SAP Geo Enablement Framework: Geographical data in maintenance

SAP Geo Enablement Framework: Geographical data in maintenance

The SAP Geographical Enablement Framework seamlessly links and visualizes geographical data alongside business data. This integration enhances efficiency and improves decision-making within asset management.

In our daily lives, we frequently use geo information through navigation systems or route planners, helping us to map out routes more effectively and manage our time efficiently, whether traveling on foot, by car, public transport, or bicycle. We naturally identify relationships between objects, which enhances our decision-making capabilities. These same benefits can be applied to business applications.

In asset-intensive industries and among service providers, maps are crucial tools for managing infrastructure and optimizing work processes. Companies also utilize maps to better understand the relationship between assets and geographical elements such as transport routes, property lines, waterways, or vegetation. They also help account for weather data, environmental factors, and other publicly accessible information.

While many companies employ geographic information systems (GIS) for these purposes, these systems often lack standardized integration with business applications. Consequently, users must frequently switch between GIS and business systems, conduct separate queries, manually compare data and views, and transfer information. This process not only slows down work but also increases the likelihood of errors.

Using geo data intelligently: The SAP Geographical Enablement Framework

Integrating GIS and business applications can dramatically improve efficiency and decision-making. That’s why SAP developed the SAP Geographical Enablement Framework (SAP Geo Framework). This framework enables companies to link and visualize business data with geographical information. It supports both the SAP Business Suite and SAP S/4HANA, and it can be flexibly applied to various business objects within SAP. Out-of-the-box functionalities are available for Enterprise Asset Management, enabling the linking of technical objects, notifications, and orders with geo data for visualization.

GIS: Visualizing and managing geographical data

For companies that manage numerous physical assets or systems – especially those geographically dispersed – a GIS is indispensable. GIS technology projects spatial information onto maps, making data more comprehensible and transparent. This helps employees identify patterns, relationships, and trends, enabling them to solve problems and answer questions effectively.

The GIS software visualizes business data – buildings, land areas, mines, railways, or pipelines – on various map layers, which can be combined. Additional data, such as load, throughput, or system status, can be incorporated, providing transparent insights into spatial relationships. All data is stored centrally on the company’s GIS server and can be enhanced with demographic, weather, and other publicly accessible information.

GIS systems operate independently of business applications. They store points, lines, and polygons linked to specific business data in databases that support spatial information, like the SAP HANA in-memory database. This allows real-time geodata analysis and queries while meeting data security requirements.

Although geographical and spatial asset data are managed within GIS, the operational data remains within business applications such as SAP. This raises the need for seamless integration to optimize data utilization.

Integrated data and processes increase efficiency

Lack of integration between GIS and business applications has hindered users from effectively supporting transactions or business processes with geo information. Consequently, crucial business and spatial contextual information required for informed decision-making has been missing. By linking GIS with business applications, employees can streamline workflows. For instance, planners can use GIS to identify affected areas during power outages and initiate spatially related work orders directly from the map.

This functionality enables them to pinpoint problem areas and deploy maintenance technicians efficiently. Maintenance work and inspections can be organized spatially to reduce travel times, with planners and technicians analyzing and suggesting optimal routes in advance. The display of supplementary information, such as tree cover or system status, supports early decision-making and order initiation. Moreover, data quality is improved as errors become easier to detect and correct.

SAP-specific solution: SAP Geographical Enablement Framework

The SAP Geo Enablement Framework provides precisely this integration, displaying business data from SAP alongside geo data from GIS. The map acts as a central access point to multiple applications. It enhances spatial understanding of business processes and facilitates information exchange with field staff and colleagues.

Utilizing SAP HANA’s capabilities, the framework stores and manages spatial information. It makes geo data accessible within SAP applications and from external GIS without duplicate data management.

Multiple geometries can be assigned to a single business object. For example, a surveillance camera can have its physical location represented as the primary geometry, while its field of view is displayed as a secondary, supplementary geometry. Similarly, a lake might be shown as a main geometry, with the surrounding environmental impact zone added as additional spatial context.

Unlike traditional GIS that assign a single geometry per system, the SAP Geo Framework starts from a business perspective, allowing multiple geometries to be assigned to each business object.

Key functions and features of the SAP Geo Framework

• Geometry Explorer: This web-based tool lets users visualize business data – such as assets, components, notifications and orders – together with geographical information. It is highly configurable and can be linked to SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA transactions and applications, enabling map-based process initiation (e.g., creating asset notifications or bundling orders).
• Geometry Editor: This tool allows the creation and editing of geometries for all spatially activated business objects in the SAP Business Suite or SAP S/4HANA. It supports points, lines, and polygons, including time-dependent geometries, using the robust SAP S/4HANA platform to store spatial information.
• SAP Geo Framework: The framework offers extensive customizability and expandability of user interfaces, links various applications, and integrates seamlessly with GIS. This bi-directional geo data federation means SAP can provide geo data to other systems and use external geo data without duplicate data.
• ESRI ArcGIS: This integration is preconfigured and available out of the box.
• In addition, geographical information can be displayed independently of SAP business data – for instance, to aid decision-making.The SAP Geo Framework for EAM was specifically developed for maintenance and asset management processes. It offers preconfigured functionalities to visualize technical locations, equipment, notifications, and orders. It also includes integrated links to relevant transactions and applications, such as notification creation or order processing.

Benefits of the SAP Geo Framework

Spatially contextualizing business data and processes yields numerous benefits, including:

• simple, intuitive, map-based navigation and spatial search
• use of the map as a communication platform
• visualization of data across multiple departments with a central view
• direct connection between GIS and SAP applications (eliminating costly, time-consuming data reconciliation)
• initiation of business processes from a map
• reduction of maintenance costs through the identification of redundant work, shorter travel times, and optimized tool usage
• higher quality, integrity, and spatial accuracy of business data
• faster, more-informed decision-making and greater efficiency

Achieving seamless GIS and SAP integration

The SAP Geo Framework embeds business data and processes in a spatial context through the seamless integration of GIS and SAP, making processes more intuitive and comprehensible.

The gained transparency aids employees, such as plant managers, maintenance technicians, and planners, in their daily tasks. By leveraging the SAP Geo Framework, companies can enhance productivity and efficiency, improve asset availability, and simultaneously decrease maintenance costs.