It has been a piece extra than 1/2 a 12 months now that I didn?T update on what goes on with SAP CRM and S/4HANA (which I will discuss with as S/4 any more; SAP it's time at the manner to trade the unwieldy name to something more doable).
As you are well aware SAP is jogging on integrating a simplified version of SAP CRM into S4. The unique roadmap presented a first purchaser release of an integrated product in early 2018, primarily based on the September 2017 release of S4. The integration became deliberate as an upload-on to S4. The preliminary scope of this CRM upload on for S/4 come to be alleged to cover what's referred to as ?Core carrier? Capability. This initial release will be located via ?Core sales? Functionality later in 2018. 2019 then is supposed to be committed to every other round-off launch protective similarly sales and issuer functionality, including loyalty control and migration gear.
Roadmap and statements also thus far have been pretty fuzzy about the strategic distinction between CRM as part of S4 and the SAP Hybris line of CRM- and CEM structures.
As it appears now, the discharge isn't going to manifest as speedy as planned, nor inside the first of all deliberate manner.
Instead, in a webinar recently held for partners, SAP ?Introduced? Two very interesting changes, with the second one possibly also being a result of the primary one.
SAP CRM will no greater be called an add-on to S/four but, at the least for the service functionality, as ?SAP S/4HANA for Customer Management?. Given this, first the Service part of SAP CRM, then its Sales component, will officially become a part of S/four. CRM Marketing can be phased out and be replaced through the usage of SAP Hybris Marketing. This isn't always some thing new, even though.
Regarding the first release, SAP now talks approximately H2, 2018. It seems that the problems of integrating two complex (and extraordinary) pieces of software application into a few element regular are better than first of all predicted. Merging them, in location of definitely turning in an upload-on, surely has brought to this complexity.
The ?Sales Core? That is to observe the Service Core is still scheduled for 2018.
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Customer Management for S/four, Service simplification; supply SAP
This series despite the fact that makes an entire lot of experience, as S4 might be very mild on customer service functionality. This additionally may be visible within the belongings of the economic enterprise object models that make up the joint answer. Also, the addition of the CRM Interaction Center is a remarkable desire, even though this can produce other implications whilst contemplating the SAP Hybris Engagement Center. More approximately this a touch later.
SAP essentially decided on to use the transactional gadgets out of CRM and to ?Marry? Them with the S4 styles of the master form of devices ? With the splendid exception of the industrial corporation associate, so that it will have its origins in CRM. This exception is rarely surprising because the CRM Business Partner is a long way superior to the real ERP Business Partner. This is known as ?The use of the best of worlds?, something I could now not contradict to.
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Customer Management for S/4, Sales simplification; supply SAP
This subject matter continues within the earnings global, in which additionally the ERP based totally S4 functionality is stronger than in the provider issue. Additionally, it can be argued that order achievement is a middle ERP pastime. There, in any case, is no need for having one-of-a-kind object fashions in the same system. The exciting components right here are the selection of a CRM based totally org model and the addition of a loyalty element into S/four, in particular due to the truth that Loyalty Management is a conventional candidate for an engine and as there may be a competing, although with decrease skills, loyalty manipulate engine in YaaS.
The majority of various CRM engines and frameworks, like pricing, configuration, extensibility, reporting, and so forth. Will be replaced thru their respective S/4 / ERP contrary numbers or be made part of outside engines.
All in all the CRM for S/4 photo is rounding off.
However, there are some of ultimate questions that SAP goals as a way to reply as a way to deliver customers in addition self belief. These questions encompass:
- How reliable is the roadmap? This is an eternal and difficult question. However, the quiet shift of the release of S/4 for Customer Management from ‘based on 1709’ to H2, 2018 raises some additional doubts. On the other hand the timeline is not yet critical, as there is ongoing support for CRM 7 until the end of 2025.
- How to deal with multiple ERP or S/4 backend systems? There is a good number of customers that for legal and other reasons do run different ERP systems in different countries or for different subsidiaries. The original plan for a CRM add-on did not cover this common scenario. There still is no statement about it other than CRM Middleware still being part of the system.
- How are engines and industry solutions dealt with? The most prominent example right now would be CPQ and the upcoming SAP Revenue Cloud.
- How is the differentiation between S/4 for Customer Management and the different SAP Hybris solutions?
