What is a Dealer Portal? 

In broad terms, a Dealer Portal helps your service partners,- the ASCs - Authorized Service Centers, Technicians, Dealerships, Re-sellers, interact online with your Service and Warranty department.

In real time.

What can a Dealer Portal help you and your customers and service partners to do?

• Create and update warranty claims
  
  
• Identify and sell spare parts
  
  
• Sell products, vehicles, equipment
  
  E.g. automotive vehicles, cars, or equipment
  
  
• Access self-service product and warranty registration
  
  
• Search for and manage recalls (Service Bulletins) 
  
  Get information about actions required by recalls, (e.g. inspect, test, order recall spares kits, etc.). File a recall claim 
  
  
• Respond to questions from the OEM, provide detailed narratives on cause, correction, e.g. upload pictures
  
  
• Viewing return part requests, print tags for return parts, update return part status as shipped, provide tracking number 
  
  
• Review claim list, status: accepted vs. denied, payment status, etc.

SAP Dealer Portal (Fiori)

How Long Has the Dealer Portal Been Available?

SAP released the standard Warranty Dealer Portal in 2009 as a Business Portal for B2B partner portal users, made available by the manufacturer or importer to be used by dealerships, ASPs - Authorized Service Providers, or repair centers. For example, imagine Samsung Electronics' ~30,000 global repair partners accepting repairs for cell phones and LED TVs.

In other words, the portal is a web front-end for partners and customers wishing to transact in service and warranty, buy spares and transact.

What Web-Technology is Used by the SAP Dealer Portal

Previously, SAP customers employed the SAP Web Dynpro framework for their SAP Dealer Portal. Basic Dealer Portal functionality is available from SAP in WebDynpro out of the box with some adjustments. We implemented the Dealer Portal several times successfully enhancing the functionality for our customers. 

A Fiori, UI5-based successor is now available from SAP ACS. We are experts in and can help you implement the Fiori-based Dealer Portal, implemented at several mostly automotive customers around the world.  

Another option is to use our partner consulting solution, also successfully rolled out at several customers around the world. 

In either case, your organization's Service and Warranty Portal will be implemented with off-the-shelve best practice functionality. Depending on your requirements, 80-95% of your requirements will be met by existing functionality already. The remaining "white space" is implemented in during the project as an enhancement to the existing screens, or new Fiori/UI-5 tiles will be created for you.  

This means you can be up and running within 3 months!
With a very attractive ROI for your Service and Warranty Portal investment.   

What are Some of Opportunities and Challenges?

Along with the many challenges and opportunities, there are also a number of associated benefits:

• Folks are looking for integrated, trouble-free systems. An online portal is required to be integrated with the ERP system, a.k.a. "back-end".  The system has to operate In Real-time.
  
  The technology must avoid re-keying of data across systems.
  
  
• Imagine a functional web portal, with it's branding, beautiful design, attractive look & feel: such a portal should also have ready access to SAP ERP master and transactional data:
  
  
  • Share master data with the ERP system, such as a logon user record tied to a partner customer or vendor.
    
    The user logs on to the portal and transacts under the customer ID.
    
    The user creates a claim with the final outcome of a claim credit posted directly to the AR account.
    
    
  • Share financial account data: visible in real-time, funds are immediately available to be applied against another product or spare part purchase.
    
    Helping the service center's cash flow and accelerating OEM product sales.  
    
    
  • Portal 'workflow': the portal facilitates communication between the customer base, the ASC's, about current status of claims, product registration, etc. and the technical service center.  Thus alleviating the necessity to call or email people - two often disjointed channels. Unless also employing a call center that captures these signals, I am digressing.
    
    This is super valuable. 
    
    Because the communication, the narrative, the documentation and action lives directly on the SAP claim, not in an email system.
    
    
  • Millennials don't like to use email! They do not like calling people. I know that from my son.
    
    What do they like?
    
    They like social platforms and they like chat tools.
    
    The SAP Dealer Portal is like a chat tool. We follow a general cultural trend by offering a chat-like communication channel to the new generation of information workers. 

These are integration aspects that are challenging for a large enterprise with multiple platforms and systems. A flexible and powerful solution is required that is contained within a relatively small footprint in order not to have to bridge and build expensive interfaces within the network of multiple systems. Most folks have an ERP and a portal. Warranty lives in the SAP ERP (ECC or S/4 HANA) and in the portal. Easy.

Do You Know What The number #1 Key Decision is:?

• Integrate your existing portal with SAP through a custom interface, or
• Use the SAP Standard Fiori Portal

Does a portal already exist? A well functioning, well designed portal will lead decision makers to a place where they'd like to keep using the existing portal. Having invested time, cost, blood and tears, ... why replace it? You could integrate that portal with SAP. Through a custom interface.

Can do. 

Most platforms will technically support integrating with SAP ECC or SAP S/4Hana. However, developing an integration like that is expensive, a one-time throw away. It is recommended to use standard SAP portal because SAP has the integration issue already solved. 

But why not? A custom interface can break, has its technology risks, represents sunk cost, creating a non-configurable static interface, that is hard to develop bug-free. Above all, it will be missing the deep integration layer that is required in dealing with SAP warranty claims and other functional areas' data. Adding to a legacy that will carry maintenance cost into the future.    

Why Use a SAP Standard Interface?

Did you know that SAP spends around 750,000 Euros annually to maintain the standard interfaces that exist throughout their system?   This represents one of the major business benefits of using SAP and is one of the primary reasons you should avoid creating custom interfaces when a standard one is available.

Are You Leaning Towards an SAP Standard Portal? 

Then, the second key decision you'll have to make is:

• Employ SAP ACS Fiori/UI-5
• or a consulting solution SAP UI5?

The remainder of this blog is my "The SAP Automotive New Dealer Portal" blog post I wrote in 2009 for SCN,- most content still applies today! Edited for clarity. 

Interested in a free SAP Dealer Portal demo? Click the button below and schedule a demo meeting with us!

OEMs, importers and dealers seek to automate their warranty processing: between companies, and service partners. Speed, automation, claim validity, providing actionable defect data, and reliable managerial visibility (aka reporting) are vital to the OEM’s warranty business.

The Dealer Portal is a tool for both manufacturers/OEMs, importers and service partners. Manufacturers work directly with local dealers and ASPs in their home country and other countries. When a separate importer’s agency is involved, that importer’s role is to receive, verify, and aggregate claims from their dealers, and effectively forward claims to the OEM. The OEM in turn processes and adjudicates claims, and responds with approvals and payments back to the importer.

Dealerships are very much cash-flow businesses: The dealership issue is not so much reimbursement but what is required for reimbursement[1]. In other words, what do dealers have to do to get reimbursed?  Visibility is an important factor; visibility of claim status as well as visibility into recall campaigns, vehicle histories, spares inventories and shipments. Visibility is gained to stock the right parts needed for manufacturer’s recall and warranty programs.

OEMs, importers, and dealers are faced with these challenges; the Dealer Portal adequately addresses many challenges; consequently making the Dealer Portal a strategic part of an OEM’s IT solution portfolio. Employing a portal helps manufacturers, importers, dealerships and service networks as described below.

Ensure the claim is validated prior to submission

Keep reading my blog on SCN.  Enjoy and let me know your thoughts,- 

Picture 1: Dealer Portal Warranty Claim Screen Shot

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