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The Order to Cash ES bundle allows businesses and their partners to support the most basic business process of all: order-to-cash. The order to cash process subsumes everything from the order, packaging, and delivery of goods and services to depositing the money in the bank.

The Order to Cash ES bundle provides a wide variety of enterprise services that can be used to build flexibility and innovation into this important process. This ES bundle supports two basic approaches to integrating and automating the order to cash process:

A2A or A2X. Companies can use enterprise services in this bundle to build individual composite applications and customized user interfaces that will help them customize and innovate their order-to-cash processes. See use cases 1 through 3 for details

B2B. Companies can use enterprise services in this bundle to provide seamless integration of the order to cash process with key customers with whom they do a high volume of business, providing faster onboarding of volume customers. The services in this ES bundle streamline the data exchange between customer and supplier to provide an out-of-the-box electronic data interchange between SAP and SAP systems, allowing key documents, from orders to invoices, to flow seamlessly between organizations without manual intervention. See use case 4 for details Order to Cash (click to enlarge)

A2A Integration: Composite Applications

This ES bundle is not delivered with a user interface, but some of the composites that have been developed using services from this ES bundle do have a user interface. For example, the SAP composite application Inventory Level Replenishment (xILR) provides a Visual Composer modeled UI. Another example is the SAP CRM 2005 IC WebClient that is currently integrated with the ERP Sales Order API and comes with a ready-to-use UI. The Order to Cash ES bundle allows companies and partners to build composites that meet the needs of their companies or that address specific industry requirements. These tailored user interfaces and business processes bring additional power and flexibility to order to cash processes.

B2B Integration: Moving Volumes of Data

On the other hand, with B2B integration, the focus is on moving data transparently from one system to another. The order to cash process is handled through a flow of messages between the buyer's ERP system and the seller's ERP system. This ES bundle takes the perspective of the seller with this message flow; the related ES bundle Procure to Pay views this B2B process from the perspective of the buyer.

How the Order to Cash ES Bundle Leverages Enterprise SOA

The Order to Cash ES bundle leverages enterprise SOA by service-enabling order to cash functionality in SAP ERP using the reusable Enterprise Services and Business Objects provided in Enhancement Packages.

Audience
This bundle can be deployed in any industry that sells products or services to customers. When deployed, it will be especially useful to salespeople and customer service representatives. The enterprise services in this ES bundle can be used to create customer self-service portals, which benefit both companies and their customers. Since many, many industries sell products and services, the possibilities for the use of this bundle are practically endless. Examples that are given in the scenarios below include consumer products manufacturers and the postal services industry.

For details on Service Operations, Business Objects and Process Components, please check the ES Workplace.

How To Use This ES Bundle

The Order to Cash ES bundle provides a rich buffet of enterprise services that service-enable the order to cash functionality of SAP ERP and enable innovation in this fundamental business process. Enterprise services allow changes to be made easily compared with traditional custom programming and enable flexible integration with third-party software and third-party systems. Optimizing the order to cash process is critical, and because of its centrality, gaining efficiency in any phase of this process, whether speeding up processing of sales orders, achieving on time delivery, or improving payment collections, can result in a substantially improved revenue stream. This section will explore a series of use cases for the Order to Cash ES bundle. Each use case will show how different outcomes can be achieved by using the enterprise services in different combinations. Note that these examples may refer to users directly invoking enterprise services. This illustrates the flow of the service operations; service operations are invoked by an application, by an application's user interface, or by another service operation. While these examples illustrate a few of the ways that this ES bundle could be used, the intention is to show the flexibility and reusability of these business objects and enterprise service operations so that you will have a clearer understanding of how to best deploy them in your own environment. This wiki is also a space for you to share knowledge and collaborate with others who are implementing the Order to Cash ES bundle. The use cases that will be covered are as follows:

The SAP composite application Inventory Level Replenishment (xILR) allows consumer products manufacturers to collaborate with smaller retailers and optimize the replenishment order process. The Electronic Order Fulfillment (EOF) use case for the postal services industry. Postal services companies can adopt a new business model in which they allow customers to print postage directly and arrange for pickup of their shipments rather than having customers bring their packages to the shipper.

