The development of the SAP Entitlement Management system is based on the SAP Business Cloud Platform. Cloud-based software services commonly use the multitenant architecture of SAP Entitlement Management. It has the added benefits of reduced cost of resources, simplified software and hardware management, and an easier deployment of updates and improvements.
Three main process areas compose SAP Entitlement Management: Entitlement modeling, entitlement lifecycle management, and entitlement repository. The following course units cover these areas:
Entitlement modeling: Unit 5 covers how SAP Entitlement Management allows businesses to create and manage complex entitlement models. It provides flexibility in terms of how these models can be tailored to specific business needs and customer agreements.
Entitlement lifecycle management: Units 6, 7, and 8 cover the process of managing a customer's entitlements from inception to termination. This includes all entitlement stages and edits regarding status changes, upselling, down selling, and renewals.
- Entitlement repository: Units 8 and 9 cover the centralized database system that stores and manages all relevant data regarding entitlements. This includes information about entitlement products and services, what customers are entitled to over a period, and the associated business agreements or contracts.
These modules are supported by default integration with SAP S/4HANA Sales management systems. They’re also supported by extensive services infrastructure and application programming interfaces (APIs). This support enables systems to easily communicate with other sales management systems, and systems for licensing, provisioning, consumption, services, and fulfillment.
Other SAP Entitlement Management capabilities include embedded analytics that are built directly into the system and enable businesses to track, assess, and report on various aspects of entitlement management.
Another capability is user administration, which handles the management of user roles, authorizations, and access in the system. It includes creating and managing user accounts, assigning roles and responsibilities, setting up access permissions, and implementing security protocols.
Summary
Now that we have a better understanding of how SAP Entitlement Management enables businesss to define and manage complex entitlements, let's move to Unit 3 and begin the sales document to entitlement generation process. We'll also review several integration scenarios where multiple systems manage entitlements by working together.