SAP® C/4HANA® – The New Solution for Your Customer Relationship Management
SAP C/4HANA forms the next generation of SAP CRM and has been replacing the existing CRM system SAP Hybris since the beginning of June 2018. SAP combines the new SAP C/4HANA cloud under the name SAP Customer Experience (CX) Solutions. Backend integration towards SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business Suite is planned from the outset and should result in significant benefits.
Digitization creates increased demands on marketing, service, sales and support. Integrated “features” are receiving increasing attention in B2B and B2C scenarios. These include, among others:
- The synchronous price inquiry in the environment for channel-independent customer service with customer-specific prices
- Optimized delivery times based on highly dynamic warehousing and transport processes
- The automation of the entire customer journey with information from CRM, but also from ERP systems
C/4HANA, together with the backend system S/4HANA, will create a central view of your customer and thus help you to improve your customer management. This means that all S/4HANA information (e.g. production, service, finance, logistics, etc.) is considered to make CRM part of your smart business.
“SAP has never accepted the status quo for CRM and is now changing it before anyone else,” explains Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP SE. “CRM legacy systems only cover sales. In contrast, SAP C/4HANA is about the consumer. However, every part of a company needs a uniform view of the end customer. If we link all SAP applications together in one smart cloud suite, demand will have an immediate impact on the supply chain.”
Significant Advantages in Backend Integration and License Costs for SAP Existing Customers
Companies that already use SAP ERP save a lot of effort in the backend integration of C/4HANA with S/4HANA. Since process integration is usually the most expensive item in IT projects, the use of SAP C/4HANA is worthwhile here.
In addition, customers often save on licensing costs because C/4HANA includes the indirect backend usage of S/4HANA and does not require third-party middleware, as with other CRM systems. With these systems, in addition to the CRM license, you also pay for third-party middleware and indirect backend use.
SAP C/4HANA: Five Solutions Under One Roof
C/4HANA consists of five different solutions, which create even more potential and strengthen each other through their interaction. Below is an overview of all five solutions.
SAP Marketing Cloud
SAP Hybris Marketing is becoming SAP Marketing Cloud. Huge amounts of data can be evaluated in real time and give the customer a personalized shopping experience in the SAP Commerce online shop. In addition, audiences can be defined for use for multi-channel campaigns and to perform sentiment analysis.
SAP Commerce Cloud
SAP Hybris Commerce will be followed by the SAP Commerce Cloud. It convinces as an omnichannel solution both in B2C and B2B. It integrates quickly and easily into your SAP landscape and will help you tailor your shopping experience to your individual needs. One innovation here: As of now, the SAP Commerce Cloud will also be available on the Microsoft Cloud platform Azure.
SAP Sales Cloud
The former SAP Hybris Sales Cloud combines functionalities from SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer (C4C), the SAP Revenue Cloud and Callidus Cloud. The solution will therefore include features such as sales force automation, commission billing and configure price quote (CPQ). Machine learning functionalities will take the solution to a new level while, of course, preserving all known CRM features.
SAP Service Cloud
All the strengths of CoreSystems and SAP Hybris C4C Service are now combined in the new SAP Service Cloud. Service employees will be supported by big data and machine learning components to provide improved problem resolution. The external client can be optimally controlled and organized by the CoreSystems functions, and IoT data and predictive features allow for optimized planning for future service appointments.
SAP Customer Data Cloud
The new acquisition of Gigya makes GDPR-compliant and secure customer data management possible for all C/4HANA solutions. The following modules are included:
- SAP Customer Identity (seamless and secure registration / login)
- SAP Customer Consent (Consent Management, GDPR-readiness, Self-Service Preference Center)
- SAP Customer Profile (central and consistent 360° customer view for all C/4HANA solutions).
S/4HANA and C/4HANA – Combined Front and Back Office Functions
It has long been SAP’s goal to combine its industry-leading ERP tools with its CRM tools. SAP hopes that by connecting back-office capabilities of SAP ERP products to the front office, the company can deliver an end-to-end user experience that only a few vendors can offer.
SAP C/4HANA – CRM in a Networked World
Many companies are still struggling to cope with widely distributed data about products, machines and people that are found in many isolated systems. The new SAP HANA Data Management Suite will allow companies to gain useful information and valuable insights from any amount of data, regardless of where that data is located.
With SAP C/4HANA, you get a consistent user experience in an intelligent suite. The basic idea of SAP C/4HANA is to focus on the customer and his needs. Data is centralized by networking front-end and back-end systems for better service. For example, it is possible to satisfy the customer in the e-commerce process as well as in the CRM process on a comparable level – even when dealing with complex issues such as the configuration of products for offers.
