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SAP IS-U data model – Business and

Technical Master Data
March 26, 2012 | 14,994 Views |

Krishnakumar Ramamoorthy
more by this author

Utilities
businessdata | is-u | technicaldata | utilities

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This blog is a part of a series of blogs around SAP Industry Solution for
Utilities. You can find the main blog here. In this blog, we will discuss about the

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IS-U data model. Understanding the data model is very important to configure
and customize the SAP IS-U solution.

Before we proceed further, please read this fine print. All the views provided below are my

personal opinion and doesn’t necessarily reflect my employer’s. I work for my employer as

a Netweaver Integration consultant with a focus in Utilities Industry but every customer’s

requirement is unique and you should definitely seek for professional opinion before making

your business decisions. Treat the inputs in this blog series as just opinions, nothing more,

nothing less.

The IS-U master data model can be categorized in to two main groups

1. Business Data
2. Technical Data

Business Data: Any master data that is used for billing a customer for the
services provided is grouped under Business data. For e.g., a business
partner who is a person or an organization.

Technical Data: Any master data that is used for actually providing the
services are grouped under Technical Data. For e.g., a device or a meter that
is installed in a customer location.

Of course, the above definitions are highly simplified, so let’s dig a little bit
deeper. For the purposes of this discussion, I am conveniently leveraging the
picture below from help.sap.com.

As you can see, the picture provides a visualization of the various data objects
in IS-U with a perspective of an apartment complex. However, the relationship

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between the data models is the same, be it a commercial establishment or a

single family house. So, let’s first discuss the business data in this model

Business Partner: A business partner could be a person, an organization, a

future customer, a contact person or even an installer who is licensed to
provide the utilities services on behalf of the utility company. In most cases, it
is easier to correlate the business partner with a human being with whom the
utility business can conduct business. In case of an organization, it is
imperative that some human is doing business with the utility on behalf of the
organization.

Contract: A contract is the legal agreement that the business partner has
entered with the utility for a particular service. For e.g., a utility may provide
electricity, gas and water services. Usually a contract is created in the system
for each of these services so that the customer can be billed appropriately. If
you avail more than one service with your utility, take a minute to check your
utility bill, you will see those contracts displayed separately as different line
items in your bill.

Contract Account: A contract account is a logical way of grouping various

contracts. The contract account is used for maintaining the payment, dunning
and collection rules that are common to a group of contracts. It is through the
contract account, the business partner is linked to the contracts. Multiple
contracts can be grouped under a single contract account however, a contract
can be linked only to one contract account. Also, multiple contract accounts
can be linked to a business partner, however a contract account can only be
linked to one business partner. In case of big commercial establishments or
utility paid apartment complexes, the contract accounts may be used to group
multiple suites or apartments under a single business partner, so that the
payment responsibility lies with the business partner.

The combination of Business partner, contract account and contract comprise

the business data. Now, let’s look in to the technical data in the model.

Device: As obvious as it is, it refers to the physical device. It could be an

electric meter, gas meter, regulator, sensor etc. Every device has a unique
serial number and in SAP a utility device is a nothing but a equipment with a
serial number. Every utility device will have a material number created in SAP
as well. Usually each service (electric, gas, water) etc will have at the least
one device. It is through the device reads that the utility can measure the
consumption of the service.

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Device Location: This refers to the physical location of the device. More than
one device can be in a device location or each device can be its own location.
For e.g., in my house, the gas meter is outside the house but the water meter
is inside the house. So these would be treated as two device locations that
have two individual devices installed. Device locations are handy to capture
the co-ordinates so that when there is a maintenance activity to be performed
on the device, it is easy for the field personnel to locate the device.

Connection Object: This refers to the physical location where the various
services are provided. It is the service address and usually the address of the
house but in case of apartment complex could be different than the address of
the apartment that actually consumes the service. Device locations (discussed
above) take the address of the connection object with additional qualifiers to
pin point their location. For e.g., in my house, as I said, there are two device
locations. The address of these locations will still be my house address but the
additional qualifier would be basement, hallway etc. In SAP, the connection
object is nothing but a plant maintenance functional location object.

Premise: This refers to the spatial unit or the enclosed structure to which the
utility services have to be rendered. It is attached to the connection object and
takes the address of the connection object but the premise also has other
attributes attached to it. For e.g., in case of apartment complexes, you can
attach the owner of the complex to the premise and when the premise is
empty and if the services are still consumed, the apartment owner will be
billed. The premise can also hold additional information about the spatial unit
like if it’s rental property, how many occupants etc. Note that this may sound
like a duplicate of connection object, but there are some differences, because
connection object is all about location data where premise is additional
information about the actual structure and space within.

