Providing customer relationship management application as enterprise services

• US 8,396,749 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Issued: 03/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Koegler, Alexander, Moghaddam, Hamid, Haas, Christian, Wocher, Berthold, Hartig, Steffen, Rajamohan, Devasena, Barnbeck, Joachim, Dreidemy, Olivier M., Mark, Alexandra, Wu, Yuh-Cherng, Ronnewinkel, Christopher, Lesk, Michael, Wachholz-Prill, Andre, Lahr, Martina, Walzenbach, Joerg, Schulte, Helge, Stegmann, Volkmar, Pfitzner, Ingo, Engler, Christoph, Merkel, Wilfried, Bach, Thomas, Ude, Cordula, Marschall, Peer, Yu, Tao, Adelmann, Stefan, Heun, Rainer, Kasteleiner, Katja, Tatzel, Steffen, Opitz, Dagmar, Herold, Uwe, Podhajsky, Georg, Nitschke, Thomas, Franke, Stefan, Nieswand, Wolfgang, Jung, Michael, Lehner, Christoph, Krems, Boris, Storz, Dietmar, Khasawneh, Tariq, Zimmermann, Theo, Kalyoncu, Naci, Keller, Martina, Sudbrack, Andrea
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith, Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zukanovich, Brandy A
• Application Number:
  US11/396,259
• Publication Number:
  US 20070233574A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,539 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/28
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders

Abstract

Methods and apparatus, including systems and computer program products, for a services architecture design that provides enterprise services having customer relationship management functionality at the level of an enterprise application. The design includes a set of service operations, process components, and optionally deployment units. Suitable business objects are also described.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a computer system comprising one or more hardware platforms for executing computer software;

computer software deployed on the computer system, the computer software implementing a plurality of service operations, the service operations comprising;

a maintain customer invoice request operation operable to create, update, delete or request cancellation of a customer invoice request;

a confirm invoicing operation operable to confirm that the customer invoice was created or cancelled to process components which requested invoicing;

a notify of invoice operation operable to inform accounting about outgoing invoices or credit memos;

a notify of invoice cancellation operation operable to inform accounting about cancellation of the invoices or credit memos;

a change service confirmation based on customer invoice operation operable to update the service confirmation in order to document the information about issued customer invoices in the service confirmation;

a notify of service confirmation operation operable to notify accounting about the creation, change or deletion of the service confirmation;

a request invoicing operation operable to send a billing due notification to customer invoice processing;

a change service order based on spare part availability update operation operable to update the service order with spare part availability and to update reservation information based on customer requirement fulfillment planning data;

a change service order based on spare part fulfillment confirmation operation operable to update a service order with spare part quantity delivered to customer, or picked up by a service technician;

a notify of customer return operation operable to notify inbound delivery processing about the creation, change or cancellation of a customer return;

a register spare part requirement deletion notification operation operable to register a provisional spare part requirement reservation for deletion and to trigger deletion in case of failure or cancellation of transaction processing;

a notify of service order operation operable to notify accounting about the creation, change, or deletion of the service order;

a cancel sales order operation operable to notify accounting about the cancellation of a sales order;

a change sales order operation operable to change a sales order based on changes in a purchase order from the customer;

a create sales order operation operable to create a sales order based on a new purchase order from the customer;

a change sales order based on customer requirement fulfillment confirmation operation operable to update a sales order with information from fulfillment confirmation;

a change sales order based on product available to promise update operation operable to change a sales order with availability and reservation information based on changes in fulfillment planning;

a confirm customer return operation operable to confirm a customer return to a customer;

a request product valuation operation operable to request the value of a product;

a notify of sales order operation operable to notify accounting about the creation, change, or cancellation of the sales order;

a confirm sales order operation operable to confirm the sales order;

a maintain service request operation operable to create or update a service request with a message received from external requester system;

a change service request based on provider'"'"'s confirmation operation operable to update a service request based on a confirmation message of a service request creation and update progress received from an external provider system;

