Product Information
FAQ for SAP Multichannel Foundation for Utilities and Public Sector (MCF)
List of frequently asked questions (FAQ) related to SAP Multichannel Foundation for Utilities and Public Sector (MCF):
Where can I find technical details about how to install and configure MCF?
For MCF as part of the SAP ERP or SAP CRM, read the Administrator’s Guide (which has been updated frequently based on feedback received from MCF implementation projects). You can download its newest version from SAP Help Portal (https://help.sap.com/umc). It comprises both installation and configuration information. Moreover there is a dedicated Sizing Guide available on SAP Help Portal , alternatively go to https://www.sap.com/about/benchmark/sizing.html and choose Sizing > Sizing Guidelines > Industries.
For MCF as part of S/4HANA Utilities, please note that installing these add-ons is not required any more, see >>LINK to blog post for more details. For sizing details please see https://help.sap.com/doc/a564746ee4d0416bb1ea6d02c802faba/SIZING/en-US/Sizing_MCF_S4HANA.pdf
Do I need to upgrade to the newest enhancement package (EhP) to install MCF?
No. If you are running IS-U as part of SAP ERP or SAP CRM, it is sufficient to install the following (non-modifying) add-ons:
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UMCERP01 – to be installed on top of SAP ERP (IS-U 6.0 EhP4 or higher
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UMCCRM01 – to be installed on top of SAP CRM (CRM 7.0 EhP0 or higher)
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UMCCUI501 – to be installed on top of SAP Gateway
(see Administrator Guide – link under the answer to the previous question) for details.
Consequently, most utility companies running SAP ERP (IS-U) and/or SAP CRM can install MCF on top of their existing system landscape without a need to upgrade.
Can I install MCF if I am running IS-U only (without SAP CRM)?
Yes. In this case, you would only install two add-ons (UMCERP01 and UMCCUI501, see reply to the previous question). OData services for business partner, contract account, business partner contact, and move-in/out processes accessing the IS-U system directly and available since MCF 1.0 SP02/SP03 make it much easier for “IS-U only” customers to implement MCF. See SAP Multichannel Foundation for Utilities and Public Sector: Setting up Responsive UI templates for IS-U only scenario for adjustments to the UI template delivered by SAP.
Is MCF also available on SAP S/4HANA?
Yes, please see >>LINK to blog post for more details.
Is MCF available in a specific language?
As of now (Dec 2017), MCF (as an add-on to SAP ERP or SAP CRM) is available in 12 languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, Japanese, Hungarian, Russian, Slovak, Turkish and Ukrainian). See the Product Availability Matrix on SAP Support Portal (PAM, http://support.sap.com/pam) for an always up-to-date list.
(Background: Following SAP’s language strategy, new products are delivered in those languages that are most used by the target customers. Translation into further languages will be added on demand – if there is sufficient need in the respective markets. Contact your local SAP account executive if you request translation into an additional language.)
How is MCF different from UCES ?
SAP Utility Customer e-Services (UCES) has been released to customers more than 10 years ago, allowing utility companies to use the Internet as an additional communication and service channel to their end-consumer. While UCES is still being maintained as part of SAP ERP for many more years (as part of SAP ERP/IS-U), SAP is not planning to deliver further enhancements in this area. Other benefits of MCF compared to UCES are
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Multi-channel approach: you can use OData services delivered MCF to build end-consumer apps (self-services) running on any device (mobile, desktop, social media ..) through one single interface;
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MCF seamlessly integrates with SAP CRM for Utilities, while UCES integrates with IS-U only.
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MCF is available as part of S/4HANA Utilities, while UCES is not (see SAP notes 2270504 and 2468366).
Is it correct that SAP ships new web application templates with MCF?
Yes, SAP ships two attractive and easy-to-use web application templates (built with SAP UI5) as part of MCF (see e.g. SAP Multichannel Foundation for Utilities SP03 offering a brand new responsive UI out-of-the-box, is now available ). Typically customers or partners would need to enhance them for productive use in the implementation project – in order to adopt them to their specific customer-service processes and corporate branding.
Where can I find details about the user management concept in MCF?
Please read the SAP Multichannel Foundation for Utilities and Public Sector: User Management Overview blog.It also comprises an FAQ dedicated to user management topics.
Which OData services does SAP deliver with MCF?
You can find a list of all OData entities delivered with MCF on SAP Help Portal (https://help.sap.com/umc):
- Entities for OData Service Model in IS-U (as part of SAP ERP)
- Entities for OData Service Model in IS-U (as part of SAP S/4HANA)
- Entities for OData Service Model in SAP CRM
Are there new OData services available with MCF as part of S/4HANA?
