While it was offered as the Customer Management add-on in SAP S/4HANA 1709 and 1809 releases, the functionality is now fully integrated as Service into the SAP S/4HANA 1909 core, no longer requiring the installation of the add-on component. In this release, all the features and functions which were part of SAP S/4HANA Customer Management have been included in SAP S/4HANA Service and SAP S/4HANA Sales (sales force support, for example for managing leads and opportunities).
In addition, Service is completely integrated across the SAP S/4HANA logistics, financial and human resources follow-up processes. It is embedded with key components such as S/4HANA pricing and billing and leverages the S/4HANA master data objects, such as materials and business partners.
The core capabilities of the Service line-of-business are included in the core SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management license.
Benefits
Each company is striving for customer service excellence, which is consequently leading to brand loyalty. The SAP S/4HANA Service application can help service employees and call center agents to achieve increased productivity and responsiveness to customer inquiries with every service interaction.
The biggest technical advantage of transforming from SAP CRM on premise to the SAP S/4HANA Service solution is without any doubt the simplification of the landscape, eliminating the need for middleware and replication between two systems (previously ERP and CRM).
Furthermore, the CRM "One Order" data model has been simplified for the service processes, no longer requiring the use of many tables, nor the need for multiple joins between these tables. Instead all data is now stored in only 2 tables (CRMS4D_SERV_H for header data and CRMDS4D_SERV_I for item data). In conjunction with the CDS (Core Data Services) modeling functionality introduced in SAP HANA, it is acknowledged as a major performance improvement.
It also needs mentioning that the UI has now been harmonized with the Fiori look, by introducing the Fiori based Belize and Quartz Light themes.
Overview of main business processes
Service Order Management
Service Order Management enables you to manage your full service lifecycle, from creating and processing service order quotations to creating and processing service orders and service confirmations. Service tasks and required service parts can be combined in one service order and the full integration with SAP S/4HANA procurement and billing allows a seamless post goods issue of the spare parts and the creation of a billing document request and billing document for all the service items. If service contracts are enabled, contracts will be automatically determined in the service orders.
Solution Quotation Management
This functionality allows you to offer complete solutions to your customers, including different types of products (tangible products, services, service contract items and as from Release 1909 also subscription products) on one quotation. When released solution quotations are accepted, the follow-up transactions such as orders, sales orders, service contracts, subscription orders or contracts, business solution portfolio, are automatically triggered.
The combination of the different product types are managed by product bundles in the master data. These are displayed in a hierarchical view.
As from the 1909 Release, a new Odata service is provided: Solution Quotations – Create, Read, Update Delete.
Interaction Center Service Request Management
The Interaction Center is a tool to enable companies to collaborate efficiently and consistently with their customers. The Interaction Center agents can handle inbound and outbound interactions using multiple communication channels such as telephone, e-mail, fax, chat and letter. They can also process business transactions, such as service orders, and a knowledge search is at their disposal to increase their productivity. Account and equipment master data is available from the SAP S/4HANA core application.
Service Contract Management
Service Contract Management can be used to create service agreements with your business partners in order to process and monitor them through their entire life cycle. It is fully integrated into SAP S/4HANA Billing and enables flexible pricing, including a price adaptation tool as of Release 1909. This tool can be configured to automatically adjust prices based on a pricing date rule, which is especially powerful in case of long-term service contracts. Other new functions include auto renewal of due service contract items and price agreements, allowing to offer customers lower prices than those defined in service orders.
Business Solution Portfolio Management
A business solution portfolio provides a consolidated view of the customer’s business solutions, referencing the respective service contract items and subscription contract items. It’s possible to manually create or automatically create as a follow-up transaction for a solution quotation.
Conclusion
Ingrid Vellemans, Senior Consultant SCM & CRM @ Expertum: “As a SAP CRM consultant I am used to working with the complex CRM on premise framework containing many GUID tables and many structures. It really felt as a relief to notice that the new SAP S/4HANA CRM functionality has been considerably simplified and fully integrated within the SAP S/4HANA core system. It provides all the necessary service processes and also replaces the classical SAP ERP Customer Service (CS).
I believe that companies can truly benefit from the new, streamlined SAP S/4HANA Service & Sales functionalities, replacing the SAP CRM On Premise system while moving to SAP S/4HANA.”
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About the author
Ingrid Vellemans is a seasoned SCM & CX Consultant at Expertum. Thanks to a wide range of technical skills, a very good understanding of business processes and an in-depth analytical insights, she has been playing important roles in several SAP implementations for a variety of industries.
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