Knowledge Base > Automation Engine and Target Systems > SAP > Mass Processing

Mass Processing

IS-U is SAP's business solution for the utility industry.

IS-U's accounting system for utility and service industries has been specially designed for the specific requirements of these sectors. By integrating IS-U utility industry with the neutral R/3 standard components and interfaces to external systems, SAP offers an integrated enterprise-wide solution for the utility industry's operational data processing.

The transaction volume of utilities with several million customers, various types of utilities and perhaps billing on a monthly basis is mainly handled in background operation.

Examples:

Creating reading records
Requests for advance payment
Accounting/billing
Dunning runs
Payment runs
etc.

Definition

AE is able to automate these background requirements. We developed a special type of background "mass processing" in order to optimally deal with huge data amounts.

Characteristics of mass processing:

A master job splits into a dynamic number of partial jobs.
Each mass processing run requires a parameter set which is identified by date and RunID.

One specific requirement is that a particular order must be kept (e.g. accounting must be finished before billing starts; both are mass processing runs).

Technique

Mass processing includes a dispatcher which generates parallel split jobs through the definition of parameters.

When scheduling mass processing, the dispatcher forms the master job of background processing. When it is processed, it generates a dynamic number of split jobs (the number depends on the defined parameter settings).

Controlling is handled by AE. Scheduling can be handled by AE or SAP.