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I am excited to share information about how to easily establish Customer-Self-Services for Subscription Management with you, because subscription models continues to grow in popularity. From my perspective, it will be a great opportunity for companies to get stronger customer relationships, to strengthen and increase their revenue for a bigger timeline.
From my previous blogs, you know about the key topics about Subscription Management, today i will introduce you an simple approach using a low-code/no-code.
For decades, there have been only two routes for businesses to take on their way to application development: buy apps ready-made from an external vendor or build and customize them from scratch using skilled developers and coders. But today, there's a rise and growing sophistication of low-code/no-code (LCNC) development alternatives that bring the power of application development to users across the business.
In the digital age it is for many companies very important to automate and simplify their customer centric processes and touchpoints. A big challenge in that context to bring in easy and intutitve use of self-services, like adjustments of a subscription, bill document view, etc. for their customer to manage the digital offerings, subscriptions and entitlements.
Which solution components are necessary?
The use of Software-as-Service solution components for me is mandatory, as most suitable technical components I recommend SAP AppGyver and SAP API Management and from a business perspective SAP Subscription Billing to manage commercial and trial subscriptions.
I recommend the use of SAP Business Technology Platform as the foundation for such implementation. The following figure illustrates the actors, information objects, relationships and data flows from a technical perspective.
In this chapter i give you an overview of the building blocks and implementation steps.
This building block contains teh no-code development for Citizen and professional developers. The use of this powerful no-code development to deliver sophisticated enterprise-scale applications for the Web and mobile apps using an intuitive drag-and-drop user interface. The extensive component library and unlimited logic functions let even novice developers create pixel-perfect apps and extensions without needing to write or understand code.
This building block contains API Management which is the process of publishing, promoting and overseeing APIs is a secure and scalable manner. SAP API Management provides secure governance over APIs based on open standards like SOAP, REST, OData, with enterprise grade security. This simplifies the way developers go about integrating with their SAP and non-SAP application, reducing cost, foster innovation and participate in the larger API economy.
This building block contains Subscription Management capabilities to manage subscription products, bundles and rate plans. An Subscription lifecycle management with an automated order fulfillment processes across multiple systems. It provides a simplified, automated approach for billing and ordering processes to monetize new offers quickly and effectively.
The following chapter explains the business objects and integrations topics for each process step.
In this building block you act as the Provider for the necessary API of Subscription Billing, so you have to perform the following steps in SAP API Management. First go to the Discovery section and select the SAP Subscription Billing package.
Navigate to the section artefacts and copy the necessary artefacts.
Navigate to the section artefacts and copy the necessary artefacts. I recommend to use the following artefacts, such as Business Partner, Products, Subscriptions and Bills. At least you have to go to the development section, select an API and adjust the ProxyEndPoint it as follow.
Navigate to the Policies and adjust the ProxyEndpoint flows preflight, PreFlow and PostFlow to avoid CORS issue when using such API.
Finally you have to deploy your API and then you can test it using the Resource section.
In this building block you act as the citizien developer to build your application using the necessary API of Subscription Billing, so you have to perform the following steps in SAP AppGyver.
First create an application and create the necessary pages for each topic.
Navigate to the Data section and define your necessary data ressources using the definied services in SAP API Management. In the detail of each data ressource you can then define each action such as get, post, put and delete.
Navigate back to your variables view and model your flows within your application.
Navigate to your view and design the page layout and flow logic.
Your application is now ready and you can use it. For further information about how to build an application, please refer to the SAP AppGyver Tutorials
Thanks for joining this blog post. Stay tuned for updates and upcoming webinars.
This blog post is part of a blog post series. Please find the other blog post(s) here:
Subscription Management – A Blog Series
Use-Case: Monetization of digital services Part 1
Use-Case: Monetization of digital services Part 2
From my previous blogs, you know about the key topics about Subscription Management, today i will introduce you an simple approach using a low-code/no-code.
