In this blog post, I would like to give you an overview of the Simple IT Request’s new features included in Focused Build SP09 and SP10.

The features explained in this blog post are:

• Improved Search and Navigation (SP09)
• Full RichText Support for Conversations (SP09)
• Additional Text Types in Conversations (SP09)
• Multiple Business Partner Support (SP10)
• Detail Information on Business Partner (SP10)

Before going into detail, I would like to point you to my colleague’s blog post about the Simple IT Request in general. If you’re looking for an overview, Stefan’s post is the right place to start: Simple IT Request – Focused Build Standalone Extensions Part 3.

For an overview of new features of previous Focused Build support packages, please see my other blog posts:

Simple IT Request: New features with Focused Build SP05 – SP08 | SAP Blogs

Simple IT Request: New features with Focused Build SP03 & SP04 | SAP Blogs

Simple IT Request: New features with Focused Build SP02 | SAP Blogs

Improved Search and Navigation

For this feature, we completely rebuilt the Search and Navigation functionality. While the search bar is still located in the same area, we introduced a new result page to handle the search results. It is now possible to search your complete Service Catalog using the same search bar.

Following screenshot shows an example search result list:

Catalog App: Result page

Depending on the chosen Search Result, the end-user will be redirected to the specific service, or category level. This feature is automatically included in the Catalog App and needs no additional customizing.

Furthermore, since the entry screen was changed, we rebuilt the Favorite screen as well. Favorites are now displayed as tiles:

Catalog App: Favorite tiles

The new Favorite page also requires no additional customizing.

Full RichText Support for Conversations

Up until introducing this feature, the Rich Text functionality for Conversations only supported a limited number of HTML elements. Specifically, the missing support to display embedded images directly in the text messages was a huge pain point.

With ST-OST SP09 we enhanced the RichText Conversation feed and added support of various additional HTML elements.

MyRequests: Full RichText Support

As shown in the above screenshot, it is now possible to directly display embedded images.

Please refer to chapter 13.7.10 (Optional) Rich Text for Simple IT Request of the configuration guide to setup RichText formatting in the Simple IT Request.

Additional Text Types in Conversations

Besides the RichText Support in Conversations, we also introduced a new customizing activity to include additional text types into the Conversation feed.

You can maintain these additional text types in the Customizing of Communication in My Requests App activity in the SPRO path of the Simple IT Request.

SPRO: Additional text types customizing

This feature offers an even more generic approach to enable communication between end-users and message processors.

Multiple Business Partner Support

Partner functions used in SAP Solution Manager transactions support multiple number of occurrences. While this functionality is fully supported in the CRM WebClient UI, the Catalog App lacked this support up until ST-OST SP10. To achieve the multiple Business Partner support, we introduced the Value Help (Multi) as a new layout field type:

Service Definition: Contact Person multi type

Once this type is chosen for one of the available layout fields, the Catalog App offers the possibility to maintain multiple entries in the same field of the service template:

Catalog: Business Partner multi search help

Please note, that this feature needs no additional customizing, but the underlying field needs to support the assignment of multiple Business Partners (e.g., the Contact Person in the default SMIN partner profile).

Detail Information on Business Partner

The MyRequests App offers via the Parties tab an overview of all parties involved in a specific transaction. ST-OST SP10 introduces a new Quick View to enable end-users an easier access to contact and user data of the involved parties.

MyRequests: Business Partner Quick View

This feature is enabled by default and includes, if maintained in the Buisness Partner data, the Email address, Phone number, Mobile phone number, User ID and Business Partner ID. In case you wish to not display certain information, you can hide these attributes in the Customizing of hidden Information in My Requests App activity in the Simple IT Request SPRO path:

SPRO: Customizing of hidden information

Please note, that the last 4 columns affect the Quick View. The Business Partner ID is always shown.

The detailed configuration guide and additional information regarding Focused Build can be found under following link: Focused Build for SAP Solution Manager

If you have any questions or input, please feel free to comment and share!