Analyzing SAP S/4HANA Utilities Customer Service and Engagement Processes

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to analyze various SAP S/4HANA Utilities Customer Service processes and apply them to manage contracts, collections, and service requests effectively.

Overview

A computer monitor displaying an SAP interface is shown in the center. Various functionalities of the SAP system are labeled around the monitor with dotted lines pointing to the computer screen. These functionalities include: Omni-Channel, Interaction Records, Search Master Data, Business Partner Overview, Business Partner & Contract Accounts, Technical Master Data, Premise Overview, Billing and Meter Reading, Service (planned), Financial Inquiries, Collections, Fast Move-In/Out, and Utilities Sales Contracts.

Utilities Sales Contracts

  • Start and end contracts, overviews​

  • Product configuration​

  • Change processes​

  • Guided process with 360° views

Fast Move-In/Out

  • Move-in/out for business partner ​

    and premise​

  • View parked documents​

  • Move-in for occupied premise, forced move-out

Collections

  • Manage payment data, and one-time payments​

  • Installment plan, promise to pay​

  • Deferral, write-off, and external agency integration​

  • Credit memo and adjustment request​

  • Create SEPA mandate (EU)​

Financial Inquiries​

  • Account balance overview and history​

  • Open items and details​

  • Locks, dunning history and interest​

  • Search and assign payments

Service

  • Service Requests​

  • Maintenance Service Orders​

  • Maintenance Service Quotes

Billing and Meter Reading

  • List of bills and PDF bill​

  • Reversal and rebill​

  • Budget billing​

  • Meter reading history​

  • Entry, validation, correction, and estimation​

  • Release implausible reading results

Transaction Launcher

Premise Overview

  • Premise centric data environment​

  • Configurable and extensible data environment​

  • Installation and device details​

  • Meter reading history and consumption​

  • View owner details​

  • View clarification cases

Technical Master Data

  • View hierarchy (trees)​

  • Manage connection object, premise, and PoD​

  • Further technical master data via transaction launcher​

Business Partner & Contract Accounts

  • Search, view, change, and create​

  • Manage related business partners​

  • Store credit card details in payment hub​

  • ​

Business Partner Overview

  • Summary and last interactions​

  • Business data, service location and technical environments, contract accounts​

  • Configurable and extendable data environment​

  • Enhanced search for interaction records​

  • View clarification cases​

Search Master Data

  • Free text search for business partner and premises and standard searches​

  • Split screen with parallel views and search for business partner and premise data​

Interaction Records

  • View recent and interaction history
  • Create clarification case (BPEM) and view history

Omni-Channel

  • Phone (CTI)​

  • E-Mail, Chat​

  • Native Contact ​

    Center integration ​

Diagram of communication methods between users and services. On the left side, two users communicate: one via text messages (indicated by a texting symbol) and voice calls (shown with a phone headset). On the right side, users send and receive messages, indicated by envelops with '@' signs, facilitated by an intermediary service denoted by an arrowed symbol.

Telephony

  • Wide variety of SAP-certified CMS / CTI vendors through SOAP based web services​

  • Desk and softphone support ​

  • Inbound, outbound integration supporting transfers, conference, call- attached data and so on ​

Chat

  • Agent frontend for up to 6 parallel chat sessions ​

  • Integration with certified CMS vendors (same approach as phone)​

  • Standard response templates​

  • Chat transcripts stored in CRM business transactions​

Fax and Letters

  • Workflow interface to connect inbound fax or letter​

  • Workflow-based distribution to inbox agents and teams ​

  • Standard response templates​

  • Linking to CRM business transactions​

E-Mail

  • Email response mgmt. system (ERMS) routes mails to inbox of agents & teams​

  • Real-time push routing to experts​

  • Auto acknowledge ​

  • Standard responses​

  • Automatic tracking & linking to CRM business processes​

Communication Integration

Integrated Communication Interface (ICI) supports the integration of non-SAP communication products with SAP components that use communication services.

Screenshot of an SAP Customer Interaction Center interface. The screen shows details of a customer account for Mandy Berg from Mandies Candies. Information includes the customer’s address, contact details (phone, fax, email), and account number. The interface displays various actions available to the agent such as confirming the account, starting a new session, interacting through email, holding calls, transferring calls, and searching for related partners. The agent logged in is Anderson Ann, and the left sidebar includes options such as Account Identification, Interaction Record, Interaction History, and others.

Phone Integration - Inbound Call

Phone call is queued and routed by the external communication management software and transferred to SAP S/4HANA for customer engagement via the web service- based ICI interface.

Example: Alerting inbound call

  • Agent can accept or reject the call via the communication toolbar in the Interaction Center screen.
  • Further buttons to, for example, transfer or hold the call are provided via the configurable toolbar.
  • Automatic identification of contact person and account based on phone number (ANI)
  • Agent work mode and agent queue and channel selection available on the Interaction Center UI.
Screenshot of an SAP interface showing a draft email regarding product registration. The email is addressed to a recipient with the subject Your Question regarding Product Registration. It includes an advertisement image for the SAP Portfolio at the top, and the email body starts with Dear Mandy followed by a message about a detailed description of the process attached. Options on the right side of the screen include Attachments, Standard Responses, and References. At the bottom, there are buttons for Save, Delete, and Send. The interface shows other features like checking addresses and various email interaction actions at the top.