For decades, there have been only two routes for businesses to take on their way to application development: buy apps ready-made from an external vendor or build and customize them from scratch using skilled developers and coders. But today, there's a rise and growing sophistication of low-code/no-code (LCNC) development alternatives that bring the power of application development to users across the business.
Introduction
In the digital age it is for many companies very important to automate and simplify their customer centric processes and touchpoints. A big challenge in that context to bring in easy and intutitve use of self-services, like adjustments of a subscription, bill document view, etc. for their customer to manage the digital offerings, subscriptions and entitlements.
Which solution components are necessary?
The use of Software-as-Service solution components for me is mandatory, as most suitable technical components I recommend SAP AppGyver and SAP API Management and from a business perspective SAP Subscription Billing to manage commercial and trial subscriptions.
SAP Solution Architecture
I recommend the use of SAP Business Technology Platform as the foundation for such implementation. The following figure illustrates the actors, information objects, relationships and data flows from a technical perspective.
Figure: HighlevelTechnical Solution Architecture
Implementation Plan
In this chapter i give you an overview of the building blocks and implementation steps.
Building blocks
SAP AppGyver (Documentation)
This building block contains teh no-code development for Citizen and professional developers. The use of this powerful no-code development to deliver sophisticated enterprise-scale applications for the Web and mobile apps using an intuitive drag-and-drop user interface. The extensive component library and unlimited logic functions let even novice developers create pixel-perfect apps and extensions without needing to write or understand code.
SAP API Management (Documentation)
This building block contains API Management which is the process of publishing, promoting and overseeing APIs is a secure and scalable manner. SAP API Management provides secure governance over APIs based on open standards like SOAP, REST, OData, with enterprise grade security. This simplifies the way developers go about integrating with their SAP and non-SAP application, reducing cost, foster innovation and participate in the larger API economy.
SAP Subscription Billing (Documentation)
This building block contains Subscription Management capabilities to manage subscription products, bundles and rate plans. An Subscription lifecycle management with an automated order fulfillment processes across multiple systems. It provides a simplified, automated approach for billing and ordering processes to monetize new offers quickly and effectively.
Implementation steps
The following chapter explains the business objects and integrations topics for each process step.
Provide APIs using SAP API Management
In this building block you act as the Provider for the necessary API of Subscription Billing, so you have to perform the following steps in SAP API Management. First go to the Discovery section and select the SAP Subscription Billing package.
Figure: Discover Packages
Navigate to the section artefacts and copy the necessary artefacts.
Figure: Artefacts Subscription Billing
Navigate to the section artefacts and copy the necessary artefacts. I recommend to use the following artefacts, such as Business Partner, Products, Subscriptions and Bills. At least you have to go to the development section, select an API and adjust the ProxyEndPoint it as follow.
Figure: Adjust Route Rules
Navigate to the Policies and adjust the ProxyEndpoint flows preflight, PreFlow and PostFlow to avoid CORS issue when using such API.
Figure: Adjust preflight
Figure: Adjust PreFlow
Figure: Adjust PostFlow
Finally you have to deploy your API and then you can test it using the Resource section.
Build your application using SAP AppGyver
In this building block you act as the citizien developer to build your application using the necessary API of Subscription Billing, so you have to perform the following steps in SAP AppGyver.
First create an application and create the necessary pages for each topic.
Figure: Application Pages
Navigate to the Data section and define your necessary data ressources using the definied services in SAP API Management. In the detail of each data ressource you can then define each action such as get, post, put and delete.
Figure: Data Ressource
Navigate back to your variables view and model your flows within your application.
Figure: Variables and parameter view
Navigate to your view and design the page layout and flow logic.
Figure: View layout and flow logic
Your application is now ready and you can use it. For further information about how to build an application, please refer to the SAP AppGyver Tutorials
Thanks for joining this blog post. Stay tuned for updates and upcoming webinars.
This blog post is part of a blog post series. Please find the other blog post(s) here:
Subscription Management – A Blog Series
Use-Case: Monetization of digital services Part 1
Use-Case: Monetization of digital services Part 2
