Integrating Weather Forecast to SAP IBP Demand Sensing

[rahatpebat]

Hi all,

I would like to know if there is a guide/help available on how to integrate external signals, especially weather forecasts, to be used within the Gradient Boosting Demand Sensing algorithm.

I have searched the help pages / Best Practice Explorer with no success.

Thank you!

[LauraTozzo]

Hi Andrei,

you can find all the information on the Demand Sensing with Gradient Boosting here: https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_INTEGRATED_BUSINESS_PLANNING/feae3cea3cc549aaa9d9de7d363a83e6/2a35bcc6...

External signals are key figures, and they need to be at a weekly level and at the same aggregation level at which you wish to run demand sensing (e.g. if you run it at product location level, than the extra signal also needs those levels). If you want to use weather as a signal than you need to first upload the weather data as a key figure into the planning area you are using.

Best regards

Laura

[rahatpebat]

Hi Laura,

Thank you for the quick reply and for the link!

I do understand that we need to populate the Weather KF with data, but I was curious to know how to pull the data in IBP. Example:

1 ) Find a suitable weather provider. Are there any providers recommended by SAP?

2 ) Is building an API necessary? Are there any guidelines?

3 ) Do we need to use BTP or CI-DS?

4) If we need to use BTP, then what Communication Systems & Arrangements are necessary?

(You have written a detailed blogpost related to adding External Forecast models here:https://blogs.sap.com/2022/05/11/how-to-forecast-using-custom-external-algorithms/. Was wondering if there is something similar for adding Weather data).

[LauraTozzo]

Hi Andrei,

you can find weather data in the Data Marketplace of SAP Datasphere. To integrate the data into IBP you can use this API: https://api.sap.com/api/IBP_Keyfigure_ODataService/overview (the related documentation is also linked there).