a request service operation operable to send a service request creation or update to an external provider system;

a notify of service provision operation operable to notify accounting of actual service provided and actual time spent on performing the service;

a notify of service provision cancellation operation operable to notify accounting that a confirmation of a provided service has been cancelled;

a notify of service request operation operable to notify accounting about the creation, change or deletion of the service request;

a confirm service request operation operable to send a creation, update or processing confirmation to an external requester system;

a change customer return based on customer invoice operation operable to send information about invoiced data and values related to items in a current document;

a delivery execution request out operation operable to request a delivery;

a change service request based on customer invoice operation operable to update a service request in order to document the information about issued customer invoices in the service request;

a request customer requirement reservation operation operable to request a reservation for customer requirement;

a request customer requirement reservation and fulfillment operation operable to request reservation and fulfillment for customer requirement;

a request product availability information and provisional reservation of customer requirement operation operable to request product availability information including the creation of a provisional reservation for customer requirement;

a change customer quote based on product available to promise update operation operable to change a customer quote with availability and reservation information based on changes in fulfillment planning;

and a notify of service order credit commitment operation operable to send invoice information necessary to update credit commitment.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the service operations are grouped into service interfaces, the service interfaces comprising:

a request invoicing in interface that includes the maintain customer invoice request, the change service confirmation based on customer invoice, the request invoice, the change service request based on customer invoice, the change customer return based on customer invoice, and the change sales order based on customer invoice operations;

a request invoicing out interface that includes the confirm invoicing operation and the request invoicing operation;

an invoice accounting out interface that includes the notify of invoice operation and the notify of invoice cancellation operation;

a receivables payables out interface that includes the notify of invoice operation and the request invoice cancellation operation;

an order accounting out interface that includes the notify of service order, the notify of service confirmation, the notify of sales order, the notify of purchase order, the notify of customer return, and the notify of service request operations;

a service provision accounting out interface that includes the notify of service provision operation and the notify of service provision cancellation operation;

a fulfillment in interface that includes the change service order based on spare part availability update, the change service order based on spare part fulfillment confirmation, the change sales order based on customer requirement fulfillment confirmation, the change sales order based on product available to promise update, and the change customer quote based on product available to promise update service operations;

a fulfillment out interface that includes the register spare part requirement deletion notification, the request spare part requirement reservation and fulfillment, the request product availability information and provisional reservation of customer requirement, and the request customer requirement reservation and fulfillment operations;

an external providing in interface that includes the maintain service request operation;

an external providing out interface that includes the confirm service request operation;

an external requesting in interface that includes the change service request based on provider'"'"'s confirmation operation;

an external requesting out interface that includes the request service operation;

a delivery execution request out interface that includes the delivery execution request out operation;

an ordering in interface that includes the create sales order, the change sales order and the cancel sales order operations;

an ordering out interface that includes the confirm sales order operation; and

a product and resource valuation out interface that includes the request product valuation operation.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the computer software implementing the maintain customer invoice request operation, the notify of invoice operation, and the confirm invoicing operation is deployed on a first hardware platform; and

