SAP IS-U Overview I

Overview of SAP IS-U CCS modules

The IS-U CCS is a Industry Solution from SAP which address the needs of a
customer oriented utility company. In the next pages we’ll refer to SAP for
Utilities Industry Solution simply as IS-U or CCS.

IS-U comprises the following modules:

Master Data and Basic Functions

Customer Services
Work Management
Device Management
Billing & Invocing
Energy Data Management
Contract Accounts

A complete SAP for Utilities solution should also contain the following SAP
products:
CRM – Customer Relationship Management
BW – Business Warehouse.

The CRM solution is design to cover all the marketing, customer acquisition,
sales and customer services processes of a utility company. It is fully
integrated with the IS-U: CRM works as a front end (contracts, customer
services, market campaigns and IS-U as a backend (billing, payment
processing, work management, etc). For example when using a CRM as a
front end system, a contact created in CRM is replicated automatically in IS-
U where the necessary master data is created automatically using Master
Data Templates.

The Business Warehouse solution is used for reporting. Is comes with a

Business Content which already contains a lot of predefined Info Cubs and
reports.

Where can IS-U be implemented?

The traditional value chain in the energy industry is:
Generation, transmission, Distribution, Supply and Customer Services and
Billing.
The IS-U has been successfully implemented and design for the Distribution,
Supply and Customer Services and Billing. However IS-U (mostly EDM) has
 been implemented in Transmission companies as well. Of course with a
few/a lot of developments depending on which of the business processes
were covered in IS-U.

Typical landscape for a SAP for Utility Solution

SAP IS-U Overview II

SAP R/3 and IS-U can be implemented under the SAP IS-U Client or in
different clients.

Implementing SAP IS-U and SAP R/3 in the same client:

This is the best solution as the interfaces between SAP R/3 and SAP IS-U is
native. IS-U practically extend some of the R/3 functionalities.

Examples:

- an IS-U device is a serial number of a device category. In R/3 a device

category is a material in the Logistics Material Master.

- FI-CA posts closed reconciliation keys in the General Ledger.

- a device location and connection object is a functional location in PM

- a work management order is a PM order.

 Implementing SAP IS-U in a different client than SAP R/3:

This is a solution suitable for large implementations with large number of

customers. The interfaces are kept at minimum.

For example:

FI-CA posts reconciliation keys in the local General Ledger. Then the posting
in the local General Ledger needs to be transferred in the R/3 General
Ledger using an interface usually ALE.

The utility company buys new meters. This are managed in SAP R/3 from
the logistic and accounting point of view: purchase order, goods receipt and
invoice. But in the same time a interface (manual / automatic) needs to be
established to make the meters available in IS-U for the device installation
process.

There could be other examples as well but these are the ones are most
common.

IS-U and R/3 Integration.

Let’s see the integration of IS-U and R/3 in depth detail.

As I already told you, the IS-U is sometimes extending existing R/3

functionalities to cover the need of the utility business. But of course other
functionalities were newly developed.

Device Management is fully integrated with the PM and MM and AM

modules. A device (e.g.: meter, transformer) is a serial number of a device
category and in the same time a piece of equipment. The device category is
defined as a material in the material master.

Work Management is fully integrated with MM, SD, PM/CS and Controlling
modules. Here the utility company can implement a broad range of billed or
non-billed services offered to the customers. For example a work
management order is an extension of a PM/CS order and can be linked to IS-
U objects such as Business Partner, Contract Account, Connection Object.

Billing & Invoicing is fully integrated with SD. For example we can
implement a process where some services are billed in SD and Invoiced in
 IS-U.

Contract Accounts is fully integrated with Financial Accounting. CA is a

sub-ledger of General Ledger.

IS-U and external applications integration.

IS-U can be integrated with external applications such as: GIS, SCADA,
External Billing Systems, Automatic Meter Reading Systems, other CRM
Systems.

IS-U in deregulation markets.

IS-U has evolved along with the utility market. In the last 10 years the
European market but other markets as well has adopted a new business
model. That is the unbundling of a classic utility company into: generation,
transmission, distribution and supply. The unbundled utility market had
several stages such as:

- accounting unbundling – the utility company would present different P&L

accounts for Generation, Transmission, Distribution and Supply

- informational unbundling – accounting unbundling + the prevention of

sales (supply) users to access the distribution data of customers supplied by
other supplier

- legal unbundling – splitting of the utility company in separated legal

entities responsible with generation, transmission, distribution and supply.

