Feature Scope Description | PUBLICSAP Variant Configuration and Pricing2021-10-26

Feature Scope Description for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing

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1 Feature Scope Description for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.1 About this Document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.2 System Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31.3 Variant Configuration Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Features of Variant Configuration Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4Restrictions of Variant Configuration Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1.4 Pricing Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Features of Pricing Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Restrictions of Pricing Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.5 Data Replication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Features of Data Replication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1.6 Service Availability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91.7 Compliance and Security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111.8 Service Level Agreement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

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1 Feature Scope Description for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing

This is a high-level summary of the features and capabilities available for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing.

1.1 About this Document

This document describes the features that are available in SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing. The availability of some of the features may depend on your license agreement with SAP.

To illustrate integration with other SAP offerings, the product documentation on SAP Help Portal might include references to features that are not included with SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing. Features that are not included in this feature scope description might require a separate license.

1.2 System Requirements

Before starting, make sure that you have all required versions of the software you are integrating. For that please refer to SAP Note 2711932 .

To exchange data between cloud solution SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing and the licensee’s local on-premise SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA back end, SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing also comprises the SDI Data Provisioning Agent, which is part of SAP HANA smart data integration. The SDI Data Provisioning Agent is an on-premise application that is to be installed and operated locally in the customer’s on-premise landscape.

For data exchange with SAP ERP systems, using a third-party runtime database obtained from SAP, such as Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle DB, certain restrictions apply according to the applicable on-premise license agreements for the third-party runtime databases. One such restriction is that the licensee may not access these databases directly via systems or technologies that have not been licensed specifically for use with such runtime database. Therefore, the corresponding SDI Data Provisioning Agent Adapters provided with SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing may not be used to directly access, or replicate data from, such third-party runtime databases licensed from SAP.

For third-party database licenses not obtained from SAP, please refer to the respective license agreements on the available options for data exchange via direct database accesses.

For more information about interoperability and maintenance rules for the Data Provisioning Agent, see SAP Note 2546811

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1.3 Variant Configuration Service

Variant configuration is used for manufacturing complex products. The manufacturer always needs to offer new variants of its products and react quickly to customers' requirements.

The customer determines the features of the product. A customer buying a car, for example, can choose the features of the car and combine these features as required, considering rules of allowed or mandatory combinations as defined by the manufacturer.

The product configurator improves information exchange between sales, engineering, and production. Variant configuration helps the customer, or salesperson put together specifications for the product and ensures that the product can be produced from these specifications.

The Variant Configuration service exposes variant configuration capabilities of SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA to your front office applications. There is a prerequisite which is to have the product model in knowledge base format.

You use the product modelling environment for variant configuration in your back end to define the product model and to generate a knowledge base version. A knowledge base version is a collection of all relevant product model data, such as materials, characteristics, and dependencies for a given validity date. The Variant Configuration service provides a set of APIs to work with configurable materials. With it, you can use the product models in both, your back-end and front-office applications, to ensure seamless integration.

Variant Configuration service can be used to build applications that enable sales teams, customers, and channel partners to configure products and services accurately and efficiently. This solution provides functionality to replicate configuration models of SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA in the SAP Business Technology Platform. That data can then be used by Variant Configuration service independently of the back-end load or availability.

1.3.1 Features of Variant Configuration Service

The following features are available for Variant Configuration service.

Feature Description

Simple configuration The user assigns values to characteristics of a product. All the dependencies and constraints from the configuration model are considered.

Multi-level configuration A complex structured configuration consists of a hierarchy of products. The root product may contain one or more sub-products which are configurable. The user assigns values to characteristics of these sub-products.

External configuration The Variant Configuration service provides required informa­tion to enable process integration in the back end.

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Feature Scope Description for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing

Feature Description

Advanced Variant Configuration The Variant Configuration service can forward calls to the SAP S/4HANA for advanced variant configuration engine in the back end, bypassing the service's configuration engine.

Configuration persistence The Variant Configuration service provides persistence for configuration runtime data. Every change in the configura-tion during the configuration process is saved in the data­base.

Master Data APIs ● Get a list of knowledge bases header data, e.g. for a given product.

● Get all master data details for a given knowledge base id.

● Get maintained translations in specified language(s).

