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This blog post is the 2nd in a series on the key implementation

tasks you will be faced with when implementing SAP Cloud for
Customer (C4C). It focuses specifically on SAP Cloud for
Customer integration capabilities, and answers key questions
frequently asked by clients.
Cloud SaaS solutions have been very popular over the last few years as they are faster
and cheaper to deploy than their on-premise equivalents. One drawback of these
departmental solutions (e.g. Sales, Customer service or HR) is the lack of out-of-the box
integration with on-premise backends, or other Cloud applications.

Customers realising that full business value can only come from an integrated end-to-
end process have been asking us various questions on the integration capabilities of
SAP Cloud for Customers. This document provides answers to the most frequent
questions.

Can I integrate SAP Cloud for Customer with my SAP


backend (SAP CRM or ECC)?
Yes. SAP provides pre-packaged integration scenarios called iFlows for integrating SAP
C4C with either SAP CRM or ECC. What else would you expect from a company that
has built its reputation by providing configurable end-to-end processes with ERP
software?
These iFlows are represented in the - very visual - BPMN language and include
configuration for both end points of the integration flow between SAP C4C and the
backend, and the message flow and mapping information between the inbound and
outbound messages. The screenshots below show examples of this content. This gives
an idea of the sort of work being saved by leveraging this integration content.

These iFlows live on a Middleware or Enterprise Hub which can either be SAP PI or a
relatively new SAP Cloud product called SAP HANA Cloud Integration (HCI). SAP HCI
is a new holistic, cloud-based integration technology, with both process and data
integration capabilities on a multi-tenant cloud infrastructure. This technology supports
integration of SAP cloud applications to not only SAP, but other third-party
applications/data sources - both on-premise and Cloud as well. It is one of the
capabilities in the broader SAP HANA Cloud platform.

iFlows can be customised by customers using the Eclipse-based Netweaver Developer


Studio. One example would be for the adding of mappings for bespoke fields.
For a detailed description of this integration, please refer to this great document on
SCN. It provides a list of the supported replication scenarios for both ECC and CRM. It
also gives a pros and cons analysis of SAP PI vs SAP HANA Cloud Integration.

Reference to these pre-packaged integration scenarios are key to convince SAP


customers to choose a SAP Cloud product versus competitor products like Salesforce.
The main business benefits when implementing a departmental Cloud solution will
come from ensuring it doesnt become a siloed application by integrating it with relevant
(backend or Cloud) applications to provide an end-to-end process.

For example, I would want the ability to generate a sales quote or sales order in my
backend directly from a SAP C4C sales opportunity. Or I want to create a SAP C4C
customer complaint with relation to a backend sales order.

SAP pre-packaged iFlows will drastically reduce the integration TCO, as the illustrative
diagram below shows. Without this content, the integration cost is such that for example
most Salesforce customers I have come across have not spent the money building the
backend integration.
For those looking for additional information on each integration flow and its associated
benefits, please check out this very handy SAP document.

Can I integrate with other (non-SAP) systems either on-


premise or in the Cloud?
SAP provides many integration options to non-SAP systems.

Pre-packaged scenarios A number of 3rd party providers have developed


easy to integrate solutions whereby they have already developed the integration point
by leveraging Cloud for Customer APIs. Examples include Twitter, Facebook, Netbase,
Klout, Google and Bing maps, where activating the integration only takes a few minutes
by providing API keys.
Web service APIS - If you need an integration scenario that isnt available in the
standard delivery or through a partner solution, you can build your own scenario using
the existing SAP Web services. As standard, SAP C4C provides a number of web
services and Odata interfaces. The full web service API list and technical details can be
found here

SAP Cloud Application studio SDK - If the available Web services are not
sufficient, you can use the SAP Cloud Applications Studio SDK to create a new Web
service. Access to this SDK and a development tenant will require additional license not
included in the SAP C4C license.

Can I implement a Customer service Contact Centre with


CTI integration?
Yes, SAP Cloud for Service can be integrated with CTI provider solutions. The Live
Activity pane allows agents to see detailed information from a telephone call, or chat
session in progress.

SAP provides out of the box integration with SAP Contact Centre (formerly BCM) and
open CTI APIs with other 3rd party CTI providers, such as Avaya and Cisco.
Can I integrate with Desktop groupware solutions like
Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes?
Yes. Both SAP Cloud for Sales and Cloud for Service provide integration with Microsoft
Outlook and Lotus Notes (with a lower level of integration for Lotus Notes). Integration
use cases provided cover Accounts, Contacts, Tasks, Appointments replication as well
as creating links with Leads, Opportunities and Tickets.

Microsoft Outlook integration supports Microsoft Outlook 2007, 2010, and 2013. IBM
Lotus Notes integration supports IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.x.

Check out this video for a nice demo of the Microsoft Outlook integration.

Can I load or extract data into/from SAP Cloud for


Customer?
SAP C4C comes with Excel-based migration templates for all standard master data and
transaction objects as well as an easy to use Migration workbench for staging, load
simulation and validation and final loads. Complex transformation rules can also be
developed using the Cloud Application Studio SDK. Check out Michael Bowells blog
post on his first experience with C4C Data Migration.

Data can also be loaded in SAP C4C (manually or via web service consumption) for the
sole purpose of reporting via the concept of Cloud Data Sources.

Finally, you can easily extract all data from SAP C4C into Excel spreadsheets.

Can I integrate SAP Cloud for Customer with SAP BW?


Unlike SAP CRM on-premise and many competitor Cloud products, SAP C4C does not
necessarily require an external reporting module for Analytics on processes based
solely on SAP C4C data. C4C is built on top of an SAP HANA database. Many standard
real time reports and dashboards are available across sales and services processes.
Reporting and transactional performance wont be much impacted by data volumes
and/or concurrent usage because of the SAP HANA architecture. Custom reports and
KPIs can also be built based on standard and bespoke fields.

