Installed Base Inquiry

The customer installed base represents the list of all the products installed at any one time at the customers.

The management of the customer Installed base is useful both for Pre-sales and After-sales.

A sales representative is always going to be interested by being able to view the characteristics of the equipment/material installed at its prospect/customer before each appointment.

A technician must of necessity verify the purchase of equipment by his/her contact before any repair work.

For each serial number, this function contains a view of the life of equipment over the long term. When it was shipped, returned, loaned, returned, resold etc. Each important stage is the object of a precise record.

It is also possible to obtain a summary and a history for all the warranties, repair work, maintenance under taken for the equipment.

Each item of equipment is located very precisely. Each function manages both the actual installation site and the actual location within this site.

Prerequisite

See also Refer to documentation Implementation

Screen management

Chrono (machine code)

This field is by default associated with the automatically functioning Customer installed base sequence counter. Consequently, the user should not normally concern him/herself with its contents.

Sales site 

This field contains the code for the site that will track the equipment.

Tab General

Identification

Product code

This field contains the product reference corresponding to the serial number in question This field is very important to ensure the correct functioning of the control of the products covered by a service contract.

Quantity

This field is used to enter the physical quantity of the customer installed base. It is possible to split the installed base (not managed by serial numbers) into several installed base records if this field is greater than 1.

Commercial group

This field is used to enter the commercial group associated to the installed base.

Applicable warranty

This field is used to enter the applicable warranty belonging to the installed base. The applicable warranty is different according to whether the installed base is installed or not or on loan.

Serial number

This field represents the identity of the physical product in question.

Entered in service the

This field is used to enter the date the installed base entered service,

Brand

It is possible to mention the commercial brand for a product from amongst those values in miscellaneous table 408 : Brand. This field is for purely information purposes but can help distinguish certain products. The brand field is conditioned by the general setup MACBRAUSE (use of the brand field).

Actual installation

Installation type

Five base installation types are possible:

  • User
  • Final reseller
  • Wholesaler
  • In stock
  • Rejected

Installed on loan

This field will determine miscellaneous behaviour during the sales cycle, within the automatic management of the customer installed base. This field is used to manager the loan of equipment. It is possible to link a prospect or a contact to the installed base record. This field is important to allow the execution of the periodic searches on products out on loan in order to recover those that have been out too long.

Reseller 

In the case of indirect sales, it is possible to establish a link between the shipment to a reseller and the actual installation of a product at an end user's.

End user 

This field is used to specify the identity of the business partner or the individual where the item with this serial number has been installed.

NB: This field must be qualified exclusively by using one of the two following contextual menus :

  • Business partner search
  • Contact search

If a code is manually entered directly in this field, the contents are not saved and the following message is displayed : "You must use one of the two contextual menus to select a business partner or a contact".

In the case of the direct entry of a BP code, the following message can appear in order to confirm the entry : "Confirm that this is a BP code:XXX."

The Installed base object is one of the rare objects that make up the customer module that is used to work on the totality of the customer base. This possibility is offered in order to identify the equipment base on loan. In fact, it is possible to manage the loan of the equipment at no matter what type of business partner population (notably the prospects) and also at private sales (before they have been the object of a transformation into customers).

In addition, all modification of this field leads to the automatic loading of the successive installation history for a serial number in the Installations tab.

Sales date 

This is the date on which the equipment was sold to the customer.

Purchase date 

This is the date on which the equipment has been acquired.

Installation date

This is the date from which the product is considered to be operational within the customer locations.

Source

Original document  no. / Line 

These fields are used to identify the document line number that is the origin of the customer installed base. These fields are automatically loaded, with values such as Manual creation or Split...

Tab Address

This tab is used to identify the actual installation site for the equipment from amongst the different potential addresses for a business partner.

The Address tab is automatically entered during the confirmation of the installed base record creation.

The address grid is entered:

  • Either with all the addresses for the BP where the serial number is installed;
  • Or with the contact address from where the serial number is installed.

The Installation site is defined on the address base by default for the BP.

The Site column in the address grid is used to modify the installation site proposed by default. A double-click on the chosen address defines this address as the new installation site.

Location / notes 

This field must indicate the precise location where the equipment is installed. Thus, in the case of an intervention at the site (maintenance or repair) by a technician, he/she will be able to verify if the equipment has not been relocated by the customer. In certain contracts, the relocation of equipment by the customer can be an exclusion clause in the warranty or maintenance.

Tab Service Contracts

The Service contracts tab is used to view all the coverage applied to the installed base record.

Applied coverage

This field is used to enter the service contract covering the installed base record. The field Applicable warranty from the General tab, is used to establish any differences between the services due ( Applicable warrantyfield) and the agreed services Contract denominationfield).

Certain coverage can inherit the specific characteristics of service contracts.

Warranty requests 

This field is used to enter the warranty request covering the installed base. 

Tab Installations

This grid contains the successive installation history for a serial number. It is impossible to create new lines manually. The lines are automatically created from the information managed in the General tab. Only certain fields in this grid are accessible in modification mode.

A new history line is added in the installations grid each time that the fields below are subject to a modification :

  • Installation type
  • Reseller
  • End user
  • Installed on loan

In fact, for each modification of these fields, certain information in the General tab is purged to allow the entry of the of the new transaction. This is the fields :

  • Reseller
  • Installed on loan
  • End user
  • Sales price/Currency Sales date
  • Purchase price/Currency Purchase date
  • Physical location

A confirmation question is used to load or not the implementation history : "Do you confirm the saving of the installation history? " »

When the user confirms his/her modification, a new line appears in the successive installation grid. The Until field is automatically set to the current date.

The user is then invited to enter the price and currency for the equipment then to correct the installation end date if necessary.

The Origin, Document no. / Line are modified if the installation is modified.

Specific Buttons

Splitting

This button is used to split a base record not manage with serial no., entered with a quantity superior to 1, into several records. If the installed base is managed with serial numbers, the  button remains grey-ed out

A confirmation message is used to launch the split of a selected installed base record : "Do you confirm the split of this installed base record? "

The split creates automatically as many installed base records as specified in the field Quantity. For example, an installed base record with a quantity of 20 can be split into 20 installed base records.

Error messages

In addition to the generic error messages, the following messages can appear during the entry :

No currency has been associated with the sales price. Creation is refused.

This message appears when the user attempts to confirm the creation of a base record that has a sales price but no currency.

No currency has been associated with the sales price. Modification refused.

This message appears when the user attempts to confirm the modification of a base record that has a sales price but no currency.

Tables used

See also Refer to documentation Implementation