SAP Business Network for Logistics 2405 Release – ...

CorinnaKramer · ‎2024 May 23

New features and assets for SAP Business Network for Logistics have been released over the last weekend! With this blog, I would like to share the highlights with you. The blog is intended for shippers and solution owners, carriers, and data providers as well as sales and presales colleagues who already have a detailed understanding of SAP Business Network for Logistics.

Before I go into the details, I would like to point your attention to our release highlight this month:

In SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace there is a new feature to display timestamps using a user-defined time zone. Solution owners can now choose any time zone in the ‘Track Shipments’ application to monitor shipment execution.

Learn more about this feature in the section on SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace.

Cross SAP Business Network Freight Collaboration and SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace

Identify platform used for a particular message log

In the ‘Manage Integration Logs’ app, the Integration Platform column is now available. It can have the following values:

Neo (old)
Multi-Cloud (new)

This column represents the integration platform that was used for a particular message log. Currently, only Neo is available for SAP Business Network for Logistics. In an upcoming release, configuration apps will be updated so that you can migrate to a new integration platform (Multi-Cloud). This column can then help to identify the integration platform used for a particular message log.

Enhancement to Consumer API for Order Tracking

In Consumer API for Order Tracking (FC) and Consumer API for Order Tracking (GTT), the following enhancements were made:

The “sku” field is supported in the response body to provide information on how the tracking service is charged. In the ’Check Processes and Events’ app of SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace, you can view this information in the External Tracking IDs table of the Process Details page (see below).
The transportation mode “02 - Rail transport” is now supported.

Enhancements to Provider API for Order Events

In Provider API for Order Events (FC) and Provider API for Order Events (GTT), the following enhancements were made:

The new event reason code “TRACKING_END” is supported. It indicates the end of tracking.
The new boolean field “isFinal” is added to the event object for you to identify whether a milestone event is the last reported event of the tracking (see below).
The transportation mode “02 - Rail transport” is supported.
The attachments now support TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) files with either of the following file name extensions:
- .tif
- .tiff

In SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace, you can also upload TIFF files as attachments with the Write Service API.

Code List Documentation

New value in ‘Event Reason Code Descriptions’

There is a new value in ‘Event Reason Code Descriptions’: TRACKING_END, to indicate the end of tracking (see also: enhancement to Provider API for Order Events).

SAP Business Network Freight Collaboration

Deprecation of resource tracking related services

All resource tracking related services have been deprecated:

Resource Road Tracking FTL
Resource Road Tracking LTL
Resource Ocean Tracking FCL
Resource Ocean Tracking LCL
Resource Tracking All
Resource Tracking Parcel

We plan to remove these services from the ‘Configure Partner Connections’ and ‘System Connections’ apps as of August 17th, 2024.

SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace

Removal of resource tracking related services in ‘Manage Models’ app

Resource tracking related services are now removed in the ‘Manage Models’ app of SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace with the following change:

In the Visibility Provider Integration tab, the Tracking Indicator field is removed.

The removal of the following related deprecated services in the ‘Configure Partner Connections’ and the ‘System Connections’ apps is postponed to August 17th, 2024:

Resource Road Tracking FTL
Resource Road Tracking LTL
Resource Ocean Tracking FCL
Resource Ocean Tracking LCL
Resource Tracking All
Resource Tracking Parcel.

Removal of instance-based authorization check

The instance-based authorization check for events reported using Provider API for Order Events (GTT) is removed. Therefore, all these events can now be received by SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace.

All fulfillment tracking apps: ‘Address Name’ now available

In the Visibility Provider Integration tab of the ‘Manage Models’ app, the LBN tracking field “Address Name” is added for actual event field mapping. The information can be received from the visibility providers. It’s used to identify where an actual event takes places. You can find the address name:

On the detail pages of the fulfillment tracking applications, or
In the Tracking Timeline

When reporting events coming from visibility providers in the fulfillment tracking apps, you can also provide the Address Name in the reporting dialog.

Track Shipments app: User-defined time zone supported

Solution owners can now choose any time zone in the ‘Track Shipments’ application to monitor shipment execution.

For example, when coordinating international shipments, transportation planners may need to work with partners, suppliers and carriers located in different time zones. Setting a specific time zone allows them to coordinate effectively and ensure timely responses to inquiries and issues.

Before, there were two options to display timestamps:

Location-specific time zone ‘on’:

Location-relevant fields show in the location time zone with the time zone abbreviation (for example planned departure, planned arrival, ETA, actual delivery time, ….).
Fields that are not location- relevant show in the base time zone (e.g. last changed at, creation date/time, last refreshed at)

Location-specific time zone ‘off’

All fields show in the base time zone, which is the browser time zone.

Now, with the new feature, there are additional options:

Location-specific time zone ‘on’:

Location-relevant fields show in the location time zone with the time zone abbreviation (for example planned departure, planned arrival, ETA, actual delivery time, ….).
Fields that are not location-relevant show in the base time zone, which is either the browser time zone OR any user-defined time zone (e.g. last changed at, creation date/time, last refreshed at).

Location-specific time zone ‘off’

All fields show in the base time zone, which is either the browser time zone OR any user-defined time zone.

Coming back to the example in the beginning. As to display all timestamps in a user-defined time zone, a transportation planner can now do the following:

Disable location-specific time zone
As base time zone, select ‘user-defined time zone’ and choose a time zone from the drop down

Please note, there is a demo video that explains the new feature and how a transportation planner located in Europe can change the timestamp setting so he / she can display all timestamps in the US time zone to coordinate with one of the carriers in the US.

Please share and amplify our new features and assets!

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The above summarizes the key innovations for 2405. We hope you enjoy the new capabilities. Thanks for reading the blog post and stay tuned!

A full overview of the 2405 release can be found in the following link.

To learn more about SAP Business Network for Logistics visit SAP - Business Network for Logistics.

For further questions and feedback related to the blog, please check the Q&A area and feel free to post your questions in the link with the tag SAP Business Network for Logistics.

SAP Business Network for Logistics 2405 Release – What’s New?