Product Management Update: SAP #S4HANA Cloud 1711 for Professional Services
In the tradition of Product Management Updates with the new SAP S/4HANA Cloud releases, I will point out some of the highlights of the 1711 release for the professional services processes within SAP S/4HANA Cloud. In case you missed them, here are the blogs to the 1708 and 1705 release blogs for the SAP S/4HANA Cloud for professional services.
Improved customer alignment with preliminary billing documents
Preliminary billing documents serve as a useful basis for repeated negotiations with customers regarding billing document details. You can now ensure that customers are entirely happy with the form and content of a future billing document before you create, post, and send out the final billing document to request payment. Preliminary billing documents are intended purely for negotiation purposes. You can show them to customers to align on exact details such as prices, payment terms, and the billing date. If changes become necessary, you can make these changes before you create the final billing documents that customers are expected to settle. You can then send these final billing documents out to your customers, safe in the knowledge that both parties are fully aligned regarding the upcoming settlement.
Some of the capabilities for the preliminary billing functionality are for example creating preliminary billing documents based on items in the billing due list by changing prices, attachments, or texts, displaying a print preview of the preliminary billing document, creating and post the final billing document, as well as outputting preliminary billing documents the same way as final billing documents, for example print and email.
More elaborate connectivity to other SAP or third party systems
Connectivity and integration are absolutely key when we talk about the cloud, therefore we have several new whitelisted APIs coming with the 1711 release that support the professional services processes. I added the direct links to the API Hub entries for these APIS.
Let’s begin with the API that drive the connection of employee, availability and timesheet data:
First up, there are two new whitelisted APIs for the external HR workforce Integration (SAP_COM_0301). This communication scenario includes the APIs for interfacing a workforce person’s master data and availability information to S/4HANA system:
- Public API to replicate Workforce Persons basic master data from External HR
This SOAP based Inbound service enables you to replicate Workforce Person basic master data from external HR systems to your SAP S/4HANA cloud system. [API Hub Link]
- Public API to replicate Workforce Persons availability data from External HR
This ODATA service enables you to add availability information to the S/4HANA system. The availability information includes the daily work schedule, the holiday information and the absence information of a person. [API Hub Link]
Next up we have a new white listed API in the workforce timesheet integration (SAP_COM_0027). This communication scenario includes the API for interfacing timesheet data to S/4HANA system:
- Public API to manage Workforce Persons Timesheet.
This ODATA service enables you to create, read, update and delete timesheet data of a workforce person in SAP S/4HANA system. This service also supports automatic posting of timesheet data to controlling. [API Hub Link]
And the last API I would like to highlight with the 1711 release is for the external bidding or project planning application (SAP_COM_0054). This communication scenario includes the API for creating and updating the existing commercial project in S/4HANA system:
- Public API to create and update commercial project in S/4HANA System
This SOAP based Inbound service enables you to create project, work packages, roles with in the commercial project for professional services industry. [API Hub Link]
This communication scenario will get the details of the customer project like:
- Project
- Work package
- Work package staffing (budget)
- Linked Work Items to a Work package
Also it would be possible to create and update on
- Project
- Work package
- Linked Work Items to a Work package
Please take a look at the SAP API Hub in general to find more information about all the whitelisted APIs for SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:
- Sven Denecken’s SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1711 Release Blog
- S/4HANA Cloud release info: http://www.sap.com/s4-cloudrelease
- Top innovations and best practices for the SAP S/4HANA Cloud in the SAP Best Practice Explorer
- New openSAP course ‘ Extending SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA’