What is difference between (1) UCES and Multi channel foundation for Utilities (2) MCF and Hybris (3) WCEM and Hybris?

[Former Member]

Please, i need a clarity on these points.

[Former Member]

UCES (Utilities Customer E-Service) is an enhanced version of FSCM Biller Direct, that incorporates IS-U Functionality to display contracts, consumption details, etc. Biller Direct / UCES is an server-side and on SAP NetWeaver WebAS Java running solution. SAP Biller Direct itself did re-use some frameworks, which have been also used for SAP Internet Sales.

Multi Channel Foundation for Utilities (MFU) is based on the UCES backend functionalities, but primary target is not to provide like UCES an out-of-of-the-box UI front-end. Instead SAP's focus was to provide all UCES like functionality as ODATA Services (SAP's RESTful Web-Services), so that customers can implement independently their own UI-Frontend.

SAP WCEM (Web-Channel Experience Management) was supposed to he the replacement of SAP Internet Sales (SAP's e-commerce solution for B2C & B2B scenarios) as a Multi-Channel platform. Interesting part is, that WCEM did re-use quite some code from SAP Internet Sales. With the acquisition of Hybris, SAP has stopped selling SAP WCEM. WCEM was an advanced net weaver based solution using all state of the art technology (more open source as SAP frameworks) and it was very attractive as it did merge B2B & B2C into a single physical code base rather then two separated implementation.

SAP's Hybris solution has replaced WCEM and in the mean time it covers almost all capabilities, which SAP WCEM did offer but not necessary all B2B functionality of SAP Internet Sales. With Hybris the keyword "Multi-Channel" has been replaced by "Omni-Channel", but it is basically the same idea... so Hybris is a platform, that provides e.g. the e-commerce front-end, but also e.g. web-services to provide all necessary functionality for mobile devices etc.

Biller Direct, UCES and SAP Internet Sales are still used & implemented by many company and offers an reliable, stable and functionality rich interface, but the UI-front-end is lacking a bit behind. SAP Hybris is probably the flagship you want to have as it is the most powerful & leading solution on the market, but it might be completely oversized for specific use cases and also for various other reason not yet suitable.

Maybe also interesting to know is, that for the official Hybris to SAP integration the code basis of SAP WCEM was used and as you might remember from before, WCEM itself did rely on SAP Internet Sales code & using the sap backend interfaces... so that gives the all solutions kind of some shared ground.

Just to complete the full picture. After WCEM was killed in favour of Hybris as it had too many overlapping B2C functionalities, my company has developed for Biller Direct, UCES & SAP Internet Sales (ISA) an powerful enhancement package that pimps those solution to  state-of-the-art solutions including e.g. responsive UI, newest frameworks, many extra features, etc. . This will allow people to win some time  without drawbacks to stick with their beloved SAP products rather then being forced to switch to third-party application until Hybris becomes without any doubt the perfect choice.

And one more thing.... currently is an alternative SAP Biller Direct version in developed by SAP that provides the Biller Direct functionality within SAP's SAAS (HANA) environment based on SAP Fiori.

Hope I did answer your question

[ingo_woesner]

Please find here the SCN repositories for

• WCEM
• hybris Commerce - SAP integration part
• SAP Retail Omni-Channel Commerce

Best regards,

Ingo Woesner

Product Management Retail Omni-Channel

SAP SE

[michael_ernzerhoff]

Thanks for your questions. In order to keep the picture complete, I have added a link to the SCN key topic page . It serves as a central hub which points you to more detail about MCF.
See the answer to the question "How is MCF different from UCES" under our new .