ERP

An overview of the integration of SAP Field Service Management

Which type of integrations do you have to select for your business case?
Jimmy Laureys Management bij Amista
Jimmy Laureys
Header FSM blog

Intro

SAP Field Service Management (FSM) is a powerful tool for companies that rely on field technicians to service their customers or internal equipment’s. With the ability to manage and optimize scheduling, dispatching, and resource utilization, FSM can help companies improve their efficiency and customer/employee satisfaction. But in order to fully realize the benefits of FSM, it’s important to consider how it can be integrated with other systems and tools.

From a functional point of view, SAP FSM is a cloud solution that consists of a cloud backend system for a planner to create, manage and plan/assign a service call to an internal technician or an external crow technician.

The technician has a mobile app available on all different platforms (Microsoft Window, Apple and Android) to handle the service calls, record used parts, hours worked, mileage travelled, etc.

This might determine the next steps in the integration.

This FSM function overview provides a detailed view on what the possibilities are of each of the mobile or web platforms.

Integration with non-backend systems

A potential integration is with a Geographic Information System (GIS). By connecting FSM with a GIS system, companies can visualize the locations of their field technicians and assets on a map. This can help dispatchers make more informed decisions about assigning technicians to job sites and can also help managers better understand the utilization of their resources.

Another integration possibility is with the Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This can help companies to track the status of their assets in real-time and to receive alerts when there is a problem with an asset. This can help them to reduce downtime and improve the efficiency of their field service operations.

Integration with SAP backend systems

A lot of blogs have been written about Field Service Management and how to setup  SAP Field Service Management (FSM) and integrate it with the different SAP backend systems. However, it seems quite hard to get a clear overview on when to select which type of integration. Therefore I created this blog to give you a high-level overview on which type of integrations you want to select for your business case.

This blog gives an overview of the backend integrations and is the first of 4 blogs. The 3 upcoming blogs will go into the details of the integration types.

One possible integration for FSM is with SAP Service Cloud. By connecting FSM with a CRM service cloud system, companies can gain a more complete view of their customers, including their service history and contact information. This can help field technicians better understand the needs of their customers and provide more personalized service.

FSM can also be integrated with enterprise resource planning (SAP ERP or SAP S/4 HANA) systems, such as SAP ERP, to connect the data of service and repair order, inventory, and financial. This can help companies keep track of their costs and inventory levels, and can also help them improve their accounting and financial reporting.

All objects described before can be integrated with an SAP backend system to avoid manual duplication of data. The level detail of this integration will determine the type of integration your company needs.

A representation of it in a picture makes it easier to understand:

FSM Cloud

Basically, there are two types of integrations:

  1. Cloud based integration using SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) integration (previously known as SAP CPI)
  2. On premise integration using an ABAP connector and message broker which can be installed on SAP BTP or on a windows environment on your local network

Each type of integration follows the basic objects that are integrated, that we will discuss in detail in the related blogs.

Backend FSM

Service objects of the backend are transferred into service calls in SAP FSM Cloud. This is available in all integration models, but it’s also possible to custom build this integration using the FSM API toolkit.

The result of the tasks that has been performed by the technician will be a summary of effort, cost and potentially also parts used.

The integration is based on master data which is also always available from the backend to the SAP FSM Cloud. But the feedback/updates from SAP FSM to the backed systems is not always available so that why I used dotted lines for the return flow.

In the SAP help you can find an overview of the current and planned integrations.

The most basic way of integration that is always available would be file based integration using manual up and download of the data. This is not advisable for recurring integration, only for initial loads.

We will explain some of the integration scenarios in detail in the following blog posts.

Already a spoiler alert: the ABAP/on premise integration is the most complete an powerful integration and can be developed to your own needs. Try to think about which capabilities you would actually need, because complete and powerful also means a higher complexity.

In conclusion, SAP Field Service Management offers many possibilities for integration with other systems and tools. By considering how FSM can be integrated with other systems, companies can gain a more complete view of their operations and customers, and can improve their efficiency and customer satisfaction.

We will cover the following 3 topics in detail in the next blog posts:

  1. C4C/Sales Cloud integration (part of the SAP CX Cloud portfolio)
  2. S/4HANA Cloud Service integration
  3. S/4HANA OnPrem PM/CS backend integration