Configuration APIs optimized for UI consumption ● Create an initial configuration with default values● Update characteristic values.● Update configuration context (input for reference char­

acteristics).● Get details of a configuration previously created.● Delete a configuration.

Configuration APIs for data exchange ● Retrieve external configuration with all required infor­mation from a previously created configuration, to ena­ble subsequent configuration change processes.

● Retrieve external configuration with all required infor­mation from a previously created configuration, to sup­port read-only view of the configuration results.

● Create a new configuration from external configuration.● Enable copying of configurations and subsequent con­

figuration change processes.● Enable the exchange of configuration data with the or­

der fulfilment functions in the SAP back-end system.

Extensibility The functionality of the standard syntax can be extended by variant functions (custom code). SAP offers a predefined set of variant functions for common use cases, which are sup­ported with best performance out-of-the-box. See SAP note 2695561 and related.

In addition, a custom web service called by the configuration engine for each variant function (not for pfunctions) can be specified. The customer is responsible for deployment, cor­rectness, and potential performance impact of the calls to the variant function implementation.

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1.3.2 Restrictions of Variant Configuration Service

Configurable products must be modeled in SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA in a way that knowledge bases can be generated, and that Variant Configuration service can process them.

See Best Practices to Generate Knowledge-Base Runtime Versions.

There is limited support for variant functions. Pfunctions are not supported. See Extension Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing.

Variant Configuration service is optimized to run classical variant configuration models. Best compatibility is guaranteed with advanced knowledge-base generation. See Classic and Advanced Knowledge Base Runtime Version Generation (KBGen).

When using SAP S/4HANA for advanced variant configuration (AVC), you either must model products in a way that they are compliant with classical variant configuration and knowledge-base generation, or you must enable AVC forwarding so that Variant Configuration service forwards all requests to the AVC in SAP S/4HANA. With that, AVC’s pre- and post-processing BAdIs are supported. Advanced knowledge-base generation is prerequisite for AVC forwarding.

For additional information please see the section System Requirements [page 3].

1.4 Pricing Service

Price calculations depend on conditions, which represent a set of circumstances that apply when a price is calculated. For example, a customer orders a certain quantity of a specific product on a defined date. The variable factors such as the customer, the product, the order quantity, and the date, determine the price the customer gets. The information about each of these factors is stored as master data, so-called condition records, in the ERP or S/4HANA back-end system.

The Pricing service exposes sales pricing capabilities of SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA to your front office applications. You use the pricing condition technique in your back end to define the pricing rules in the form of a pricing procedure. The Pricing service provides APIs to calculate prices for a list of given sales items. With it, you can use the pricing rules in both, your back-end and front-office applications, to ensure seamless integration.

Pricing service can be used to build applications that enable sales teams, customers, and channel partners to price products and services accurately and efficiently. This solution provides functionality to replicate pricing data of SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA in the SAP Business Technology Platform. That data can then be used by Pricing service independently of the back-end load or availability.

1.4.1 Features of Pricing Service

The following features are available for Pricing service.

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Feature Scope Description for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing

Feature Description

Document pricing Price calculation is based on pricing procedures and sup­ports:

● Price, discount, and surcharge calculation● Calculation rules● Currency and quantity conversion● Scale determination with different scale types● Calculation logic on document and item level● Exclusion e.g. Best Price Logic● Sub-set of standard ABAP pricing user-exits● Manual overwriting for header and item conditions

Stateless pricing Same functionality as for document pricing above, but no manual changes possible for conditions, only automatic de­termination, via access sequence or external condition, is supported.

In contrast to document pricing, there is only a single API that gets all the needed input and does the price calculation.

Pricing persistence The Pricing service provides persistence for pricing runtime data. Every change in the pricing results during the pricing process is saved in the database. Only applicable to docu­ment pricing, not to stateless pricing.

Condition technique Use condition technique in your SAP back end to maintain the pricing rules:

● Condition determination for standard and custom de­fined condition types

● Condition type with and without access sequence● Access sequences with different access types ( fields in

fixed key part and fields in the free key part)

External conditions Item conditions with data source other than condition tech­nique are considered as external conditions. They require in­put via API from an external data source. Supported calcula­tion types: Percentage, Fixed Amount, Quantity.

