Can Utilities Customer E-Services (UCES) done through NWBC (Portal)..?

[Former Member]

Dear all gurus,

UCES can be done through Enterprise Portal or Standalone. Is it possible to do it via NWBC.??

Thanks,

Namsheed

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Namsheed,

yes, UCES does work in enterprise portal version. In that case the ugly framesets do go away

Standalone however makes more sense, which is also supported. I have seen some projects, where the EP was only setup to run Biller Direct / UCES within as they didn´t knew better, but that´s just overhead (+ all the extra troubles you get) ; I would not recommend to do so if you do not use the EP for anything else already.

Take a look at one of my last UCES projects

• http://my.bkw.ch
• http://my.groupe-e.ch

Both are integrated into the EP, but we used a special technique that both solutions do not support out of the box.

SAP NWBC should be possible, but i assume in this case you like to use the Call Centre mode? You will have to enable Single Sign On

Best regards,

Andreas

[Former Member]

Thanks a lot Andreas for the reply

If its possible can you tell how we can do it..?? Is there any standard roles by which we get the applications..??

How is the configurations..?

Looking for your valuable feedback.

Thanks,

Namsheed.

[Former Member]

I would recommend you to get & read the configuration guide.

A hint: When you run UCES / Biller Direct within EP, then you will have to do the same as you do for a standalone system. So first of all install the Biller Direct and get it working standalone, before you link the individual pages to EP.

[Former Member]

Hi Andreas,

Actually we don't have EP here. We have only NWBC portal here.

Is it like the standalone application will develop by Utilities Consultant and that application will link to NWBC..??

It will be really helpful if you could send some configuration guide or any docs.

Thanks,

Namsheed

[Former Member]

Hi Namdsheed,

i can´t send you any official SAP configuration guide directly, because those you get on the SAP service market and I am not allowed to do it as I am not aware about your license agreements.

The type consultant you need depends on your requirements and your needs. Below my recommendation based on my personal experience of projects i have done, rescued thereafter and seen from others so far.

If you just want to enable vanilla UCES without applying any change, then any functional consultant could theoretically (!!) do it - biggest problem is, that there are so many possible ways to do it, that it will be very likely impossible to make the right decision without someone who has done the setup of Biller Direct or UCES at least a few times. It already starts with the big question, where to manage the users (e.g. UME, LDAP, ERP backend,...) - sounds actually simply, but it will have a big impact later on if you like perform specific enhancements. The standard installation example / documentation is only based on the scenario to use the ABAP backend - it does not highlight any alternative with detailed examples.

If you like to do something like the UCES implementations above, where you have a fully customized solution, then you need someone like me who knows every line of code (not just the technology). The result very much depends on the consultant you get involved or you need at least 2-3 times longer without getting actually the functionalities you like to see. There are just a handful experienced consultants world wide,  who actually can shape the application in anything you like to see. There are however many people pretending they have done it one ore more often -  If you do any interviews, i highly recommend to ask for screenshots (where you see the actual UCES / Biller Direct functionality except of the logon screen). If you see just the vanilla application, then he did just the functional part. If you see some changes of logo´s and color schemes (but still the same page layout), then he did not get beyond the basics, but good enough if you do not plan to change any functionality.

If you are not lucky to get one of these experienced technical consultants , who are really experts, then you should consider to find some SAP technical Web-Channel consultants with some strong Java skills. Biller Direct / UCES is partially using some frameworks of the ISA (Internet Sales Application - SAP´s "old" e-commerce solution) and beside that it is based on the same technology as ISA. Just make sure he has a good IS-U & FI consultant right next to him, who explains him the the specific business objects if required.

If you have no Web-Channel / UCES / Biller Direct consultant available, then you might end up with just a generic Java developer. If he is really smart, then he might make quite some progress. However, the issues will already start with the NWDI setup. What normally takes 1 to 2 days, can take here quickly far more as one month. It also takes me often up to 2 weeks if the client wants their guys to perform the installation, just because the basis team did download the wrong packages or forgot one piece of configuration, which takes ages to find. What is also not explained to anyone is, how to separated custom coding from SAP standard - most people directly modify the SAP standard and sooner or later it ends in a big mess - especially when those already have left the project. That´s a general problem, also for SAP Web-Channel projects! I definitely recommend to setup your own DC´s (war, java and ear) and use the environment to migrate your changes on fly on top of the SAP standard files.

One big problem is, when you get someone involved you has no or limited experience is, that they just can do what the documentation is telling them - unfortunately the documentation is not that good and also the code of the application is not so clean & modulized to rip the whole application apart and build whatever you want.

This topic is quite a personal subject, because i see too many failed projects and as result always SAP get´s blamed - that seams to always works as excuse. I had once seen a project, who had 10 developers working on UCES for more as 1 year from a consultancy, who had no expertise at all. All they managed to do was something that can be done by 1 experienced consultant within less as 2 weeks, and he did after the consultancy was kicked out.

As i assume you only like to use the call-centre scenario, i think you will be fine with just a basis consultant - if you have someone with any hands on experience, then even better. In those scenarios you do not have end users accessing the fronted, which means you will go for the ABAP backend and that´s what you get, when you follow the configuration guide step by step.

Anything that goes beyond that, please choose carefully your implementation partner.

[Former Member]

Thanks a lot Andreas for your detailed explanation.

I will reply further if I need any more information.

Regards,

Namsheed.