Sales configuration in business processes

Work is underway to enhance SAP´s R/3 business software suite with a sales configuration engine. With the SCE, which is out in a beta version to select customers, users will be able to deal with configurable products on either a laptop or attached to R/3. The author gives an outlook on the general problem of adding a sales configurator to SAP´s R/3 business software suite and outline specific work to provide enhanced high-level configuration capabilities in the SCE. The SCE represents the third generation of sales configuration at SAP. It is implemented in Java, and, in its present form, runs on a standalone machine, such as a laptop. It will be an integral part of SAP´s Sales-Force-Automation tool and plans are to reembed it into R/3