Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) · Real Time Push with SMS as failover. Sep 2015. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) SAP Intelligent Notification 365 Real-time Push Service for Customers

Real Time Push with SMS as failoverSep 2015

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)SAP Intelligent Notification 365 Real-time Push Servicefor Customers & engagement Teams

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

QUESTION ANSWER

What is real-time push with SMS as failover?

How does the flow work?

1. Real-time push with SMS as failover allows customers to better engage their users using the advantages of both real time push and SMS with workflow rules to support escalated notifications.

2. Here is how the service works

*RTP Real Time Push



QUESTION ANSWER

What is the difference between APNS ( Apple

Push Notification Service) / GCM (

Google Cloud Messaging) native

push and web-socket based real-time push?

What does it mean to customers?

1. APNS and GCM native services deliver push notifications only to the notification center.

2. Native push is typically a 1 way notification service and suffers from certain limitations. APNS only delivers the most recent notification, GCM queues up notifications ( upto a limit) but uses a TTL ( Time to Live parameter) to process messages. Also native push notifications is largely one way notification strategy.

3. A web-socket creates a persistent connection between a device and a channel and allows the device user to push or receive notifications to/ from that channel in real time. Services can be built around the ‘channel’ such that the push traffic is also stored in a mobile app back-end service for future use. This allows web-socket also to be used to support in-app workflows or in-app notifications.

4. Customers can use this combination of web-socket & native push to build a 2 way notification architecture with confidence. With SAP Intelligent Notification 365 , we additionally bring in SMS into the equation – all supported by the same unified cloud API. So customers can benefit from the use of multiple channels for improved outcome.



QUESTION ANSWER

What is needed to activate the service?

1. Existing customers will use the same HTTP(s) API interface . 2. New customers will need to publish notifications using the standard HTTP(s) interface

available from SAP Mobile services.3. A new SAP Mobile Service hub account with real time push enabled is set up for each service.

The customer account executive will help set this up. 4. Once account is set up, Customers need to download the SAP Intelligent Notification 365 SDK

libraries from the SAP Community Network. Here is the URL for this https://store.sap.com/sap/cpa/ui/resources/store/html/SolutionDetails.html?pid=0000014191

5. To operationalize SAP Intelligent Notification 365, customers need to undertake the following”A. Update the mobile app using the SAP Intelligent Notification 365 libraries and publish

the updated app to Apple store or google play, so users can install the updated app.B. Publish opted in user data ( APP ID, MSISDN only) from the mobile app back-end using

the SAP MS registration service API’s6. Details for how to use the API’s and SDK is available in the developer reference guides

available here https://jam4.sapjam.com/wiki/show/4WphIexPpnpV40td0lOnRK?_lightbox=true

https://store.sap.com/sap/cpa/ui/resources/store/html/SolutionDetails.html?pid=0000014191

https://jam4.sapjam.com/wiki/show/4WphIexPpnpV40td0lOnRK?_lightbox=true



QUESTION ANSWER

How different is an SAP Intelligent Notification

365 hub account?

• The SAP Intelligent Notification hub account differs from the standard hub account in 2 aspects

1. It includes a intelligence / decision engine in the workflow 2. It supports delivery to both real-time push and SMS( so the associated extranet

reporting also supports this)

Can customers opt for native APNS/ GCM push

only?

How does the service use APNS/ GCM

capabilities?

• SAP Intelligent Notification 365 supports native push but only as part of the bundle of service that includes real time push and SMS.



QUESTION ANSWER

What is the role of SDK?

Why does a customer need it?

Can the SAP Intelligent Notification 365 service be

delivered without a customer mobile app?

1. SAP Intelligent Notification 365 delivers push notifications for mobile app users.2. The SDK provides libraries that integrates the mobile app to the real time push service. It

provides a set of API’s and reference design patterns3. The real time push libraries have to be integrated into the mobile app libraries for the

service to be operational. It is a foundational step. To integrate , the SDK has to be deployed into the mobile application development platform

4. The SDK significantly eases the effort to integrate the service into the mobile app.5. The SDK will continue to be extended to include libraries for additional services such as

2-way interactions, connecting to social applications etc.



QUESTION ANSWER

What is the registration service?

Is MSISDN the only way to register a device/user?

Can multiple devices be registered per user?

1. The registration service allows SAP to identify actual users across an app that have opted for real time push notification.

2. It also allows us to provision all users of the same app to the same real-time push service.

3. Global users of a company with multiple apps can also be categorized and registered using the registration service.

4. As it stands now, SAP Intelligent Notification 365 uses MSISDN to identify users per app. The basic premise is that the MSISDN information is also used to failover to SMS ( which is the integrated offering).

5. In SAP Intelligent Notification 365, the ‘user’ of the service is an MSISDN. Each MSISDN is considered a separate registered user. So if a person has multiple devices supported each by a separate SIM ( MSISDN) , each will be registered separately.



