Service Order Processing with SAP Field Service Management & SAP S/4HANA Cloud - At a Glance

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Hello All, Hope you & your dear ones are staying safe in these trying times of COVID-19.

I am writing this blog post to share my experience in implementation of the integration scenario - Service Order Processing with SAP Field Service Management (formerly known as Coresystems) with SAP S/4HANA Cloud and my exposure towards this business scenario setup in the last couple of releases. I hope the information shared helps customers, partners & consultants to better plan and optimize their implementation times.

Overview:

SAP Field Service Management as an application supports field technicians to excel at their day to day operational activities by providing real time information & self service options. Automated workforce scheduling, planning & dispatching are some of the key capabilities offered out of the box. Integrating SAP Field Service Management with Service in SAP S/4HANA Cloud helps customers optimize their business processes involved in field service which ultimately can result in more efficient customer service offerings.

Basic Process Flow:

Basic Process Overview

Adapted from: Integration Setup Guide - 49X

 

The different solution components involved are listed below. Do have a look into the hyperlinks provided and get a basic understanding so that you can save a good amount of time minimizing the setup issues.

1. SAP S/4HANA Cloud


2. SAP Cloud Platform Integration


3. SAP Cloud Platform Enterprise Messaging


4. SAP Field Service Management

Integration Scenario Flow:

                                                    Integration Scenario Flow Diagram                                                         (Adapted from: https://docs.coresystems.net/integration/s4-hana-service-integration.html)

The following sequence of steps explains the integration scenario execution across the involved systems by different personas.

• Master Data Objects like Employee, Business Partner & its Address, Business Partner Relationship, Contacts, Materials with Stock Info, Equipment, Service Contracts are replicated from SAP S/4HANA Cloud to SAP Field Service Management through initial data replication


• A Service Order is created with relevant items & released in SAP S/4HANA Cloud by a Back Office Person. Once the status is Released, a Service Call with the corresponding activities and reserved materials are created in SAP Field Service Management


• Dispatcher logs into SAP Field Service Management and assigns the service call to a technician considering the nature of the service call. Once the assignment is completed, the Dispatcher will release them for Service Technicians to work on them.


• A corresponding update will also flow to SAP S/4HANA Cloud with the assigned dates & service technician info.


• Activities can be duplicated in SAP Field Service Management which in turn creates a duplicate of the service product item automatically at the same level as the original item in the corresponding service order in SAP S/4HANA Cloud


• Assigned activities can also be Unassigned & Reassigned. Un assigning creates a new activity in SAP Field Service Management and the corresponding service item is created in the service order in SAP S/4HANA Cloud but without any technician assignment where as Reassignment ensures the technician assignment in corresponding service item in SAP S/4HANA Cloud


• SAP Field Service Management delivers an OOTB Mobile Application which helps Service Technicians to receive Service Calls on their mobile and can start working on it by entering time, different types of expenses incurred and used reserved materials. It is to be noted that Technician can report unplanned expenses & service parts which are not there in Service Order in SAP S/4HANA Cloud


• Once the service is completed, the Service Technician updates the activity with required information, checks out & closes the activity in Mobile App. Regular synchronization is required to ensure data is synced between SAP Field Service Management backend and Mobile App.


• Backoffice person validates the T&M Journal Entries submitted by Technicians and approves the associated items for an activity. The approval action triggers the creation of Service Item Confirmation in Service Order in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Once all the entries are approved, the corresponding service items in Service Order are completed automatically and a final service item confirmation is created


• Back Office person then validates the changes and updates the status of the Service Order to Completed. This in turn updates the status of the corresponding service call to Technically Complete in SAP Field Service Management.


• Post final confirmation, Service Manager release the confirmation for Billing. The Billing Clerk then creates an invoice for the service confirmation items that are released for billing.

Key Differentiators:

Having expertise or exposure on the below topics will definitely give you an added advantage during the implementation of this integration scenario.

• Administration experience on SAP Cloud Platform Cockpit


• Basic Understanding of SAP Cloud Platform Enterprise Messaging - creating an instance, configuring queues, subscriptions etc.


• Knowledge on SSL Certificate handling between applications


• Knowledge on configuring mail adapter in SAP Cloud Platform Integration for error handling


• Expertise on the integration flow extension for handling customer specific requirements

Useful Links & References:

1. Best Practice Document - https://rapid.sap.com/bp/#/scopeitems/49X


2. SAP Field Service Management Help Documentation on Integration - https://docs.coresystems.net/integration/s4-hana-service-integration.html


3. SAP API Hub - https://api.sap.com/package/SAPS4HANACloudIntegrationwithSAPFieldServiceManagement?section=Overview


4. SAP Field Service Management Overview - https://blogs.sap.com/2019/02/20/coresystems-field-service-management-in-sap-c4hana-suite/ & https://blogs.sap.com/2018/10/02/sap-coresystems-field-service-management-system-overview/


5. SAP Cloud Platform Enterprise Messaging - https://blogs.sap.com/2018/10/07/getting-started-with-sap-enterprise-messaging/


6. Email for Errors in SAP Cloud Platform Integration - https://blogs.sap.com/2020/01/04/sap-cloud-platform-integration-cpi-part-6-configuring-mail-adapter/

With this I conclude my blog post & I hope the information shared above helps to overcome some of the commonly encountered implementation challenges while setting up the discussed integration scenario, leading to smoother end to end scenario execution and eventually result in achieving defined business outcome.

Thank you for the time spent in reading the blog post & please do drop a comment with any feedback or queries that you may have. Happy Learning 🙂