the computer software implementing the request credit limit check operation, the notify customer of invoice operation, the notify of credit commitment operation, the notify of invoice cancellation operation, the notify of cash payment operation, the request cash payment cancellation operation, the notify of inventory change operation, the request inventory change and activity provision cancellation operation, the change service confirmation based on customer invoice operation, the notify of service confirmation operation, the request invoicing operation, the change service order based on spare part availability update operation, the change service order based on spare part fulfillment confirmation operation, the notify of customer return operation, the register spare part requirement deletion notification operation, the change service order based on customer invoice operation, the request spare part requirement reservation and fulfillment operation, the notify of service order operation, the cancel sales order operation, the change sales order operation, the create sales order operation, the change sales order based on customer requirement fulfillment confirmation operation, the change sales order based on product available to promise update operation, the confirm customer return operation, the request product valuation operation, the notify of credit commitment operation, the notify of sales order operation, the confirm sales order operation, the maintain service request operation, the change service request based on provider'"'"'s confirmation operation, the request service operation, the notify of service provision operation, the notify of service provision cancellation operation, the notify of service request operation, the confirm service request operation, the change customer return based on customer invoice operation, the change service request based on customer invoice operation, the request customer requirement reservation operation, the request customer requirement reservation and fulfillment operation, the request product availability information and provisional reservation of customer requirement operation, the request credit worthiness operation, the change customer quote based on product available to promise update operation, the notify of inventory change operation, the notify of service order credit commitment operation, the confirm customer return operation, the financial expense notification operation, the request inbound return delivery operation, and is deployed on a second hardware platform.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein each of the first and the second hardware platforms are distinct and separate from each other.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the computer software implementing the maintain customer invoice request operation, the notify of invoice operation, and the confirm invoicing operation is deployable on a first hardware platform; and

the computer software implementing the request credit limit check operation, the notify customer of invoice operation, the notify of credit commitment operation, the notify of invoice cancellation operation, the notify of cash payment operation, the request cash payment cancellation operation, the notify of inventory change operation, the request inventory change and activity provision cancellation operation, the change service confirmation based on customer invoice operation, the notify of service confirmation operation, the request invoicing operation, the change service order based on spare part availability update operation, the change service order based on spare part fulfillment confirmation operation, the notify of customer return operation, the register spare part requirement deletion notification operation, the change service order based on customer invoice operation, the request spare part requirement reservation and fulfillment operation, the notify of service order operation, the cancel sales order operation, the change sales order operation, the create sales order operation, the change sales order based on customer requirement fulfillment confirmation operation, the change sales order based on product available to promise update operation, the confirm customer return operation, the request product valuation operation, the notify of credit commitment operation, the notify of sales order operation, the confirm sales order operation, the maintain service request operation, the change service request based on provider'"'"'s confirmation operation, the request service operation, the notify of service provision operation, the notify of service provision cancellation operation, the notify of service request operation, the confirm service request operation, the change customer return based on customer invoice operation, the change service request based on customer invoice operation, the request customer requirement reservation operation, the request customer requirement reservation and fulfillment operation, the request product availability information and provisional reservation of customer requirement operation, the request credit worthiness operation, the change customer quote based on product available to promise update operation, the notify of inventory change operation, the notify of service order credit commitment operation, the confirm customer return operation, the financial expense notification operation, and the request inbound return delivery operation is deployable on a second hardware platform;

the first and the second hardware platforms being distinct and separate from each other.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer software deployed on the computer system comprises:

a plurality of process components, each of the process components being a package of software deployed and executing on the computer system and implementing a respective and distinct business process, the plurality of process components including;

a customer invoice processing process component used to charge a customer for the delivery of goods or services;

an opportunity processing process component used to process customer relationship opportunities;

a service confirmation processing process component used to handle services rendered for a service order;

a service order processing process component used to handle short-term agreements between a customer and a service provider;

a service request processing process component used to cover requests from a customer to a service provider to answer a question or solve a problem about a product;

a customer return processing process component used to initiate the return of a product from the customer back to a provider or seller;

a sales order processing process component used to handle customers'"'"' requests to a company for delivery of goods or services; and

a customer quote processing process component used to offer to a customer for the delivery of goods or services according to fixed terms;

and wherein;

the customer invoice processing process component implements the maintain customer invoice request, the notify of inventory change, the request inventory change and activity provision cancellation, the notify of invoice, the notify of invoice cancellation, the notify of credit commitment, and the confirm invoicing service operation;

the service confirmation processing process component implements the notify of inventory change, the notify of service provision, the notify of service provision cancellation, the change service confirmation based on customer invoice, the notify of service confirmation, and the request invoicing service operations;

