In part one (link) of this 2-article blog post series, we discussed using SAP EPD and integrating with SAP Transportation management to display (the load plan form) directly in the business document and email it to external partners, e.g., carriers, suppliers, or customers. Now, I would like to tackle the usage of SAP HSS Hana Spatial Services for GIS integration, particularly for Geocoding, Distance Duration Determination, Routing, and Map tiles.

The benefits of GIS Integration in Transportation Management are multiple and support even more precise transport planning, optimization, and execution. In the blog post MKS-86 by Markus Zahn, you can find detailed information about GIS Integration for SCE Applications using SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform).

The following steps below should be performed to enable this feature in your project. 

Hana Spatial Services:

A cloud subscription to an SAP HANA Spatial Service instance is required to facilitate the integration of SAP HANA spatial services. A GIS vendor must also be chosen to utilize the necessary GIS services (BYOL: Bring-Your-Own-License) or consume these services under an SAP OEM contract. Transportation Management will then access these GIS services through SAP HANA spatial services. The preferred GIS vendor must supply the required account credentials that must be included when using the services. These parameters can be maintained during HSS connection setup. Once the account has been created, an RFC authentication and destination must be configured between S/4HANA TM and the BTP. Further details about the RFC setup can be found in note 2751622 – Setup Guide for SAP HANA Spatial Services in SCE Applications.

SAP HSS integration to SCE applications

To set up the service, the customer needs a subaccount in the BTP (SAP Business Technology Platform), where a new instance will be created. Further details can be found in SAP HANA Spatial Services Onboarding Guide.

Subaccount for SAP HSS APIs

Geocoding:

To improve the optimization of driving routes in Transportation Management. Including accuracy in exact latitude and longitude coordinates helps reduce travel costs and uncertainties while boosting efficiencies. Maintaining geocoding can be done for one or with mass processing for several locations objects.

Geocoding details at the location level

Distance Duration Determination:

This DDD (Distance Duration Determination) is used for optimizing logistics and supply chain planning through accurate distance and transport duration estimation between several nodes in the network. Hence, the charge calculation used for the freight settlement will also be improved if the carrier bills the shipper based on the distance traveled. 

Routing:

Using HSS routing helps analyze the transportation network effectively to determine viable paths, routes, and their corresponding reachability. It is employed within the route determination process for each routing strategy, ensuring efficient route selection. The user can also visualize this information in the transportation cockpit. Further details about routing in the MKS – 23 Detailed Routes on Geo-map.

Map tiles:

The transportation cockpit utilizes map tiles to represent the transportation network comprehensively. Each tile contains raw geometric data that delineates various map elements, such as roads, buildings, water bodies, and points of interest. This data is crucial for displaying specific map regions at predefined zoom levels. In the manual planning process in TM, it is possible to select nearby transportation demands utilizing the lasso selection feature of the geo-map. By assigning the selected freight units or transportation demands to a truck resource, the user will get a freight order for execution. 

There are further integration scenarios supported with SAP S/4HANA Transportation Management. Further details on integration scenarios with SAP S/4HANA Transportation Management are in Michael Haase’s blog (Integration scenarios with SAP S/4HANA Transportation Management.)

Hopefully, this blog will be helpful to customers and consultants currently on projects and add value to the overall transportation planning and execution.