Prices for configurable items Pricing via so called variant conditions for simple and multi-level configurable products.

Prices for non-configurable items See Document pricing and Stateless pricing above.

Taxes Simple, condition-based tax calculation like MWST is possi­ble. However, multiple tax levels, tax exemption licenses (for example for Italy and France), or tax calculation via external tax engine are not supported.

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Feature Description

Pricing APIs ● Customizing APIs to retrieve pricing procedure, condi­tion type, and access sequence details as maintained in and replicated from ERP or S/4HANA

● Stateless Pricing API to calculate prices e.g. during product configuration, or for catalog items

● Pricing Document APIs to maintain a pricing document and its conditions (pricing elements)

● Pricing Document Item APIs to maintain pricing docu­ment’s items and their conditions (pricing elements)

Extensibility Pricing routines, also known as user exits, can be used to in­fluence price calculation. SAP provides a predefined set of standard routines, which are supported with best perform­ance out-of-the-box.

In addition, a custom web service called by the pricing en­gine for each custom routine can be specified. The customer is responsible for deployment, correctness, and potential performance impact of the calls to the user exits implemen­tation.

The following user exit types are supported that way for cus­tom-coding: Requirements (REQ), Condition Base Formulas (BAS), Scale Base Formulas (SCL) (without group scales), Condition Value Formulas (VAL) (without group value), Group Key Formulas (GRP).

1.4.2 Restrictions of Pricing Service

Pricing procedures and pricing condition technique can be used to model pricing rules in SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA to ensure consistent results using Pricing service. Pricing procedures must be modeled in a way that Pricing service can process them. See SAP note 2894167 .

There is limited support for custom pricing formulas. See Supported Standard Pricing Exits and Extension Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing.

For additional information please see the section System Requirements [page 3].

1.5 Data Replication

The services previously mentioned work independently of the availability of the connected back-end system. Therefore, all data required for the services to work is replicated from your SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA back end

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Feature Scope Description for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing

to your SAP HANA tenant on the SAP Business Technology Platform. SAP HANA Smart Data Integration is used for the replication from an on-premise back end.

1.5.1 Features of Data Replication

The following features are available for data replication.

Feature Description

Administration UI Manages the connection to your back end, and triggers and monitors the initial replication.

Onboarding of your SAP back end Provide the connection details to your SAP back-end data­base which are needed for data replication.

Start the replication Once you start the replication, an initial replication starts. Af­terwards, delta replication ensures that all changes to the relevant data are replicated in near real-time.

Monitor the replication The progress of the initial replication, as well as the status, can be monitored on the administrative UI.

Upload knowledge bases manually Without data replication in place, knowledge bases can be downloaded from ERP or S/4HANA to the file system for early testing and can be manually uploaded via the adminis­tration UI to non-productive tenants of Variant Configuration service.

Manage engine traces You can activate and download engine traces for the configu-ration and pricing services for detailed analysis of calcula­tion results.

Manage customer extensions You can activate custom web services for variant functions and pricing exits. Activate and download web service execu­tion traces for detailed runtime analysis. Also see the Exten­sibility feature of Variant Configuration service [page 4] and Pricing service [page 6].

1.6 Service Availability

This section describes the service availability aspects.

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Availability Aspect Description

Regions Available on SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) hosted in Europe (Frankfurt), US East (VA), Asia Pacific (Sin­gapore).

Infrastructures SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing runs on SAP Business Technology Platform with underlying Infrastructure-as-a-Service technologies and regions owned by our partner in­frastructure provider Amazon Web Services.

Environments SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing runs in the Cloud Foundry environment.

Languages The central web-based administration user interface of SAP BTP, including SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing, is available in English.

This Feature Scope Description is available in English and German.

The SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing administration UI supports these languages:

● English (enUS)● German (deDE)● French (frFR)● Japanese (jaJP)● Portuguese (ptBR)● Russian (ruRU)● Simplified Chinese (zhCN)● Spanish (esES)● Latin American Spanish (esLA)● Italian (itIT)

Accessibility SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing provides accessibility support in its administration UI and the customer documen­tation. This includes:

● High-contrast theme● Texts and information● UI elements via attributes and element IDs (including

meta-information for screen-reader)● Orientation and navigation throughout the UI● User interaction

Free trial use Variant Configuration service and Pricing service are not in­cluded in the free trial for the platform.