the service order processing process component implements the notify of service order credit commitment, the request credit limit check, the change service order based on product availability update, the change service order based on product customer requirement fulfillment confirmation, the register product customer requirement deletion notification, the request product availability information and provisional reservation, the request product customer requirement reservation and fulfillment, the notify of service order, the request invoicing, and the change service order based on customer invoice service operations;

the service request processing process component implements the change service request based on customer invoice, the request service, the notify of service provision, the notify of service provision cancellation, the notify of service request, the maintain service request, the request invoicing, and the confirm service request service operations;

the customer return processing process component implements the confirm customer return, the notify of customer return, the change customer return based on customer invoice, the request invoicing, and the notify of customer return service operations;

the sales order processing process component implements the notify of sales order, the register product customer requirement deletion notification, the request product availability information and provisional reservation, the request product customer requirement reservation and fulfillment, the change sales order based on product availability update, the change sales order based on product customer requirement fulfillment confirmation, the confirm sales order, the request product valuation, the cancel sales order, the change sales order, the create sales order, the change sales order based on customer invoice, and the request invoicing service operations; and

the customer quote processing process component implements the register product customer requirement deletion notification, the request product availability information and provisional reservation of customer requirement, the request product availability information, the request product customer requirement reservation, the request product valuation, and the change customer quote based on product available to promise update service operations.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer software deployed on the computer system comprises:

a plurality of deployment units, each of the deployment units being a package of software packaged together to be deployed on a single physical hardware platform, the plurality of deployment units including;

a customer invoicing deployment unit; and

a customer relationship management deployment unit;

and wherein;

the customer invoicing deployment unit implements the maintain customer invoice request operation, the notify of invoice operation, and the confirm invoicing operation; and

the customer relationship management deployment unit implements the request credit limit check operation, the notify customer of invoice operation, the notify of credit commitment operation, the notify of invoice cancellation operation, the notify of cash payment operation, the request cash payment cancellation operation, the notify of inventory change operation, the request inventory change and activity provision cancellation operation, the change service confirmation based on customer invoice operation, the notify of service confirmation operation, the request invoicing operation, the change service order based on spare part availability update operation, the change service order based on spare part fulfillment confirmation operation, the notify of customer return operation, the register spare part requirement deletion notification operation, the change service order based on customer invoice operation, the request spare part requirement reservation and fulfillment operation, the notify of service order operation, the cancel sales order operation, the change sales order operation, the create sales order operation, the change sales order based on customer requirement fulfillment confirmation operation, the change sales order based on product available to promise update operation, the confirm customer return operation, the request product valuation operation, the notify of credit commitment operation, the notify of sales order operation, the confirm sales order operation, the maintain service request operation, the change service request based on provider'"'"'s confirmation operation, the request service operation, the notify of service provision operation, the notify of service provision cancellation operation, the notify of service request operation, the confirm service request operation, the change customer return based on customer invoice operation, the change service request based on customer invoice operation, the request customer requirement reservation operation, the request customer requirement reservation and fulfillment operation, the request product availability information and provisional reservation of customer requirement operation, the request credit worthiness operation, the change customer quote based on product available to promise update operation, the notify of inventory change operation, the notify of service order credit commitment operation, the confirm customer return operation, the financial expense notification operation, and the request inbound return delivery operation.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a repository of service descriptions, the repository including a standards-based description of each of the plurality of service operations.

