Preparing Freight Agreement RFQ Master

SAP Analytic tools can be used to analyze historic transportation volumes for determination of procurement needs. The analysis of historic data is helpful when creating a forecast for the next period.

Transportation Management analytics provide apps, called overview pages that show the key performance indicators (KPIs) that you must manage your operational business. At a glance, you can see all the vital data you need for your daily decision-making. Each overview page displays information from a different area of TM, for example, freight booking, freight ordering, tendering, business share analysis, and allocation analysis.

Besides overview pages, analytics provide CDS views. These are query views that are an SQL queries on the database requesting certain data to be returned. One (or more) CDS view feeds this information into each overview page (OVP).

You must activate the respective OData service for each Fiori ID of the analytics area in the Gateway system in order to use this functionality. SAP help provides lists of all existing analytics areas and technical IDs under the search topic "Analytics".

However, the analysis of historic data and the creation of a forecast are not related to the freight agreement master RFQ that is created based on this information. Therefore, the use of SAP analysis tools is not mandatory for the strategic freight procurement (SFP) process.

The central document used in the SFP process is the freight agreement master RFQ. It contains all of the procurement needs and classifications for the shipper and also states which carriers are to be included in the process.

The freight agreement master RFQ can seem similar to a freight agreement. The freight agreement master RFQ contains information about the validity period of the prospective freight agreement.

After assigning carriers and RFQ item details to the document, the RFQ master has to be approved by the head of the purchasing organization. Therefore, the approval workflow functionality is integrated. Once the RFQ master document is approved, the RFQ is submitted to each carrier, creating individual RFQs out of the master RFQ.

The creation of the master RFQ is shown in the following figure. Freight agreement master RFQs can be created in the following ways:

• Using an existing freight agreement. This method is used when the same trade lanes are to be tendered periodically.
• Creating templates on which new RFQ masters are based.
• Creating a new RFQ.
• Copying an existing RFQ.

Master RFQ Versioning

The RFQ master allows versioning, therefore a new version can be created at any time. The version is copied from the current master RFQ, a new version is created, and the version counter is incrementally updated. An overview of all of the existing versions of an RFQ master is located on the Versions tab.

Note

The currently displayed or edited version is not shown in the version overview.

Several negotiation rounds can be started by choosing Follow up→Create Negotiation Round. The RFQ can be resubmitted to the carriers for a new negotiation round. The counter displayed in the RFQ general data is incrementally updated.

RFQ Header Data

The following RFQ header data is also shown in the figure:

• The RFQ has Valid-From and Valid-To dates, which can be maintained in the RFQ header.
• The RFQ Response Deadline date determines the date until which the invited carriers can respond.
• The Carrier KPI Profile controls which KPIs are shown on the carrier fact-sheet.
• The Valid-From and Valid-To dates are related to the validity period of the resulting freight agreement.
• The RFQ master can be valid for several purchasing organizations, as well as multiple carriers. For current carriers, the indicator Incumbent is maintained.

Master RFQ Items

The carriers are copied from the RFQ header. If the RFQ item is not sent to the specific carrier, the carrier can be deleted on the item level.

The valid trade lane for the item is specified on the Trade Lanes tab. The logic used for defining trade lanes in freight agreements is used.

The requested capacity is specified in various dimensions on the Capacities tab. TEU is typically used for ocean transportation.

Transportation Spend Specifications

The periodicity and the dimension for calculating the transportation spend are specified, as follows:

• Capacity driver:

  Specifies the dimensions that you want the system to use to determine the capacity requirements. If the capacity requirements are available at a granular level, rather than just at trade lane level, then it is specified at the granular level. This level is defined in the system using capacity drivers. If one or more scales in the rate table are marked as capacity drivers, the capacity requirement is specified for all of the relevant combinations of the scale items in the capacity drivers.

• Capacity dimension:

  Specifies the dimension that you use to enter the capacity requirements for an item in a trade lane.

The valid item is specified for the commodity codes on the Commodity Code tab.

Uploaded notes and attachments are specified on the Notes and Attachments tabs. The tabs outlined are shown in the following figure.