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Christian Drumm
April 5, 2014 | 7 minute read

The Utilities Check Cockpit (UCC)

and the Check Repository in the
process framework
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In my previous blog (Testing some of the new features in SAP CRM EhP1, EhP2
and EhP3) I explored some of the general features delivered with SAP CRM EhP1,
 RSS Feed EhP2 andEhP3. In contrast to that I’ll explore utilities industry specific features in
this blog, namely the Utilities Check Cockpit (UCC) and the Check Repository in
the process framework.

The Utilities Check Cockpit as well as the Check Repository are part of the
business function CRM_UT_ER_2 (Energy Retailer 2 – Business Functions for
SAP Customer Relationship Management – SAP Library) delivered with SAP CRM
EhP2. In order to use these features the business function CRM_UT_ER_2 needs
to be activated using transaction SFW5.

However, the Utilities Check Cockpit has also been down ported to SAP CRM 7.0
EhP0 and EhP1 (cf. SAP Note 1742546 – Utilities Check Cockpit for further
details).

Utilities Check Cockpit (UCC)

The Utilities Check Cockpit is a tool to automatically perform comprehensive
consistency checks of utilities specific application data. In particular the Utilities
Check Cockpit can be used to check the consistency of contract and technical
data across SAP CRM and SAP IS-U. Inconsistencies of the utilities specific
application are usually sources  process problem. An Example of such an
inconsistency is a contract that has been cancelled in SAP IS-U and were the 
cancellation has not been replicated to SAP CRM correctly for whatever reason.
This will most likely cause a process problem if an agent tries to create a move
out for the contract in SAP CRM. The Utilities Check Cockpit aims to identify
such inconsistencies before they can lead to process problems.

Setup
The initial setup of the Utilities Check Cockpit is pretty easy. Besides the
activation of the business function CRM_UT_ER_2 the only thing I had was to
implement SAP Note 1919089 – CRM-IU: Utilities Check Cockpit – Creation of a
Check Run causes a dump. This note contains only the instruction to create two
number range intervals for the number range objects CRM_UOCM and
CRM_UOCM_I.

After this, the Utilities Check Cockpit can either be started using transaction
CRM_IUCMON or via the Check Cockpit -> Check Run in the UTIL_SALES
business role.

Executing Check Runs

In order to execute an individual check run or schedule a periodic check run click
“New” and select the check run category. SAP delivers three check categories in
the standard delivery of the Utilities Check Cockpit, namely:

UORD – Utilities Business Transaction Document

USLO – Utilities Service Location
USET – Utilities Object Set.
After the selection of the check run category one needs to set the parameters for
the check run as well as the scheduling parameters for the batch process
executing the checks. In the example below I’ve selected two check classes and
scheduled the background job for immediate start. Furthermore, it is possible to
provide an email address for a notification upon completion of the check run.

Upon completion of a check run the Utilities Check Cockpit provides an overview
of the found issues for each of the selected check classes. For each issue it is
possible to create a task and assign it to some agent in order to get the issues
resolved. In the screen shot below the results of the check class
CL_CRM_ISU_CM_CHECK_CANC are shown. This check class searches for
contracts which are cancelled in IS-U but not in CRM. In the example check run
10 such cases were identified.
Furthermore, the Utilities Check Cockpit also offers the possibility to implement
automatic corrections for each issue. However, none of the check classes
delivered in the SAP standard provides functionality for an automatic correction.

Extending the Utilities Check Cockpit

In the standard SAP delivers the following set of check classes:

Check category UORD

CL_CRM_ISU_CM_CHECK_CANC – Search contracts cancelled in IS-U
but not in CRM
CL_CRM_ISU_CM_CHECK_DATES – Compare appointment
‘CONTSTART’ with its value in the CRM Utilities-Index
CL_CRM_ISU_CM_CHECK_EVERH – Compare IS-U-contract history
(EVERH) with the CRM Utilities-Index
CL_CRM_ISU_CM_CHECK_I1030 – Check if status I1030 ‘errors’ is
correctly set
CL_CRM_ISU_CM_CHECK_I2413 – Check if status I2413 is correctly set
CL_CRM_ISU_CM_CHECK_LINK – Search for CRMD_ISUEXTA4 without
CRMD_ORDERADM_I
CL_CRM_ISU_CM_CHECK_POD_OCC – Search for Points of Delivery with
multiple assigned Contracts
CL_CRM_ISU_CM_CHECK_POD_REPL – Check IS-U Replication Error
Monitor for Point of Delivery and Connection Object issues
 CL_CRM_ISU_CM_CHECK_REPL – Search for Contract related issues in
IS-U Replication Error Monitor
CL_CRM_ISU_CM_CHECK_STAT – Generate IS-U Order error message
statistic

Check category USLO

CL_CRM_ISU_CM_CONS_DL_CONNOBJ – Check Connection Objects for
consistent Download
CL_CRM_ISU_CM_TO_WITHOUT_IB – Check for Technical Objects
without an IBase component.

