Enhanced Services for Transportation Network

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Technical Name of Business SCM_SCMB_TR_NETWORK

Function

Type of Business Function Enterprise Business Function

Available From SAP enhancement package 1 for SAP Supply Chain

Management 7.0

Technical Usage SCM

Application Component SCM Basis Master Data (SCM-BAS-MD)

Required Business Function Not relevant

Technical Data

You can use this business function to improve the geographical services used in Transportation
Network for SAP Supply Chain Management (SAP SCM). Accurate geographical data can help to
improve the quality of many features in SAP SCM applications, such as determining geocoordinates
for locations, determining distances and durations between locations, and so on. The following
functions have been enhanced and improved:

Geocoding

Distance and duration determination

Prerequisites

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 You have installed the following components as of the version mentioned:

Type of Required for the Following

Component Component Features Only

Software SCM 701

Component
SCM_BASIS 701

SCMBPLUS 701

External Any geographical information

Product systems.

After the activation of the SCM_SCMB_TR_NETWORK business function, you have made the following
settings in Customizing for SCM Basis:

Geocoding

To help the system improve the performance of the distance and duration determination, you
have defined geocoding levels under Master Data Location Geocoding Define
Geocoding Levels .

Distance and duration determination

You have defined GIS zones under Master Data Transportation Lane Distance
and Duration Determination Define GIS Zone .

You have assigned countries to GIS zones under Master Data Transportation Lane
Distance and Duration Determination Assign Country to GIS Zone .

You have defined strategies for the distance and duration determination under Master
Data Transportation Lane Distance and Duration Determination Define Strategy
for Distance and Duration Determination .

You have maintained global settings for the buffering of the distances and durations
under Master Data Transportation Lane Distance and Duration Determination
Maintain Global Settings for Buffering of DDD .

If you are using external GIS providers, you have made settings in the Customizing
activity Set Usage of GIS Tool to ensure that the external GIS providers are available.
You make the settings under Master Data Transportation Lane Distance and
Duration Determination Set Usage of GIS Tool .

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Features
Geocoding
Geocoding is the determination of geographical coordinations for locations. To improve geocoding,
the following enhancements are available:

To ensure a more flexible approach to the determination of geocoordinates, you can use the
process controller as a flexible framework to create different geocoding strategies so you can
connect to external geographical information systems (GIS) different from the standard
geocoding program. This flexibility allows you to use third-party GIS providers if required. For
more information about how to configure the process controller for geocoding, see Customizing
for SCM Basis under Master Data Locations Geocoding Configure Process
Controller for Geocoding .

You can define geocoding levels to store geocoordinates for the address of a location on
different levels of detail, for example by house number, postal code, or region. Having different
levels of detail for the geocoordinates of a location allows you to improve the performance of
the distance and duration buffering table when determining distances and durations between
locations. The additional geocoordinates are displayed in the location master.

You can define geocoding levels in Customizing for SCM Basis under Master Data
Locations Geocoding Define Geocoding Levels .

For more information, see Geocoding.

Distance and Duration Determination

To ensure more accurate data for transportation lanes, you can use the distance and duration
determination to calculate the distance and duration to travel between the start and the destination
locations. However, the calculation is done externally by third-party GIS providers and is performance
critical. Therefore the following features are new and enhanced in the distance and duration
determination to ensure a more flexible determination of distances and durations and an improved
performance:

To ensure a more flexible approach to the determination of distances and durations, you can
use the process controller as a flexible framework to create different distance and duration
determination strategies so you can connect to external geographical information systems
(GIS) that offer different calculations than the straight line distance and the calculation offered
by the standard geocoding program. For more information about how to configure the process
controller for the distance and duration determination, see Customizing for SCM Basis under
Master Data Transportation Lane Distance and Duration Determination Configure
Process Controller for Distance and Duration Determination .

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 To improve the performance of the determination of distances and durations, the distance and
duration buffering has been enhanced as follows:

A new table that uses geocoordinates for the buffering has replaced the existing buffering
table. You can precalculate distances and durations for the buffering table to improve the
performance by using the Precalculate Distances and Durations for the DDD Buffer
report. For more information, see Precalculation of Distance and Duration Determination.

You can use the Deletion of Buffered Distances and Durations report to delete obsolete
entries from the distance and duration determination buffering table. For more
information, see Deletion of Buffered Distances and Durations.

For more information, see Distance and Duration Determination.

Example

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