Basics of Installed Base Management in SAP CRM

Anything a customer owns is an asset for him and the management of these
assets becomes an integral part of it. To be an efficient service organization
and to serve the customer better maintaining a record of the customer's
assets therefore becomes extremely important.
In SAP terminology the customer asset is termed as installed base and the
management of these assets is termed Installed base management.
1. What is the installed base?
In SAP CRM, an Installed base is a hierarchical and comprehensive
representation of objects installed at your customer site for which service is
offered. This can even include intangible objects like software packages,
licenses etc.
How does an Installed base look like in SAP CRM? An installed base is a tree
structure typically containing a header node (called installed base) and few
sub nodes (called installed base component) representing the various assets
of the customer.
An example of such an installed base can be as shown below:
Suppose you make and sell IT products. You offer your customer Denver a
scanner and one server and execute regular maintenance services. You can
create one installed base and add two components (objects) for Scanner and
PC for the above customer asset in this installed base.

Installed base management is about managing the complete life cycle of the
customer assets from the time it is installed and becomes productive, through
the period it is in use until the period till eventually it is dismantled.

2. The structure of installed base
In SAP CRM, an installed base could be composed of:
1) Products
The product contains general information about the goods or services it
describes, such as devices, machines, or software. snsq
2) Objects
A unique instance of a product that exists only once, for example, a vehicle, a
PC, or a serialized spare part. It is generally identified by a number, fixed
relationship, or description, such as ID number, location, and building with
address.
3) Text
Text components can also be used to structure an installed base by room
numbers in the customer's building, for instance.
4) Installed base components
An installed base could be a component of another installed base.
The following example demonstrates how to organize the structure of the
installed base with different compone
3. Information integration in the installed base
The installed base can store various types of Information like:
Counter and reading
You can assign counters to an object or an installed base component. You
can view and assign counter information and record measurement readings
for installed base, installed base components, and objects. The maintenance
order will be triggered when specified counter reading is reached. CRM billing
from service documents can be performed on the basis of counter readings
(for example, consumption).
Qualification requirement
You can define qualification requirements for service employees for an
installed base or an installed base component and then assign the qualified
employees for the field service for example.
Service levels
You can assign the correct service profile and response profile to Installed
Base and Components for Service Level Agreement (SLA) determination
during the service process.
Partner Information
You assign business partners such as sold-to party, service employee group,
responsible employee, and so on, to each installed base or each installed
base component. The installed base can be identified and displayed using the
partner information in the service process.
Address Information
You can assign an address to each installed base or installed base
component. An address can be, for example, the delivery address, location, or
customer address.
Equipment and functional location
Functional location and equipment that has been already maintained in ERP
can now be downloaded to SAP CRM system and graphically represented in
the install base tree structure.

In SAP CRM, installed base management is also supported through multiple
channels like Interaction center (call center) and mobile channel (e.g. laptop)