Installation: It is at the installation level various billing schema, rate tariffs and
billing procedures are attached for the services provided. The installation
groups various devices based on registers etc so that specific billing values
like rate category can be maintained for the services. Also, every installation is
attached to the premise so that actual supply point can be linkedwith the site
where the services are provided. Point to note that is there is a one to one
relationship between installation and contract.

Point of Delivery: This is a globally identified unique service point where a

utility service is provided. In a deregulated market (a topic in itself), there are
multiple service providers providing a customer different services. For e.g,, a

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utility company will be providing the actual electricity and any associated
infrastructure around it whereas another provider will be able to provide billing,
customer service and other related services. So, in a deregulated market, it
becomes important to uniquely identify service point and it is done using the
point of delivery data object. There is a 1:1 relationship between point of
delivery and installation.

Device Category: This groups the various devices in to different categories

based on the technical characteristics. This enables us to maintain the data
that is common for a group of devices, there by grouping them in a logical
way. Some examples of device categories are Meter, Transformer, Pressure
regulator etc.

This summarizes the key master data objects that make up the IS-U data
model. There are other data objects like Technical Installation, Connection,
Grid and Services that are used for augmenting these key data objects. More
information can be obtained here.

Of course there are many tables that hold data that relates to these data
objects. Also, there is a tight integration between SAP CRM and SAP IS-U
when it comes to front office processes (please refer the introduction blog for
more information). Some of the master data is replicated between ECC and
CRM. That is, these master data can be created first in either CRM or ECC
and it is replicated to the other system as a part of the replication process. I
have identified a separate blog on CRM replication and we will discuss about
these nuances in detail there.

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I am also working on interactive chart on various IS-U master data, transaction

data and their relationships. Once done, I will either publish it as a separate
blog or as a part of the blog identified for conversions.

Hopefully, this blog acts a starting point for understanding IS-U master data
model. As always, input from the community is key to the quality of the
content. So, please keep the comments coming.

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26 Comments
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Astrid Gambill

April 3, 2012 at 6:00 pm

That’s a very nice explanation of the utility basics.

mahesh kumar

June 21, 2012 at 8:07 am

nice explanation..looking for more uploads…cheers !!!

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Frederic Ransquin

July 4, 2012 at 8:41 am

very usefull

thanks a lot

Sasmita Rout

April 25, 2013 at 5:43 am

very informative and descriptive as well!! thanks

Naga Vikranth Kotagiri

July 10, 2013 at 8:25 am

Simple and Useful Blog

SREEPAL REDDY

July 10, 2013 at 1:24 pm

wonderful blog

thank you

Valentina Solorzano

July 10, 2013 at 5:24 pm

useful and informative..

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thank you

Murtuza Chhatariya

September 23, 2013 at 2:25 pm

Nice and Useful blog. Thanks.

Zakaria Mechbal

September 29, 2013 at 8:43 pm

Simple and useful!

Thanks!

cherry goud

October 2, 2013 at 3:31 am

Thanks for sharing this blog

use full blog.

Regards,

Cherry.

Amit Patil

October 7, 2013 at 4:16 am

Thanx for sharing this useful information…

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Prashanta Das

December 3, 2013 at 8:16 am

Thanks for expalaning in details.

maanvi n

January 30, 2014 at 6:46 am

Hi,

really simple & good start up for a fresher..!!

good work..!

Ravi Prakash

August 6, 2014 at 5:07 pm

Good for basics in Utility keep posted please

Papiya B

September 9, 2014 at 7:01 am

Simple Language and Explaination…very helpful to understand the basics

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Ankeet Bhandari

October 28, 2014 at 8:23 am

Nice blog!

Subhash Dukale

February 27, 2015 at 11:25 am

Nicle Blog! Good information for Utilities industry.

Ashish Gauba

July 10, 2015 at 7:13 am

Thanks for sharing this useful information.

Jayachandraburam Yadav

July 31, 2015 at 3:05 pm

Very good Blog. Appreciate your way of explanation for beginners.

ANJANA ANANDAN

October 9, 2015 at 8:34 am

Crisp , Clear and Concise!

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Pavan Mulpur

May 2, 2016 at 2:21 pm

Thanks a lot Krishnakumar. Your blog is really very helpful for me at a time when I am
looking for an insight into ISU.

Idrees Mohammed

July 4, 2016 at 3:56 pm

Thank You

Regards

Idrees

Smriti Gupta

November 28, 2016 at 2:57 pm

Thanks a lot for this informative Blog

PAVAN M

November 29, 2016 at 7:19 am

Thanks a lot for valuable information

Office Anodius

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February 28, 2017 at 9:24 am

Thanks for sharing! More info on SAP IS-U data replication can be also found in this
useful article.

Mazhar Ali Khan

January 10, 2018 at 7:12 am

very useful information simple and easy too…cheers

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