In addition to those check classes it is quite easy to extend the Utilities Check
Cockpit with custom check classes. In order to create a custom check on needs
to implement the custom check in a class implementing the interface
IF_CRM_ISU_CM_CHECK. The check classes delivered in the SAP standard (e.g.
CL_CRM_ISU_CM_CHECK_I2413), which are located in package
CRM_IU_CM_API, provide plenty of code examples how to implement a custom.

After a custom check class has been implemented it only needs to added to the
customizing at SPRO -> Customer Relationship Management -> Industry-
Specific Solutions -> Utilties Industry -> General Settings -> Utilities Check
Cockpit -> Define Settings for Utilities Check Cockpit. After this, the custom
check class can be selected when a new check run is scheduled.

In order to provide an automated correction, the two methods

IF_CRM_ISU_CM_CHECK~CORRECT and
IF_CRM_ISU_CM_CHECK~IS_CORRECTION_SUPPORTED need to be
implemented in the custom check class.

Check Repository
The second feature I want to focus on in this blog is the check repository in the
process framework. If additional checks needed to be performed in the standard
process classes (like e.g. CL_CRM_IU_PR_CNTR_END) the only way to do this
was via the following approach:
 1. Create a subclass of the standard process class
2. Implement the additional check in the appropriate method of the process
framework (e.g. IF_CRM_IU_PROCESS~IS_EXECUTABLE)
3. Use the custom process class in the customizing of the process framework
instead of the standard class.

There are a large number of scenarios requiring the implementation of custom

checks in the process classes. In the systems of our clients custom checks are
implemented, for example, to check the market communication deadlined before
the creation of a move in or check if contract was billed after the date of a
planned move out. The check repository in the process framework focuses
exactly on this use case. It enables the addition of custom checks to the standard
process classes without the need to create a custom process class implantation.
Instead a custom check is implemented using the following approach:

1. Implement a custom check by subclassing CL_CRM_IU_PROCESS_CHECK

and implementing the method IF_CRM_IU_PROCESS_CHECK~CHECK
2. Add the custom check to the customizing of one or several processes in the
process framework.

In the following sections I’ll describe these steps in more detail.

Implementing a custom check

The class CL_CRM_IU_PR_CHK_CNTR_BILL_END in the package
CRM_IU_IC_6X_SI_PROC_IMPL provides an example of a custom check
implemented using the check repository. In the method
IF_CRM_IU_PROCESS_CHECK~CHECK a check for a existing bill after the
planned move out date is performed. In order to implement the check the
method IF_CRM_IU_PROCESS_CHECK~CHECK has access to the process
context. Furthermore, a reference to the log object is available in order to raise
error messages to the user if necessary.

Adding a custom check to the process framework

The customizing of the check repository is locates at SPRO -> Customer
Relationship Management -> Industry-Specific Solutions -> Utilties Industry ->
Settings for User Interfaces -> Transaction Processing -> Processes -> Define
Processes.
In order to add a custom check to the check repository first a Check ID needs to
be created. In the example below the check ID UCBILLEN is assigned to the
implementation class CL_CRM_IU_PR_CHK_CNTR_BILL_END.

Next the check can be added to a process. In order to add a check to a process
the execution time and the execution frequency within the process framework
needs to be specified. The execution time is specified within the methods of the
process framework, i.e.. checks can be executed before or after the following
methods of the process framework are called for the process implementation
class

IS_EXECUTABLE
IS_COMPLETE
ON_PRODUCT_CHANGED
ON_POD_CHANGED
ON_DATE_CHANGED
ON_GENERIC_DATA_CHANGED
START
AFTER_START
BEFORE_FINISH
FINISH
AFTER_FINISH.

In the example below the check UCBILLEN is executed after the method
IS_COMPLETE of the process framework is called. Furthermore, the check will
 only be called once per execution of a process. In contrast to that it is also
possible to execute a check for each item of a process.

In summary, the check repository provides a nice, clean way to extend the
standard process classes with custom checks.

Christian

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Assigned Tags

Utilities

SAP Customer Relationship Management

crm web ui

crm webui

customer relationship management

ehp2

ehp3

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10 Comments

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Jānis B
April 5, 2014 at 8:26 pm

I'm sorry for sounding so negative and dismissive, but is this functionality not an utter  technological
surrender and an admission of inability to create the processes and software that simply work and do not
leave the data in inconsistent state..? What's next - Utilities Check Cockpit Self-check?

Like 0 | Share

Christian Drumm | Blog Post Author

April 5, 2014 at 9:02 pm

Hi Janis,

I guess one has to admit that you comment is are at least partially right.

