C4C Release 2011: What’s new in SAP Sales and Service Cloud?

Three months have passed since the last update for SAP Sales and Service Cloud. That means it’s time for the C4C Release 2011. We’ll give you an overview of the new functionalities that are included in this year’s November update – and those that are no longer available. Because with C4C Release 2011, the support of SAP Sales and Service Cloud for Internet Explorer ends.

Platform & Integration

Fiori

The UX design Fiori 3 is now called Quartz Light. The Saphira theme is officially available – with the exception of the areas mobile, surveys and perfect store. Users can also configure the kanban board according to their own preferences.

Look & Feel

To facilitate the onboarding process for new users, C4C Release 2011 provides step-by-step instructions.

SAP has also improved integration with SAP Enable Now, a solution for training and onboarding.

Business Partner

Competitors and their products can now be maintained directly at the customer. Transactions can be excluded from automatic territory determination. The new 1:1 relationship feature prevents contacts from being assigned to multiple customers. There are also minor adjustments such as suggestions for address entry including validation – an SAP DQM license is required for this –, OData extensions and refresh buttons in detailed views.

Mobile & Offline

SAP C4C Extended App provides push notifications on workflows. While the user previously only received such a notification when a workflow was executed for the first time, the feature can now be used as a real-time notification on a recurring basis. It is now also possible to upload multiple attachments offline at the same time.

Analytics

C4C Release 2011 offers a significant innovation: Embedded SAP Analytics Cloud Integration makes the features of SAP Analytics Cloud available within C4C. Available are Query Designer, Linked Analysis, Explorer Mode and Stories. The live connection provides additional reporting options in real time at no additional cost.

Via Transport Management, analytical content can be exchanged between tenants..

Cross Topics

Key User Tools

Setting rule-based default values for fields is certainly one of the most important new features of C4C Release 2011.

In addition, this year’s November update of SAP Sales and Service Cloud provides more options for personalization and highlighting. This can be achieved, for example, by coloring fields and lists, using larger font sizes or by resetting the fields that SAP highlights in the standard version.

Administrators can restrict which users or roles can see which view types (map view, list view, table view, etc.).

Workflows

Using social media workflows, messages can be sent and answered automatically on Facebook and Twitter.

SAP Application Studio

Descriptions for SDK fields can be changed via Fine Tuning. The ABSL Code Generator creates automatic code blocks for faster and easier development.

Archiving

In C4C Release 2011 there is a new archiving function for quotations, orders, activities and tickets.

Data Workbench

Simulated import tasks can be automatically scheduled for real import so that the steps do not need to be repeated. It is also possible to select individual table columns (fields) to be exported.

The new update of SAP Sales and Service Cloud also increases the quantity limits.

Event Notifcations

Thanks to the extended payload, you can see which fields have been changed by a specific event.

Another new feature is the ability to configure events via an OData API. This provides a higher degree of automation.

Integration

SAP S/4HANA Cloud allows the replication of equipment and technical locations to C4C as a registered product. It is also possible to dock multiple C4C instances to SAP Marketing Cloud. Integration with SAP Identity Provisioning (IPS) and SAP Identity Authentication (IAS) for users has also been realized.

Groupware Integration

As far as groupware integration is concerned, the synchronization of appointment series is now possible. SAP has increased the maximum size of attachments to 10 MB. In addition, users receive a notification when their access credentials expires.

OData Framework

The API monitor has been improved in terms of tracing and errors.

SAP Sales Cloud

Sales Acceleration Features

A new work center is available for call lists. The creation and copying of lists is dialog-based.

It is possible to add leads, contacts and prospects as well as assign and notify sales representatives. In addition to making phone calls and recording the results, the call lists also offer the possibility of analyzing calls made in the past.

Intelligent Sales Execution

The Sales Unit Rollup enables hierarchical reporting on the sales areas.

With the help of Sales Smart Components, which are based on Machine Learning, customer-specific extensions of the Deal and Lead Intelligence Model can be implemented. The functionality to add suggested activities, for example appointments, is available as a beta version.

Leads

C4C Release 2011 brings some minor changes to the leads. For example, lead routing has been improved to identify the sales person responsible, and the refresh button is now visible everywhere.

Opportunities

The duplicate check for opportunities provides better transparency and higher data quality.

The status of the item influences the agreed total value of the opportunity. Either the item is included in the calculation or not – depending on what has been defined.

Quotations, orders & pricing

Formatted signatures and templates are available for quotation e-mails. New in the area of orders are product lists, date synchronization with the ERP system and graphical signatures.

Contracts

New contracts can be created in “Full Create Mode” with all relevant attributes.

Activities and surveys

In C4C Release 2011, follow-up activities can be created automatically from surveys for exceptional conditions.

SAP Service Cloud

Service channels

Mails are automatically created without attachments if the attachment is not supported. Workflows can be set up for service mails, for example to send a confirmation mail to the sender of a service channel mail. The integration of the customer support and messaging platform CommBox was also implemented.

Audio recordings of telephone calls can be linked. And thanks to the Session Tabs for Live Activities, users can conduct various customer interactions simultaneously.

Service Management/Tickets

SLA milestones can be implemented via Business-Add-in (BAdI). If tickets are created from registered products, involved parties can be defined via determination rules.

Machine Learning

Machine Learning technologies automatically determine an order id from ticket information (text, subject, etc.). Additional functionalities are included in this year’s November update in beta status: text summary for internal memos and automatic filling of the subject as well as analysis of all interactions and generation of a summary.

Registered products

With C4C Release 2011, subsequent changes to the reference product are possible.

S/4HANA Cloud Service Management

Instead of a button, an S/4HANA Cloud Service Order can now be created from a C4C ticket using workflow rules. In addition, the S/4HANA Service Order ID is available as a parameter in the workflows.

Field Service Management

The new version of SAP Service Cloud improves the integration of spare parts between C4C and SAP Field Service Management (FSM).

Replication of skill data from C4C to FSM is also possible.

Schedule

For test systems, C4C Release 2011 will be released on October 31st and November 1st. SAP plans the roll-out for the production systems on November 14 and 15.