigation bar profile itself is also done in customizing; either via the customizing path:
SPRO >>Customer relationship Management >>UI Framework >> Technical Role Definition >>Define Navigation Bar Profile
Or
Using the transaction code CRMC_UI_NBLINKS
If I look at what work centers are ‘assigned’ to the navigation bar profile SLS-PRO I see the following:
Here you see that in standard SAP , for this navigation bar profile there are actually 11 work Centers assigned (available) by default.
This somewhat corresponds to the screenshot I already showed you earlier,having logged on with the business role SALESPRO.
What I am missing in this screenshot is the Work Center “E-mail Inbox”, as I only count 10 work Centers in the above screenshot.
Now this is, because in business role customizing itself, this workcenter has been set to “Inactive”.
I hope you understood the above explanation. If not – let me know, but definitely keep following my posts as things can only become more clear by getting and absorbing more information and examples.
