We are excited to see the first projects underway for our mobile B2C solution ‘Utilities Customer Engagement’.
In June, the product team released v2 extending the scope with self-registration, meter reading and new energy service integrated to CRM and a refreshed look-and-feel. Development cycles are much shorter for mobile solutions, later this year we plan to release v3. Have a look at the updated app, it even has a built-in demo mode that runs offline (download links below).
During the implementation, the utility company first installs the SAP Mobiliser component from the SAP Mobile Platform and the backend integration add-on (available for ECC 6 EhP4 or higher). There is a little configuration in the SAP backend for example for payment methods and service requests and a little setup in Mobiliser, including the security settings. Then, the delivered standard app is being customized. This includes branding and probably adjusting the menus and functions, for example to limit the payment options. Next, information pages and links are added, for example for energy efficiency programs and opening hours. The app also comes with a sample interface implementation to an OMS system. This part of the mobile platform is prepared to connect directly to the OMS system to retrieve outage information so it can be shown on a map in the app.
Then the app is ready to be release to the public. If the utility uses the SAP UCES web self-service or at least the user handling of it, then the user ID and password are already in place. Otherwise, self-registration is possible.
It does not sound that hard, and it isn’t. You can even do this yourself in a project that runs about 8-12 weeks. We have excellent How-to-Guides on SCN, see below. Or let us know if you are interested in a workshop, we have a classroom training available that we ran in February, and we can repeat this on request or do a custom version on-site.
We will also talk about the implementation experience in detail during the SAP for Utilities conference in September, see below.
Cheers, Robert
Links:
SAP Utilities Customer Engagement Mobile App on sap.com: https://www54.sap.com/pc/tech/mobile/software/industry-apps/utilities-customer-engagement/index.html
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sap-utilities-customer-engagement/id583283277?mt=8
Google play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sap.b2c.mUtilities&hl=en
How-to-Guide: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-41704
Mobile workshop 9/2013 in California: http://www.sap-for-utilities.com/workshops.htm#workshop3
