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CorinnaKramer
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
1,860

A few days ago, there was an ‘in-between’ release for SAP Business Network for Logistics. On the What’s New overview in SAP Help Portal, it is just two entries, but it marks an important milestone. These functions are the first evidence of the convergence of the previously separate networks in the areas of procurement and supply chain collaboration, assets, and logistics.

From now on, maintenance of company profile and onboarding of carriers and data contributors will be done on the new platform serving as the foundation of the SAP Business Network. This is the starting point for many integration scenarios that our customers are waiting for.

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So, what has changed exactly?

1. Your company profile has moved to a new platform

All roles in SAP Business Network Freight Collaboration as well as SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace, i.e. shippers, solution owners, carriers, data contributors or any other logistics service providers are affected.

The business profile has been merged with the Trading Partner Profile in SAP Business Network. When you open the ‘Manage Business Profile’ application, you will automatically be directed to the new profile.

Fields you had before are also available in the new profile (with minor changes that I will explain in this blog). In addition, there are new fields and functionality e.g. enhanced logic on mandatory fields and options to maintain more details around additional addresses and contacts.

1.1 Overview Section and Business Data

In the former ‘Manage Business Profile’ application, there was a header section and tabs for more details. On the new platform, there is an overview section and a navigation pane on the left. The overview section contains similar information to the former header section (except for LBN ID – see below 1.4).

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On the new platform, business data is part of the ‘Overview Section’. Some information such as revenue, founded, employees, … is part of the top section. Below there is more business data such as product and service categories, ship-to-service-location, and industry.

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 Please note: the code list for ‘Industries’ has changed. You might have to refill it with a value from the new code list.

1.2 Additional Addresses Section

In the former business partner profile, addresses were stored in a table under the tab ‘Contact Details’. Now, there is a new section for ‘Additional Addresses’ – addresses other than the main address which is part of the overview section - such as warehouses, distribution centers, etc..

When you edit additional addresses, you might notice that there are validation checks embedded for some fields e.g. VAT ID. You can also maintain contacts specific to a particular address.

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Navigate to SAP Help Portal for more details on how to create additional addresses.

1.3 Contacts Section

As with additional addresses, there is also a separate section for general contacts such as regional logistics managers, transportation planners, etc.. You can access it via the navigation pane on the left to create, edit or delete contacts.

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 Navigate to SAP Help Portal for more details on how to manage contact information.

1.4 Finding your LBN ID

The LBN ID is required for you to be identified correctly in the network. It is not displayed on the new platform. However, you can find your LBN ID in the ‘Systems Connections’ application under ‘Manage Alternative IDs’.

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1.5 Privacy Settings (Carriers only)

Carriers can decide if they want to make their profile visible to potential business partners and if they would like to automatically accept invites. These settings used to be part of the ‘Manage Business Profile’ application but have now been moved to the application ‘Manage Invitations’. Under ‘Settings’, you have the option to change the privacy settings. Per Default, both are set to ‘no’.

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1.6. Summary regarding the new platform for business partner profile

The key benefits of having a new and central place for business profiles across all areas of SAP Business Network, procurement, supply chain collaboration, assets and logistics:

  • improved user experience
  • utilize one single profile to showcase your information and reflect organizational structures
  • additional functionality and profile fields
  • make your business profile accessible to potential partners and relevant stakeholders (planned roadmap item)

However, admin data (created by, changed by, …) from SAP Business Network for Logistics has not been migrated. Instead, the new platform has its own admin data. The fields are filled automatically.

And please take note of the following:

  • LBN ID is not displayed in the new profile. You can find the LBN ID in the ‘System Connections’ application.
  • The former privacy settings for carriers ‘make profile visible to potential business partners’ and ‘automatically accept connection requests’ have not yet been transferred, but have been moved to the ‘Manage Invitation’ app in SAP Business Network for Logistics 
  • For some entry fields, there are new code lists available with a mismatch in values (i.e. not all old values can be mapped 1:1 to new values). Please check the following field and potentially refill them with a value from the new code list:
    • Gross Revenue in USD
    • Employee Strength
    • Industry
    • Geographical Coverage
  • The ‘Additional Addresses’ section has added value through validation checks on a number of fields such as VAT ID (e.g. mandatory for Italy), TAX ID, GST ID (e.g. specific information required for locations in Singapore).

For more details on ‘Manage Business Profile’ go to our documentation on SAP Help Portal.

 

2. Onboarding of Carriers and Data Contributors

The account activation process has changed for new carriers that want to onboard to SAP Business Network for Logistics. The process has been simplified! Companies do no longer have to go via SAP Store.

Now, as a logistics service provider:

1.) Receive an invitation from a shipper or solution owner.

2.) Accept the invite by clicking the link in the email.

3.) Registration page opens.

4.) Click on ‘Create Account’.

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 5.) Verify the auto-populated email address and proceed by editing (some information prefilled from shipper)/ creating your account.

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 6.) Receive email on successful account creation.

7.) Sign in and create your business profile by clicking on the ‘Manage Business Profile’ application (for further details see above section 1).

8.) Configure additional technical users and add users to your account.

More details on Getting started with SAP Business Network for Logistics via new onboarding process can be found in our documentation on SAP Help Portal.

Please note: This process is currently only available if the shipper or solution owner uses the data center for Europe (EU10). However, if the invitation you received was sent out before release 2405 or the sender of the invitation uses a data center other than EU10, you still need to go through the previous account activation process. For more information, see Getting Started (Prior to Release 2405).

 

Also, the following limitation should be mentioned:

If a carrier chooses to create multiple tenants - i.e. by getting invitations from different shippers – and uses the same logon user, it is not possible to determine the tenant ID.

For example:

  1. Shipper A invites Carrier 1
  2. Account with tenant Id T1 is created for Carrier 1
  3. Admin of Carrier 1 creates a sub user with email carrier1.user@xyz.com
  4. carrier1.user@xyz.com associated with tenant T1
  5. Shipper B invites Carrier 1
  6. Carrier chooses to create another account with tenant Id T2
  7. Sub user carrier1.user@xyz.com logs into his account 

In the above case the carrier1.user@xyz.com can only view the tenant T1's data and not T2.

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The above summarizes the May 31, 2024 ‘in-between’ release. We hope you enjoy the new capabilities. Thanks for reading the blog post and stay tuned! 

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.

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