Introduction

As the use of maps and location-tracking services become increasingly part of daily life, people have come to expect the same versatility and ease-of-use from their business process systems. The objective of the new Network Spatial Service is to meet these expectations. They will combine the ability of a map to quickly convey context, scale and locality with the power and reach of the SAP Business Network to geo-spatially enable collaborative business processes.

The Network Spatial Service offers a re-usable set of services and configurable map components to visualize geo-spatial data. A subscription to an SAP Business Network application (for example, Asset Intelligence Network) is all that is needed to unlock these new capabilities as they come as part of the standard bundle.

Using the Network Spatial Service, you can configure and customize the visualisation of SAP’s geo-spatial data and business processes in a way that best suits you by using its highly extensible, highly secure open framework to enhance existing SAP applications. Additionally, non-SAP information (that is, from corporate, public and real-time spatial or sensor data sources) can also be quickly configured to appear alongside SAP data in the same map.

Currently, the SAP Visual Business and the increasingly popular Mapbox mapping platforms are supported in this release, providing you with both a no-cost and a low-cost entry point into geo-spatial system capabilities. If you wish, both these platforms can be configured within the same map so that you can quickly switch between them, offering you the best of both options. Support for other platforms, with more extensive functions and services, is also planned in future releases.