Configuration - Part 4

[santosh_v]

The IPC or Internet Pricing and Configurator engine is a tool that may be used in a stand-alone mode or in conjunction with R/3 or CRM or MSA.  It has two major components, namely the pricing (SPE) and configurator (SCE) engines.  These engines work stand-alone or as an integrated package.

• An engine to configure and price products on the web or Off-line.
• Utilizes the master data.
• Provides a set of standard UI.
• Written in JAVA and API based.

Differences between 4.0 and 5.0 CRM 4.0

• IPC is separate server.
• Deployment in file system, specific install + patch tools.
• RFC and http communication with CRM.
• Load balancing with separate dispatcher.
• Public interface: IPC ‘commands’ – wrapped as ABAP RFC function modules.
• CRM order and UI operate on the same IPC session.

CRM 5.0

• IPC is integrated into the SAP WebAS.
• Java code runs in the Virtual Machine container.
• No separate server installation.
• Deployment in database - via standard transport system.
• System monitoring via transaction SM53.
• Public interface: IPC ‘commands’ – wrapped as Java enabled ABAP RFC function modules.
• CRM order and UI operate on separate copies of the configuration.

IPC in CRM 4.0

CRM Online Application applications use the IPC for the following Configuration purposes:

Interactive configuration

Whenever you are configuring a product, you are using the Web-based configuration user interface (based on JSP technology), which is accessed via an HTML control and the Web server. The HTML control functions as a Web browser.

The standard shipment of the IPC also includes a desktop user interface (based on Java Swing technology); however, this UI is only used for Field Sales scenarios and testing purposes from the Product Modelling Environment (SAP IPC-PME).

Setting-up configuration master data

As of Release 3.0, you can maintain configuration master data (dependencies) within the CRM system. Dependencies are compiled (via Remote Function Calls (RFCs) by the IPC Server. In this particular case, they are compiled by the SAP IPC Product Modelling Environment (PME).