You can see a video demo of C4C reporting functionality here.


If merging with an external data source is needed for reporting, SAP C4C provides the
ability to load 3rd party data via the Cloud Data Source concept with either a manual or
an automated data load via web service.

SAP also provides 3 integration use cases with SAP BW:

1. Report Integration/HTML mashup: HTML view of a BI/BW dashboard or


report web template embedded in C4C view (with parameter ID such as customer
number being passed)

2. Data transfer SAP C4C to SAP BW: data is transferred from C4C to SAP BI.
The data sources in Cloud for Customer are exposed via Operational Data Provider
(ODP) service that are consumed by SAP BI. For this scenario, the minimum supported
BI release is BW 7.3 SP5. Only full uploads (with selection criteria) are supported

3. Data transfer SAP BW to C4C: Data in BI Infoproviders can be transferred into


an Open Hub Destination. Data can be pushed and stored into a custom SAP C4C
business object via a C4C web service called from SAP BI (or a Hub like SAP PI).

I hope this blog post will help you in your SAP C4C endeavors. Please feel free to
highlight any questions that should be added to the FAQ.

When you integrate Cloud for Customer to the SAP back end, when an
opportunity is sold, can you create a contract (e.g. VA41) directly? A slideshow I
looked at said you can create a "sales order", which may be a VA01 document.

Also, can you create an opportunity with multiple items? (e.g. an editable grid
with material code, quantity, price, material group, etc).
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Thierry Crifasi a year ago
RE: Shalini nayk

Please refer to the C4C administration guide which provides a very detailed
guide on how to set this up.
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Shalini nayk a year ago


Great post!

How do we integrate social media like facebook,twitter etc. with SAP Cloud for
Customer?
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Thierry Crifasi a year ago
RE: John Larvel

Yes it is possible. SAP provides iFlows for both ECC and CRM. For the majority of
objects (master data and transactions), you don't have a choice as the object
only exists in either CRM or ECC (e.g. CRM lead, CRM opportunity). The only
choice you have got is for product, employee, customer and contacts which you
can source from either systems.
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John Larvel a year ago


Is possible to have a scenario where C4C is integrated at the same time both
with ERP and CRM ?
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Steve a year ago
We are thinking of implementing HANA/BPC for our call centers and are trying to
figure out how to integrate our complicated kpi's. Our current partner does not
seem to have the necessary experience in implementation of HANA for specific
needs. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.
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Thierry Crifasi a year ago


RE: Jason Taylor

There is already a possible integration between Hybris and SAP C4C but I don't
know any specifics about it.

Regarding the integration with CMS systems or even Portals, it is also possible.
SAP provides pre-packaged self-service scenarios for an integration with SAP
HANA Cloud Portal.

SAP C4C data can also be exposed via oData services so I supposed that would
be the best way to integrate C4C data into a CMS system.

CMS data could also be served into C4C via mashup applications.
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Thierry Crifasi a year ago


RE: Danne

I have never implemented Salesforce.com so it would be unfair to comment. All I


can say is that SAP C4C will be easier to integrate to SAP backends because of
the pre-packaged integration flows. Any SFDC project would have to build from
scratch all the integration flows including all the value mappings.
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Thierry Crifasi a year ago


RE: Maddy

Please read the short CTI integration guide on the service marketplace
@service.sap.com/cloud4customer.

Integration is done on a client side so an Avaya Windows client would have to


integrate with the C4C CTI adapter.
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Thierry Crifasi a year ago


RE: Achyut Mahey
Thanks. I hope it can help you in your projects.
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Thierry Crifasi a year ago


RE: Danne
Thanks. I hope it can help you in your projects.
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Maddy a year ago


Great post very insightful.

I was interested to know about CTI integration with Avaya system. I am aware
from C4C side what is needed, is there any prerequisite from Avaya (to get some
info on this)

Many thanks
Maddy
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Maddy a year ago


Great post very insightful

I was interested to know about CTI integration with Avaya system. I am aware
from C4C side what is needed, is there any prerequisite from Avaya (to get some
info on this)

Many thanks
Maddy
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Danne a year ago


Great Blog!!! Very informative.
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Danne a year ago


Do you see any challenges in C4C implementation when compared to other
Cloud Solutions like SFDC?
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Jason Taylor a year ago
Great article on the solution and especially in regards to integration. As C4C
matures do you see a greater level of integration with other platforms in the
Web Experience Management? For example, integration to a CMS for content , a
PIM (I.e. Hybris). These are single sources of truth for content and product data.
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Bhasin Naik a year ago


How can we transfer data from C4C to SAP BW with version lower than 7.3?
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Bhasin Naik a year ago


How can we transfer data from C4C to SAP BW with version lower than 7.3?
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Thierry Crifasi a year ago


RE: Diego Zapata

Instead of "moving to C4C" I think many organisations with existing CRM on


premise investments will look at how to leverage the capabilities of C4C while
integrating it with their CRM backend.

For some organisations, it could be they decide to replace some of their existing
CRM on premise-based processes with the C4C equivalent.
This is what "leveraging the Cloud" is all about: composing an End-to-End
business process architecture and deciding where business processes or sub-
processes should sit. The ability to leverage Cloud innovations will be a big
driver for C4C-based processes.
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Diego Zapata a year ago
Great post! in your opinion, do you see companies with on-premise crm
migrating to C4C in the near future? As an On-premise CRM consultant, should I
consider switching to C4C as it will have greater demand?
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Achyut Mahey a year ago


it really great blog about SAP cloud for Customer.

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