9. A computer program product encoded on a tangible machine-readable information carrier for implementing a plurality of services, the product comprising computer software operable to implement service operations on a computer system, the service operations comprising:

a maintain customer invoice request operation operable to create, update, delete or request cancellation of a customer invoice request;

a confirm invoicing operation operable to confirm that the customer invoice was created or cancelled to process components which requested invoicing;

a notify of invoice operation operable to inform accounting about outgoing invoices or credit memos;

a notify of invoice cancellation operation operable to inform accounting about cancellation of the invoices or credit memos;

a change service confirmation based on customer invoice operation operable to update the service confirmation in order to document the information about issued customer invoices in the service confirmation;

a notify of service confirmation operation operable to notify accounting about the creation, change or deletion of the service confirmation;

a request invoicing operation operable to send a billing due notification to customer invoice processing;

a change service order based on spare part availability update operation operable to update the service order with spare part availability and to update reservation information based on customer requirement fulfillment planning data;

a change service order based on spare part fulfillment confirmation operation operable to update a service order with spare part quantity delivered to customer, or picked up by a service technician;

a notify of customer return operation operable to notify inbound delivery processing about the creation, change or cancellation of a customer return;

a register spare part requirement deletion notification operation operable to register a provisional spare part requirement reservation for deletion and to trigger deletion in case of failure or cancellation of transaction processing;

a notify of service order operation operable to notify accounting about the creation, change, or deletion of the service order;

a cancel sales order operation operable to notify accounting about the cancellation of a sales order;

a change sales order operation operable to change a sales order based on changes in a purchase order from the customer;

a create sales order operation operable to create a sales order based on a new purchase order from the customer;

a change sales order based on customer requirement fulfillment confirmation operation operable to update a sales order with information from fulfillment confirmation;

a change sales order based on product available to promise update operation operable to change a sales order with availability and reservation information based on changes in fulfillment planning;

a confirm customer return operation operable to confirm a customer return to a customer;

a request product valuation operation operable to request the value of a product;

a notify of sales order operation operable to notify accounting about the creation, change, or cancellation of the sales order;

a confirm sales order operation operable to confirm the sales order;

a maintain service request operation operable to create or update a service request with a message received from external requester system;

a change service request based on provider'"'"'s confirmation operation operable to update a service request based on a confirmation message of a service request creation and update progress received from an external provider system;

a request service operation operable to send a service request creation or update to an external provider system;

a notify of service provision operation operable to notify accounting of actual service provided and actual time spent on performing the service;

a notify of service provision cancellation operation operable to notify accounting that a confirmation of a provided service has been cancelled;

a notify of service request operation operable to notify accounting about the creation, change or deletion of the service request;

a confirm service request operation operable to send a creation, update or processing confirmation to an external requester system;

a change customer return based on customer invoice operation operable to send information about invoiced data and values related to items in a current document;

a delivery execution request out operation operable to request a delivery;

a change service request based on customer invoice operation operable to update a service request in order to document the information about issued customer invoices in the service request;

a request customer requirement reservation operation operable to request a reservation for customer requirement;

a request customer requirement reservation and fulfillment operation operable to request reservation and fulfillment for customer requirement;

a request product availability information and provisional reservation of customer requirement operation operable to request product availability information including the creation of a provisional reservation for customer requirement;

a change customer quote based on product available to promise update operation operable to change a customer quote with availability and reservation information based on changes in fulfillment planning;

and a notify of service order credit commitment operation operable to send invoice information necessary to update credit commitment.

10. The product of claim 9, wherein the computer software comprises:

a plurality of process components, each of the process components being a package of software deployed and executing on the computer system and implementing a respective and distinct business process, the plurality of process components including;

a customer invoice processing process component used to charge a customer for the delivery of goods or services;

an opportunity processing process component used to process customer relationship opportunities;

a service confirmation processing process component used to handle services rendered for a service order;

a service order processing process component used to handle short-term agreements between a customer and a service provider;

a service request processing process component used to cover requests from a customer to a service provider to answer a question or solve a problem about a product;

a customer return processing process component used to initiate the return of a product from the customer back to a provider or seller;

a sales order processing process component used to handle customers'"'"' requests to a company for delivery of goods or services; and

a customer quote processing process component used to offer to a customer for the delivery of goods or services according to fixed terms;

and wherein;

