*** last update: March 2023 ***
Dear Retail omnichannel community,
SAP Commerce Cloud on Microsoft Azure (aka CCV2) is now on the market since Oct 2018. While the analysts celebrate and award it, there are still many customers on the (Hybris) Commerce on-prem edition and a few on cloud edition operated by Hybris/SAP (aka CCV1).
Integration middleware has evolved as well, and while the SAP Commerce Datahub integrates SAP Commerce on-prem editions with the SAP Retail backend and SAP CAR, the cloud editions of SAP are integrated via the SAP Cloud Integration Suite (formerly known as SAP Cloud Platform Integration, CPI).
Good news is: For both SAP Commerce on-prem and for SAP Commerce Cloud on Azure there is a SAP Retail integration available. Even better: SAP Named THE Leader in IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Retail Commerce Platform Software Providers 2021 Vendor Assessment.
This blogs helps you to understand the various options, release compatibilities and dependencies for an overall SAP Retail Omnichannel Commerce solution landscape.
Let's start with the reference architecture and then look for former releases and release combinations.
The current (simplified) reference architecture of SAP Retail Omnichannel Commerce is shown in Fig.1:
Fig.1: SAP Retail Omnichannel integration with SAP Commerce Cloud
SAP Commerce Cloud is a leading Digital Commerce solution for B2C, B2B and combined B2B2C/B2B2B solutions, and was awarded 8 years in a row as "Leader" by Gartner in its Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce 2022.
SAP Commerce Cloud is a standalone digital commerce platform. It provides standard integration content for a majority of SAP solutions via the SAP Commerce Cloud, integration extension pack. This huge extension package comprises the integration with S/4HANA, ERP, Master Data, synchronous pricing in SD, ATP check, SAP Qualtrics, SAP Subscription Billing, SAP Sales Cloud, SAP Service Cloud, SAP Marketing Cloud, ..., and also the SAP Retail integration with the SAP back end (S/4 and ERP) and SAP Customer Activity Repository.
Unlike the SAP Commerce Data Hub, which is used for the on-premise editions of SAP Commerce, the SAP Commerce Cloud editions use the middleware SAP Cloud Integration (aka CPI). A set of CPI integration content for the SAP retail integration with SAP Commerce Cloud on Microsoft Azure is available since August 2019 (this means the old integration via Datahub is no longer supported and out of mainstream maintenance).
Please note:
The SAP Retail Omnichannel integration with SAP Commerce Cloud is using the (common) B2C Accelerator as the UI layer of the Commerce Storefront. From SAP Commerce Cloud, integration extension pack in version 2108, the new UI Layer, als SAP Spartacus (a java script/Angulus based framework) is fully supported (incl. the OAA UI specialities).
See details in the release notes and in the latest Spartacus roadmap for details. For versions before 2108, there is an easy (unsupported) fix to Make OAA run with Spartacus UI Framework in SAP Commerce Cloud versions lower than 2105 – A How-to G....
Please find details here:
The customer journey of a straight-forward click & ship scenario is as follows (Fig.2):
Fig.2: Customer journey for SAP Retail Omnichannel Commerce based on SAP Commerce Cloud
Let me describe the customer journey, always with a look behind the scenes to understand what happens technically:
The customer enters the web shop. The products in the web shop originate from the SAP back end, but have been replicated to SAP Commerce Cloud, where they have been refined and enriched with text, media, classification etc. The anonymous customer will see targeted but not personalized content.
The customer logs in/registers. User/password data can be stored in SAP Commerce, or outside SAP Commerce performed by the SAP Customer Data Cloud (shown above). In case the SAP Customer Data Cloud is used, the user management (address, registration, password) as well as sophisticated subscription management and terms & conditions agreement is managed outside of SAP Commerce. SAP Customer Data Platform is well integrated with SAP Commerce Cloud/on prem as well as the new Marketing solution SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement (planned), considering the customer subscriptions and allowances in realtime. The web shop pushes personalized marketing content.
The customer performs a search. The search engine of SAP Commerce Cloud provides the search results enriched with OPP promotion prices and base sale prices (cached in the search engine), as well as OAA aggregated stock and rough stock indicators (cached). For details of the OAA process flow see here - the "Sales Channel Mode" is always to be used and mandatory for an S/4 back end.
