Sap/Gis Integration Case Studies & Techniques
SAP/GIS Integration Case Studies & Techniques
Mostafa Abou-Ghanem & Khalid A. Arfaj eMap Division, Computer Applications Department, Saudi Aramco
WestPark 2, Dhahran 31311, Saudi Arabia
In recent years businesses have been striving to optimize their processes and improve efficiency by using ERP systems for workflow management and GIS for location based information management. Many advances have been observed in both fields but no direct integration was accomplished due to the complexity involved in handling each system. This resulted in loss of opportunities to leverage spatial analysis capabilities of GIS and business transaction management tools of ERP systems such as SAP. This paper discusses different integration techniques of SAP ERP system with Enterprise GIS. The paper discusses the benefits gained from SAP/GIS integration and demonstrates case studies to improve business workflow and data management of oil companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Introduction
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems such SAP have become key tools in managing medium to mega size organizations in the past decade and continue to gain pace.
Methodology & Discussion
SAP R3 system and ESRI ArcGIS software are technology used to derive the assumptions and examples illustrated in this paper.
Introducing GIS into business process offers capabilities that fall into the following categories: * Provision of geographic context to business decisions by integrating business data with geodatabases and feature tables. * Linking business functions in ERP system with geoprocesses combined functionality that is distributable across the software architecture. * Fusion of business and geographic information and functionality into the common operational picture on both high and low levels.
Integration Benefits
With systems linked, the user can do an array of functions that could impact corporate running cost by accomplishing the following: * Improve
Mostafa Abou-Ghanem & Khalid A. Arfaj eMap Division, Computer Applications Department, Saudi Aramco
WestPark 2, Dhahran 31311, Saudi Arabia
In recent years businesses have been striving to optimize their processes and improve efficiency by using ERP systems for workflow management and GIS for location based information management. Many advances have been observed in both fields but no direct integration was accomplished due to the complexity involved in handling each system. This resulted in loss of opportunities to leverage spatial analysis capabilities of GIS and business transaction management tools of ERP systems such as SAP. This paper discusses different integration techniques of SAP ERP system with Enterprise GIS. The paper discusses the benefits gained from SAP/GIS integration and demonstrates case studies to improve business workflow and data management of oil companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Introduction
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems such SAP have become key tools in managing medium to mega size organizations in the past decade and continue to gain pace.
Methodology & Discussion
SAP R3 system and ESRI ArcGIS software are technology used to derive the assumptions and examples illustrated in this paper.
Introducing GIS into business process offers capabilities that fall into the following categories: * Provision of geographic context to business decisions by integrating business data with geodatabases and feature tables. * Linking business functions in ERP system with geoprocesses combined functionality that is distributable across the software architecture. * Fusion of business and geographic information and functionality into the common operational picture on both high and low levels.
Integration Benefits
With systems linked, the user can do an array of functions that could impact corporate running cost by accomplishing the following: * Improve