the customer invoice processing process component implements the maintain customer invoice request, the notify of inventory change, the request inventory change and activity provision cancellation, the notify of invoice, the notify of invoice cancellation, the notify of credit commitment, and the confirm invoicing service operation;

the service confirmation processing process component implements the notify of inventory change, the notify of service provision, the notify of service provision cancellation, the change service confirmation based on customer invoice, the notify of service confirmation, and the request invoicing service operations;

the service order processing process component implements the notify of service order credit commitment, the request credit limit check, the change service order based on product availability update, the change service order based on product customer requirement fulfillment confirmation, the register product customer requirement deletion notification, the request product availability information and provisional reservation, the request product customer requirement reservation and fulfillment, the notify of service order, the request invoicing, and the change service order based on customer invoice service operations;

the service request processing process component implements the change service request based on customer invoice, the request service, the notify of service provision, the notify of service provision cancellation, the notify of service request, the maintain service request, the request invoicing, and the confirm service request service operations;

the customer return processing process component implements the confirm customer return, the notify of customer return, the change customer return based on customer invoice, the request invoicing, and the notify of customer return service operations;

the sales order processing process component implements the notify of sales order, the register product customer requirement deletion notification, the request product availability information and provisional reservation, the request product customer requirement reservation and fulfillment, the change sales order based on product availability update, the change sales order based on product customer requirement fulfillment confirmation, the confirm sales order, the request product valuation, the cancel sales order, the change sales order, the create sales order, the change sales order based on customer invoice, and the request invoicing service operations; and

the customer quote processing process component implements the register product customer requirement deletion notification, the request product availability information and provisional reservation of customer requirement, the request product availability information, the request product customer requirement reservation, the request product valuation, and the change customer quote based on product available to promise update service operations.

11. The product of claim 9, wherein the computer software comprises:

a plurality of deployment units, each of the deployment units being a package of software packaged together to be deployed on a single physical hardware platform, the plurality of deployment units including;

a customer invoice deployment unit that includes a customer invoice request and a customer invoice business object, wherein the customer invoice request business object maintains a customer invoice request and the customer invoice business object charges a customer for delivery of goods or services; and

a customer relationship management deployment unit that includes a customer problem and solution, a direct mail template, an opportunity, a service confirmation, a service order, a service request, a customer return, a sales order, a customer quote, and a direct mail run business object, wherein the customer problem and solution business object is a collection of information consisting of a problem that is reported by a customer, the direct mail template business object is a template which is used to automatically generate personalized mail in order to contact customers and prospects, the opportunity business object represents a recognized possibility for sales of products or services, the service confirmation business object stores the actual resource consumption of performed service operations including working time and the parts and expenses related to service fulfillment, the service order business object represents customer orders to service providers for the delivery of services, the service request business object reflects the initial inquiry of a customer when contacting a customer service and support center, the customer return business object initiates the return of a product from a customer back to a provider or seller, the direct mail run business object is a specification of a serial letter sent as personalized mail to selected customers and prospects by means of multiple communication channels, the sales order business object is a customer request to the company for delivery of goods or services at a certain time, and the customer quote business object is an offer by a vendor to a customer for the delivery of goods or services according to fixed terms.

12. The product of claim 10, wherein:

each of the plurality of process components is assigned to no more than one deployment unit among multiple deployment units, and each deployment unit is deployable on a separate computer hardware platform independent of every other deployment unit; and

all interaction between a process component in one deployment unit and any other process component in any other deployment unit takes place through the respective service operations of the two process components.

13. The product of claim 12, wherein the deployment units comprise:

a customer invoice deployment unit that includes the customer invoice processing process component; and

a customer relationship management deployment unit that includes the customer quote processing, the sales order processing, the customer return processing, the service request processing, the opportunity processing, the service order processing, the direct mail processing, and the service confirmation processing process components.