The customer navigates to a product. OPP price is shown (realtime from OPPS web service). OAA stock is shown (aggregated OAA stock hold in Commerce Cloud). A marketing message is shown (buy 2 get one free). The customer adds 3 items to the basket.
The customer navigates to the basket. A (realtime) OAA availability check in SAP CAR is performed for all the items in the basket. The promotion prices for each product + discounts, as well as the net basket total amount are determined by the OPPS web service in realtime. While OPPS provides the net prices/amount, the VAT tax (plus maybe other taxes) is determined and applied by the SAP Commerce pricing engine.
The customer goes to checkout. Commerce Cloud calls OAA's ATP calculation REST API in CAR to perform a realtime omnichannel availability check. Promotion prices are and total basket (net) amount are determined as described in step "basket". Taxes are applied as in "basket".
The customer enters/confirms the delivery address and selects the shipping method.
Commerce checkout calls SAP CAR OAA REST API's for 1) omnichannel availability check for the selected shipping method 2) order sourcing optimization. OAA provides determined source(s) per line item. In addition OAA 3) writes sourcing results in CAR table for temporary reservation, with the Commerce order number and attribute "checkout".
Customer selects payment method and performs online payment. Commerce Cloud calls the connected payment provider to authorize the payment. The authorization token is added to the Commerce order, which waits to be confirmed by the customer.
The customer confirms the terms and conditions.
The customer completes the check out. Commerce Cloud stores the order in the Commerce database with the order number. Commerce also calls SAP CAR OAA Temporary Reservation API via REST service to change the reservation attribute from "checkout" into "order".
Only if the customer has registered: The customer record held in Commerce (or in SAP Customer Data Cloud) is replicated to the SAP back end via DEBMAS idoc and created in the SAP backend as business partner with role "consumer".
The online order is saved in Commerce, but is not yet replicated to the SAP back end. A delay in the replication is desired, to allow customers to easily change the order within Commerce.
After a configurable amount of time (e.g. 60min for standard delivery orders, 15min for express orders), the Commerce order is replicated via CPI to the SAP back end as ORDERS idoc. Included in the order document is the list of products (of course), the promotion prices and basket value determined by OPPS, the source per line item determined by OAA, the payment token provided by the payment provider.
The SAP back end receives the order idoc and creates an SD sales order with the same order number that Commerce has created. Since the SD order already contains prices, sources and payment token, no pricing determination is triggered on the SAP side, no ATP check, and also no payment/credit limit check.
SD Delivery processing starts (picking, packing), and the order status changes accordingly. The order changes are always replicated via order status idoc via CPI into SAP Commerce, to allow the consumer to follow the processing status of the online order.
The packing is completed, and the order is shipped from the source(s) to the customer's delivery address. The customer receives the delivery of the online order. In case the oAA sourcing optimization has provided multiple sources, the customer receives multiple deliveries.
Please note: The warehouse management software (e.g. SAP Extended Warehouse Management) may re-determine sourcing and overwrite the OAA sourcing results based on the WM configuration. This is no contradiction to the OAA sourcing determination, which is meant for an e-commerce focused realtime availability check and order sourcing . The Warehouse Management system might have more recent data, as the online order has been created a few minutes/hours ago, or might have re-located or re-assigned stock in the meantime.
Invoicing, billing, settlement: In the SAP back end the order is invoiced, and payment is collected using the authorization token of the order e.g. with the SAP Digital Payment add-on. The payment is settled.
Order History: The customer enters the web shop again and enters "My Account". He can see his online order history provided by Commerce.
In general, the Integration Extension Pack’s of SAP Commerce Cloud are needed to integrate Commerce with SAP solutions. These Integration Extension Pack's are shipped separate from the SAP Commerce and have their own release numbers. The Retail Integration Module is always part of the Integration Extension Pack.
An Integration Extension Pack release is only compatible with a specific Commerce Core release, which has its own release number as well.
The supported SAP Commerce release is mentioned on the right hand side of the Integration extension Pack page in SAP Help.
Typically, only the SAP Commerce Cloud version is mentioned in SAP Help, because the on prem edition is no longer on the price list. However, the Integration Extension Package also supports the SAP Commerce on prem version which has the same release number (here 2105) as the Cloud version.
