Logistics Execution, Basic Shipping and Professional Shipping

In the previous blog, most of the discussion was around differences between embedded TM (SAP S/4 HANA Supply Chain for Transportation Management) and standalone/decentralized TM (Business Suite SAP TM 9.5).  However, the old SAP Logistics Execution Transportation is (LE-TRA) is in the process of getting phased out. As per SAP simplification document, LE-TRA is not the target architecture within SAP S/4 HANA and the recommendation is to use Transportation Management (SAP TM). Even though LE-TRA functionality is still available within the SAP S/4 HANA, this is not considered as future technology. A similar recommendation is provided for LE-WM (use eWM instead). So, it is important to understand the SAP recommendation and how to use SAP TM for basic shipping process also.

Since SAP recommendation is to use SAP TM even for basic shipping process, it is advisable to move from LE-TRA to SAP TM. SAP may not introduce any new functionality in LE-TRA module. So, the clients who are in SAP LE-TRA cannot expect the LE-TRA module to have the new functionalities. For example, few years before LTL carriers in US introduced Dimensional(DIM) weight rule in road transportation. In LE-TRA, DIM weight calculation is not straight forward for road transportation. However, SAP TM has this functionality and it is much easier to use DIM weight logic in TM. Almost all the new functionalities, which cater to new requirements in transportation process, are introduced only in TM. So, if the customer uses LE-TRA and wants these functionalities, they may have to custom develop these using the internal IT team.

Secondly, it makes sense from a product perspective not to duplicate the functionalities across various products. So, SAP is consolidating all the functionalities of transportation across various modules (LE-TRA, TPVS etc…) into one single product – TM. As a result of this architecture, it is natural to phase out the old, redundant and outdated modules (for example LE-TRA, TPVS).