SAP S/4 HANA Customer Engagement for Utilities – Process Overview (Part-2)

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Hello Experts,

I’m writing this blog in continuation with my previous blog on S/4 HANA IS-U Customer Engagement overview, this blog will be revolving around SAP CRM IS-U features and most likely will come back on S/4 HANA CE features with respect to SAP IS-U in my next blog, let’s start further:

Data Model:

However, below depicted picture has been referenced from traditional SAP CRM IS-U concept but the data model for S/4 HANA IS-U Customer Engagement is still the same, so we can relate it easily in S/4 HANA IS-U CE as well:

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SAP IS-U CRM Integration Data Model:

Move-In & Move-Out Processing:

  • This function enables you to process the following:
    • Move-In
    • Move-Out
    • Move-In/Out for a premise
    • Move-In/Out for a business partner
    • Contract Change
  • Move-In:
    • You use the move-in function to carry out most of the activities required to begin providing a business partner with a utility service. You create new or change existing business master data. Most importantly, you allocate a contract to an installation.
    • In move-in processing, you establish whether a contract can be billed. From the move-in, you can also trigger the charges levied at the commencement of a utility service, as well as a welcome letter to the customer.

 Prerequisites:

  • To create a move-in, you require one or more installations that are vacant on the desired move-in date.
  • In the case of an initial move-in, ensure that you have completed initial data creation, including creation of the installation(s)
  • Devices can (but do not have to) be installed and allocated before move-in
  • If one of the installations is already allocated to a contract, this allocation must be reversed. To do this, process a move-out. An installation can only be allocated to one contract at any given time.
  • Move-Out:
    • You use the move-out function to carry out most of the activities required to terminate a business partner’s utility service. You make changes to the business master data of the business partner as necessitated by the move-out. The most important change is that the allocation of a contract to an installation is terminated on the move-out date.
    • You stop the active payment plans using move-out processing. You can also trigger a letter of move-out confirmation and an immediate bill.

Prerequisites:

  • Before you create a move-out, ensure that one or more contracts with installations exist on the desired move-out date.
  • Create move-in/out for (a) premise(s):
  • You use this function to change the business partner of the premise and/or the installations belonging to the premise.
  • To select an installation, specify a premise or a business partner. You can then create a move-out to occur on the specified move-out date and then create the subsequent move-in. This applies to all the installations you selected.
  • Create move-in/out for business partner.
    • You use this function to perform a move-in/out for a business partner within the supply area. You can create the move-out so that the business partner moves out of several installations, and the move-in so that the business partner moves into several installations. You can select the business partner using the move-out search parameters.
    • You can use the move-in search parameters to determine the installations into which the business partner is to move.
    • If the installations of the new premise are not vacant, a dialog window appears where you must specify whether you also want to create a move-out for the business partner allocated to these installations.
  • Processing an Existing Move-In/Move-Out
    • Processing a move-in or move-out once it has been created is facilitated by integrated functions that enable you to reverse billing, invoicing, and FI-CA documents. If the (new) move-out date or move-in date is in a period that has already been billed, you have the following options:
      • Create a move-out.
      • Change the move-out.
      • Reverse a move-out.
      • Reverse a move-in.
    • The system reacts by reversing the billing document. If the document has already been invoiced, then the system reverses invoicing before it reverses the billing document. Any other FI-CA documents that were generated by invoicing are also reversed. If the documents have already been cleared through payment, then the system reverses the payment clearing.
    • Any documents assigned to one of the move-in contracts are reversed first. The clearing is reversed upon payment. This is also the case if the contract has not yet been billed.

 Disconnection/Reconnection:

  • This component enables you to manage disconnections and reconnections. This component is optional. You need to use it if you want to temporarily interrupt supply to customers (especially within the bounds of a legal dunning procedure). A disconnection is a temporary interruption in the supply of a utility service that does not involve the meter removal. This is due to the following reasons, for example:
    • Introduction of a collection procedure for outstanding payment
    • Technical disconnection due to request of utilities company or customer
  • In the first instance, the service is resumed (reconnection) when the customer has paid the outstanding bill; in the second, it is done at the request of the customer.
  • The disconnection document is automatically generated when the disconnection dunning level is reached. It contains all the items that reach the disconnection dunning level during a dunning print run.
  • Generally, the devices for disconnection are proposed from all the contracts belonging to a contract account. This makes the contract account the reference object of the disconnection document.
  • The disconnection document guarantees consistency in the overall disconnection and reconnection business process. A reconnection cannot be performed without a disconnection having occurred beforehand. If a disconnection has already been carried out on a device or flat-rate installation, a new disconnection order cannot be generated for this disconnection object.
  • The disconnection/reconnection orders are confirmed in the disconnection document. They are assigned a status. Disconnection actions that have already been carried out can be reversed via the disconnection document (note that can only been done successively from the last action to the first).                                              