Here the minimum release requirements for SAP Commerce Cloud for a SAP Retail Omnichannel integration:
The native SAP Retail Omnichannel integration in SAP Commerce Cloud (& B2C Accelerator) allows the seamless standard integration of omnichannel scenarios such as
and in summary a personalized and even individualized customer experience.
In the SAP Retail Omnichannel Customer WiKi you find a comprehensive set of blog and links for most aspects of the Retail Omnichannel integration with SAP Commerce. I highly recommend to bookmark this page. Here an excerpt for the most important topics:
Customer Experience isn't complete with an online order. Customers expect consistent experience across all touch points, and to be treated as a person.
Check the customer journey (Fig.2) above again. It doesn't end when the customer receives his/her online order.
In fact SAP Omnichannel Commerce is just the door opener for a even bigger customer experience: personal customer experience "clienteling" in the store, personalization in in social media and forums, loyalty experience across the retailer's universe, mobile apps pushing promo coupons when the customers approaches a store (geo fencing), of course GDPR compliance and safety of their personal data, but also to receive personalized newsletter and information they have subscribed for (and no SPAM).
SAP Commerce Cloud is not only a market leading digital commerce platform, but also an Omnichannel "hub" that orchestrates all these customer-centric processes.
Here a few examples:
SAP Commerce Cloud vs. SAP Commerce on-prem
What about if your landscape components are not the very latest ones, as described in the reference Architecture? What if you still run SAP (Hybris) Commerce on premise, your SAP CAR is not release 4.0, your SAP back end is not the latest S/4 version?
No worries - you don't need to be 100% compliant to the reference architecture. SAP released Retail Omnichannel capabilities since 2015, and covers a wide range of Commerce/CAR/SAP back end integration combinations. SAP (Hybris) Commerce wasn't on "Cloud" (Microsoft Azure) until late 2018, but still supports a comprehensive Retail Omnichannel Integration-
The next chapters shall give you orientation about release and feature dependencies.
Your IT landscape (typical set up):
The on-premise editions of SAP (Hybris) Commerce have no native SAP Retail integration.
SAP Commerce versions 2005 and higher
SAP (Hybris) Commerce until 1905:
Please note: Each SAP Commerce on-prem version requires it's own IPR release for compatibility reasons.
SAP Commerce on-prem editions earlier than 2005 do not support SAP CPI integration, but require the SAP Commerce Datahub as middleware.
The IPR integration package is free of charge for SAP Commerce on-prem customers (with a Commerce license - a PCM license is not enough).
The IPR package contains a variety of content to enable an integration of SAP Commerce on-prem with SAP Retail.
A switch from an on-premise Commerce solution to a cloud-based solution is a major step forward. SAP Commerce Cloud offers a much faster pace to innovation but the new technology has to fit to the overall company's strategy, roadmap and last but not least resources and project plans.
So there can be reasons to stick with an on-premise Commerce solution for now (2020).
*** April 20, 2021 : to be continued ***
Best regards,
Ingo
Dr. Ingo Woesner
Senior Director, SAP CX COO Transformation & Commercialization
SAP Customer Experience
SAP SE
www.sap.com
Follow me on ingo.woesner/content.
Dear Retail omnichannel community,
SAP Commerce Cloud on Microsoft Azure (aka CCV2) is now on the market since Oct 2018. While the analysts celebrate and award it, there are still many customers on the (Hybris) Commerce on-prem edition and a few on cloud edition operated by Hybris/SAP (aka CCV1).
Integration middleware has evolved as well, and while the SAP Commerce Datahub integrates SAP Commerce on-prem editions with the SAP Retail backend and SAP CAR, the cloud editions of SAP are integrated via the SAP Cloud Integration Suite (formerly known as SAP Cloud Platform Integration, CPI).
Good news is: For both SAP Commerce on-prem and for SAP Commerce Cloud on Azure there is a SAP Retail integration available. Even better: SAP Named THE Leader in IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Retail Commerce Platform Software Providers 2021 Vendor Assessment.
This blogs helps you to understand the various options, release compatibilities and dependencies for an overall SAP Retail Omnichannel Commerce solution landscape.