Integrating SAP ERP order management and SAP CRM through the Interaction Center WebClient. Companies can implement a professional Interaction Center application that allows them to preserve their investment in sales order management from SAP ERP. This allows faster implementation of projects at lower costs.

Volume transfer of key documents without manual intervention is the focus of the final use case, which demonstrates how enterprise services can be used to help streamline orders between a manufacturer and an important supplier

Use Case 1: Inventory Level Replenishment (xILR)

This use case supports collaboration between a consumer products (CP) manufacturer (CP manufacturers) and smaller retailers such as convenience stores, retail shops, and dealers. These smaller retailers typically order the same quantity for the same set of products at a particular interval (once a week, once a month, and so on). It is important to make replenishment as easy as possible for these customers so it can be executed quickly and regularly. xILR provides an easy reorder and replenishment procedure for small business partners (such as kiosks, convenience stores, gas stations, and retail or specialty stores) with limited or no IT support. Replenishment is based on agreed target inventory levels for the individual products. By introducing xILR into their business, CP manufacturers can replace a previous error-intensive procedure with asynchronous handling of replenishment requests, while avoiding out-of-stock situations and ensuring constant supply to their respective customers. You can also download an ILR demo in the Resource Center for Industry Composite Applications (BPX). The first step is the initial setup. A sales representative from the CP manufacturer maintains customer contact data as well as target inventory level for each product. Each customer may several product sets and, for each set, a different replenishment frequency could be maintained. The sales rep and the retailer agree on the target levels. The xILR process unfolds in the following way:

The sales, service, or account manager navigates via his portal to an initial view of the xApp to see a list of all his small retail customers. (The enterprise services used here are Find Customer Address Basic Data by Name and Address to list all the customers and Read Customer when the manager selects a customer.)

From here the sales representative or manager can drill down on each customer and change the locally persistent master data for the customer and their product assignment. For example the sales rep could update email details, change the ordering schedule, and assign new products to set up the inventory replenishment process. (The enterprise services used here are the Find Material by Elements service when the sales representative looks for products assigned to a specified customer and the Read Material service when the manager displays the details of a particular product.)

After saving the changes to the master data, the manager can navigate back and trigger either the online order process or the offline order process, in which the sales representative creates an Adobe Interactive Form that will be forwarded to the participating customer automatically. The sales representative sends out an Order Replenishment Form to the customer via email, which contains the target level for each product.

The customer reviews the Adobe Interactive Form and updates the form accordingly with current inventory levels for the existing products. He will send back the Adobe Form to the CP manufacturer. Confirming the Order Replenishment Form invokes the enterprise service Create Sales Order_V2, creating a sales order in SAP ERP.

The CP manufacturer has now the opportunity to review the document prior to triggering the order entry in the backend ERP. This xApp streamlines the sales process between the CP manufacturer and the retailers. The retailers do not run out of stock and have a convenient way to order their replenishments. Out-of-stock situations at the retailer can be avoided and errors in the order replenishment process can be reduced. At the same time, transaction costs are very low. It provides both a convenience to the customer and an increase in sales to the CP manufacturer. The following table summarizes these steps and the associated enterprise services: Step Step 1: A sales representative for a consumer products manufacturer maintains customer contact data abd target inventory levels for products as well as replenishment frequency for each product set Step 2: The sales representative calls up a list of retail customers Find Customer Address Basic Data by Name and Address Enterprise Service Invoked (No enterprise service is invoked during this step)

Step 3: The user then selects a customer in order to view information Step 4: The user then looks for products assigned to a specific customer Step 5: The user then reads and updates entries to the locally persistent master data for the customer Step 6: The user then saves the changes and triggers either an inline order process or offline order process during which the user creates an Adobe Interactive Form Step 7: The interactive form is forwarded to the customer

Read Customer Find Material by Elements Read Material

(No enterprise service is invoked during this step) (No enterprise service is invoked during this step)Service

Step 8: The user sends out an Order Replenishment Form to the customer via email

(No enterprise service is invoked during this step)