Yes, with S/4HANA 1909, SAP has delivered new OData services related to the new Utilities Sales Contract management (see S/4HANA Utilities for Customer Management (S4CRM) – redesigned sales contract management for utilities for details).
For that purpose a new OData entity Sales Contract in was introduced, see >>LINK to SAP Help Portal. Enhancements have been delivered with S/4HANA 2020, for details see
>>LINK to SAP Innovation Discovery
Where can learn more about how to enhance OData services delivered with MCF?
Read our blogs on Key Topic: SAP Multichannel Foundation for Utilities and Public Sector, section Technical Info – OData enhancement, especially:
Does MCF offer channel/customer interaction analytics?
MCF acts as the central the hub through which all the communication between consumer apps and the back-end system is orchestrated. It collects detailed information on the customer usage of the services including the business context of the interaction. An OData service allows querying the system for this information which can be subsequently analyzed (e.g. using a BW/BI tool) to come up with business insights like: web usage vs. mobile usage, top 5 most used services online, target group of most dedicated mobile app users. Utilities can use these insights to fine tune their multichannel customer engagement strategy.
In addition to that, you can enable the customer apps to track customer interaction, for example, what is the user clicking, how much time user spending on a certain title, how many clicks the user does to complete a transaction. This information could be collected and analyzed to further understand the user behaviour on different channel apps and refine the app design.
See also dedicated blogs SAP Multichannel Foundation for Utilities: Analytics and SAP Multichannel Foundation for Utilities and Public Sector: How to Use Web and Channel Analytics to Improve Your Web Application for more details.
Does MCF support offline mode (i.e. is it possible to run self-services based on MCF during downtime periods of corresponding back-end system)?
Right now, there is no out-of-the-box solution available to fulfill this requirement. Offline access capabilities typically require some secondary storage location (e.g. back-up system) available during such downtime periods, at least for read-only mode. As a more simple solution, some utilities using MCF are also sending a predefined message to the customer informing them about the downtime (and its planned duration), and asking them to check again later.
Does MCF support B2B scenarios (e.g. customer self-services for commercial&industrial (C&I) customers, housing societies)?
Primarily, MCF has been designed and built according to the requirements of a B2C scenario, to offer customer self-services for residential and small C&I customers. However, you can certainly re-use many OData services available with MCF to build web or mobile applications covering B2B scenarios. It highly depends on the specific B2B use cases to what extend additional OData services and UI development are required to cover them.
Since requirements for B2B scenarios are very different across utilities from various countries, SAP is currently not planning to offer a standard solution for this in MCF. Contact SAP Custom Development or your implementation partner if you are interested in such an offering.
What does the MCF license include?
The MCF license already includes underlying components, namely SAP Gateway and SAP Mobile Platform (SMP) Consumer edition with certain restrictions. MCF licensing itself is based on active users, see SAP Software Use Rights for details. Please get in touch with your SAP Account Executive for more detailed license information including terms and conditions.
Hi Michael
Thanks for such a nice post. it was very informative. I have a couple of questions.
MCF Licensing
I am curious about the last paragraph. Does that mean that if we have a MCF license, we can also use SMP to deploy as a native/hybrid app. That is to say, we do not need to license SMP separately? I am aware of the inclusion of Gateway license.
BC-Set
As per the Admin Guide, in addition to the Add-On we also need to apply the following BC Sets in CRM and ISU. These in itself can have an impact on existing code and we need to assess it as it can modify current functionality/customisation. Do you have any thoughts?
CRM_IU_UMC_IR_CATEGORY
CRM_IU_UMC_ISR
CRM_IU_UMC_PR_PROCESS
CRM_IU_UMC_SETTING
ISU_UMC_CORRESP_DISPATCH_CONTROL
Thanks & Regards
Jayshree
Hi Jayshree,
On MCF licensing question, SMP Consumer edition is included within MCF license with restrictions. However, I would advise you to get in touch with the respective SAP Account executive to get details on the exact terms of usage and the restrictions.
Hope this helps.
Cheers, Wasim
Hi Jayshree, regarding BC sets, they deliver sample customizing. They should not overwrite your existing customizing.
Best Regards, Yevgen
Hi Gurus,
I have a question. For setting up a MCF architecture ( using CRM as leading system scenario ) , with embedded deployment of gateway, will the CRM server serve the role of the main gateway hub?
Hi Suman,
Just heard from Yevgen that you have already been in contact with him for the same question in a different thread on SCN. Could you please check his reply?
Thanks,
Michael
Hi Michael,
Sure. Thanks. Apologies for posting it here.