E-Mail Editor

The editor supports agents in processing incoming and outgoing e-mails.

The E-Mail Editor for interaction center agents provides several productivity capabilities

  • Send and receive HTML or plain text e-mails
  • Insert solutions with attachments
  • Insert standard response (e-mail templates) via mail forms
  • Insert at cursor position: standard responses can be inserted at the end of an e-mail or at the cursor position
  • Auto-suggest responses
  • Automatic insert of tracking ID possible
Screenshot of an SAP Inbox interface displaying a list of open items. The list shows the status (open), priority (medium), main category, creation date, account, due date, and employee responsible (Anderson Ann). Items include Service Orders, Service Requests, and Emails associated with various accounts. A bar chart at the bottom visualizes the items by creation date. There are top navigation options for actions like ending, clearing interaction, holding, retrieving, transferring, and others. The quick search box is set to My Open Items.

Agent Inbox

You use the agent inbox to call up e-mails, business transactions, and various other business objects for display or processing. The inbox is a central shared worklist that the entire team can use to work on incoming objects. It supports supervisors in work distribution.

Retrieve, access, and process items from different main categories in the inbox.

  • business transactions (such as service orders or service requests)
  • inbound & outbound correspondence (e-mail, fax, letter)

The inbox provides a broad range of search attributes, search features, and result attributes which are:

  • common to all categories (such as creation date, account)
  • mapped to category-specific values (such as status and responsible group/employee)
  • category-specific attributes (such as e-mail address, due date)

Based on alerts, the inbox shows incomplete e-mails linked to a confirmed account.

Screenshot of the SAP Rule Modeler interface showing the rule policy KNOWLEDGETRANS (E-Mail Response Management System). The left side lists the policy structure, including active and draft rules. The highlighted rule is Route, with details on the right showing the rule name, description (Route to 1st Level Support), creation and change dates, and creator information. Conditions are specified: if the E-Mail Original Recipient contains SERVICE, the action is to route the email to the organizational object 1st Level Support. At the bottom is a preview box summarizing the rule logic. There are save and cancel buttons at the bottom-right corner.

Rule Modeler

Allows the definition of business rules that automate various Interaction Center processes like e-mail handling or service request escalation.

Category Modeler and Rule Modeler work together to provide intelligent agent guidance and automation in the Interaction Center

  • Dispatch/escalate service requests via business rules.
  • Automate e-mail handling and response via business rules.
  • Automate agent guidance with Intent-Driven Interaction via business rules.
  • Trigger and terminate alerts.
  • Navigate inside Interaction Center or to other applications.
SAP Alerts configuration screen for an alert with the ID AUTOSUGGESTED_KA. The General Data section shows the alert ID, language set to English, and a description stating Auto Suggest Knowledge Articles. The Characteristics section includes Navigation Object or Action set to Knowledge Articles: Search and the Theme set to Default. The Message section contains a Tooltip field and a Message field with the text: [EVENT$AutoSuggestKAStart:NumberOfKA]Suggested Knowledge Article(s).

Alert Editor

Create reusable alerts that can be triggered via the Rule Modeler using different sets of rules and events.

Alerts are triggered based on business rules and triggering events, like clicking on a certain button in the Interaction Center.

  • Alerts can be transported across systems.
  • Alerts can contain navigational hyperlinks to any S/4HANA for customer engagement screen.
  • Alerts can leverage variables for example:
    • Auto-suggested solutions and knowledge articles
    • Chat notifications
    • Customer name, status or attribute
    • Service order priority or status
SAP Service IC Agent interface showing Anderson Ann logged in. The screen is displaying the Identify Account page for Mandies Candies with ID 1000042. The account details include street, house number, city, postal code, region, country, and contact information fields. A result list shows 1 account found with Confirmed Partners details below it. The left sidebar contains navigation links like Account Identification, Interaction Record, Interaction History, Service Request, and others. Session controls for holding, transferring, and ending interactions are at the top.

Multiple Sessions - Maximize Efficiency

The multisession option support agents in in handling multiple interactions at one time.

Multiple customer interactions – across different communication channels – can be worked on in parallel.

Example here: One phone call and two mails from separate customers.

  • Up to 6 sessions tabs open up automatically triggered by inbound communication processes.
  • Up to five sessions can be opened manually by an agent while the last session is reserved in case an inbound communication request arrives.
SAP Service Request creation screen for a new service request. The customer is Domestic US Customer 2, reported by Ronald Williams, with Anderson Ann as the employee responsible. The request is for monitoring flickers after 3 minutes. The status is set to New with high impact and priority. Dates for the requested start, end, first response, and due by are provided. Reference objects include equipment EIZO Monitor 27inch and reference product Product Description Test. The Relationships section lists a related knowledge article with the ID 80000010 and description CS01 Test. The navigation bar contains tabs like Service Level Agreements, Organizational Data, Business Context, and Checklist. Controls for editing, dispatching, and saving the request are available.

Business Process Integration Service Request Management in IC

… allows agents to report any service request and perform end-to-end service support within defined service levels

The following functions enable the agent to process service requests efficiently:

  • multilevel categorization
  • integration with knowledge articles
  • ERMS enablement
  • checklist
  • rule-based dispatching
  • time recording
  • follow-up transactions and scheduled actions

Log in to track your progress & complete quizzes

Learning

SAP FacebookSAP YoutubeSAP LinkedIn