The deregulation market model leaded to a lots of changed in a utility

company processes. The most important change was about the data
exchange process between the utility companies. Because a customer has
the right to change it’s utility supplier lead to a process called “Change of
Supplier” where the suppliers and distributor need to exchange data about
that customer such as: Billing Tariffs, Meter Readings, Unpaid bills.

In order to support such processes SAP developed a new module for this
called SAP IDE which supports the following processes:

Change of supplier

Billing of Distribution Services to Supplier

 Sending Meter Readings to Distributor / Supplier

SAP IS-U / CCS Overview

Along with standard SAP R/3, SAP has provided solutions that cater to the special demands of a
particular Industry and are seamlessly integrated with the components of standard SAP. e.g. A
equipment defined in standard SAP R/3 PM can be used while creating a device in SAP IS-U. These
are called Industry Specific solutions.

• SAP IS-U/CCS stands for the Industry Specific Solution for Utilities - Customer
Care & Service

• SAP IS-U/CCS component is a Sales & Information system that supports all
business processes and utility services of a utility company.
Processes related with divisions of a Utility Company e.g. Electricity, Gas, Water, Heating,
Waste Disposal can be handled by SAP IS-U.

• The core IS-U/CCS application is a consumption billing system that valuates

measured and flat rate consumption and services. Though Services ( but not
consumption ) can also be billed and invoiced using standard Sales & Distribution
(SD).
In a utility company, given the size of data processing, Billing is probably the most
challenging and important area for any ERP system considering the processing required for
millions of customers every month-end.

SAP IS-U / CCS - Features - Basic Functions & Master Data

A high level overview of SAP IS-U components is as below:

• Basic Functions:
This component is used to manage addresses and regional structures along with
generating dates and schedule for meter readings, billing and budget billings.
Just for understanding, a over simplified example of regional structure is Country--
>State-->District--> City in the context of India or Country --> County --> City for UK.

• Master Data:
In order to manage data that remains fixed for long period of time and is referenced by
related transactions. In SAP IS-U, this data includes:
○ Business Master Data: as Business Partners, Contract Accounts & Contracts.
To make a perception, master data that is related with participating people ( e.g.
Customers ), organisations and agreements (contract) can be classified as
Business Master Data. A Contract gets created at the time of customer Move-in
(joining) and it also links Business and Technical Master Data.

○ Technical Master Data: as Connection Objects ( Buildings & Real estate ) and the
premises, installations and device locations contained within connection object.
PoD - Point of Delivery is the location where utility services are rendered and PoD
id is used to identify it uniquely.
Technical master data is related with identification of the building, delivery point,
devices and its installation.

SAP IS-U / CCS - Features - Billing & Device Management

• Device Management:
This component manages the installations, meter reading, and the certification of all
devices for a utility company. Devices can be a electric meter or Gas meter etc.
Device Management of SAP IS-U is integrated with SAP PM ( Plant Maintenance ). Device is
an instrument to measure consumption, processing data or controlling and protecting
other instruments. Devices are identified using material and srl number and are managed
in PM as pieces of equipment with serial numbers.

• Billing:
This component is used for billing the standard divisions like electricity, gas, water / waste
water, district heating, and multimedia services( e.g. Cable TV )
SAP IS-U billing is integrated with FI-CA, Accounts Receivable & Payable and it manages
postings from billing and budget billing requests.

• Invoicing:
SAP IS-U Invoicing enables grouping of bills before sending it to customer. Also, it handles
extra fee / tax charging requirements.
e.g. If one customer is taking services from both the divisions, electricity as well Gas or
has multiple contracts, then as per the requirement, bills can be grouped into one invoice.
 SAP IS-U / CCS - Features - Customer Service

• Customer Service:
This component provides centralized and easy access to customer data, through one
screen, called Customer Interaction Center(CIC) or Front Office. By using CIC / Front
Office, Customer service operator can also start the frequently used business processes at
the request of customer.

These processes, called a workflow, are generally a sequence of activities with

dependencies and are performed by several people.
e.g. A request by the customer for a new connection will require a series of steps like
creation of business & technical master data and then execution of move-in to create a
contract.

Further, this will be a lot more complex in case of a change of supplier ( not a new
connection ) as a lot of data exchange between the service providers ( winner & looser
suppliers) and Transmission Company is required.

