Product Excellence Through Modern PLM in Fast-Paced Markets
Modern PLM systems empower businesses to achieve product excellence in fast-paced markets by enhancing collaboration, agility and innovation.
Many challenges arise simultaneously in the field service. The interaction between the service back office and the field service employees must always be guaranteed in order to proactively support service technicians and to inspire the customer. This includes, for example, route planning for the field service staff, spare parts management, necessary technical documents (maintenance or damage report), short response times or the preparation of the service report for the customer. In the process, the overview of all service cases can soon be lost, the first resolution rate can drop and the once meticulously thought-out customer experience can’t be realized in practice. Another aggravating factor is often the lack of or unreliable connectivity between different isolated software solutions from CRM, ERP systems and field service applications. SAP Field Service Management (SAP FSM) is the digital Swiss army knife that can be flexibly integrated into existing service processes. This offers the potential to implement an end-to-end service process (E2E process) for an outstanding customer experience in field service without media breaks and the loss of relevant insights (customer trends, customer expectations & requirements). Below, four integration scenarios with SAP Field Service Management are discussed by way of example:
If you would like to learn more about the diverse functions of SAP Field Service Management, you will find an initial overview in this article.
The first scenario involves integrating SAP Field Service Management (FSM) with the existing service modules of S/4HANA to create a direct interaction between the two solutions. If a service assignment can be prepared using service contracts or service quotations, a service order with relevant service items is created. As soon as the service order is released in S/4HANA, the existing information is forwarded to SAP FSM as a service call and appears on the service coordinator’s planning board as a service call that needs to be planned. Using the information, the service coordinator can plan the service call based on availability and the existing qualifications of the service technicians. The service coordinator then releases the service call and the responsible service technician receives a push message about the deployment on his mobile device.
Using the SAP FSM app on the service technician’s mobile device, the time spent, the materials used and other special features can be documented directly at the customer’s premises and transmitted to the customer as a report including a digital signature. After the service report has been sent, the service call is completed. The service call then appears in the Time & Material Journal for approval by the service coordinator. A service confirmation is automatically triggered in S/4HANA once the existing details regarding time spent, spare parts & expenses are released. The follow-up documents for the billing request, cross-application sheets (CATS) and goods movement can be created on this basis.
This first scenario can be extended with SAP Service Cloud. It includes omnichannel interaction with the customer and transparent ticket routing, and thus significant potential to increase the resolution rate in customer service and tech support in order to take one’s customer journey to the next level from the first touchpoint.
In addition, relevant information (route to the industrial park, registration at the factory gate, safety briefing) from the initial contact can be continuously forwarded via the service coordinator to the service technician without media breaks. This makes resource planning and cost calculation easier and identifies potential bottlenecks for further daily planning at an early stage.
Independent of the service modules of S/4HANA, companies have the option of using existing modules such as Customer Service (CS) or Planned Maintenance (PM) with SAP FSM to design an E2E service process. For example, a maintenance plan from the PM module can automatically trigger a service notification in CS. The responsible service coordinator & service technician can then use the service notification to generate a service order with the relevant information (estimated time required, required spare parts). As soon as the service order is released, it is replicated as a service call in SAP FSM using middleware.
The service call is then available for planning and scheduling on the planning board. The service call can then be carried out and confirmed in the field service. Finally, a service confirmation is created in the CS module after the service items have been released in the Time & Material Journal, which can trigger time recording, billing requests and goods movements.
Looking to the future, it is important to consider that the maintenance support for SAP CS will expire in 2025 and companies should consider switching to S/4HANA early. It offers a company a best practice directly from SAP, in which the currently used SAP CS continues to be connected to SAP Field Service Management during the transition phase. In the further course of time, a switch to integration between the S/4HANA service and SAP Field Service Management can then take place if required.
The fourth scenario is intended to present the integration with S/4HANA Sales Distribution (SD) or SAP ECC SD in combination with the Service Cloud and SAP Field Service Management as a further option. This allows time recording, goods movement and invoicing to be implemented in equal measure.
Here, the SAP Cloud Integration Platform (CPI) is the starting point for the appropriate middleware to make the standardized content available by means of the iFlows. In contrast to the previous scenario, the time spent, spare parts and expenses are reported in a ticket in the SAP Service Cloud. If the ticket is subsequently released, further order processing including billing, time recording & goods movement can be carried out through follow-up documents in SAP ECC / On-Premise.
All in all, SAP Field Service Management offers both flexible and versatile integration options for designing a holistic E2E service process. Not only can SAP Field Service Management be linked to another SAP solution, but it also offers the potential to align the IT landscape along the entire customer journey in a customer-centric manner.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you are interested in using SAP Field Service Management, or would like more information about it.
Modern PLM systems empower businesses to achieve product excellence in fast-paced markets by enhancing collaboration, agility and innovation.
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