QUESTION ANSWER

How does the registration service work?

1. The registration service allows SAP MS to maintain a registry of real-time push users and manage their connection.

2. Here is what SAP MS does during the registration processA. Step 1: Provision every on-boarded customers app with publish & subscribe keys ,

app ID.B. Step 2: Receive registered (opted in) MSISDN’s from customer mobile app back-

end. It is recommended that customers use an OTP based authentication during the opt-in process.

C. Step 3: Register every authenticated MSISDN with PubNub data-stream service and assign a Channel ID that defines an active web socket connection

3. Here is what Customer has to do to support the registration processA. Step 1: Authenticate and capture users that opt-in for RealTimePush serviceB. Step 2: Publish opted-in user info to SAP MS ( App ID, MSISDN) using

registration service API



QUESTION ANSWER

Does SAP Intelligent Notification 365 support

traffic from multiple SAP Mobile Service hub accounts for the same

app?

1. Several existing customers have different hub account each delivering a specific service ( in a specific market).

2. With the assumption that the end-users receiving notifications from these accounts register for real-time push from the same app, these accounts can be upgraded to real time push accounts.

3. When upgraded, these hub accounts will be mapped to a common APP ID. End-Users are also mapped to the same APP ID ( during the registration process).

4. Based on common APP ID’s , push traffic from the corresponding EM hub accounts are delivered to the registered push users.



QUESTION ANSWER

What happens when a user uninstalls the app from a

registered device?

Simple user install/ un-install scenario

1. The registration service supports create/ delete registered users API call. These calls are made from the enterprise app back-end ( @ customer end) and it was designed thus to ensure enterprise security is not compromised.

2. Here is how it worksA. Step 1 : User installs app / registers or uninstalls the appB. Step 2 : Customers back-end knows of registration or uninstallation.C. Step 3 : Customers back-end ( or mobile app back-end) makes a create / delete

API call to our registration server3. We will need to work with banks to determine they have knowledge of uninstalls

.Typically , banks use 3rd party mobile monitoring app libraries to track these. 4. If needed, we can make provisions in the SDK to let bank know when an app uninstall

happens ( we can add this in further releases)



QUESTION ANSWER

What if the user re-registersby installing the app on a

different device?

User install and re-install / register in a different device scenario

When a user uninstalls the same app from one device and then proceeds to re-install/register from a different device/ SIM; then; when called , the following steps are undertaken:

A. the registration server proceeds to create a new user entry ( MSISDN#, APP ID); B. The registration service de-activates the prior registration .



QUESTION ANSWER

Can registration be directly managed via the SDK by

SAP Mobile Service?

1. The SDK libraries can be extended to support direct registration/ de-registration ( upon un-install) of the user.

2. A direct registration capability via mobile app ( by SAP MS) is available as a proof of concept in the demo app and can be looked at and added to the deployed SDK code base.

What is Intelligence Engine? How is it set up?

1. Intelligence engine is a workflow solution set up for every multi-channel ( SMS + real-time push) hub account.

2. The baseline service today supports simple failover rules for critical notifications from real-time push to SMS.



QUESTION ANSWER

How is the # of active devices / users registered

monitored?

Who does it?

How is a customer “upgraded” as his registered

device limits increase?

1. This follows up from the previous question.2. Customer purchases ability to register users in blocks of 10,000. 3. SAP monitors and reports actual user registration using the registration service.4. As the user registration crosses the tier threshold, customer is automatically upgraded to

the new tier price.

Is the SAP Intelligent Notification 365 API interface

HTTPs only?

Will SMPP be supported?

1. In Rel 1.0 SAP Intelligent Notification 365 supports only a HTTP(s) API interface.2. The SAP Intelligent Notification 365 API is planned to be migrated to a new JSON

service.3. Support for SMPP is under review and will be considered for deployment in future

phases.



QUESTION ANSWER

Should SAP Intelligent Notification 365 accounts be set up per use case or can use cases be consolidated?

How will Prod & non- Prod ( test) traffic be handled?

How should one cater to specialized routes?

1. Traffic is managed independent of user registrations.2. Traffic for SAP Intelligent Notification can be set up by use case or consolidated across

use cases. For e.g. if a customer ABC would like to handle OTP traffic separately vs Campaign traffic, this is supported. Thus, Prod & non-Prod (test) traffic is also supported as they will be managed by separate hub accounts.

3. In release 1, an intelligence engine rule can be set up for each hub account associated with an app ID.

4. In relation to traffic; the SAP Mobile Service hub account determines whether a specialized or non-specialized route is used. This will remain as it is today.

5. Registered user counts are , however, consolidated across all users for an app. So, if ABC company has only one app – the registered users will be consolidated and reported for the app.



QUESTION ANSWER

How is SAP Intelligent 365 notification traffic monitored?

Does it report both Push and SMS traffic?

