Introduction
SAP Business Network for Logistics connects stakeholders across the logistics ecosystem for seamless digitalized collaboration and advanced insights. Logistics Network has a Business Partner persona termed as a Network Partner, which allows entities to partner with SAP’s Logistic Network, to provide their services as visibility providers or even bring their network and integrate with SAP Business Network for Logistics.
As depicted above, Shippers can leverage the network by connecting with existing Business Partners and reduce integration efforts and costs through instant access to vast, ever-growing carrier networks and/or already established B2B connectivity.
Network Partners can play multiple roles on the network. They can either be a visibility provider, connect with the carrier/shipper and provide near real-time updates/milestone events, or they can also extend the network with their ecosystem of carriers and facilitate services such as tendering, subcontracting, tracking and settlement.
In this blog we will explore how subcontracting and tracking are supported by some of the network partners on the network.
The Set-up
Onboarding
Network partners are onboarded to the network through an invitation process by SAP.
If an organization intends to be a part of the network, they can write to sap.dsc.network.enablement@sap.com, describing their request.
Network Partners can also be onboarded to the network proactively, through an invitation process by SAP based on a shipper's request.
Once the setup is done, network partners will get access to a portal with administration applications to support user management and integration configuration, and additional applications if the network partner supports other logistics processes such as subcontracting.
Portal Preview:
Note: Network Partners will also need to explicitly request for technical user a.k.a oauth client credentials. Once this is received, integration work can begin.
Business Partner Setup and Configure Partner Connections
This is an important step in establishing connectivity with the Network Partner over the network. There are 3 key aspects to consider:
- Business Partner set up in Shipper’s Transportation Management.
- SAP Business Network for Logistics set up with the Carrier and Network Partner.
- Configure Partner Connection pattern used.
Scenario 1: Network Partner offers subcontracting and other Logistics processes.
There are multiple ways in which the solution allows the Business Partner set up.
Approach 1: Onboard all carriers to BNL / use specific carrier LBN ID along with network Partner in CPC
In this approach, the shipper onboards each carrier they do business with, from the Network Partner’s network to BNL, and establishes a connection with the Network Partner.
Things to consider:
- In this approach, the Orders/Bookings will be seen in the carrier’s portal, and it will also be forwarded to the network partner.
- Since there is a Network Partner involved for the subcontracting process, there is very little value added to onboard the carrier, unless there is a specific Business Process that requires the carrier to be on BNL, which the network Partner cannot support.
- The carrier would be active on BNL for another shipper, so this unnecessarily creates orders in their tenant for which they are not expected to respond (Since Network Partners do it on their behalf).
- High effort to onboard all carriers as most of them might not be expected to use BNL for this shipper.
- This approach does not work for subcontracting via Freight Orders (Road).
Example:
Booking Consumer API - (Parties)
Booking Confirmation Provider API - (Parties)
Approach 2: Connect with the Network Partner via a dummy/test carrier.
In this approach, the shipper uses a dummy/test carrier and establishes a connection with the Network Partner. The setup is similar to approach 1, however here the LBN ID of the test carrier is mapped to carrier Business Partners in TM. In CPC, a specific connection is made as shown below.
This routes orders to the test carrier and also forwards the order/booking to the network partner.
Things to consider:
- While this is okay for testing purposes, this does not add any value in production as orders/bookings are unnecessarily sent to the test carrier.
- This approach does not work for subcontracting via Freight Orders (Road).
Example Scenario: Refer to approach 1.
Approach 3: No carrier onboarding. Direct connection with Network Partner
In this approach, the shipper maps the LBN ID of the Network Partner to the Carrier Business Partner in TM. And then, maintains the configure partner connects as shown below with Business Partner ID Type as, “Any LBN ID”. So, this config, allows the orders/bookings to be routed to Network Partner without any intermediate carrier. This enables direct routing of orders/Bookings to Network Partners without onboarding carriers to BNL.
Things to consider:
- In this approach, there is no need to onboard carriers to Business Network for Logistics since the Network Partner interacts with the shipper on their behalf.
- TM can have multiple BPs per carrier based on business requirements and each of them would be mapped to Network Partner's LBN ID.
- This is the only approach that is currently supported for Freight Orders subcontracting (Road) via Network Partner.
Examples:
Booking (Ocean/Air)
Booking Consumer API:
Booking Confirmation Provider API
Freight Order (Road)
Subcontracting Consumer API - (Parties)
Subcontracting Confirmation Provider API - (Parties)
Scenario 2: Network Partner offers Tracking only.
In this case, typically, shippers would execute subcontracting and other planning processes with a carrier or freight forwarder and would work with a network partner to receive tracking data/milestone events.
The CPC application supports several ways to configure this scenario.
2 broad approaches are:
Approach 1: A typical setup in TM would be that the shipper would have a BP representing the carrier or the LSP. The carrier or the LSP would also be onboarded to BNL along with the network Partner.
Approach 2: The shipper would have a BP representing the carrier in TM. Carriers are not onboarded to BNL and the shipper receives tracking data from the Network Partner directly.
In CPC any of these options can be used to set up tracking with the Network Partner.
These options relate to how a Network Partner wishes to track and also how a Business partner is set up in TM by the shipper.
Example 1: If a shipper wants to utilize a visibility provider’s tracking services for all their shipments and assuming that all the carriers the shipper is doing business with are not onboarded to BNL, but have an alternate ID in the shipper’s TM the below pattern can be used.
Example 2:
If a shipper has more than one visibility provider and wants to utilize their tracking services for their shipments and assuming that all the carriers the shipper is doing business with are not onboarded to BNL, but they do have a specific alternate ID in the shipper’s TM, the below pattern can be used.
Here, the shipper will have to identify a specific alternate ID using which they can distinguish the orders being sent to specific visibility providers.
Depending on the supportability of the network partner, appropriate service can be configured.
Note: The payload examples shown above are only focused on sending and receiving the right business partner details. For detailed payload structure, refer the specifications for Freight Collaboration and Global Track and Trace.
What should be the strategy with Network Partners?
This blog shows the supportability of the solution, the different variations, and how the APIs behave when a Network Partner is involved. It is important to determine the right strategy that works for a shipper. To do that, the below questions need to be answered as part of designing the solution.
1. What scenarios are in scope for the Shipper-Carrier/LSP-Network Partner trio?
2. Are all carriers/LSPs in scope also in scope of the Network Partner? Is there a direct B2B connectivity scenario with one or more carriers / LSPs?
3. How is the Business Partner setup done across the components - SAP TM / S/4HANA, SAP Business Network for Logistics, and in the Network Partner's system?
4. What are the common identifiers across these components?
So, it is imperative to have a design that answers the above, and then a suitable approach or a combination of approaches can then be deployed.
Other References
Configure Partner Connections help
Carrier Integration Youtube series
Glossary
| Term | Description |
| TM | SAP Transportation Management |
| BNL | SAP Business Network for Logistics |
| BP | Business Partner |
| CPC | Configure Partner Connections |
| LSP | Logistics Service Provider |
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