Content with quicklinks
- Reference Architecture (as of Nov 2021)
- Customer Journey
- System requirements and releases for the Reference Architecture
- Supported Omnichannel scenarios
- Further information about the reference architecture components
- From Omnichannel "Commerce" to an Omnichannel "Experience"
- SAP Commerce Cloud vs. SAP Commerce on-prem - A Guidepost
- Supported Commerce/CAR/SAP back end versions with notes for restriction
Let's start with the reference architecture and then look for former releases and release combinations.
Reference Architecture (as of Nov 2021)
The current (simplified) reference architecture of SAP Retail Omnichannel Commerce is shown in Fig.1:
Fig.1: SAP Retail Omnichannel integration with SAP Commerce Cloud
SAP Commerce Cloud is a leading Digital Commerce solution for B2C, B2B and combined B2B2C/B2B2B solutions, and was awarded 8 years in a row as "Leader" by Gartner in its Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce 2022.
SAP Commerce Cloud is a standalone digital commerce platform. It provides standard integration content for a majority of SAP solutions via the SAP Commerce Cloud, integration extension pack. This huge extension package comprises the integration with S/4HANA, ERP, Master Data, synchronous pricing in SD, ATP check, SAP Qualtrics, SAP Subscription Billing, SAP Sales Cloud, SAP Service Cloud, SAP Marketing Cloud, ..., and also the SAP Retail integration with the SAP back end (S/4 and ERP) and SAP Customer Activity Repository.
Unlike the SAP Commerce Data Hub, which is used for the on-premise editions of SAP Commerce, the SAP Commerce Cloud editions use the middleware SAP Cloud Integration (aka CPI). A set of CPI integration content for the SAP retail integration with SAP Commerce Cloud on Microsoft Azure is available since August 2019 (this means the old integration via Datahub is no longer supported and out of mainstream maintenance).
Please note:
The SAP Retail Omnichannel integration with SAP Commerce Cloud is using the (common) B2C Accelerator as the UI layer of the Commerce Storefront. From SAP Commerce Cloud, integration extension pack in version 2108, the new UI Layer, als SAP Spartacus (a java script/Angulus based framework) is fully supported (incl. the OAA UI specialities).
See details in the release notes and in the latest Spartacus roadmap for details. For versions before 2108, there is an easy (unsupported) fix to Make OAA run with Spartacus UI Framework in SAP Commerce Cloud versions lower than 2105 – A How-to G....
Please find details here:
- SAP Commerce Cloud, integration extension package > scroll down > SAP Retail
- SAP Commerce Cloud - Supported Releases / Mainstream Maintenance - typically a release is only supported for 2 years
- SAP Commerce Cloud, Spartacus UI Framework
- SAP Retail article master data and classification data are replicated as idocs to SAP Commerce Cloud via CPI. See CPI integration content here.
- The CAR based Omnichannel Article Availability and Sourcing (OAA) replicates aggregated stock data and rough stock indicators via OAA idocs to SAP Commerce Cloud, using CPI as middleware (details in this blog and in the Customer WIKI).
- Promotion prices for products and the shopping basket are provided by the SAP Omnichannel Promotion Pricing web service (details on OPP in this blog and in the Customer WIKI).
Customer Journey
The customer journey of a straight-forward click & ship scenario is as follows (Fig.2):
Fig.2: Customer journey for SAP Retail Omnichannel Commerce based on SAP Commerce Cloud
Let me describe the customer journey, always with a look behind the scenes to understand what happens technically:
The customer enters the web shop. The products in the web shop originate from the SAP back end, but have been replicated to SAP Commerce Cloud, where they have been refined and enriched with text, media, classification etc. The anonymous customer will see targeted but not personalized content.
The customer logs in/registers. User/password data can be stored in SAP Commerce, or outside SAP Commerce performed by the SAP Customer Data Cloud (shown above). In case the SAP Customer Data Cloud is used, the user management (address, registration, password) as well as sophisticated subscription management and terms & conditions agreement is managed outside of SAP Commerce. SAP Customer Data Platform is well integrated with SAP Commerce Cloud/on prem as well as the new Marketing solution SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement (planned), considering the customer subscriptions and allowances in realtime. The web shop pushes personalized marketing content.