Regards,
Suman
Hi Experts,
I want to register product configurator Odata service 'CRM_IU_UI5_PFC' in Maintain and Activate services, but not able to register. I have activated the services in SICF and it's in active status. I am not able to find the service in my LOCAL system(ALIAS system defined) to register. When trying to execute Odata service CRM_IU_UI5_PFC ending up with error message 'No System Alias found for Service 'CRM_IU_UI5_PFC_0001' .
Could you please let me know if any pre-requisite that needs to be done in order to register the 'CRM_IU_UI5_PFC' service.
Thanks in advance.
Basavaraj Malge
Hi!
Please check note 2047982, section 8.2.
Best regards,
Christian
Hi All,
As part of requirement related to Multichannel Foundation for Utilities we have to update few data in contractaccount entity and in response we have to send some data in payload.
Please suggest some approach to send data in payload response for update entity scenario.
Regards,
Anand
Hi all,
Could some one help me to find the right place on the service market place where I can download the Add-On UMCERP01
I can't find informations how to download this add-on. We are using ERP SAP ERP 2005 27 (06/2015) sap.com SAP ERP 6.0
Best regards, Stefan
Hi Stefan,
Have you tried https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/softwarecenter ?
In case the direct link does not work, you can also access the "Download Software" area via https://support.sap.com.
Best regards,
Michael
Hi Michael
Kannst du mir auch sagen, nach was ich genau suchen muss? Eine Suche nach MCF oder auch UMCERP01 ist nicht zielführend.
Bester Gruss, Stefan
Hi Stefan,
Sorry for the late answer. I was able to find UMCERP01 (and its available support packages) when searching for UMCERP01. Maybe there is an issue with your S-user (which you need to access the SAP Support Portal)? I would recommend you to create an incident (under component XX-SER-SAPSMP-SWC) to clarify, hope my colleagues are able to help!
Best regards,
Michael
HI All,
I am currently in a project where we must develop an application that allows meter readings to be sent, our client has SCP and OData Provisioning, my question is the following: Could you only install the UMCERP01 add-on and not those that correspond to the gateway server, since within their landscape they don't have it.
Thank you all in advance.
Greetings.
Pablo.
Hi Pablo, it depends for which scenarios you want to expose MCF OData. For self services using SAP template UI you have to use NW GW with user management. If you have your own application that does user management for you and usage of MCF is OData consumption in agent mode for API access, then u can use directly without NW GW with odata provisioning.
Best Regards, Yevgen
Hi – thanks for the answers Michael. We have been able toninstall McF.
Now I have an other question:
We are planning the implementation of MCF for Utilities. Therefor we are thinking about two different integration scenarios:
1. Integration over SCP and Cloud Connector (Gateway direct on ISU)
2. Central Gateway HUB Installation
As we understood – SAP recommands the 2nd Solution – do you know if we can integrate MCF also with the 1th Solution without problems? If you can post some strengths and weaknesses for the possible solutions it would be kool.
As I understood there is no real need to do the integration with SCP.
Best regards, Stefan
Hi Stefan, i answered to Pablo just above your question on the same topic.
Best Regards, Yevgen
Hi, Experts MCF
Do you know if we can activate SAP MCF over SAP ERP Telco Industry Solution (BRIM)?, we need a customer portal that can read de open items from FICA, the SAP proposal for BRIM is CCP but CCP today doesn't work with FICA.
Can we activate the MCF add-ons over SAP ERP Telcos?
Regards
German
Hi German,
Officially, MCF = SAP Multichannel Foundation for Utilites and Public Sector, is released for the utilities and public sector industry only, as its name says. However, those OData APIs that read FI-CA data (e.g. contract accounts, open items, ...) or cross-industry data (e.g. business partners) can be suitable for other industries as well. Are you using the SAP ERP Telco Industry Solution (BRIM) as part of the SAP Business Suite (ECC 6.0 EhP4 or higher), or as part of S/4HANA?
Best regards,
Michael
Hi German, in addition to what Michael said, I would like to add that in S4 we downported FICA specific part of MCF OData service into FICA layer, that service name is ERP_FICA_UMC, just open it in SEGW and view the OData entities. That service is not ISU/Public sector specific. You would need to test in Telco scenario and adjust FICA event exits accordingly for your industry.
Hope this helps!
Best Regards, Yevgen
Hi All,
I am currently in the process of setting up MCF with S4HANA only. However when I launch the template, it is still trying to retrieve $metadata from CRM_UTILITIES_UMC, which is the Odata Service of the CRM system.
How do you configure MCF to retrieve all information from the S4 system (which has SAP S/4HANA FOR CUST MGMT installed on it).
Thank you in advance.
Ryno
Hi
We'd like to evaluate MCF. But every Blog / tutorial about the use of the template applications is very old. Do you know any newer stuff? i.e. how to adapt / enhance it with SAP BAS?
Regards
Daniel