Once the functionalities of the customer invoicing have been integrated in the customer’s master data application, new knowledge will be gained from their use, leading to new requirements. Key topics include automation of the monthly discount bill, parameterization of the creation of a customer invoice, and new document types in the customer communication.
Supplement
The customer’s master data application is based on a three-layer, service-oriented architecture (.Net-based thin client, application server, MS SQL 2008). The business processes are integrated in the master data application. Communication with the SAP system takes place via IDOCS and an in-house XML schema. The data are exported from the system in the direction of BizTalk and then forwarded to the SAP system. The messages from the SAP system are transferred via BizTalk back to the master data application and imported there. The internal processing happens on the basis of definite automatisms and manual processing by the user. Development is performed in C# based on the .Net 3.5 framework.
Subject description
The customer invoice is an essential component of the customer’s business process. With the aid of monthly discount invoicing, payments for the energy delivery and other services are collected for the customer. Finally, an end of year settlement is issued for the business year, taking into account the costs accrued on the input side and the already paid discounts. The discount plans and end of year settlements are sometimes communicated individually, but they are more often regulated centrally by a company, which assumes responsibility for receiving and forwarding the documents for several points of consumption. It is particularly important to ensure, with the aid of so-called collective notification documents, that the multiplicity of documents are clear and comprehensible when they are forwarded to the recipient.