As the Ramp-Up date for SAP CRM 2007 draws near, you may be wondering, “Is now a good time to upgrade and if so, what version should my company consider?” Although the excitement of leaping to the latest and greatest can be appealing, it may be wise to first evaluate which of the releases best suits your company’s needs.

Currently, SAP has four possible releases from which to choose: SAP CRM 2005, SAP CRM 2006s (1 and 2), and SAP CRM 2007. SAP CRM 2006s has limited availability, so let’s focus on SAP CRM 2005 and SAP CRM 2007 beginning with the software selection process as it pertains to those who are using mySAP CRM 4.0 and earlier. Even if you are a new SAP CRM user, you can also gain insight into how the two versions compare. Let’s begin this review with SAP CRM 2005.

SAP CRM 2005

Introduced in October 2005, SAP CRM 2005 offers enhancements in marketing, sales, service, Interaction Center (IC), and E-Commerce.

Marketing enhancements. Digital Asset Management allows companies to store and collect digital assets — such as photos, videos, and HTML files — in a central repository. The benefits of this include secure Web access, reduced search times, shared access to files, and duplication of assets.

In addition, Coupon Management, designed for Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies, allows businesses to improve the financial accuracy of all promotional plans. This increases efficiency and predictive ability when managing finances through the planning, development, and measure ment phases.

Finally, high-speed segmentation accelerates the segmentation process by allowing users to perform on-the-fly segment analysis at high speeds, thus minimizing marketing cycles. This benefits marketing organizations because it allows them to test and analyze numerous scenarios and segments more quickly, allowing for concentrated focus on optimization and channel effectiveness.

Sales enhancements. Visit Planning allows sales employees to maximize their day-to-day activities with customers by simplifying activity scheduling through system proposals, manual input, and drag-and-drop features. Furthermore, sales professionals can access critical customer and sales information anytime and anywhere via their handheld devices.

Service enhancements. Usage-based billing provides companies with flexible billing options in usage- based service contracts. This helps present a proper reflection of credits and revenue recognition. Additionally, Warranty Claims Management fully automates the warranty claims process from registration, entitlement, claims, and integration into financials. Finally, Field Services provides functionality, such as Complaints & Returns Management and Survey Management to field employees.

Interaction Center (IC) enhancements. The introduction of the Employee Interaction Center (EIC) extends the help desk to internal employees with HR integration. EIC offers full customer service capa­bilities to employees, including case management, tickets, and integration with Knowledge Management. In addition, the business partner high-speed search functionality allows users to improve search performance by creating custom indices, which the system generates based on key field criteria that the user designates.

Moreover, ERP Integration via the new ERP sales order IC WebClient screen enables you to create ERP orders within SAP CRM as you would in transaction VA01 (create sales order). You can create orders directly in SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) while using CRM functionality, such as cross-selling and product proposals. This option allows you to bypass CRM Middleware because you don’t have to create an order in CRM.

Other Interaction Center improvements are the new CRM Sales Ticket, E-Mail Response Management System (ERMS), multi- level categorization for service transactions via the category modeler, and the lead and complaint screens.

E-Commerce enhancements. Companies can extend their sales channels and sponsor their own online auctions via eBay. Also, the frameless user interface (UI) template for a B2C channel permits flexibility in site design and development to support corporate branding requirements. Lastly, you can use campaign codes in both B2C and B2B channels.

Other enhancements in SAP CRM 2005 include optimized Best Practices, improved analytical applications, easier Microsoft Office integration, and an adaptable platform with multiple access points (CRM GUI, SAP NetWeaver Portal, or People-Centric User Interface [PCUI]). A challenge of SAP CRM 2005, however, is the multitude of GUIs that a user could potentially use. Although this offers flexibility, it also creates confusion and can limit user adoption. For example, a lead transaction looks very different in CRM GUI (Figure 1) when compared to PCUI (Figure 2).