S/4 Customer Service vs. SAP Hybris
The closing query is truly the 800-pound gorilla of questions. And the solution to it is best emerging, based upon the idea that there are 3 tiers of structures: Systems of document, operational structures, and systems of engagement, with the machine of report does the ?Heavy transactional lifting?. The cloud based operational tool and tool of engagement gives the strength and nimbleness required by manner of rapid-converting patron engagement necessities. Consequently the transactional tool is S/four based totally completely while the operational- and engagement structures are primarily based definitely upon the SAP Cloud Platform, which basically way that everything may be inside the cloud however the transactional system also can stay on premise.
This seems moderately honest and constant specially on the S/4 vs. SAP Hybris side, however nonetheless might be very high stage.
A Customer Service Example
In the case of Customer Service SAP?S conceptual implementation of this vision seems like the diagram under.
Personally, I think that this distinction of three tiers is unnecessary as both, omni-channel service engagement and field service have customer engagement and operations facets, but let’s go for it for time being.
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3-tiered framework for SAP & SAP Hybris Customer Service; source SAP This differentiation seems to make quite some sense on the outset and is a refinement of an older diagram. However, the devil is in the details. |
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Conact Center remodeling with SAP Hybris; source SAP |
An important part of this devil is that this vision falsely suggests that the system of engagement is actually on top of the operational system, therefore mixing high volume low-touch service and low volume high-touch service. It also suggests that service tickets require a Cloud for Service implementation in addition to the (omni-channel) Customer Engagement Center.
Which is plain wrong.
For example, both systems offer a service ticket, albeit the service ticket in Cloud for Customer needs – and offers – more functionality.
Instead the Cloud for Service will concentrate on being a “market-leading field service management solution including superior mobile experience & advanced scheduling (w/ ClickService)”, while the engagement center will focus on automated and agent based customer service.
Both solutions are supported by SAP Leonardo-based machine learning.
And here comes the catch again.
SAP offers a Service Ticket Intelligence solution to “automatically categorize incoming service tickets and to provide resolution recommendations for the agents. This allows contact centers to expedite problem resolution and scale with the increase of digital service requests”.
This leads to faster ticket resolution by routing the tickets to the right agents and additionally, by providing solution suggestions, reduces the resolution times. On top of this it frees up the agents to spend more time with customers instead of doing admin or system management tasks.
The net effect of this should be better customer service and increased customer satisfaction as business outcomes.
However, SAP Service Ticket Intelligence comes pre-integrated into SAP Service Cloud, the alleged reason being the number of tickets required for the learning process.
I don’t buy this argument, actually don’t even get it.
Running the ticket intelligence against Cloud for Customer with the agents working in the Service Engagement Center – or the S/4-based Interaction Center – the ticket intelligence does not connect to the system that serves for ticket creation and therefore does not really help the agents. It also does not effectively work with self-service systems.
This is at best inconsistent and should be changed fast as it also forces SAP Customers to implement an additional and potentially unnecessary system.
All in All
The picture is getting clearer.
The differentiation between the old world transactional systems and the systems of engagement is more and more being sorted out. Looking at how SAP proceeds what was CRM becomes part of ERP (S/4) and CEM becomes the new world – Customer Engagement and Commerce and driven by SAP Hybris.
Current questions are more and more on detail level and increasingly on how to combine cloud platform products (SAP Leonardo) and different SAP Hybris solutions efficiently to come to a consistent and customer specific solution. The current problem for customers with this is the functional overlap of the different ‘clouds’ combined with insufficient modularization.
This is where the rework of YaaS could come into the picture. Modularization of the various clouds into ‘Micro’-Services would allow for a seamless recombination of systems that allow for the definition of functional scope according to customer needs as opposed to only offering pre-packaged systems.
In between revisiting the integration strategy of the various components with the goal of minimizing the number of required systems should be of additional help for customers.
SAP-internal one item that the new SAP Hybris chief Alex Atzberger needs to look at is an avoidance of an us vs. them situation between SAP and SAP Hybris. Both parts of the company need to work as seamlessly as the solutions they build. Departmental rivalry will be on customers cost and ultimately harm SAP.
https://aheadcrm.blogspot.de/2017/06/sap-crm-into-s4hana-did-sap-hit-bulls.html
https://aheadcrm.blogspot.de/2017/04/sap-crm-and-sap-jam-news-from-crm.html
https://aheadcrm.blogspot.de/2016/04/sap-crm-light-at-end-of-tunnel.html
https://aheadcrm.blogspot.de/2016/02/sap-state-of-nation.html
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