What is SAP Customer Experience (SAP CX)?

What is SAP Customer Experience Suite (SAP CX)?

SAP Customer Experience, or SAP CX for short, is a collection of several cloud applications that cover all of a company's customer-relevant departments. These include marketing, sales, e-commerce and service. The aim of the suite is to offer customers a consistently high-quality experience (customer experience) throughout their entire customer journey. Modern technologies such as machine learning are also used for this purpose.

In the CRM and CX area, SAP has had various products with different names in its portfolio in recent years. The names SAP Hybris and SAP C/4HANA were particularly influential. These terms are no longer used in SAP's official communications. Instead, the various terms have been merged under the collective term SAP Customer Experience.

Which products does the SAP Customer Experience Suite include?

The SAP Customer Experience Suite (like the previous SAP Hybris and C/4HANA portfolio) comprises several cloud solutions. The focus of all SAP CX applications is clearly on the customer. The individual components of SAP CX are described in more detail below.

1. SAP Marketing Cloud

The SAP Marketing Cloud helps companies to identify and define target groups based on data. It also supports the acquisition and implementation of cross-channel campaigns on a global scale. The latter area can also be highly automated with the SAP Marketing Cloud. With the help of machine learning, for example, it is possible to personalize offers for individual customers or customer groups automatically and in real time. Furthermore, data from different sources can be combined to create a centralized customer view. Marketing teams also have the opportunity to monitor their campaigns closely. This means that measures with little success can be quickly identified and adjusted.

2. SAP Commerce Cloud

The SAP Commerce Cloud enables companies to offer their customers appealing and innovative e-commerce experiences. The application enables companies to quickly launch their own commerce platforms (online stores). The same applies to new business models (e.g. subscriptions) and contact points. SAP also relies on artificial intelligence in this application, for example to support product identification and provide customers with individual product recommendations. The SAP Commerce Cloud also includes customizable dashboards that companies can use to gain an overview of customer behaviour and retail performance. For the development and operation of B2B and B2C online stores, the application also offers fully embedded product information management (PIM) for product, catalog and content management.

3. SAP Sales Cloud

The SAP Sales Cloud supports all traditional sales tasks. These include the Configure Price Quote (CPQ) process chain, lead and opportunity management, multi-channel sales and visit reports. The SAP Sales Cloud has a clear focus on sales automation and AI support. For example, the solution automatically generates individually tailored offers and discounts for customers. The available data is also used to provide interactive dashboards and real-time analyses. Among other things, sales can use this to identify leads and opportunities with a particularly high probability of closing a deal. Risky opportunities can also be discovered with the help of intelligent forecasts and pipeline analyses. There are also AI-based activity recommendations, which further increase closing rates and the pace of sales. All features are also available on mobile devices - including online and offline synchronization.

4. SAP Service Cloud

The SAP Service Cloud provides all relevant functions for cross-channel customer service and support. To enable outstanding service, the solution links all service processes across the company. The aim is to resolve problems quickly in order to increase customer satisfaction. The core functions of the SAP Service Cloud include omnichannel customer service (including social media support), ticket management and field service management, including a mobile app for field service technicians. AI-supported insights, recommended actions and automation options increase the efficiency of service processes. Examples include automatic ticket categorization, chatbots and automated spare parts procurement. Furthermore, problem resolution is improved with powerful workflows for case management.

5. SAP Customer Data Cloud

SAP Customer Data Cloud supports companies in the secure, GDPR-compliant handling of personal data. The application enables customers to control and decide for themselves how their personal information is handled in online tools and e-commerce platforms. Customers also determine whether their data may be used to send announcements or newsletters. The application gives companies a complete overview of their customers' identity, consent and preference data. This means that sensitive information can be transferred to areas such as marketing, sales and service without compliance risks and used there to improve customer-related processes. In addition, the SAP Customer Data Cloud enables secure authentication of customers across all devices and media.

Why do I need SAP Customer Experience?

Customer centricity is more important than ever, especially in highly competitive industries. Companies should therefore strive to offer an outstanding customer experience across all touchpoints and map the customer journey holistically. SAP CX is precisely geared towards this goal. Furthermore, by using the suite, companies realize numerous advantages in their customer-related business areas. For example, KPI-driven, contextual marketing can be implemented at all customer contact points. This enables significantly more targeted activities and reduces marketing costs. With SAP CX, sales can close deals faster thanks to the intelligent management of customer information and interactions. This enables them to generate higher sales in less time.

The SAP Customer Experience Suite also takes e-commerce to a new level. The main advantage here is the comprehensive approach: companies can map content management, sales and fulfillment on just one multichannel platform. In service, the high degree of automation leads to lower service costs and increased customer satisfaction.

And corporate IT also benefits. This is because the consolidation of customer-related data on the high-performance SAP HANA in-memory platform means that far fewer resources are required. This reduces costs while increasing performance at the same time.

Is the SAP Customer Experience Suite equally suitable for small and large companies?

The SAP Customer Experience Suite is primarily aimed at larger companies with complex processes in the areas of sales, marketing, service, CRM (customer relationship management) and commerce. The close connection between the suite and SAP S/4HANA also makes it clear who the target group of SAP CX is. The latter is the "big" ERP software from SAP, which is primarily used by SMEs and corporations. In companies of this size, SAP Customer Experience is used to create a unique customer experience. There are no restrictions in terms of industries. Users include big players from various sectors such as retail, financial services, telecommunications and industry.

How does SAP support its customers in implementing the SAP Customer Experience Suite?

The implementation of the SAP Customer Experience Suite is supported by SAP partners. They often use the SAP Integration Suite. The platform helps SAP partners and their customers to quickly integrate local and cloud-based applications, services, processes and data. As a general rule, SAP CX is designed for integration with S/4HANA. In this respect, the connection of the ERP software with the CRM and CX world can be implemented without any technical problems.