The customer performs a search. The search engine of SAP Commerce Cloud provides the search results enriched with OPP promotion prices and base sale prices (cached in the search engine), as well as OAA aggregated stock and rough stock indicators (cached). For details of the OAA process flow see here - the "Sales Channel Mode" is always to be used and mandatory for an S/4 back end.
The customer navigates to a product. OPP price is shown (realtime from OPPS web service). OAA stock is shown (aggregated OAA stock hold in Commerce Cloud). A marketing message is shown (buy 2 get one free). The customer adds 3 items to the basket.
The customer navigates to the basket. A (realtime) OAA availability check in SAP CAR is performed for all the items in the basket. The promotion prices for each product + discounts, as well as the net basket total amount are determined by the OPPS web service in realtime. While OPPS provides the net prices/amount, the VAT tax (plus maybe other taxes) is determined and applied by the SAP Commerce pricing engine.
The customer goes to checkout. Commerce Cloud calls OAA's ATP calculation REST API in CAR to perform a realtime omnichannel availability check. Promotion prices are and total basket (net) amount are determined as described in step "basket". Taxes are applied as in "basket".
The customer enters/confirms the delivery address and selects the shipping method.
Commerce checkout calls SAP CAR OAA REST API's for 1) omnichannel availability check for the selected shipping method 2) order sourcing optimization. OAA provides determined source(s) per line item. In addition OAA 3) writes sourcing results in CAR table for temporary reservation, with the Commerce order number and attribute "checkout".
Customer selects payment method and performs online payment. Commerce Cloud calls the connected payment provider to authorize the payment. The authorization token is added to the Commerce order, which waits to be confirmed by the customer.
The customer confirms the terms and conditions.
The customer completes the check out. Commerce Cloud stores the order in the Commerce database with the order number. Commerce also calls SAP CAR OAA Temporary Reservation API via REST service to change the reservation attribute from "checkout" into "order".
Only if the customer has registered: The customer record held in Commerce (or in SAP Customer Data Cloud) is replicated to the SAP back end via DEBMAS idoc and created in the SAP backend as business partner with role "consumer".
The online order is saved in Commerce, but is not yet replicated to the SAP back end. A delay in the replication is desired, to allow customers to easily change the order within Commerce.
After a configurable amount of time (e.g. 60min for standard delivery orders, 15min for express orders), the Commerce order is replicated via CPI to the SAP back end as ORDERS idoc. Included in the order document is the list of products (of course), the promotion prices and basket value determined by OPPS, the source per line item determined by OAA, the payment token provided by the payment provider.
The SAP back end receives the order idoc and creates an SD sales order with the same order number that Commerce has created. Since the SD order already contains prices, sources and payment token, no pricing determination is triggered on the SAP side, no ATP check, and also no payment/credit limit check.
SD Delivery processing starts (picking, packing), and the order status changes accordingly. The order changes are always replicated via order status idoc via CPI into SAP Commerce, to allow the consumer to follow the processing status of the online order.
The packing is completed, and the order is shipped from the source(s) to the customer's delivery address. The customer receives the delivery of the online order. In case the oAA sourcing optimization has provided multiple sources, the customer receives multiple deliveries.
Please note: The warehouse management software (e.g. SAP Extended Warehouse Management) may re-determine sourcing and overwrite the OAA sourcing results based on the WM configuration. This is no contradiction to the OAA sourcing determination, which is meant for an e-commerce focused realtime availability check and order sourcing . The Warehouse Management system might have more recent data, as the online order has been created a few minutes/hours ago, or might have re-located or re-assigned stock in the meantime.
Invoicing, billing, settlement: In the SAP back end the order is invoiced, and payment is collected using the authorization token of the order e.g. with the SAP Digital Payment add-on. The payment is settled.
Order History: The customer enters the web shop again and enters "My Account". He can see his online order history provided by Commerce.
System requirements and releases for the Reference Architecture
In general, the Integration Extension Pack’s of SAP Commerce Cloud are needed to integrate Commerce with SAP solutions. These Integration Extension Pack's are shipped separate from the SAP Commerce and have their own release numbers. The Retail Integration Module is always part of the Integration Extension Pack.
An Integration Extension Pack release is only compatible with a specific Commerce Core release, which has its own release number as well.
The supported SAP Commerce release is mentioned on the right hand side of the Integration extension Pack page in SAP Help.
