Successful implementation of efficient and transparent dispute case processing with SAP Dispute Management

This commitment is also reflected in the continuous development and improvement of the IT infrastructure to ensure that business processes are optimally supported by the ERP system. The project focused on complaint handling processes. Invoice disputes have a direct impact on a company’s cash flow and the time taken to settle outstanding receivables. They can also negatively affect established, long-standing customer relationships. Resolving disputes promptly is therefore in the interests of everyone involved and should be handled as efficiently as possible.

SAP Dispute Management for integrated complaint handling

This requires transparent, centralised data management and integration into the existing SAP landscape. SAP Dispute Management, a component of FSCM (Financial Supply Chain Management) within Receivables Management, is designed to optimise complaint handling and provide end-to-end process coverage within SAP, minimising media discontinuities while simplifying communication both internally between departments and externally with customers. SAP Dispute Management provides essential functionalities for this purpose, establishes the framework for dispute case processing within SAP and is fully integrated into standard SAP FI processes.

Fit-to-standard analysis and iterative implementation

A fit-to-standard analysis and a series of workshops were conducted to review existing processes, identify additional system requirements, assess potential gaps and implement the necessary enhancements. Thanks to the excellent collaboration and close partnership, the system configuration for managing and processing dispute cases was completed quickly. Initial tests provided the basis for defining development requirements, with the highly committed business department actively involved throughout. The effective teamwork and iterative approach allowed the robustness of the developed components to be verified through extensive testing, leading to further refinement of the process steps. The primary objective was always to reduce manual user input and introduce partial automation, enabling dispute cases to be created and processed with minimal effort.

Automated linking and closure of dispute cases

A particular challenge was the automatic retrospective linking of debit and credit postings in the form of FI documents to previously created dispute cases. Once a resolution had been reached and the relevant open items cleared, the dispute case needed to be closed automatically. This also included identifying the final cause of the complaint and automatically recording it when the case was closed. This information provides the basis for future analyses and the identification of measures to optimise processes. Manual processing would not have been feasible, but the programme developed by consenso, together with enhancements to the dispute case processing workflow, made it possible to achieve the necessary level of automation.