14. The product of claim 9, further comprising:

a customer invoicing deployment unit that implements the maintain customer invoice request operation, the notify of invoice operation, and the confirm invoicing operation; and

a customer relationship management deployment unit that implements the request credit limit check operation, the notify customer of invoice operation, the notify of credit commitment operation, the notify of invoice cancellation operation, the notify of cash payment operation, the request cash payment cancellation operation, the notify of inventory change operation, the request inventory change and activity provision cancellation operation, the change service confirmation based on customer invoice operation, the notify of service confirmation operation, the request invoicing operation, the change service order based on spare part availability update operation, the change service order based on spare part fulfillment confirmation operation, the notify of customer return operation, the register spare part requirement deletion notification operation, the change service order based on customer invoice operation, the request spare part requirement reservation and fulfillment operation, the notify of service order operation, the cancel sales order operation, the change sales order operation, the create sales order operation, the change sales order based on customer requirement fulfillment confirmation operation, the change sales order based on product available to promise update operation, the confirm customer return operation, the request product valuation operation, the notify of credit commitment operation, the notify of sales order operation, the confirm sales order operation, the maintain service request operation, the change service request based on provider'"'"'s confirmation operation, the request service operation, the notify of service provision operation, the notify of service provision cancellation operation, the notify of service request operation, the confirm service request operation, the change customer return based on customer invoice operation, the change service request based on customer invoice operation, the request customer requirement reservation operation, the request customer requirement reservation and fulfillment operation, the request product availability information and provisional reservation of customer requirement operation, the request credit worthiness operation, the change customer quote based on product available to promise update operation, the notify of inventory change operation, the notify of service order credit commitment operation, the confirm customer return operation, the financial expense notification operation, and the request inbound return delivery operation.

15. The product of claim 10, wherein:

the customer invoice processing process component includes a customer invoice request and a customer invoice business object wherein the customer invoice request business object maintains a customer invoice request and the customer invoice business object charges a customer for delivery of goods or services;

the customer quote processing process component includes a customer quote business object wherein the customer quote business object represents an offer by a vendor to a customer for the delivery of goods or services according to fixed terms;

the sales order processing process component includes a sales order business object wherein the sales order business object represents a customer request to the company for delivery of goods or services at a certain time;

the customer return processing process component includes a customer return business object wherein the customer return business object initiates the return of a product from a customer back to a provider or seller;

the service request processing process component includes a support request and a service request business object, wherein the support request is used to resolve an incident in the operations of an IT solution, and the service request business object reflects the initial inquiry of a customer when contacting a customer service and support center;

the opportunity processing process component includes an opportunity business object wherein the opportunity business object represents a recognized possibility for sales of products or services;

the direct mail processing process component includes a direct mail template business object and a direct mail run business object, wherein the direct mail template business object is a template which is used to automatically generate personalized mail and the direct mail run business object is a specification of a serial letter sent as personalized mail to selected customers;

the service order processing process component includes a service order business object wherein the service order business object represents customer orders to service providers for the delivery of services; and

the service confirmation processing process component includes a service confirmation business object wherein the service confirmation business object stores the actual resource consumption of performed service operations including working time and the parts and expenses related to service fulfillment.

16. The product of claim 10, wherein:

each of the process components includes one or more business objects; and

none of the business objects of any one of the process components interacts directly with any of the business objects included in any of the other process components.

17. The product of claim 16, wherein the business objects comprise a business process object.

18. The product of claim 16, wherein:

none of the business objects included in any one of the process components is included in any of the other process components.

19. The product of claim 9, further comprising:

a plurality of process agents, each process agent being either an inbound process agent or an outbound process agent, an inbound process agent being operable to receive a message from an inbound operation, an outbound process agent being operable to cause an outbound operation to send a message, each process agent being associated with exactly one process component;

wherein;

the inbound process agents comprise a first inbound process agent operable to start the execution of step requested in a first inbound message by creating or updating one or more business object instances; and

the outbound process agents comprise a first asynchronous outbound process agent that is called after a business object that is associated with the first outbound process agent changes.