Typically, only the SAP Commerce Cloud version is mentioned in SAP Help, because the on prem edition is no longer on the price list. However, the Integration Extension Package also supports the SAP Commerce on prem version which has the same release number (here 2105) as the Cloud version.
Here the minimum release requirements for SAP Commerce Cloud for a SAP Retail Omnichannel integration:
- SAP Commerce Cloud on Microsoft Azure.
- SAP Retail integration is supported from SAP Commerce Cloud 1905 from extension pack 8 (August 2019) with B2C Accelerator (extension pack 12/December 2019 or higher recommended)
- SAP Commerce Cloud, integration extension pack (check compatibility to Commerce Cloud version, see above)
- UI Layer: Currently only the B2C Accelerator is fully supported for the Retail Omnichannel integration with SAP Commerce Cloud.
- Spartacus UI framework support available for OAA with SAP Commerce Cloud, Integration extension Pack 2108 (= integrated with Commerce 2105).
- The SAP Retail functionality “Omnichannel Article Availability and Sourcing” (aka OAA) is supported from SAP Commerce Cloud, Integration Extension Pack 2108, which is compatible to the Commerce CORE release 2105
- However, with a small modification, it runs on earlier Commerce CORE releases along with the Spartacus UI. The modification is of course not supported.
- Middleware:
- SAP Cloud Integration (CPI) with latest SAP Retail Commerce integration content
- Back ends:
- SAP S/4 Retail /Fashion 1810 and higher resp. SAP ERP Retail from ERP 6.0 EhP 7 SP14 / EhP 8 SP 7
- SAP Customer Activity Repository 3.0 FP2 and higher (best 4.0 FP3 for many OAA features introduced in 4.0 FP3 and FP2). No new Retail Omnichannel features in SAP CAR 5.0 (to my very best knowledge)
- SAP Omnichannel Promotion Pricing cloud service (OPPS)
Supported Omnichannel scenarios
The native SAP Retail Omnichannel integration in SAP Commerce Cloud (& B2C Accelerator) allows the seamless standard integration of omnichannel scenarios such as
- Click & Ship, Click & Ship from Store
- Click & Collect with picking in store and/or picking in Warehouse and ship to store for collection
- Consistent Omnichannel stock visibility across all stores, distribution centers and 3rd party warehouses, vendor/supplier stock etc.
- Consistent omnichannel promotion pricing across digital and physical sales channels with SAP Omnichannel Promotion Pricing
- Endless Aisle (via Keytree KIT partner solution)
- Loyalty Marketing integration is planned with SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement and SAP Commerce Cloud
- SAP Mobile Consumer Assistant by GK (see also detailed product description)
...
and in summary a personalized and even individualized customer experience.
Further information about the reference architecture components
In the SAP Retail Omnichannel Customer WiKi you find a comprehensive set of blog and links for most aspects of the Retail Omnichannel integration with SAP Commerce. I highly recommend to bookmark this page. Here an excerpt for the most important topics:
- Retail article master data integration
- Single and generic articles / but no structured articles like sets, lots, displays
- Integration content available for SAP Cloud Integration (CPI)
- Omnichannel Article Availability and Sourcing (OAA)
- based on SAP Customer Activity Repository
- Out-of-the-box configuration in SAP Commerce Cloud
- Integration via SAP Cloud Integration (CPI) for OAA idocs
- Direct calls from SAP Commerce Cloud to SAP CAR OAA REST services
- ERP Retail from EhP7 SP14, EhP8 SP7 and S/4 1810
- SAP Omnichannel Promotion Pricing (OPP)
- via OPP cloud service (aka OPPS)
- Out-of-the-box configuration in SAP Commerce Cloud
- No local deployment of OPP inside SAP Commerce Cloud anymore - only the OPP-S cloud service
From Omnichannel "Commerce" to an Omnichannel "Experience"
Customer Experience isn't complete with an online order. Customers expect consistent experience across all touch points, and to be treated as a person.
Check the customer journey (Fig.2) above again. It doesn't end when the customer receives his/her online order.
In fact SAP Omnichannel Commerce is just the door opener for a even bigger customer experience: personal customer experience "clienteling" in the store, personalization in in social media and forums, loyalty experience across the retailer's universe, mobile apps pushing promo coupons when the customers approaches a store (geo fencing), of course GDPR compliance and safety of their personal data, but also to receive personalized newsletter and information they have subscribed for (and no SPAM).
