Future of SAP UCES?

[Former Member]

I see a lot in the marketplace of existing SAP customers wanting to replace UCES with the next best thing or cloud like offerings. What is the replacement of UCES from an implementation perspective of what the next product offering will be or can you utilize other SAP components to satisify the requirements of UCES like features?

[Former Member]

Hello Jason,

It's hard to tell you exactly what is happening without having a official announchment by SAP, but there is definitely some kind of activitiy going on. Unfortunately the main focus is currently on the WCEM solution and it will take some time, before Biller Direct / UCES gets more intention.

However, there is more ....

Whilst SAP itself is right now more focusing on support and compatibility improvmenets, "SAP Consulting" is currently in investing resources into UCES and added some kind of mobility support for native devices including some desired front-end improvements. So if you ask them, then you will get some extras.

We are also working since last year on a follow up version, which is directly based on the UCES version and with the target to shorten the implementation time whilst having a fully seamless integrated & customized application. This includes the usage of

• template frameworks to quickly apply look & feel changes
• complete rework of the front-end based on a single frame screen (no more framesets) 
• advanced logon & registration process
• a business object layer integration based on WEC / WCEM to provide a more flexibile basis to add or modify specific functionalities
• a CMS adapter to various available Web-CMS systems e.g. Joomla to maintain the complete content and even the navigation without the need of specialists
• Mobile device determination
• HTML5 rendering processor for mobile device optimized screens
• Various improvements of existing functionalities (filters, search features, interactive charts, ...)
• Various new features e.g. education tools, analytic functionalities, smart meter & TOU (Time of Use) support, JSON / Ajax processors
• ... and so on

This solution has been already implemented with our clients and comes without extra licence costs (except of the licence fees you have to pay to SAP for UCES itself). One of our older versions is currently presented on your webpage, but it is just the basic 1st generation and hopefully we will have the more exciting version presented as well soon.

On a long term basis, UCES / Biller Direct will become available based on the new WCEM (Web channel experience management). We already working here on individual module prototypes to enable those functionalities for clients until a official version is made available. The previously imanged business object layer is already in line with the WCEM business object layer to avoid duplication and to allow clients to easily migrated custom developments from our UCES version to the WCEM (either our protoype or a official SAP version) without starting from scratch necessarly.

We try to work as close as possible together with SAP to avoid reinventing the wheel as we do not want that  our solution approach is becoming a  product replacement - it is still SAP UCES / Biller Direct enhanced by our special expertise - just the missing piece until the newer SAP solution is presented.

I personally guess, that UCES / Biller Direct will be be officially available as WCEM module by SAP end of 2013 or mid of 2014. Maybe earlier depending on how fast the progress is to enable the few missing B2B  and state of the art e-commerce functionalities to WCEM.

Hope this information was helpful!

Cheers

[former_member189878]

Hi Jason:

we are working on providing a new Web self-service offering at the moment. It will not only be a new web self-service solution but even more importantly an architecture that will enable building any consumer-facing app cheaper and faster. The aforementioned WCEM will not be part of the Utilities Web-self service solutions for various reasons.

Please watch for an SDN blog about the topic of "Customer engagement" coming soon.

Regards,
Juergen Kuhmann
Solution Management Expert Utilities | Industry Business Unit for Utilities
SAP Labs, LLC.  | 3410 Hillview Avenue  |  Palo Alto, CA 94304  | USA
mailto:juergen.kuhmann@sap.com

[Former Member]

Hello Juergen,

I went thru MultiChannel Foundation blog written by you. May we know when is it getting released and the documents around that.

Also may we know if we can implement UCES features thru WCEM 3.0 ?

Regards,

Rukmani

[former_member189878]

Hi Rumani:

The SAP Utilities Multichannel Foundation is being released today into ramp-up. If you are interested in particpating in ramp up, please visit https://partner.sap.com/rampup and select "Apply now"

I would not recommend implement utilities self-service features through WCEM. Use the multichannel foundation to implement self-services and self-service applications. You can start with our template web self-service application for Utilities and enhance it to build your own. Most importantly backend integration is out of the box and extensible though enhancing the OData library. The Utilities multichannel foundation comes with utilities-specific content like view/pay bill, move-in/out, mnanaging payment data, user management.

WCEM provides you with web shop capabilities geraed towards retail, consumer goods etc and integrates back into CRM Sales and Service or ERP SD. It does not integrate into CRM for Utilities features or ERP/IS-Utilities. If at all,. the marekting functions might be of interest. But maybe this is too small a scope to justify WCEM.

Regards,

Juergen

[Former Member]

Hi Juergen,

I am UCES consultant and willing to explore about new release of Multichannel Foundation.

I tried to access the link https://partner.sap.com/rampup  but its not working. Could you please give me some more information/links/documents on this?

Regards,

Narpal Singh