How will a customer know when push traffic exceeds a

defined cap?

1. Traffic for SAP Intelligent Notification 365 accounts is monitored like SMS traffic todayand the reports are available in extranet accounts

2. Here is a sample report

3. Customers & SAP invoicing team can review traffic data by all hub accounts mapped to a customer

4. Automatic alerts to notify thresholds ( if any) are not available currently.



QUESTION ANSWER

How is user registrationinvoiced?

How is intelligence engine invoiced?

How will incremental notifications ( notifications

above entitlement) be invoiced to the customer?

1. User registrations are invoiced in terms of active devices. An active device is an MSISDN that has received at-least 1 push notification in a given billing period.

2. Intelligence engine is invoiced at app level for all supported multi-channel hub accounts. If customer has multiple apps , each app is associated with an intelligence engine charge.

3. Notifications above entitlement are invoiced on a pro-rated basis monthly based on negotiated charges.



QUESTION ANSWER

Can we migrate existing accounts to SAP Intelligent Notification 365 services?

1. Yes, existing hub accounts can be migrated to the SAP Intelligent Notification 365 service. 2. To update an existing hub account ( SMS only) to a CAAS account, the following steps will

be undertaken by an SAP MS account specialistA. Step 1: Refer the Mt end-point to a new CAAS URLB. Step 2: Deploy a workflow service on the associated CAAS end-point service.C. Step 3: Flag the hub account for reporting purposes.



QUESTION ANSWER

Can SAP Intelligent Notification 365 support 2 way communication now?

1. 2 way communication is supported using the web-socket interface using publish and subscribe channels. However, this needs to be reviewed per customer specific use case/

2. SAP Intelligent Notification 365 will needs additional infrastructure to support high volume 2 way traffic.

3. The functional interface for the custom actions / communication will need to be developed on the mobile app.



QUESTION ANSWER

What are the functional requirements for the Mobile

App to interact with SAP service?

Does it have to maintain a background process that

close the loop?

1. SAP Intelligent Notification 365 offering provides mobile client SDK for Android and iOS, native and PhoneGap APIs.

2. The key functionality addition from the mobile app perspective would be an additional interface for an end-user to register/ opt in to real time push notification ( within the app) . During this registration process, we also capture a unique user identifier that creates a 1-1 map between a device and a user .

3. The unique user identifier is an MSISDN# in the initial release, in-order to maintain the continuity with our existing HTTPs SMS API



QUESTION ANSWER

Does SAP Intelligent Notification 365 support

devices that do not have SIMcard- iPad/ iPod/ Tablets

with only Wi-Fi?

1. All devices with SIM card ( that maps to an MSISDN) are supported as standard.2. Devices with only Wi-Fi connection and without SIM are not supported as standard in the

current release. 3. Use of email id or other universally accepted identifier to support users on Wi-Fi

networks only is being reviewed.



QUESTION ANSWER

Are long messages supported?

1. Yes, with SAP Intelligent Notification 365 , we are able to combine and send concatenated messages as a single long push notification to a user.

2. This feature is currently disabled ( to support SMS character limitations during failover), but can be modified. Our recommendation, however, is to maintain notification length in line with SMS character limitations



QUESTION ANSWER

Is expiry of push messages supported?

1. SAP Intelligent Notification 365 does not support a time-bound expiry of a push notification.

2. However, with SAP Intelligent Notification 365 , enterprises can design how apps are stored and displayed; so as to ensure multiple notifications for the same message is not delivered.



QUESTION ANSWER

Is encryption supported?

• SAP Intelligent Notification 365 encrypts all push notifications using AES 256 bit encryption

• Encryption is undertaken once message is received at the EM hub and prior to posting as a push notification.

• A cipher key is provided during device registration for app to decrypt a notification. Typically is this part of the registration service call. Pl see below for some of the parameters during a device registration ( illustrative cipher value highlighted below)

• "registrationId":"11863” • "customerId":"sap_intell36426” • "shortcode":null, • "appId":"ins-dev-app", • "msisdn":"+1925007501", • "channelId":"+1925007501Yq9jbxeU0keahp", • "authkey":"testdevicerdFgg3dopZ2urx” • "cipher":"Od3qvnd2uUbcim”

• Data is encrypted at the time of receipt at the EM hub, before it is sent as a push notification and remains encrypted till it is received by a mobile app.



QUESTION ANSWER

Is encryption supported?

• In addition to AES 256 bit encryption; SAP Intelligent Notification 365 supports TLS based authentication/ encryption. The certificates for authentication are delivered during the handshake. Typically, this is handled by flagging SSL as “true” during the initialization call.

What happens if a message is received encrypted?

• If a notification is received encrypted , SAP Intelligent Notification 365 shall not decrypt such a notification and will process in encrypted format

Documents

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) · Real Time Push with SMS as failover. Sep 2015. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) SAP Intelligent Notification 365 Real-time Push Service for Customers