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Though SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA come with basic warranty claims management capabilities, hence most clients end up making substantial, expensive, customizations and complex enhancements to the standard.  That is why SAP has developed the SAP ACS Warranty solution, which typically allows clients to implement advanced warranty claims management processes much quicker than with the standard solution.

In order to implement the SAP ACS Warranty solution, which is a combination of packaged software capabilities and advanced consulting expertise; clients need to use the table below to evaluate their business requirements against the capabilities of both solutions.  This is because each client has very specific warranty claims business process requirements.  By selecting the correct solution, clients can achieve critical time-to-value, with the least amount of cost and lowest risk levels.

Component / Package SAP Standard Warranty SAP ACS Warranty Solution Business Question
Claim Management Component Harvey-Ball Harvey-Ball SAP Standard is the foundation
FSP – Wty Fast Start Harvey-Ball Harvey-Ball FastStart base component of ACS, enabling ACS functionality. For ACS this is not optional, it is required.
AA – Warranty Workbench Harvey-Ball Harvey-Ball Do you have a need to perform advanced warranty analytics on current and past claim data?

 

Do you organize claim admins in groups?

AB – Automation Rules & Checks Harvey-Ball  Harvey-Ball Are you looking to increase productivity through automated validation?
Do you have adjudicators decision processes documented?
AD – Extended Warranty Checks  Harvey-Ball  Harvey-Ball Do you have a need to perform extended warranty checks? Check multiple warranties, contracts, recalls?
DP / OD- Dealer Portal Harvey-Ball Harvey-Ball Do your dealers or service centers (ASPs) submit claims online integrated with your claims system? For example, if you are using SAP Automotive Warranty Management
IC – Intercompany Harvey-Ball Harvey-Ball  Is there a need to charge-back warranty cost from one company to another? Do you require multi-currency?  The SAP vehicle warranty solution would be required to provide this functionality.
PR – Warranty Pricing Harvey-Ball Harvey-Ball Do you have the need to price claims differently depending on region, theater, sales organization, or other criteria?
RC – Recall Harvey-Ball Harvey-Ball Do you have a need to manage recalls?
SR – Supplier Recovery  Harvey-Ball Harvey-Ball Do you need to recover warranty costs from vendors or suppliers?
CA – Catalogs Harvey-Ball Harvey-Ball Do you use code catalogs to standardize defect, symptom, root cause codes? ACS provides catalogs
IR – Invoice Request Harvey-Ball Harvey-Ball  For certain countries, such as Poland, Russia, Turkey, or even Indonesia, there are country specific invoice request processes that must be implemented

 

SAP ACS Warranty Management Drastically Reduces Software Development Risk

Though it is possible to develop the functionality delivered with the SAP ACS Warranty Management Solution in SAP Standard Warranty Management, for most CIOs, it makes far more business sense to let SAP take responsibility for SAP development, testing and continuously improving the system - that is, afterall, why you pay support.   There are well documented risks with developing your own version of the solution.  One of the primary benefits of Commercial Off-the-Shelf or COTS software, especially when you're working with enterprise class software like SAP, is the ability to take advantage of developments delivered by SAP, that incorporate requirements from their many customers. 

Reusable SAP ACS Warranty Management Test Cases Drive Repeatable Quality Improvement

When it comes to SAP project risks, and risk mitigation strategies, always a huge concern of every SAP Project Manager, having test cases delivered by SAP Best Practices, is a hugely important benefit.  Why are they such a valuable part of the SAP Best Practice approach to SAP implementations:

  • Delivers a Repeatable Testing Regime - All test cases can be stored in SAP Solution Manager (or whatever testing tool you're using on your SAP Project Implementation).
  • Comes With Drastically More Test Cases Than You Can Think Up - When it comes to testing, one of the greatest challenges of the entire process is your SAP ACS Warranty Management implementation team's ability to dream up valid, comprehensive test cases.
  • Requirements Analysis Often Misses Key Functionality - Every project suffers from limitations in both time and budget.  Though you may have highly skilled SAP Warranty Management developers available, they can never match the extended experience gained from the wider universe of SAP ACS Warranty Management consultants and subsequent functionality embedded in the SAP ACS Warranty Management solution.
  • The Blueprint Phase Doesn't Get You as Close to Your Final Design If You Don't Take Full Advantage of COTS.  Whether you're using the traditional SAP ASAP implementation methodology or SAP Activate, you will get better 'out-of-the-box' functionality coverage if you base your fit-gap analysis on the most complete solution offering from SAP.  That is SAP ACS Warranty Management.

SAP ACS Warranty Management Reduces Overall Project Risks

  • SAP ACS Warranty Management Reduces Project Implementation Time and Risks.  It is a statistically proven fact that longer project timelines drastically increase the probability of your project not meeting your project goals, or even of being cancelled.
  • SAP ACS Warranty Management Acts as a Quality Improvement Go, No Go Gauge.  Much like automotive manufacturers make use of go, no go gauges to improve product quality by reducing product variation, the SAP ACS Warranty Management solution provides a similar functionality.  How does it do this?  It provides many additional out-of-the-box functionalities that mean your requirements can be tested much more quickly against the standard.  Thus, if one of your requirements can be met by SAP ACS Warranty Management but not by SAP Warranty Standard, it is Go on the SAP ACS Warranty Management Solution and a No Go on using SAP Warranty Standard and the development approach.

SAP ACS Warranty Management Improves Your ROI

  • You Spend Less On COTS than on Development - When you compare the relatively low, fixed cost of the SAP ACS Warranty Management Solution to the higher risk approach of custom development, you get to see a much quicker Return on Investment at a lower overall risk.
  • You Get Improved Functionality From SAP ACS Warranty Management vs SAP Standard + Custom Development - A Senior SAP Project Manager, when it comes to custom development, will almost always look for ways to say 'no' to custom developments.  Even if there is budget.  Why is that?  Because hard won experience has repeatedly shown that the more 'custom developments' you can say no to, the quicker and more likely you are to get to 'live'.  Therefore, if you're using SAP ACS Warranty Management as your baseline system during requirements analysis, verification and validation, there will be far fewer custom developments that your project manager has to evaluate and ultimately, say 'no' to.  This results in fewer change orders and less incursion into your management reserve on fixed price projects.

You Need Professional Advice When It Comes To Selecting The Right SAP ACS Warranty Management Packages

There are many more decision factors, and about 25 additional ACS packages to review before making a final decision for standard or ACS warranty.  That is one of the reasons you may need assistance from our SAP ACS solutions experts.  We provide SAP warranty and service contract consulting well beyond automotive consulting solutions.  We provide specialized SAP ACS solutions consulting to a wide variety of industries that have complex warranty and service contract requirements. 

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