SAP IS-U - Features - IDE

• IDE - Intercompany Data Exchange:

Before deregulation of utilities sector, the companies were used to be vertically Integrated
having �bundled� businesses (i.e. Generation, Transmission, and Distribution) under a
tightly integrated holding company/operating company model. Hence all data from all
parts of the value chain were accessible to all parts of the company.

But after deregulation, companies are now split into individually operating, self accounting
units for generation, transmission, distribution, and supply. So, data that was previously
contained in a single system is now distributed amongst the different operating units in the
value chain. In order to obtain all data needed to complete processing, companies must
share data between systems.

IDE, an add-on to SAP IS-U/CCS provides a mechanism to effectively exchange and control
data between service providers' systems. Actual transfer of data is done through Standard
SAP's EDI / IDOC communication and hence in a sense IDE is a layer above EDI/IDoc
functionality. IDE covers the areas below:

○ Administration of deregulation data:

It includes PoD, Grids, Point of delivery Services and Service Providers.

○ Process Execution - Communication Control

To send and receive data for certain events. It uses PoD to determine the sender,
 receiver and the information to be sent along with the required format.

○ Management of Data Exchange Processes

SAP-IS-Utilities Applications Specialist

Atlanta, GA
4-6 months
Start is ASAP

Description
• Gather, analyze, and configure the SAP-ISU system.
• Assist in the training of IT support personnel and end users.
• Document configuration.
• This position will work with other ISU Consultants and be responsible for the maintenance and support of the SAP-
ISU production system with a CRM Winclient as the front-end.

Desired Skills
• Minimum of 3 years experience in production environment similar to government and public sector.
• Water utility experience required.
• Mastery of the IS-U data model and standard industry processes
• Strong understanding of the Billing and Invoicing, Device Management, and FI-CA components, with system
configuration experience
• Experience in the areas of integration of IS-U with other SAP systems, mainly Materials Management, Plant
Maintenance, Funds Management, Finance and CRM
• Ability to readily comprehend the configuration and design of the production system
• Experience integrating all processes within the Customer Interaction Center and with CRM

In our current project, we have to trigger e-mails to shared folder of IS-U inbox in case the files that are
pumped in for posting Idocs are invalid. XI file adapter picks the files and validates the file through java
mapping and passes it to Idoc adapter if the file is valid or passes it to RFC adapter, which will trigger mails
to IS-U by calling RFC SO_OBJECT_INSERT.I will provide the configuration to achieve the same.
Let me depict the scenario graphically:
I will explain the steps involved for triggering an e-mail when the validation mapping produces the
XML file with rejection details of the invalid file that is pumped into XI.

Configuration Steps in SAP IS-U:

1.Goto tcode SO01 and create folder XIWEBLOG from the menu as shown below.
2.Goto tcode SE16 and give the table name SOFD and take a note of 3 attributes Folder Type, Folder
Name and Year for the folder XIWEBLOG created. These details are required in RFC structure of
SO_OBJECT_INSERT for triggering mails to the appropriate folders.

With this SAP IS-U is ready to receive mails in the XIWEBLOG shared folder.

Configuration Steps in SAP XI:

1.Import the RFC SO_OBJECT_INSERT into XI.

2.We are going to send the e-mail asynchronously to SAP IS-U so we are going to use only the the
request structure of the imported RFC.
3.The output of Java validation mapping is an XML with the following XSD structure.

"ROW" corresponds to each record in the file.

"FILE_TYPE" corresponds to the file type of a file (Ex: MRI, MIO).
"ERR_RECORD" corresponds to error records in the file.
"STATUS" corresponds to the result of file validation.
4.I listed down the parameters that have to be passed to SO_OBJECT_INSERT in order to trigger e-
mails to SAP IS-U inbox.
Folder Details:
1.OBJTP-Folder Type retrieved from SOFD.
2.OBJYR-Year retrieved from SOFD.
3.OBJNR-Folder Number retrieved from SOFD.
Mail Subject:
1.OBJDES-Subject of the Mail (Rejected file name: <Filename>)

Data Format:
OBJECT_TYPE-RAW

Mail Content:
1.LINE-Mail Content ("ROW"+"ERR_RECORD")

I have not detailed the required mapping, as the scope of the blog doesn’t pertain to that. Once we
designed the appropriate mapping and required configuration is done in the ID and IR, mails can be
triggered to SAP IS-U XIWEBLOG folder. We are able to successfully send file level rejections as e-
mails to our SAP IS-U inbox by using the above approach. We can check the mails in XIWEBLOG folder
using SO01 once the message has been successfully delivered to RFC adapter.

