Examining EMS Features and Functions for Managing Entitlements

An entitlement refers to the permission, right, or benefit granted to an individual or entity, which allows them to access or use specific resources, services, or software. In the context of SAP Entitlement Management, an entitlement typically represents the rights or licenses associated with products, applications, or other assets that an organization can allocate to its users, customers, or partners. It can include access to software, support services, updates, or other resources, based on predetermined criteria or agreements. Entitlements are often managed and tracked to ensure compliance with usage terms and conditions, licensing agreements, and regulatory standards.

An entitlement is a combination of:

• Types: Licenses, support, subscriptions, and other types
• Rights: Right to support, right to access, right to run, and other rights
• Offerings: Commercial offerings, services, memberships, and other offerings
• Customers: Organizations or a set of users

An entitlement model in SAP Entitlement Management is a set of rules and guidelines that determine how entitlements, rights, and licenses are distributed, managed, and tracked within an organization. It outlines who has access to what, under what conditions, and ensures compliance with licensing agreements and regulatory standards.

Attributes are properties or characteristics of an entitlement type, representing a value or information, depending on a particular entitlement.

The main steps in the SAP Entitlement Management system include the following:

1. Master Data Configuration: Sets up and maintains master data for customers and offerings, which is essential for the system to function properly.
2. Basic Configuration: Configures basic settings that include business categories, rights, entitlement types, distribution channels, units of measurement, business events, geolocation, and entitlement source systems.
3. Modeling Entitlements: Creates entitlement models that define the structure and attributes for managing entitlements, including status models, attributes, and consumption forms.
4. SEM Interfaces: Uses interfaces for integration with upstream and downstream systems, including order management and fulfillment systems.
5. Entitlement Mapping: Maps offerings to entitlement models, which link commercial offerings to the appropriate entitlement models based on business rules.
6. Entitlement Generation Rule: Configures rules determine how entitlements are generated, processed, and updated in the system.
7. Entitlement Operations: Manages operations related to entitlements, include background jobs and events that trigger actions within the system.
8. Entitlement Process: Sets up bulk creation or modification of entitlements, initiated by an external API request with parameters that are predefined in each entitlement process.
9. Provisioning Orchestration: Systematic process that comprises setting up provisioning stages and their respective conditions and related tasks to guarantee the smooth execution of intricate fulfillment processes.
10. Monitoring and Reporting: Tracks the entitlement lifecycle, event execution, and background job processing to ensure smooth operations and compliance.

SAP EMS runs on the SAP Cloud Platform and is a multitenant SaaS offering that can be deployed on any system architecture. It is composed of three main modules:

Entitlement modeling where new entitlements are defined and assigned to different offerings.

Entitlement lifecycle management where any activity that can affect these entitlements is supported - from status changes and bumps to splits, version changes, renewals, and more.

Lastly, the entitlement repository is the hub where current and historical information on the customer, entitlement, and product is accessed.

In addition to imbedded analytics and user administration, these modules are supported by out of the box integration with SAP S/4HANA Sales Order Management Systems and an extensive services infrastructure using APIs. This structure allows the system to easily communicate with other sales order management systems, licensing, provisioning, consumption, services, or fulfillment systems.

Let’s breakdown the process of Entitlement Management into simple terms.

Watch the following video to see how EMS manages an entitlement.

As business models and product bundle offerings become more complex, so do the back- office operations needed to support them. SAP Entitlement Management ensures that:

• Your sales representatives and channel partners have a clear view of what their customers are entitled to, never missing a renewal, cross, or upsell opportunity.
• Your commercialization teams can quickly deploy proposed solution bundles, knowing with certainty that they can track and assess market performance.
• Your IT and license administrators have the tools to deploy, manage, and report on any type of entitlement.
• Your customer service representatives know exactly what the customer is entitled to, giving them the tools to best assist the customer and engage in any upsell or cross opportunity.
• Your customers are given transparency into their entitlements, and can receive entitlement-related alerts and reminders, while being restricted from unauthorized usage.

New technologies allow you to create the most innovative business models and solution bundles. Our entitlement management solution addresses the operational side of that equation. It offers a high degree of flexibility and a great user experience, assuring that even the most creative ideas can be realized with ease.

The EMS is a cloud-based solution for managing customer entitlements: The EMS allows businesses to define, create, and manage various types of entitlements, such as licenses, subscriptions, support, and services. It also enables communication and integration with other systems, such as sales, provisioning, fulfillment, and consumption.

The EMS consists of three main modules and a repository: The EMS has an entitlement modeling module, where new entitlements are defined and assigned to different offerings. It has an entitlement lifecycle management module, where any activity that can affect the entitlements is supported. It has an entitlement repository, where current and historical information on the customer, entitlement, or product can be accessed.

The EMS offers benefits to various stakeholders: The EMS provides a clear view of customer entitlements to sales representatives and channel partners, enabling them to identify renewal and upsell opportunities. It also allows commercialization teams to quickly deploy and track new solution bundles and business models. It gives IT and license administrators the tools to deploy, manage, and report on any type of entitlement. It helps customer service representatives to assist customers and engage in upsell or cross opportunities. It also gives customers transparency and control over their entitlements, and prevents unauthorized usage.

In the next lesson, we break down the process of Entitlement Management into simple terms.