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Author's profile photo Mohammed Wasim Arafat

SAP Multichannel Foundation for Utilities and Public Sector(MCF) Explained!

Since its launch on Nov 2013, SAP MCF has been widely adopted by customers across the globe and continue to grow as a solution with several releases since then. So what is SAP MCF?. Simply put, SAP MCF allows Utility companies, in a simple and cost effective way, to digitize their customer interactions through self-service digital channels like web, mobile and social. It does so by abstracting the complexity of the SAP Business Suite for Utilities into simple open standard Rest based APIs/OData services that can be easily consumed by consumer facing apps-on any channel, built using any technology.

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The following things should come to your mind when you think SAP MCF.

Apps

3 template apps that can be deployed for use by end consumers are delivered as part of MCF. A standard desktop web app, a responsive design app that dynamically renders itself to device form factor ( you could think of it as mobile optimized web page) and a native mobile app for Android and iOS. Technically,these apps are built with SAP UI5. The interesting thing is that all the apps use the same MCF REST based APIs/OData services, hence there is no more costly app-per-app integration required and what’s even better is that the customer gets to see same data irrespective of the app he/she is using.

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55+ pre-integrated self-service scenarios

Engaging closely with our customers from different regions, we have identified the most important self services scenarios relevant for the utilities industry  and delivered them as part of the standard solution. A scenario is delivered as a single or  a combination of REST based API/OData services that are fully integrated to the SAP Business Suite for Utilities. The scenarios range from simple ones like view bills, change personal data to more advanced like view smart meter consumption, signing up for a new product and submitting a meter reading anonymously. So there is lots of content that can be used out-of-the-box, have a look below.

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Platform

While SAP MCF is an out of the box solution offering ready to use self-services scenarios and apps, it is very much also a high productivity platform that makes it easy to enhance the standard or develop new scenarios. It is powered by SAP Gateway and SAP Mobile Platform that enable enterprise grade security, scalability and extensibility. SAP Gateway where OData services are build and consumed, is further complemented with a framework to make it easy to enhance or add to the pre-delivered OData services. The MCF mobile app runs on SAP Mobile Platform which in addition to providing a mobile infrastructure, also contains various tools to enhance existing or create new mobile apps.

No Upgrade required

SAP MCF is delivered as a set of 3 non-modifying add-ons, one each to be deployed on ISU, CRM and Gateway respectively.As long as minimum release level requirements- ISU 6.04 and/or CRM 7.0 are met, its a simple add-on installation without any need for upgrade.This means that you can go up and running with MCF with minimum disruption to your existing running business systems. Also to be noted that CRM is optional, indeed several customers are already running MCF  with an ISU only installation.

Misc

If all the above is still not enough šŸ™‚ ,  MCF comes with more features like own user management, channel analytic, 360 customer view, push notifications, co-browsing for agent and customer.

Keep exploring the dedicated  MCF key topic page for more interesting news and information. I look forward to your comments.

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      8 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Ankeet Bhandari
      Ankeet Bhandari

      Nice! šŸ™‚

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thanks for the information. I understand it would be simple Addon installation on backend system however how about front end installation. Ā SAP MCF installation what would be its requirement ? Will it be a separate SAP netwaver gateway installation separate box/server . Kindly give its installation details. Thanks

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      WeĀ are looking for replacement of Taxpayer onlineĀ service module for SAP TRM. I have two questions concerning the capacity of SAP MCF:
      - Does it supportĀ forms framework of SAP TRM?
      - Does it support BRF+ of SAP TRM?

      Author's profile photo Anand Ranjan
      Anand Ranjan

      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

      Author's profile photo Stefan Zumbach
      Stefan Zumbach

      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 (no Gateway)

      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 solutions it would be kool.

      Best regards, Stefan

      Author's profile photo Yevgen Trukhin
      Yevgen Trukhin

      Hi Stefan,

      I think it depends on your use case and scenario. Are you planning to build your own self-service apps and therefore you need MCF as self-service api to access the backend or do you want to leverage SAP delivered UI templates?

      User management in MCF is done via central GW hub where users are distributed across the ERP/CRM landscape. In the past it was hard to do that over SCP. Maybe, it could have changed i didnt check the latest on this topic.

      Regarding usage of apis from MCF,Ā  some customers have their own user management approach and they switch MCF into agent mode consuming apis from their application.

      Best Regards, Yevgen

      Author's profile photo Manjunath Vinayagam
      Manjunath Vinayagam

      Hi Yevgen,

      Do you know if MCF for utilities allows mass outbound email communication functionality or what options are there to achieve it. We are planning to implement S4H CM and use MCF as an add on.

      Thanks,

      Manju

       

      Author's profile photo Yevgen Trukhin
      Yevgen Trukhin

      Hi Manjunath, yes MCF just integrates into existing communication processes that are supported by FICA, for example. Best Regards, Yevgen