Step 9: The customer reviews the interactive form, updates the form and returns it to the supplier, which creates a sales order in the manufacturer's ERP system Step 10: The manufacturer reviews the document prior to triggering the order entry in the ERP system

Create Sales Order_V2

(No enterprise service is invoked during this step)

Use Case 2: Electronic Order Fulfillment (EOF) for the Postal Service Industry
The ability to offer customers new products and services is an important differentiator. In this use case, postal service companies offer their customers the ability to order shipping services remotely through the postal service's portal. Customers can simply enter the ship-from and ship-to locations as well as the weight and size of the parcel. They also can choose from additional services such as express mail, second-day delivery, and so on. After specifying all the parameters relating to the delivery, the customer submits the information through the web-based interface, which invokes the Check Sales Order Creation enterprise service, which calculates all the information and fills in the details. The customer confirms the information, invoking Create Sales Order_V2. After customers do this, a sales order is created in SAP ERP and the customer can now print a bar-code label at his desktop printer. The customer can now attach the label to the parcel and the parcel will be picked up at the ship-from location he specified. The following table summarizes these steps and the associated enterprise services: Step Step 1: The customer in the postal service's Web portal specifies the parameters for a delivery Step 2: The customer submits the information to the postal service's backend system via Web-based interface Step 3: The system calculates the information and fills in the details Enterprise service Invoked (No enterprise service is invoked during this step) (No enterprise service is invoked during this step) Check Sales Order Creation

Step 4: The customer views and then confirms the information Step 5: The package is picked up at the specified location

Create Sales Order_V2 (No enterprise service is invoked during this step)

Use Case 3: IC WebClient with ERP Sales Order Management

A customer in the US calls the call center of a Canadian pharmacy to order refills on his prescriptions. The pharmacy's customer service representative or call center agent logs on to the Interaction Center (IC) WebClient, which is part of SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM). When she receives the incoming call, the software's integrated Automated Number Identification (ANI) function identifies customer and displays his interaction history, which is stored in SAP CRM. The IC WebClient invokes Find Sales Order Basic Data by Elements to display the orders for this customer. The customer tells the agent that he would like to order the same items as last time, so she uses the interaction history to fill the new order based on a previous order. The customer wants to change the quantity of one of his prescriptions. The customer then asks for a final net price and when the product will be shipped. The call center agent creates the new sales order and invokes Check Sales Order Creation, which queries the backend systems and returns the information in real-time. After confirming that the information is acceptable to the customer, she creates the sales order by invoking Create Sales Order_V2. The following table summarizes these steps and the associated enterprise services: Step Step 1: A customer calls the company's call center to order products Enterprise Service Invoked (No enterprise service is invoked during this step) Step 2: The call center agent (user) logs onto the Interaction Center WebClient in SAP CRM Step 3: The Automated Number Identification function of the IC WebClient identifies the customer and displays the interaction history information stored in SAP CRM Step 4: The customer can place a similar order or make changes to create a new order (No enterprise service is invoked during this step) Find Sales Order Basic Data by Elements (No enterprise service is invoked during this step) Step 5: If changes are made, the user creates a new sales order and provides pricing and shipping information Step 6: The customer accepts the changes and the user creates a sales order Create Sales Order_V2 Check Sales Order Creation

Use Case 4: Business-to-Business Order to Cash Process

A digital camera manufacturer lands a contract with a major retailer. The sales contract calls for a significant volume of orders, and mandates that they be handled electronically. The manufacturer has implemented the Order to Cash ES bundle and so will use the services to interact with the retailer, which has implemented the services in the Procure to Pay ES bundle.