SAP Commerce Cloud is not only a market leading digital commerce platform, but also an Omnichannel "hub" that orchestrates all these customer-centric processes.
Here a few examples:
- SAP Commerce Cloud
- webshops and mobile shop, but also marketplace management via Mirakl
- powerful digital content management via Commerce Context Driven Services
- integration with powerful order business cloud services
- order integration and fulfillment processing with SAP S/4HANA and SAP ERP back ends
- SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement
- Stae-of-the-art customer segmentation, personalization and even individualized digital marketing in an automated fashion
- Loyalty Management
- SAP Customer Data Cloud
- via central registration, identity and access management, incl. social registration.
- Try it out and play with the SAP CDC (ex Gigya) test webshop But don't buy a TV there - they are really expensive .-)
- to meet data protection privacy regulations like GDPR, DGVSO, etc.
- SAP Customer Data Cloud
- real time customer profiling and segmentation
- Sales quotation integration
- via SAP Sales Cloud, to offer quotes for complex orders the customer cannot order without help. , e.g. made-to-measure furniture like kitchens, solar rooftop installations etc.
- Service management
- with intelligent ticket handling, (crowd) field service integration, self service, service desk etc.
- Experience and Feedback Management
- by SAP Experience Management (aka SAP XM, ex Qualtrics)
- Loyalty Marketing
- via SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement
- Endless Aisle / Customer Clienteling with Keytree's KIT partner solution which is well integrated with SAP Commerce, SAP Retail back end and SAP CAR.
SAP Commerce Cloud vs. SAP Commerce on-prem
A Guidepost
What about if your landscape components are not the very latest ones, as described in the reference Architecture? What if you still run SAP (Hybris) Commerce on premise, your SAP CAR is not release 4.0, your SAP back end is not the latest S/4 version?
No worries - you don't need to be 100% compliant to the reference architecture. SAP released Retail Omnichannel capabilities since 2015, and covers a wide range of Commerce/CAR/SAP back end integration combinations. SAP (Hybris) Commerce wasn't on "Cloud" (Microsoft Azure) until late 2018, but still supports a comprehensive Retail Omnichannel Integration-
The next chapters shall give you orientation about release and feature dependencies.
Case 1: Your SAP (Hybris) COMMERCE solution is an ON-PREMISE version
Your IT landscape (typical set up):
- SAP (Hybris) Commerce on-prem edition 1905, 1811, 1808, or 6.x
- SAP Retail back end (see SAP Help for SAP standard backends + specific Retail documentation)
- SAP CAR
The on-premise editions of SAP (Hybris) Commerce have no native SAP Retail integration.
SAP Commerce versions 2005 and higher
- 2 options
- 1) Highly recommended: SAP Retail integration via SAP Cloud (Platform) Integration
- SAP Commerce Datahub based Retail integration package called "SAP Commerce, integration package for SAP for Retail" or simply "IPR".
SAP (Hybris) Commerce until 1905:
1 option: SAP Commerce, integration package for SAP for Retail" or simply "IPR".
Please note: Each SAP Commerce on-prem version requires it's own IPR release for compatibility reasons.
SAP Commerce on-prem editions earlier than 2005 do not support SAP CPI integration, but require the SAP Commerce Datahub as middleware.
The IPR integration package is free of charge for SAP Commerce on-prem customers (with a Commerce license - a PCM license is not enough).
The IPR package contains a variety of content to enable an integration of SAP Commerce on-prem with SAP Retail.
- Commerce extensions to manage/digest/store/process
- SAP Retail master data
- SAP Retail article data, incl. single articles, generic articles and variants, and structured articles
- Retail classification data
- ...
- Commerce extensions
- store OAA aggregated stock
- import and store OPP prices and promotional rules
- Integration with local OPP Pricing engine
- OPP pricing engine deployed locally on Tomcat
- Integration with SAP CAR
- Omnichannel Article Availability and Sourcing
- SAP Omnichannel Promotion Pricing
- List of stores (for click & collect and stores as fulfillment sources, pick up centers)
- ...
