Enhance SAP TM Analytics: Step-by-Step Technical Guide

Introduction:

The?SAP Transportation Management analytics offers applications known as overview pages, presenting essential key performance indicators (KPIs) crucial for overseeing operational business. With just a glance,?the analytical pages provide access to?all the necessary data for day-to-day decision-making. Each overview page showcases information from distinct areas of TM, such as freight booking, freight ordering, tendering and business share.?

Each overview page is composed of multiple cards, similar to tiles, that showcase information derived from one or more KPIs.

SAP standard analytical applications offer extensive capabilities for business analysis and decision-making. They provide diverse Key Performance Indicator (KPI) representations and prebuilt data models, enabling the visualisation of real-time business scenarios on overview pages. Nevertheless, to enhance the functionality of standard applications for intricate business situations such as customising existing configurations, importing custom fields, and overcoming data selection range limitations, the application needs improvement at various points.

Objectives:

In this blog, we'll explore opportunities for improving the features of the standard SAP TM Analytics Application by making adjustments to the Freight Order Execution Monitoring Overview Page (OVP).?

The methodology applied to enhance the OVP in this blog can be applied to elevate any of the standard TM Analytic Applications.

Starting with foundational concepts, we will conduct a comprehensive analysis and proceed with incremental implementations to achieve the overarching goal of enhancing TM Analytics apps. Throughout this series, we will focus on personalisation, customisation and enhancement of the TM Analytics app.

Context/Prerequisites:

??Eclipse IDE ?with ABAP Development Tools integrated with S4HANA system

??The server is equipped with the TM Analytics Service

??Basic knowledge of CDS views and OData Services

Main Content:

Overview pages depict data sourced from underlying OData services and CDS views. To identify the data model associated with a particular Overview page, we can consult the?SAP Help Portal (Documentation)

Comprehensive details regarding the Overview page, encompassing information such as Data Sources, Authorisation roles, Fiori App ID, input parameters, keys, identifiers, attributes, measures, and units, can be accessed from the documentation?page.

The Standard Overview page for Freight Order Execution Monitoring incorporates various Analytical cards linked to the following data sources:

??C_FRTORDEXECUTIONSTSQ

??C_FRTORDEXECUTIONQUERY

Additionally, note that the data selection range is currently restricted to the start date of the last month.?

In this exercise,?

we will associate the standard CDS view?C_FRTORDEXECUTIONSTSQ?with a customised data definition to augment custom fields on the Overview page. Additionally, we will modify the data selection range to encompass the last 5 months of quarters?by using Metadata Extension.

1.?Enhancing Standard OVP with Custom Fields

Step 1:?Analysing the Standard CDS Views

The CDS data model follows a hierarchical structure, wherein it comprises Base views that extract data directly from Database tables. Additionally, there are Composite views, which intertwine Database tables and CDS views. Lastly, Consumption views represent the ultimate data model, consuming data from both Base and Composite views.

Following the analysis, it is essential to pinpoint the hierarchy of the data model and the suitable enhancement spot (key relationships). This is where we can establish a connection between the standard CDS view and the custom data definition through an Extended View Definition, utilising associations.

Based on this analysis, we have determined the CDS hierarchy and identified the key field for enhancement. The key field for the TOR (Transportation Order) business object is?TransportationOrderUUID.

Likewise, in alignment with specific requirements, it is necessary to identify the key fields for associating custom data definitions with standard data models.

Step 2:?Create Custom CDS View Definition

Create a?custom CDS view?(Data Definition)?including?all?the?custom fields with necessary table joins and associations along with the key fields.?Field specific?CDS Annotations ?can also be added as per the requirement.

Step 3:?Extend Standard CDS Views

Create Extended view for Composite CDS?Definition?of FO Execution Monitoring OVP?with?an?association to?the?Custom CDS view

Update these Custom fields in Consumption view?using?CDS extensions

As the standard CDS views are interconnected, the extensions will seamlessly integrate into the final data model. Once custom fields are introduced to the Consumption view, they will automatically appear in the standard Fiori list report. Necessary UI annotations, such as field labels, can be implemented according to specific requirements.

2.?Adjust Data Selection range?

During the analysis of Consumption CDS views, it becomes evident that the Standard Overview Page (OVP) is configured with a default data selection range, spanning from the start date of the last month to today's date.

To broaden the data selection range of overview pages, we need to determine the date field employed as the data selection parameter. This field may vary depending on the specific Overview page. By utilising metadata extension for the consumption view, we can adjust these settings to the desired time period.?

It's important to note that extending the data selection range could impact application performance, so the choice of the appropriate selection ranges should be based on specific requirements.

Create Metadata Extension ?

Create Metadata extension?and replace the entity?I_LastMonthDate?with?I_LastFiveQuartersDate?which will fetch data from last 5 quarter months?

Test Results

Customising?TM Analytics OVP

The layout of the analytical list page is quite flexible. The display is determined by the header and content views chosen by the user.

The Analytical List Page is equipped with default view settings. Enhancing the user experience involves saving pertinent and frequently used fields in default views. This customisation of the Overview Page can be accomplished using screen variants. Variants can be stored as either Private or Public. Any alterations made in the Analytical List Page can be preserved in the screen variant, encompassing list report filter selections, field properties, and KPI representations.

3.?Graphical?Representations

Analytical KPI representations tailored to diverse business scenarios can be implemented as part of personalisation. Users have the flexibility to create various KPI representations through configurations provided by SAP. Moreover, these configurations can also be extended to enhanced fields.

For instance, to analyse carrier utilisation with the lowest rate, the following KPI can be utilised. In this example, custom fields are employed to generate the graphical representation as follows:

Similarly, various business scenarios can be visualised using the necessary fields and measures. A few examples are provided below:

Conclusion

In this blog, we've enriched the standard SAP TM Analytics Overview page by incorporating custom fields and adjusting the data selection range to last year's data. Additionally, we've explored customising the Analytic List Page and personalising the Overview Page based on user preferences. The techniques demonstrated in this series can be replicated to enhance any of the TM Analytical Overview Pages. End users can leverage the robust features of TM Analytics to meet their specific business needs.

*Disclaimer: The screenshots are for representation purpose only and has been taken from our internal demo system.

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