Due to the system setup consisting of SAP CRM and SAP IS-U including the master data
replication using the CRM middleware some of the utilities process become incredibly complex.
This is especially true in deregulated scenarios like in the German utilities industry, where external
communication processes takes place in even the most basic processes like performing a move in.
Given the system setup consisting of two independent systems with it's large number of possible
customizations (e.g. CRM product configuration, middleware replication and filtering, the IS-U
master data templates and master data generator, ...) things are bound to fail in some special
cases.

However, having said this, I'm sure that all these customizations have been implemented for some
reason. So either based on requirements of several customers or the requirement to support a
large number of similar but different processes across different countries, SAP introduced this
flexibility into the standard software. As a consequence, there will always be some bugs leading to
some inconsistent data in a large system.

Up to now one had two options. Either performed a correction of these data inconsistencies after
they led to process problems and were discovered by some agent or develop some custom check
programs to identify the problems beforehand.

In summary I think the UCC is a valuable addition to the standard functionality and will helping IT
departments ensure a smooth operation of the system. In the end it is not different from running a
Nagios installation to ensure a high availability server cluster is up and running without a problem.

Christian

Ps.: The check I executed in the example was actually performed in one of our customer systems
containing some 250.000 active contracts. 10 errors in these 250.000 contracts is not a bad
number. So I don't think we have totally surrendered, yet

Like 0 | Share

Jānis B
April 6, 2014 at 7:13 am

I'm maintaining and supporting a highly customer modified and extended (aka shooting
one-self in all extremities) IS-U only installation, where the business people run three
dozen or so reports to check and fix the data as part of yearly billing process. The people
actually preferred running them to having to sit down and talk business with the
inhabitants of all those other silos, capture the company wide processes (or at least the
parts supported by IS-U), try to fix the software, then test it again. Until the time company
had to start saving and they could not replace all retiring staff anymore, that is So the
check if all SEPA Mandates are there with the right statuses has to run in batch now... I
guess I should use this as another argument why they should want the SAP CRM - there
you'll consolidate your checks and work in a nice Cockpit!

Like 0 | Share

Christian Drumm | Blog Post Author

April 6, 2014 at 8:25 am

Hi Janis,

i'm not sure if the UCC is really a good argument for introducing SAP CRM in the
landscape . With a highly customized IS-U system implementing CRM. In a
way satisfying the business will be really challenging.

have you had a look at BPEM/EMMA to consolidate checks and issue handling?
It's available in the IS-U standard and currently used, e.g. for issue tracking in the
IDEX Common Layer. Might be a easier start then a full fledged CRM
implementation
 Christian

Like 0 | Share

Jānis B
April 6, 2014 at 10:28 am

No, no - not on top of a broken backend system of course - that's mission

impossible. When our Customer Service are ready for a clean slate,
change and compromises, if the multiple backends can work out to their
satisfaction (because electricity and gas deregulation and market
communication platform is just unnecessary pain for heating), leaving in
"legacy" IS-U the biggest reason for breaking the heating IS-U in the first
place - "proprietary" heating grid with lots of funky transmission loss
distribution calculations and the "proprietary" reading interface, which
was recently re-implemented. We tech folks may also sometimes dream
big, can't we if there will be money that is...

EMMA now forwards me most of the annoying correspondence printing

exceptions just fine, CCMS checks if EMMA is well..., so I'm a happy
camper, plotting how I could sweet-talk the respective silos into doing the
actual handling.

Like 0 | Share

Former Member
September 25, 2014 at 6:01 pm

Good article, thanks. We have CRM EHP1, if implemented UCC as you mentioned at beginining of the
article, can we have archive the capability on IC Web Client as EHP2 does? Thanks.

Like 0 | Share

Christian Drumm | Blog Post Author

September 26, 2014 at 8:04 am

Hi Michael,

I don't know if the WebUI component is already available in SAP CRM 7.0 EhP1. You could try to
search for the UI component IUCCRS. If it is available, simply give it a try. Alternatively you could
also check the Improvement Finder.

Christian

Like 0 | Share
 Nic Teunckens
June 27, 2016 at 8:01 pm

Thank you for this BlogPost, as it introduced me to this thus far unknown business function. We're running
ISU & CRM 7.0 EhP3 so this could be a great addition for Monitoring / Correcting PoD data.

Like 0 | Share

Suman Biswas
July 7, 2017 at 11:01 am

Hello Christian,

Great Blog!

Just wondering if this tool would cease to exist , if SAP follows their road map and puts crm as an add on to
the S4 Hana system...

Regards,

Suman Biswas

Like 0 | Share

Christian Drumm | Blog Post Author

July 7, 2017 at 12:07 pm

Hi Suman,

I'm not sure what will happen in the future with respect to CRM and IS-U. If CRM is integrated in
S/4HANA there is (hopefully) no need for the CRM middleware anymore. This would eliminate one
source for problems that the UCC tries to detect.

However, not all checks might become obsolete and it is also possible to add additional custom
checks. Therefore, I don't think the UCC itself will be obsolete.

Christian

Like 1 | Share

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