- Commerce order extensions
- sources from OAA, communication with OAA sourcing etc
- SAP Retail master data
- B2C Accelerator extensions
- to support OPP prices, OAA stock, OAA rough stock indicator, OAA REST API calls for ATP check and sourcing etc.
- Extensions for SAP (Hybris) Datahub middleware
- SAP idoc conversion into Hybris IMPEX format
Supported Commerce/CAR/SAP back end versions with notes for restrictions
- SAP Commerce versions
- SAP Commerce on prem versions 5.7 – 2011
- require the IPR package incl. SAP Commerce Datahub.
- No CPI support for Commerce 1905 on-prem editions and earlier
- SAP Commerce on prem
- 2 integration options:
- a) Native Retail integration via SAP Cloud Integration (CPI)
- Native SAP Retail integration
- SAP CPI as middleware for asynchronous integration (idocs)
- SAP CAR OAA REST services are called directly from Commerce
- No Commerce Datahub needed
- b) Retail integration via IPR and SAP Commerce Datahub
- a) Native Retail integration via SAP Cloud Integration (CPI)
- 2 integration options:
- SAP Commerce Cloud editions from 1905.08 (=extension pack 8 for 1905), 2005 and later
- Native SAP Retail integration, no IPR needed, asynchronous integration only via SAP CPI, no Commerce Datahub supported anymore for the Retail integration with these cloud editions
- SAP Commerce on prem versions 5.7 – 2011
- SAP backend
- ERP Retail from ERP 6.0 EhP 7 SP14 / EhP 8 SP 7
- S/4 Retail from 1709 – retail master data, OPP, but no OAA support! (missing ATP pieces)
- S/4 Retail from 1810 – retail master data, OPP, OAA
- SAP CAR
- in general the very latest version is recommended because of the massive enhancements of OAA in the CAR 4.0 editions
- OPP from CAR 2.0 FP2 minimum release
- OAA from CAR 2.0 FP2 – only in combination with Retail ERP backend
- OAA from CAR 3.0 FP2 in combination with S/4 Retail (as ATP parts of S/4 1810 are mandatory)
- IPR / SAP Commerce, integration package for SAP for Retail
- applicable and supported for SAP Commerce on prem versions 5.7 until 1905
- Commerce datahub is mandatory for the asynchronous integration (idocs) of SAP Retail (ERP and S/4 editions) and on-prem SAP Commerce
- support for Commerce on prem 2005 planned in October 2020 (disclaimer applies)
- no Retail integration support for any Commerce Cloud edition
- applicable and supported for SAP Commerce on prem versions 5.7 until 1905
- SAP Commerce Datahub
- middleware tool to integrate SAP solutions with Commerce, independent from Retail
- mostly used to integrated SAP solution with on-prem Commerce editions
- Still supported for the SAP Retail integration with Commerce 2005 on prem - IPR planned in October 2020 (disclaimer applies) - however a switch from Commerce datahub to SAP CPI is recommended for future compatibility.
- SAP Cloud Integration
- Supported with
- SAP Commerce Cloud 1905.08 and higher
- SAP Commerce on-premise 2005 or higher
- Native SAP Retail integration content
- SAP Retail article master - single article and generic article with variants
- no support for structured articles though
- SAP Retail classification data
- SAP CAR based OAA integration. Aggregated stock and rough stock indicators that are replicated from SAP CAR are stored within SAP Commerce
- Integration with SAP CAR based OAA REST API's
- Integration with SAP Omnichannel Promotion Pricing cloud service (aka OPPS)
- SAP CPI as middleware for asynchronous integration (idocs) between SAP Retail back end, SAP CAR and SAP Commerce
- Supported with
Case 2: Upgrade of existing SAP (Hybris) Commerce on-prem to latest release
A switch from an on-premise Commerce solution to a cloud-based solution is a major step forward. SAP Commerce Cloud offers a much faster pace to innovation but the new technology has to fit to the overall company's strategy, roadmap and last but not least resources and project plans.
So there can be reasons to stick with an on-premise Commerce solution for now (2020).
*** April 20, 2021 : to be continued ***
Best regards,
Ingo
Dr. Ingo Woesner
Senior Director, SAP CX COO Transformation & Commercialization
SAP Customer Experience
SAP SE
www.sap.com
Follow me on ingo.woesner/content.
- SAP Managed Tags:
