Geospatially Enabling SAP S/4HANA Workshop

How to Enrich Business Applications with Geographic Data

On occasion of the International SAP Conference for Utilities in Milan next April 2-4 will take place a half day workshop (09:00 – 12:30). This is the second time this workshop is provided after the session a the 2018  SAP Conference for Utilities in Libon and will deliver the following content agenda: overview of SAP Geographical Enablement Framework (GEF)  & Demo, Solution Architecture view, Confguration settings, Data replication with GIS layers, and complete understanding of HANA Spatial capabilities by lesrning from a use case  PoC:  Predict the Detection of non-compliant Cathodic Protection in gas distribution with a Machine Learning Case applied to GeoSpatial Data.

Workshop will be conducted by Jordi Masip (Utilities Industry Value Engineer),  Miquel Carbó (Solution Expert Utilities Industry) and Marcelo Vinci (Leonardo Platform Expert) in a session which expects to be interactive and plenty of use cases and examples for the energy value chain, this is Electricity, Gas and Water Industries.

SAP Geographical Enablement Framework (GEF) is currently the flagship tool in S4HANA to  take advantage of the HANA Database capabilities to store Spatial Data as it is possible to copy maps (public or corporate) into an S4HANA instance and combine such information with the already existing in the ERP.  Such capability provides a long time wished aspiration: to manage business information in its real context, this is the territory on a map based UI as can be seen at the example below .

Fig.1- Concept example: Tabular list of technical objects (traditional view) vs visualization in the territory   

Possibilities are huge. Not only opens the door to improve existing activities by what is called “spatial enablement of business processes” but its possibilities mean to support  a lot of varied requirements from the business users. In order to provide such flexibility required, GEF has been designed as a structure or frame which contains such heterogeneous combination of information (public or corporate maps plus ERP objects geolocated) and supporting tools to inter-operate with such information, this is the “Geographic Enablement Framework” acting as the single-entry point to access multiple applications directly from the map:

Fig. 2 – Concept of Framework example:  map layer selection (left) and object selection (right)

This doesn’t happen automatically. Such product flexibility cannot be achieved without providing the configuration capabilities where corporate scenarios and geospatially enabled business process can be modelled.

Fig. 3 – Concept of Framework modelling example:  definition of map layer hierarchies (left) and effect in the Framework (right)

Modelling the framework does not only consist on configuring the combination of maps and objects, “the map user interface” but the data interaction activities users want to view and perform for selected objects, such as “edit”, “display” or “create a workorder for this object”, in what is defined as a “web-based Geometry Explorer” as can be seen in the image below:

Fig. 4 – Concept of Framework modelling example:  information and actions on a selected object

As the possibilities of leveraging HANA Spatial platform are not limited to GEF we include a showcase performed in a gas distribution company where Machine Learning tools are applied to GeoSpatial Data for the cathodic protection technique to control the static electricity of the gas distribution pipeline systems by enabling a continuous monitoring of measurement devices and systems spread across different geo-locations which must follow a strict monitoring protocol and avoid manual reassessment of the whole system.

This solution proposes a continuous monitoring of devices and systems using HANA, the spatial visualization using HANA Spatial + ESRI, the analysis of cross-correlation between devices  using HANA PAL and the forecast of yearly non-complaint system and devices. This resulted in visualization of the network of system and devices in real-time, in higher safety standards, with new insight on the devices behavior within systems, the optimization of maintenance activities based on forecasted compliance status and last but not least the reduction of costs due to more systems complying regulations

Summarizing, this interactive, business focused workshop with experts is designed to get practical advice from product management together with use cases experiences from the industry enabling attendees:

• Reinforce your solution knowledge during workshop
• Design your future company spatial strategy following solution and road map updates from SAP
• Stablish one-on-one communication with solution experts, peer companies and partners

Looking forward to meet you at the workshop!