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Feature Scope Description for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing

1.7 Compliance and Security

SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing relies on the platform security provided by SAP Business Technology Platform.

Feature Description

Manage application authorizations and trusted connections to identity provid­ers

Use a default identity provider Enable user management for the ad­ministration UI of SAP Variant Configu-ration and Pricing using a pre-config-ured default identity provider.

Use an external identity provider Enable customized user management for the administration UI of SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing using an ex­ternal identity provider.

Use role-based access Grant users access to the administra­tion UI based on pre-delivered roles.

Manage authorizations for users Define customized application roles based on standard roles, aggregate them into role collections, and assign them to users.

Manage authorizations for applica­tions

Create service keys with individual cre­dentials to enable other applications and services to communicate with Var­iant Configuration service and Pricing service.

Connect to SAP BTP using TLS Connect to configuration and pricing services using HTTP clients that sup­port Transport Layer Security (TLS) version 1.2 or higher.

Retrieve the audit logs for your subac­count

Audit Log Retrieval API Retrieve the audit logs for your subac­count as a collection of JSON entities with the audit log retrieval API .

Audit Log Viewer Use the SAP Audit Log Viewer to display the audit logs for your subaccount, which are issued by SAP applications and services you have subscribed to.

Tenant data is isolated via a strict schema separation of the SAP HANA Cloud data base of each of the services. In addition, the customers data is further isolated via dedicated SAP HANA Cloud instances for replications based on SAP HANA smart data integration.

Custom-coding, for example, for variant functions or pricing user-exits, is not allowed.

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Data Protection

SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing follows SAP's global data protection and privacy guidelines. For more information on the guidelines, see Data Privacy .

To access the Personal Data Processing policy for your region, see Personal Data Processing for SAP Cloud Services .

For further information please see Security Guide for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing.

1.8 Service Level Agreement

The Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a contract between SAP and its customers that forms the basis of your contractual relationship with SAP when referenced in specific order forms.

NoteThis Service Level Agreement covers cloud service offerings that are operated by SAP. For more information about the service level agreement for cloud service offerings operated by an SAP partner, contact your operator.

● The order form is the ordering document to subscribe to cloud services from SAP. It defines the commercial terms and lays out the agreement structure. The order form also incorporates several other documents that relate to the SLA. See Sample Order Form .

● The Service Level Agreement for SAP Cloud Services applies to any cloud service on the SAP price list, defining downtime, credits, update windows, and others.See Service Level Agreement for SAP Cloud Services.

● The SAP Business Technology Platform Supplement overrides the Service Level Agreement for SAP Cloud Services in case of deviations and specifies the SLA for SAP Business Technology Platform in general. For more information, see SAP Business Technology Platform Supplement .

● The SAP Business Technology Platform Service Description Guide provides information on the platform’s core services, including any deviations to the SLA. For more information, see SAP Business Technology Platform Service Description Guide .

● The SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing Supplement overrides the Service Level Agreement for the above in case of deviations and specifies the SLA for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing in general. For more information, see SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing Supplement

Additionally, the General Terms and Conditions for SAP Cloud Services warrants the SLA and provides the available remedy if SAP fails to meet its SLA. For more information, see General Terms and Conditions for SAP Cloud Services.

Maintenance Windows and Major Upgrade Windows

The maintenance and major upgrade windows are defined in the Service Level Agreement for Cloud Services. SAP may update these windows from time to time in accordance with the Agreement.

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Feature Scope Description for SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing

The following windows apply to SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing. All times are specified in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Maintenance Windows Major Upgrade Windows

MENA APJ Europe Americas Frequency MENA APJ Europe Americas

SAT

3 pm

(3 hrs)

SAT

10 pm

(3 hrs)

SUN

4 am

(3 hrs)

Up to 4 times per year

SAT

3 pm

(8 hrs)

SAT

10 pm

(8 hrs)

SUN

4 am

(8 hrs)

For the latest information, see Maintenance Windows and Major Upgrade Windows for SAP Cloud Services and search SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing.

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Important Disclaimers and Legal Information

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