Applying SAP S/4HANA Utilities for Customer Engagement Architecture and Integration

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to analyze the architecture and integration of SAP S/4HANA Utilities for Customer Engagement to apply main header functions and navigate the harmonized data model effectively.

Architecture

SAP S/4HANA Utilities for Customer Engagement (CE) is a simplified version of SAP CRM for Utilities fully embedded in SAP S/4HANA.

The launchpad provides access to the Engagement Center solution. It consists of the main header bar that is permanently displayed, regardless of which Engagement Center feature is currently being used, and various application tiles.

Left side: A block diagram illustrating the relationship between SAP S/4HANA Utilities for Customer Engagement, SAP S/4HANA for Customer Engagement, and HANA DB. The first block at the top states SAP S/4HANA Utilities for Customer Engagement, followed by SAP S/4HANA for Customer Engagement, and at the bottom is a cylinder representing HANA DB. Right side: A detailed architecture diagram for SAP S/4HANA Customer Management. It starts at the top with the SAP Fiori Launchpad, where S/4HANA Core App and S4CRM Business Role are denoted. The next layer is the WebClient UI, followed by the Business Object Layer & Generic Interaction Layer (BOL/GENIL). Below that is the S4CRM Business Applications, which includes Service, Interaction Center, and Utilities. The subsequent layer comprises Pricing and Billing. Finally, the master data layer includes Product, Business Partner, Org. Model, Equipment, and Contract Account. At the bottom of the diagram is the SAP HANA Database. Each layer interacts with the SAP S/4HANA and SAP HANA Database.

Main Header

The following functions are available in the main header:

  • Me Area is used to personalize the application you are currently working in and to sign in and out of the solution.
  • Page Title Home shows all available apps and lets you navigate to specific apps. Once you are working in an app, the page title changes to the name of the app. When you click the page name, a dropdown list lets you to return to the home page or see the list of apps you can navigate to.
  • By clicking on the Queues button agents can search for queues, see the Queue Name of available queues and display an overview of the queues that they are assigned to. Agents can decide which queues to join based on the information shown such as the number of interactions in a queue, the total amount of available agents compared to free agents, and the time of the longest interaction waiting in each queue.
  • The Ready button defines whether the agent is logged on to the assigned queues or not. If the agent is logged on to the queues, it is indicated whether the agent is available to accept incoming requests.
  • The notification button provides an overview of all notifications.
Left side: A SAP configuration interface for setting up a form view. The interface titled View Configuration in Internet Explorer shows a grid layout where various data fields are assigned, such as Last Name, Address Category, and Social Insurance Number. The fields are organized in columns from A to P and rows numbered 1 to 9. The user is identified as Michael Ernzer, a Utilities IC Agent, with options like Sign Out, Personalize, and other system functionalities available. Right side: A SAP table personalization interface for adjusting table views. The interface allows users to configure table navigation settings with options like scrolling, paging, or both. Fields are displayed with their respective view settings, including Business Partner ID, Full Name, Street, House Number, and more. Columns can be sorted, and their display properties such as width and fixed column status can be adjusted. Options to save or cancel changes are available at the bottom.

Main Header

The following functions are available in the main header:

  • Me Area is used to personalize the application you are currently working in and to sign in and out of the solution.
  • Page Title Home shows all available apps and lets you navigate to specific apps. Once you are working in an app, the page title changes to the name of the app. When you click the page name, a dropdown list lets you to return to the home page or see the list of apps you can navigate to.
  • By clicking on the Queues button agents can search for queues, see the Queue Name of available queues and display an overview of the queues that they are assigned to. Agents can decide which queues to join based on the information shown such as the number of interactions in a queue, the total amount of available agents compared to free agents, and the time of the longest interaction waiting in each queue.
  • The Ready button defines whether the agent is logged on to the assigned queues or not. If the agent is logged on to the queues, it is indicated whether the agent is available to accept incoming requests.
  • The notification button provides an overview of all notifications.

Diagram of the harmonized data model integration between SAP IS-U, FI-CA, and Customer Engagement. The image is divided into three main sections: Master Data, Utilities Energy & Water Contracts, and Interaction Center. Under Master Data, Contract Account, Connection object, and Point-of-delivery map to Business Agreement, Ibase (connection object), and Ibase (point-of-delivery) respectively, with remaining entities highlighted in green. Under Utilities Energy & Water Contracts, IS-U Contract maps to Utilities Sales Contract with a note stating it is optional if the sales process is used instead of move-in/move-out, highlighted in orange. Under Interaction Center, CIC0 maps to Interaction Center (IC) and is noted as removed in orange, while BP Contact maps to Interaction Record and is optional. The bottom right corner has a labeled box: Harmonized data model - Best of ERP (IS-U) + CRM for Utilities! and a large orange 'X' indicating removed entities. The key in the top right corner includes orange for Entity Removed, green for Entity Remains, and orange for Entity Optional.

Simplification and Harmonized Data Model in SAP S/4HANA

Let’s get a first impression of what the harmonized data model in SAP S/4HANA Utilities means.

Within SAP S/4HANA Utilities, SAP’s goal is to keep the "best of both worlds", that means, select most suitable entity / process / engine.

This means for example:

  • Keep the business partner entity already available in IS-U and CRM
  • Harmonize the CRM product into the SAP S/4HANA material, the CRM business agreement into the FI-CA contract account, the CRM Ibase into the IS-U connection object and point of delivery, map the CRM contact to IS-U contract, and the BP contact to the CRM interaction record (*)

It also means offering Interaction Center as a successor of CIC0, deprecated in SAP S/4HANA according to the simplification list.

Don’t forget (as shown on the previous slide): Since former CRM entities now share a common database representation with IS-U entities in SAP S/4HANA, no middleware will be required any more!

(*) Upon creation of a BP contact, the system creates an interaction record. Thus the agent can see both BP contacts (created in SAP S/4HANA IS-U/FI-CA) and interaction records (created by SAP S/4HANA IC processes) in CRM IC.

Note

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