We are servicing multiple configurations at a Business Partners location.

Recently for two configurations the agreement ended and we wont be servicing the two configurations anymore but users have accidently created the service orders. we want to block users from making such mistakes in future.

Signal would not block the users. also we do not want to delete the configuration/ history.

Whats the best way out? is there anyway to block the configuration?

Hi,

Before I can answer your question properly I need to know a few things:

- Do you have a Service Contract linked to those Configurations?
- Do these Configurations have one or multiple Objects defined and are there any Object Relationships?
- When creating a new Service Order and Service Order Activity do you link an Object to the Service Order Activity?

There are multiple ways of blocking Configurations and their Objects but in order to give you the best solution please answer my questions above.

Regards,

Edwin

the answers are

1) No contracts exist
2) Multiple objects and object relations exist
3) usually its the configuration itself. but I see that twice some object has also been linked at the service order activity

is there a possibility that the configuration is not picked up at the header itself or it gives a message that configuration is blocked / inactive.

Hi,

Given the answers you gave me and the fact that you do not want a signal/warning message from the system a hard stop is needed as soon as the Configuration is used on the Service Order header in tssoc2100s000.

A few remarks before I continue: if your company is that interested in tracking machine history the users should always link an Object to a Service Order Activity. The Object usually carries all the product info and not the Configuration.
Of course this depends on the set up and it is possible to only use a Configuration on the Service Order and the Service Order Activity to carry out the work, report actuals on and to invoice.

I would recommend two options here and will list them in preference:

1. The best way is to block the Configuration on the moment it is selected in tssoc2100s000. Since standard BAAN does not have any blocking capabilities by Configuration it is best to link an inactive BP to the Configuration as soon as it is no longer serviced. You can flag the BP "inactive" at different places in tccom.
The address of the Configuration in tscfg2121s000 (Configurations) is still the one from your "old" Sold-to BP so you can have a link there.
Remember the "old" BP may have multiple configurations and only a few are no longer serviced. The "old" BP itself is not "inactive".
Now, when you want to create a new Service Order header with that Configuration you are not able to save that new record simply because the BP is inactive.
It would not be good if the system would create a new Service Order that would then be blocked because in that case you will get in to the maintenance of blocking and un-blocking.
I do not know who in your company is responsible of setting up new Business Partners so you may have some political challenges there.

2. If users have the discipline to ALWAYS enter Objects against a Service Order Activity you will have the ability to block the entry of that activity. The Service Order has already been created because you need that to define a new activity.
By setting the field Object Type in tscfg2100s000 (Objects) to "Structure" you can prevent Objects from being recorded on Service Order Activities. However, in that case the user can still go ahead and create the Service Order and Service Order Activity without using an Object.

Please mail me if you have further questions. Unfortunately there is no nice easy feature in the system to block a Configuration being entered on a Service Order once it has expired.
Also, as with so many other things in life, there is no just one way of handling this and a lot will depend on how BAAN V Service has been setup.

Regards,

Edwin
evdborg@hotmail.com

The first option is bang on target and exactly what I was looking for. I think we will opt for that by creating a dummy Business Partner with the description that its inactive part of the real customer.

Regarding the second option ...users and discipline.... guess thats the most difficult thing to get. :D

Thanks for your help