Owner Allocation:

  • Owner Allocation process provides an automated means of placing the service into the landlord/owner’s name between tenants.  The “Owner” is the Business Partner linked to the premise. In the current system, the Property object is the object used to link an owner/landlord to a premise. This wiki basically supports Call Centre Users to create multiple allocations.
  • Owner Allocation process provides an automated means of placing the service into the landlord/owner’s name between tenants.  The “Owner” is the Business Partner linked to the premise. In the current system, the Property object is the object used to link an owner/landlord to a premise. This development basically supports Call Centre Users to create multiple allocations.
  • A Property is an SAP object created to provide time dependent maintenance of the owner and installation. A Property will be created for each premise that the owner requests an Agreement be established for.  Each Property will have a contract account specified and this contract account will be used each time the owner is moved into the specified premise.  This way the owner’s contract accounts and contracts, will be more easily managed.  A key date field is also provided for selection according to time related validity.
  • The business requirement is to have the ability to create, transfer ownership from one BP to another, reverse or update multiple properties on Owner Allocation without having to enroll each property separately.  Large apartment complexes typically enroll on this program.

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Front Office:

  • This component aids you in giving information to customers and in executing processes and workflows. A standard configuration is delivered with the SAP Utilities (IS-U) component. You can freely configure the front office in Customizing, meaning you can integrate all the most frequent processes and most important information in your utility company. In addition, you can define the appearance of the front office screens. In this way, an appropriate work environment can be created for each agent, and he/she can access the exact data and functions needed for his or her individual tasks.
  • The first step in the process is the identification of the customer. This is supported by the front office search function (data finder)
  • You can display the customer’s data in one of the information views and, in other views, branch to more detailed information on specific areas. In this way, you can, for example, access information about bills, rates, budget billing amounts or meter reading results
  • Customizing contains a number of front office processes, using which you can process common business transactions. These include, for e.g.:
    • Changes to customer data
    • Move-in/out.
    • Interaction Record
  • If all the data required for a front office process is available, then you can deal with the customer’s request immediately. Alternatively, you can temporarily interrupt the process and complete it later. The system displays uncompleted processes in the front office.
  • More complex processes, that consist of more than one processing step or do not run at once, can be controlled using an SAP Business Workflow. Based on the workflow you use; the execution of the process can be staggered- for example delayed until a specific event. It can also be handled by different agent. You can start the following workflows in the front office:
    • Create service connection.
    • Collection procedures
    • Disconnection/reconnection of an installation
  • The main differences between front office processes and workflows are as follows:
    • A front office process is as temporary entity, meaning that it is terminated as soon as the front office session is ended, in which it was created. This keeps system administration costs to a minimum and improves system response times. Moreover, you can you enhanced navigation functions, such as scrolling.
    • All the steps of a front office process are executed by one agent only, namely the agent who called the current front office session. As a result, there is no need for agent determination.
    • If necessary, a front office process can start a workflow, ensuring that the processing of the business transaction is completed. In addition, an agent can resubmit a business transaction for another agent if he/she is not equipped to deal with the customer’s request. You can use the notes function to append any additional information to the resubmission.
  • Integration:
    • The front office is integrated with all other SAP Utilities components. Certain processes and workflows are integrated with SAP standard components. Some examples are illustrated in the table below. You can use processes and workflows (that use other components) yourself.

 

Process/Workflow

Standard Component

Create service connection

Service Management (PM-SMA)

Sales and Distribution (SD)

Disconnection/reconnection of an installation

Service Management (PM-SMA)

Sales and Distribution (SD)

Collection procedures

Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable (FI-CA)

 SAP CRM Web UI Overview:

  • It is a business role-based application:
    • This means that through this interface the user will be able to access only those applications for which he/she is having authorizations.
    • If a user is assigned a single role, he will not have to select the role on logon.
    • But in case there are multiple roles assigned to a user, he/she will have to select one of the available roles in order to log in to the CRM Web UI

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  • Irrespective of the role selected the screens of the CRM Web UI are structured in L-Shape
  • But the applications and functionalities which user will be able to access in the CRM Web UI depends up on the role selected.
  • Once logged in, user can see the Web UI screens in L-Shape
  • It consists of following components:
    • Header Area
    • Navigation Area
    • Work Area
  • Positions of all components of the L-Shape are fixed and cannot be changed.
  • An administrator can change the skin and logo of the web client as per company specific requirements.
  • Header area is provided to access application independent URLs and functionalities.
  • Using navigation bar user can access different applications, to which he is having authorizations.
  • Work Area gets updated based on actions a user takes on the Navigation bar.
  • It also gets updated for few actions on the header area.

Header Area

    • Header area is static, and its position is fixed.
    • It is possible to set its height in the CRM customizing but its position is fixed.
    • Header area consists of following components.
      • System Links
      • Saved Searches
      • Work Area Title
      • History

Thanks!

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