Figure 1

Lead transaction in CRM GUI

Figure 2

Lead transaction in PCUI

Furthermore, your CRM team needs a wide range of support to maintain this release, which includes Java, BSP, PCUI, ABAP, and HTML. In some cases, it can be costly to staff these resources in-house.

David Glessner talks about these features in more detail in his article, “What’s New in mySAP CRM 2005,” (Volume 1, Number 2), which is available in the CRM Expert knowledgebase at www.CRMExpertOnline.com. Now let’s take a look at SAP CRM 2007.

SAP CRM 2007

This release features all the improvements that SAP CRM 2005 offers, plus some new functionality. One of the largest updates is the UI that becomes standard across SAP CRM, with the exception of Mobile Sales (.NET) and Internet Sales (Java Server Pages [JSP]).

UI enhancements. The new SAP CRM 2006s UI is based on the existing IC WebClient UI from mySAP CRM 4.0 and SAP CRM 2005. You also no longer need to have SAPGUI installed on every machine. You still should have SAPGUI installed on the machines for the SAP IT team and administrative users because you still access all the configuration and administration tasks via the SAPGUI menu and the IMG.

Introduction of Web services. As part of the SAP roadmap for enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA), SAP CRM 2007 is the first Web service-enabled application that will be generally available. The use of Web services facilitates communication, speed, and performance. A caveat to this is that you must be on at least SAP ERP 6.0 to take full advantage of enterprise SOA.

Moreover, SAP exposes key CRM business objects, such as business partners, complaints, and opportunities, through a new Web service tool that allows rapid project-specific service definition on the fly. For more information about this topic, please refer to “SAP CRM 2006s: Create Web Services Quickly with the New Web Service Tool,” by Thilo Berndt and Markus Kupke in Volume 3, Number 2 of the CRM Expert knowledgebase.

Performance enhancements. GUI performance in SAP CRM 2007 is much faster and latency times are minimized from previous versions primarily due to the exclusive use of a single technology (BSP) for the overall system. Another major change is the way in which the system renders code. In previous versions, the use of multiple technologies made it difficult to obtain consistent rendering of information. For example, PCUI’s model structure is relatively inflexible.

New functionality. SAP CRM 2007 offers new functionality, such as intent-driven interaction design and Real Time Offer Management. These features are available through the new interaction center interface and allow agents to be proactive. This functionality leverages integration points, including SAP NetWeaver BI and CRM transactional history, to guide the agent during the call, which makes these calls more profitable and the agents more efficient. The value culminates from the use of CRM transactional history, which the system extracts to SAP NetWeaver BI. The system uses algorithms to analyze the data and make it more meaningful to CRM. The agent can then view this data at the time of the call, which helps the agent make informed decisions based on defined measures.

For those who are interested, SAP is now accepting requests for its Ramp-Up program, which allows selected companies to be among the first to test and implement SAP CRM 2007 before it is publicly released. To find out how to apply for the SAP Ramp-Up program, contact your SAP sales representative or visit the SAP Service Marketplace at www.service.sap.com/rampup. SAP offers full support during the SAP CRM 2007 project implementation, including reduced software and licensing fees, but you are required to apply a minimum set of Support Packages and have onsite SAP consulting support until the completion of the project.

SAP CRM 2007 will not be generally available until mid-2008. As with any new product, it is possible that you will need to update the software with Support Packages as SAP continues to refine the release. In addition, it is also plausible that a delay might occur, which could cause the release date to shift, affecting those who are preparing to implement SAP CRM during that time.

Which Is Best For You?

Table 1 summarizes the information about each release. SAP CRM 2005 is already available and in wide release, but SAP CRM 2007 is quickly approaching Ramp-Up. If your company is approved for this program, you will have the opportunity to implement, benchmark, and test SAP CRM 2007 before it is publicly released in Q2 2008.

For SAP CRM 2005, SAP offers standard support until 2011 and extended support until 2014. This is not as much of an issue for existing customers as it is for new customers who may wish to install SAP CRM for the first time. In this case, it may be advisable to think about SAP CRM 2007 as the entry point if the timing works for you.

Gil Magana

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