EMIGALL - An IS-Utility Data Migration Workbench

Migration is an open interface for transferring master data and transaction data to IS-U.
The outflow is orientated around the target system IS-U. This means that the data model,
or the function of the legacy system for migration is neither required nor used.

The migration procedure cannot run based on tables, because of the relational SAP
system data model and the considerable complexities it contains. Instead it has to
compile related data in such a way as to guarantee consistency in the data after the
transfer.

The data is compiled into migration objects for the migration into the SAP application. In
these units the data is transfered into the SAP system. At the same time, special service
function modules have been created in IS-U for the business objects of this application.
They make an object-orientated transfer possible. These modules operate in direct input
mode and can thus avoid the performance disadvantages of batch input processes.
The structure of a migration object is defined in controlling tables delivered by SAP. It
can consist of several SAP structures. You can find all the structures connected with a
migration object in the dictionary. User-defined enhancements (fields) are taken into
account at the same time.

Data can be extracted from the legacy system using user-defined extraction programs.
The exact record structure is determined per table settings in the Migration Workbench
(transaction EMIGALL). Data sets that have been generated in this way, and transfered to
your target computer by file transfer, are read and processed in the SAP system by the
import program, which is generated by the customer system. The code conversion
(EBCDID to ASCII) is carried out at the same time. The data is then formatted and
transfered to the direct input module.

So, IS-U Migration work bench represents an open interface & works with the business
objects instead of database tables and with direct input instead of batch input. The
Customizing & execution of ISU – Migration Work bench using T-code EMIGALL includes the
following process steps

1. The Scope of ISU - Migration

2. The Concept of Migration Object
3. The Technology
4. Migration Customizing
5. Using the IS-U Migration Workbench
6. Migration Project
7. Migration Objects

I m currently working on Is-Utility implementation project..and SAP

has given a very good functionality for IS-Utility Data migration
which is famously called EMIGALL. it is Is-Utility data migration
workbench. a must learn for ABAP mainly IS-Utility as currently
many IS-U implementation are going on all over the world. I got a book
from following location ..

EMIGALL Step-By-Step Guide

Purpose of this document is to provide a complete step-by step guidance for T-code
EMIGALL for configuring the ISU – Migration Work bench & use it as a tool, for loading IS-U
master and transactional data from one or more legacy system(s).
Migration is an open interface for transfering master data and transaction data to IS-U.
The outflow is orientated around the target system IS-U. This means that the data
model, or the function of the legacy system for migration is neither required nor used.

The migration procedure cannot run based on tables, because of the relational SAP
system data model and the considerable complexities it contains. Instead it has to
compile related data in such a way as to guarantee consistency in the data after the
transfer.

The data is compiled into migration objects for the migration into the SAP application. In
these units the data is transfered into the SAP system. At the same time, special service
function modules have been created in IS-U for the business objects of this application.
They make an object-orientated transfer possible. These modules operate in direct input
mode and can thus avoid the perfomance disadvantages of batch input processes.

The structure of a migration object is defined in controling tables delivered by SAP. It

can consist of several SAP structures. You can find all the structures connected with a
migration object in the dictionary. User-defined enhancements (fields) are taken into
account at the same time.

Data can be extracted from the legacy system using user-defined extraction programs.
The exact record structure is determined per table settings in the Migration Workbench
(transaction EMIGALL). Data sets that have been generated in this way, and transfered
to your target computer by file transfer, are read and processed in the SAP system by
the import program, which is generated by the customer system. The code conversion
(EBCDID to ASCII) is carried out at the same time. The data is then formatted and
transfered to the direct input module.

So, IS-U Migration work bench represents an open interface & works with the business
objects instead of database tables and with direct input instead of batch input. The
Customizing & execution of ISU – Migration Work bench using T-code EMIGALL
includes the following process steps

1. The Scope of ISU - Migration

2. The Concept of Migration Object
3. The Technology
4. Migration Customizing
5. Using the IS-U Migration Workbench
6. Migration Project
7. Migration Objects