SAP Transportation management (TM) on S/4HANA – Deployment options, Features and Migration

SAP embedded Transportation management (TM ) in 1709 release of S/4HANA. Initial release of SAP TM was on Netweaver (NW) or SCM server and used as a separate application interfacing with SAP ECC. Now, S/4HANA can also be used as a standalone TM. My present blog is to highlight the deployment options with TM , features of standalone TM on S/4HANA and migration from standalone TM to TM on S/4HANA.

Deployment options

Now, SAP TM has two deployment options

• Embedded TM within S/4HANA

Embedded TM has several simplifications and advantages w.r.t Standalone TM. Refer my blogs in links https://blogs.sap.com/2017/09/12/advantages-of-sap-tm-being-embedded-in-1709-release-of-s4hana/ and https://blogs.sap.com/2017/10/29/simplification-in-integration-of-embedded-tm-w.r.t-standalone-tm-2/  for more details on embedded TM.

• Standalone TM on S/4HANA

Standalone TM can now be deployed as TM on S/4HANA as shown in below image. Possible use cases / scenarios for standalone S/4HANA TM can be

• A dedicated Transport management system for multiple ERP instances (ECC or S/4HANA)
• There is an existing standalone TM which connects with multiple ERP ECC instances and not all ECC instances have migrated from ECC to S/4HANA
• Different release cycle / upgrade for TM w.r.t ERP

Refer SAP note 2714892 for more details on TM deployment options.

Like to highlight that

Same S/4HANA TM can be used as embedded TM as well as Standalone TM as in above image. However, new decentralized EWM on S/4HANA can be used either as Embedded or Decentralized mode as shown in below image i.e not both embedded and decentralized simultaneously.

Refer my blogs https://blogs.sap.com/2019/05/06/decentral-extended-warehouse-management-ewm-on-s4hana-features-deployment-options-and-migration/ and https://blogs.sap.com/2020/01/12/decentralized-ewm-on-s-4hana-deployment-transfer-of-master-data-transaction-data-and-functionalities/ for more details on new decentralized EWM on S/4HANA.

Features

Salient features are highlighted below.

• Data model and Codeline in standalone TM on S/4HANA is not same as of standalone TM on NW or SCM
• Master data and organization data are transferred from ECC to Standalone TM on NW or SCM through Core Interface (CIF). However, web service (using Distribution replication framework-DRF) is used for the same for standalone TM on S/4HANA as depicted in below image.

• S/4HANA TM does uses Apps on Fiori launchpad, not Net weaver business client (NWBC)
• TM on S/4HANA 1909 release has functionalities of TM9.6 with certain differences. Sales order scheduling, Group logistics, SD schedule agreements etc are supported in standalone TM 9.6, but not in TM on S/4HANA as of 1909 release. Refer SAP note 2813859 for more details.

End of mainstream maintenance for standalone TM 9.6

SAP has declared the ‘End of mainstream maintenance’ for standalone TM 9.6 on NW or SCM as 31^st Dec’2027 in its Product availability matrix (PAM) as in below image and link https://apps.support.sap.com/sap(bD1lbiZjPTAwMQ==)/support/pam/pam.html#ts=2&s=transportation&o=most_viewed%7Cdesc&st=l&rpp=20&page=1&pvnr=73554900100900002751&pt=g%7Cd

Migration tool

SAP has provided a migration tool for migration from standalone TM 9.5 or 9.6 to S/4HANA TM for both deployment options – Embedded and Standalone. Transfer of data / customization etc for standalone TM 9.5 or 9.6 to standalone S/4HANA TM is shown in below image.

Note that there the migration tool will not migrate any transaction data and this tool works for TM9.5 or higher i.e not for TM9.4 and lower releases.  Refer SAP note 2769186 for more details on migration tool.

This blog is based on SAP documents / notes and my personal  understanding / observation / insights. Will appreciate your feedback / comments.