The retailer creates a purchase order for the digital cameras and sends it to the manufacturer. When the manufacturer receives the purchase order, the enterprise service Create Sales Order is triggered, which uses the Sales Order business object. The technical name for this service is PurchaseOrderRequest_In, reflecting the B2B nature of the communication. Having created the sales order, the manufacturer's ERP system sends a confirmation back to the retailer by invoking Confirm Sales Order. The order is then processed on the manufacturer's side. Once the manufacturer posts the goods issue for the order, that's the trigger to generate an advanced shipping notification (ASN). Posting the goods issue invokes Notify of Outbound Delivery, which uses the Outbound Delivery business object and sends the ASN to the retailer. Once the retailer receives the shipment, it sends a proof of delivery document back to the manufacturer. When the manufacturer receives the proof of delivery document, it invokes the Maintain Outbound Delivery based on Received Delivery Notification enterprise service to update the information about the proof of delivery. Now that the retailer has acknowledged delivery, the manufacturer invokes the Notify of Customer Invoice enterprise service, which sends the invoice to the retailer. This entire process is handled as a series of messages flowing between the retailer and the manufacturer. In the normal course of business, no human intervention is required to manage these documents or post them to the ERP system. The following table summarizes these steps and the associated enterprise services" Step Step 1: The retailer creates a purchase order and submits it to the manufacturer Step 2: In the manufacturer's system a sales order is created using the purchase order Step 3: The manufacturer's ERP system replies to the customer with a confirmation message Step 4: The sales order is processed by the manufacturer and then posts a goods issue, which trigger an ASN Step 5: Upon receipt of the shipment by the retailer, a proof of delivery document is sent to the manufacturer Step 6: Concurrently, an invoice is automatically created by the manufacturer and sent to the retailer Maintain Outbound Delivery based on Received Delivery Notification Notify of Customer Invoice Notify of Outbound Delivery Confirm Sales Order Create Sales Order Enterprise Service Invoked (No enterprise service is invoked during this step)

Best Practices
Sales Order Tracking Solution
Sales Order Tracking is available as an Implementation Package based on SOA* on

With Sales on Blackberry you have access to CRM and ERP customer data from your BlackBerry device. The Package inculdes the following features:

Mobile access to customer data from ERP like address, last orders, open payments, open deliveries, price information, availability check of products Mobile access to customer data from CRM like orders, marketing attributes, surveys, leads, opportunities, activities Mobile update of data Capture sales orders directly from your BlackBerry Device Offline access of cached data if no network connectivity exists Save preparation time for customer visits and gain real-time access to customer data while being on-site at the customer For detailed information including pricing, visit https://ecohub.sdn.sap.com/irj/ecohub/solutions/salesonblackberry

Sales Order Tracking Solution

Sales Order Tracking is available as an Implementation Package based on SOA* on

The Sales Order Tracking solution allows customer service to answer inquiries about the delivery status of a complete sales order or for a certain material especially with respect to the estimated delivery date. The Package inculdes the following features:

Provides web based transparent automated and integrated process for customer service centers to enable quick responsiveness for customer inquiries Seamless integration of business partners (supplier and business partner) Improves visibility of sales order and shipment status for customers across the complete logistical supply chain (incl. suppliers and logistic service providers) Provides automation of status retrieval without media breaks Enables efficient execution of customer inquiries regarding order status by using optimal information quality Optimized, customer tailored user interface providing comprehensive information at one glance For detailed information including pricing, visit https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/ecohub/solutions/salesordertracking

Customer Fact Sheet Solution

Customer Fact Sheet is available as an Implementation Package based on SOA* on

The Customer Fact Sheet solution offers customer service agents and sales representatives a 360 degree view on customers' data. The Package inculdes the following features:

Provides easy-to use dashboard - all relevant information of customers are displayed within one user interface, eliminating the need of calling different transactions; user does not need to have knowledge about backend functionality Increases productivity of customer service agents and sales representatives by allowing fast execution of requests, and thus increasing quality and customer satisfaction Access to the following data is provided: sales orders, open sales items, deliveries and invoices. Optional data includes reports, customer data, communication, complaints, etc. Flexible UI: Provides capabilities for displaying additional data For detailed information including pricing, visit https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/ecohub/solutions/customerfactsheet

*What is an Implementation Package based on SOA?

An Implementation Package based on SOA is a business process solution. It is provided via the rapid implementation of a tailored application based on SOA. It helps enterprises differentiate, while lowering the related cost. The Implementation Package comprises the combination of:

Business Use Case Delivery Type & Methodology Technical Foundation & Tool Support