SAP Digital Vehicle Hub: Integration with SAP Analytics Cloud

SAP has recently launched the new product SAP Digital Vehicle Hub.

This blog post is part of a blog series. The initial blog post comprises a general introduction to SAP Digital Vehicle Hub and an overview about the other topics of this blog series

In this blog post we will focus on the SAP Digital Vehicle Hub integration with SAP Analytics Cloud:

This blog post intends to:

1. Enable the reader to grasp the scope of the available integration
2. Give an idea of the implementation
3. State potential application scenarios

Systems and Scope

SAP Digital Vehicle Hub represents the central vehicle repository along the automotive value chain and manages all types of vehicle-related data. As a capability of the SAP Asset Intelligence Network it builds on Asset Central Foundation – the common data foundation for master and transactional data.

SAP Digital Vehicle Hub Architecture

(For downstream integration with SAP S/4 HANA VMS see blog post on this topic)

The SAP Analytics Cloud is the SAP solution for centralized intelligence, automatic insights, integrated planning and interactive results, helping businesses to make end-to-end decisions with confidence.

To enable for the unfolding of this resource for vehicle-related data, the SAP Digital Vehicle Hub along with Asset Central is enabled for OData service based standard integration to connect with SAP Analytics Cloud. Hence, vehicle-data can be acquired at configurable recurrence to update the data foundation in the cloud-based analytics application. The OData service endpoints thereby support vehicle-related master- and transactional data objects via preconfigured or freehand-queries.

Vehicle-related master- and transactional data objects

Due to the direct link to the asset-central, some of the data-objects need to be acquired based on an analog but separate integration with the respective underlying Asset-Central data repository (AC_SAC):

Vehicle-related data objects and their connection source

In addition to these master- and transactional data related objects, the SAP Digital Vehicle Hub`s data model (see blog post on this topic) also includes attribute groups and attributes on the Asset Central level that are pre-delivered via global standard model templates.

Data Model of the DVH | attribute groups and attributes of the global standard model templates

These data objects are not supported by the existing standard integration and its OData service endpoint.

Integrating and Implementing

To set up the integration between the SAP Digital Vehicle Hub and the SAP Analytics Cloud the following requirements need to be fulfilled:

• Access to an SAP Analytics Cloud account with authorization for creating and consuming acquire-data connections, building up data models and creating required analytics content.
• Access to the respective SAP Cloud Platform (SCP) cockpit to acquire Client Credentials via Service Keys for the Digital Vehicle Hub as well as the Asset Intelligence Network subscription.

To add a connection to your analytics-tenant, select the Connection section of the main menu in SAP Analytics Cloud and tick OData Services:

System view SAP Analytics Cloud

For the DVH_SAC connection, fill the upcoming form with the following information:

Credentials DVH_SAC – see official documentation on help.sap.com

For the respective AC_SAC connection, do:

Credentials DVH_SAC – see official documentation on help.sap.com

After the connections are set up, all vehicle-related master- and transactional data is available for processing in the cloud application.

Data Objects of AC_SAC ready to consume | Data Objects of DVH_SAC ready to consume

Before the vehicle-data is to be consumed for dashboard-creation, it is recommended to create data-models to transform the vehicle data in a way that matches the analytics approach and/or enrich the data with information from other sources to build up a sophisticated foundation.

Application Scenarios and Use Cases  

Potential use cases and application scenarios for this integration can be:

• Sustainability Performance Management
• (Predictive-) Maintenance Management
• Financial Management and Controlling
• Fleet Management

Maintainance cost analysis

Fleet Management – Location and Notification Data

Conclusion

This blog post briefly covered the capabilities of the standard integration with SAP Analytics Cloud, as well as the general implementation path. In terms of use-cases and application scenarios this blog post only offered starting points, that call for a further elaboration and discussion below and within the Intelligent Asset Management Community.

More Information

SAP Digital Vehicle Hub product homepage: SAP Digital Vehicle Hub

SAP Digital Vehicle Hub Help Portal: https://help.sap.com/viewer/product/SAP_DIGITAL_VEHICLE_HUB

Community homepage (IAM): https://community.sap.com/topics/intelligent-asset-management

SAP Digital Vehicle Hub – SAP Analytics Cloud: Connecting to SAP Analytics Cloud

SAP Analytics Cloud product homepage: SAP Analytics Cloud

Credits:

The blog post has been written by Stevern Gerner. Thank you, Steven, for your great work on this blog series!