Learnings from the Implementation of SAP S/4HANA BRIM Subscription Solution

I am sharing my experience of implementation of SAP S/4HANA BRIM (Billing and Revenue Innovation Management) solution through 2 blog series.

Blog 1 offers the information on why Subscription services are gaining increased traction in the market and what are the key characteristic of the Subscription business so that a successful subscription business model and SAP BRIM system design can be created.

Blog 2 offers the information on Subscription business processes and how these are enabled in different SAP S/4HANA BRIM solution components. I also share the key learnings from the Implementation of SAP S/4HANA BRIM subscription solution for a leading Auto OEM company.

Blog 2: Learnings from the Implementation of SAP S/4HANA BRIM Subscription Solution

• It is important to understand the Subscription Processes and how SAP S/4HANA BRIM Solution components are organized to form Subscription Management Solution
• The schematic representation of Subscription Management solution using SAP S/4HANA BRIM is shown below. It covers the Business Process and the underlying technical solution components of SAP BRIM.

                             Source: SAP

• The Subscription Processes and the execution of the process steps in SAP BRIM solution is summarized as below:

• SAP S/4HANA BRIM implementation requires separate skilled resources for each of solution component of SAP BRIM e.g., SAP Subscription Order Management SOM, SAP Convergent Charging CC, SAP Convergent Invoicing CI & Finance and Contract Accounting FICA are required. These should be planned in advance. It is uncommon that a single BRIM consultant can manage all the four different solution components of SAP BRIM.
• Reduce Subscription Product/Service Master proliferation by using Advance variant configuration to define Product characteristics:
  • It is possible to reduce creation of multiple Product masters using characteristics to define subscription product/service master for a similar subscription offering. Define all the variations of subscription offering by defining a single product master and using characteristics to define variations of the same subscription product rather than to define separate product master for each variation.
• Using separate Contract Account (extension of Business Partner MKK) for a given Business Partner if you have a need for separate financial terms and/or need for segregation of different set of services that are consumed by a given customer. Business Partner to Contract Account is 1: N relationship.
• Define Charge Plan and Price Plan in a way so as to leverage individual pricing components in SAP Convergent Charging (CC) i.e., you do not define them each time for every plan.
• Custom field specifications should be consistent across – Usage data, SAP Convergent Charging CC, SAP Convergent Invoicing CI and SAP Convergent Mediation (CM) applications. It creates issues otherwise if the same field is having different meta data definition e.g., char or num, decimals etc. in SAP CC or SAP CI, Usage data systems.
• Usage data metering and monitoring systems may be on different technologies and thus some custom work may be required to get the usage data into S/4HANA BRIM. Evaluate the use of SAP Convergent Mediation application to manage usage data capturing, enrichment, aggregation etc. and seamlessly sending the same to SAP S/4HANA system. Organization may also have the option of using their legacy usage data systems.
• Think of Automation of end-to-end process – from design to testing phase. It helps to incorporate elements of parallelism for faster data processing capabilities.
• Data Migration is a big challenge and is typically consists of high data volume:
  • Use Interfaces where it may be applicable for initial data load e.g., for Business Partner initial load migration from the upstream ecommerce or mobile apps system
• Business Processes are constantly evolving and thus achieving standardization may be a challenge. This Manage Change Process should be robust so as not to have moving targets during project execution.
• Performance load testing is very important and should not be missed for BRIM Implementations to check for bottlenecks for high volume processing of usage data
• Integration for usage data system (legacy or SAP Convergent Mediation) to SAP S/4HANA BRIM should be able to deal with high volume data with capability to simulate and then post to avoid reconciliation errors and efforts
• Handling Errors in end-to-end subscription cycle processing:
  • Have in your design the ability to catch errors upfront in Usage data processing, Rating and Charging, Billing & Invoicing processes. One of the ways to do is before any set of usage record is processed, line by line it is simulated till invoicing to find and correct errors upfront before actual processing is performed. This will eliminate the error during actual processing run.
• Customer Service should deliver personal and prompt resolution to customer’s feedback to make it a personalized experience.

Conclusion: This blog will help to understand how subscription process steps are enabled via different solution component of SAP S/4HANA BRIM solution. The key learnings from the implementation experience of SAP BRIM will help to avoid some of the pitfalls for your projects. I encourage you to share your feedback or thoughts in a comment for this post.

For more information on SAP BRIM, please follow SAP Billing and Revenue Innovation Management environment Topic page (https://community.sap.com/topics/billing-revenue-innovation-management), post and answer questions here, and read other posts on the topic here.