
Service Management with Advanced Execution in S/4HANA
To illustrate an utilities reference process flow, let me walk you through some screen shots, starting with a customer call and progressing to service and maintenance execution. I am including references to further reads. Then I talk about the main difference between S/4HANA Service including Service with Advanced Execution and the classic CS with comments about the required transition to S/4 Service.
Industry context
A utility providing both customer service and plant maintenance is either an integrated or a distribution company, responsible for maintaining the service connections from the grid to the customer’s premise and the meter. The industry specific service processes include device installations, off-cycle meter reads, disconnections and reconnections, outage reports or new service connection requests. Some of these processes are simple and short, they complete after a few hours, for example an offcyle meter read. Others like the service connection can take weeks or months until finished and settled. All these utilities service processes have in common that the end customer and the utility company equipment are part of the process flow, this is where customer service runs jointly with enterprise asset management.
Reference process flow
The S/4HANA capability for this is service with advanced execution. Service orders in this context are sometimes referred to as maintenance service orders (MSO).
During a renovation, a power connection or meter on the outside of a house was damaged. This equipment belongs to the utilities company so the customer decides to call. The utility company service agent looks up the address and creates a service request. It refers to the customer, the service location or equipment and usually has a category, priority, expected times and dates and notes from the caller.
Interaction Center in Customer Engagement for Utilities, service processes related to the connection object
The service request from the customer is routed to the service department responsible for energy or water distribution maintenance. In a deregulated market, this can cross company boundaries. A service manager creates a service order, because it is certain that a field service technician needs to investigate the damage and possibly exchange equipment. A service order with advanced execution is created as a follow-up document from the request. This type of service order has a service item with a service product like ‘METER EXCHANGE’.
Service order with advanced execution, header
Service order with advanced execution, item
Once released, this service order item creates a linked maintenance order. The maintenance order is responsible for the operational service delivery.
Service order, released, with linked maintenance order
If a back-office user expert user viewed the maintenance order transaction details, the reference to the service transaction is visible:
Service with Advanced Execution Overview
Now you have seen the key design in service with advanced execution, creating a service order that has a commercial or customer aspect with a service product that creates the maintenance order with the plant maintenance execution aspect.
Service with advanced execution is used with many process variations. The end-to-end process flow above shows several additional steps. For example, if the service request was for a new service connection, a service quote would be used. Once the quote is accepted by the customer or developer, the service order with advanced execution follows, as well as procurement like installation services by a 3rd party, goods movement like pipes or cables and billing to the customer.
Further reading on Service with Advanced Execution Overview
As an introduction, have a look at the SAP Help Portal
To help the implementation of utilities processes in S/4HANA Service, we have created a special cookbook
The released roadmap item for the utilities features from 2022 and contains demo videos in the ‘Features’ section SAP roadmap explorer
The topic service with advanced execution is not specific to utilities, it is always helpful to check the cross-industry knowledge sources, for example here in the SAP community under the ERP section
Roadmap
I am excited about a Service Monitor Roadmap Item in 2025, an app that will visualize the end-to-end process. This will help service experts to manage complex and long running processes like the new service connection in utilities.
S/4HANA Service compared to CS Service
Those who are using the PM/CS service objects today can see the key differences between ECC PM/CS or S/4HANA CS and S/4HANA Service. Below is a side by side process comparison of the classic CS service process on the left and the S/4HANA Service running jointly with S/4HANA Maintenance.
S/4HANA Service end of life for CS in 2030
S/4HANA Service is the go-to solution for any utility running the utilities metering and service processes. The customer service interaction center (Customer Engagement) contains only the (new) service processes. Other utilities processes including metering and service have been adapted to integrate the new service processes. For example an aperiodic meter reading now creates a service order with advanced execution.
Customers who are migrating from ECC CS to S/4HANA should switch to the S4 service processes at that time. Customers that are using CS today need to make plans to transition from CS to S/4HANA Service the latest by 2030. This is important, CS inside S/4HANA is also sunset, it is in a compatibility scope and the rights to use it end in 2030.
You can tell if you are running CS if you find PM/CS Notifications and PM/CS Service Orders. Make plans to retire them and switch over to the newer S/4HANA service objects including service request, service order with advanced execution and service quotation.
The timeline below shows how and when Service changed with Customer Management in S/4HANA.
More information in SAP Note 2269324.
Summary
The combination of complex customer and maintenance processes is an essential requirement for the energy and water distribution business. S/4HANA Service with advanced execution provides theses capabilities. Customer service initiates service requests, service quotes and service orders. The connected maintenance order is responsible for planning, scheduling, service execution and field service management.
S/4HANA Service with advanced execution is integrated with the utilities industry functions, including customer service and metering.
The classic PM/CS service objects notification and service orders reach their end of life in 2030, also within S/4HANA.
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