SAP Fiori: An Introduction to Extreme UX for Your Business

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Upgrade to Fiori to Upgrade SAP Benefits

SAP Fiori transforms how people work. Used by companies large and small around the globe, it allows you to share your tasks seamlessly across all devices – desktop, tablet, and mobile. It’s user-friendly, interactive, and delivers a holistic experience to all.

Deploying SAP Fiori equips designers and developers with the tools and guidelines that enable them to create apps for any platform faster than ever. The result is a consistent, innovative experience for creators and users.

In this article, we introduce SAP Fiori, comparing it to the SAP GUI, outline the architecture it is designed upon, and the key benefits it offers.

What is SAP?

SAP is a global enterprise software company that develops and sells business software and services. Its products enhance customer relationships, improve operational performance, and create new ways of working.

Covering the entire spectrum of the business landscape, utilizing SAP’s family of integrated software products, solutions, and services, companies in any industry can increase productivity while driving down costs. Used by companies of all sizes, SAP really is a multi-industry standard.

SAP Fiori solves this issue.

What is SAP Fiori?

SAP Fiori was designed and created from the ground up. The goal? To be more human-centered, by putting people at the heart of the design process and focusing on the benefits that technology can deliver for them.

The UI design of SAP Fiori follows the same principles as smartphones and tablets. It’s an intuitive, easy-to-use interface that can be personalized for different purposes, from managing employees and suppliers, all the way to planning budgets and sales forecasting.

The built-in interactive features make it easy to complete routine tasks, such as accessing reports, completing daily tasks, or checking on new orders. SAP Fiori also features a dynamic dashboard that provides useful business information about the company in an easily digestible format.

“While one of the most common applications of the new UX is as a replacement for the traditional SAP Graphical User Interface (SAP GUI), Fiori is popular as the front end for new SAP applications and mobile computing projects,” says Terry Evers, SAP Practice Functional Lead here at TotalTek.

Architectural Principles of SAP Fiori

To create a more simplified user interface, SAP Fiori employs four architectural principles: simplicity, focus, consistency, and intuitive use. These principles are used in the design of the software so that the user experience is optimized, providing features such as:

  • Security with a single sign-on, and role-based authorization
  • Open Data Protocol
  • Central access to apps through the Fiori Launchpad

Developers can customize design and deliver apps quickly using Fiori’s UI development toolkit. This is based upon SAPUI5 with support for HTML5 and JavaScript.

SAP Fiori Architecture

The SAP Fiori architecture is comprehensively designed to address the complex needs of the digital world. It consists of three major components: Transactional Design, Functional Design, and User Experience Design.

  1. SAP Fiori Transactional Design is a set of guidelines and tools for developers to create interactive screens and apps. The fluid UI is designed to be intuitive, responsive, and adaptive to any device. SAP Fiori Transactional Design is a part of the SAPUI5 UX strategy, which also includes user experience and user interface design.
  2. SAP Fiori Functional Design is an SAP-developed application for designing and building user interfaces that can be used on any device. SAP Fiori brings together the company’s entire user interface portfolio into a single, cohesive design language. It is an interactive experience that conveys SAP’s commitment to designing for users and to helping them navigate the complexities of SAP systems.
  3. The SAP Fiori User Experience Design is based on three key pillars: it should be easy to use, intuitive so that users don’t have to think too hard about how it works, and responsive so that it feels like a natural extension of the desktop applications.

By following this design philosophy, SAP has delivered a human-centric experience that aligns with the way people already work and connects people with the right kinds of insights at the right time.

The SAP Fiori Launchpad

The SAP Fiori Launchpad hosts Fiori apps and provides them with services that include:

  • Navigation
  • Personalization
  • Embedded support
  • Application configuration

“This is the doorway to SAP Fiori apps on all your devices,” says Terry. “It displays a tiled homepage, with each tile representing a business application that can be launched. It’s also possible for the tiles to display live status indicators. For example, the number of open tasks.

“It is also role-based, which means you see only the tiles applicable to your role. This makes training even easier because you only see the apps you need.”

The Key Benefits of Using SAP Fiori

User-friendly experience and ease of use are two of the main features of SAP Fiori. Its interface can be accessed on any device in any location. This means it saves time when needing to access company data.

The cost of SAP Fiori is different from the cost of SAP ERP or other enterprise applications, too. Delivered at a more affordable pricing strategy as it tries to compete with Microsoft Office 365, Google Apps, and others, it has brought the benefits of SAP into the budget range of many more companies.

Simplifying the whole process of using SAP software, SAP Fiori allows for easier and faster deployments because its user interface is more intuitive and modernized. On top of this, users will not have to spend horrendous amounts of time learning how to use it because it is designed to be easy for everyone.

Indeed, focusing on user-centric design, SAP Fiori has a look and feel that anyone could learn quickly. Thus, with an easier learning curve, training costs are slashed. Plus, it has a huge number of features that make it easier for users to get work done.

Another benefit of using SAP Fiori is increased agility in the company,   It is no longer necessary to roll out changes via a user’s desktop.

“The best results will usually be achieved by customization, though there are hundreds of pre-configured apps that cover a wide variety of business processes that you can browse through on the Fiori App Reference Library,” Terry tells us.

In short, SAP Fiori was designed for the user experience, not the IT experience, so that organizations could achieve their desired outcomes quicker.

“SAP Fiori elements allow you to scale with consistent design,” Terry explains. “This makes it easy and convenient to create customized apps for your business, while saving a lot of money. It has been shown to save as much as 80% in front-end development. And, by the way, SAP Fiori elements are free.”

Launch Your SAP Fiori Experience

While the benefits of deploying SAP Fiori are clear, many businesses will find it difficult to leverage the skills they currently possess to maximize them. The nature of Fiori means that i .

“The frontend simplicity that SAP Fiori delivers comes at a cost,” says Terry. You’ll need people with the experience to overcome pitfalls – and, if you are integrating as part of a SAP/4Hana migration, you will definitely benefit from collaborating with a SAP-certified partner.”

In future articles discussing SAP Fiori, we will examine the Fiori Launchpad in more detail and the challenges, pitfalls, and options for deployment of SAP Fiori.

In the meantime, for the help you need to plan your SAP upgrade, configure your Fiori apps, and tune your SAP landscape after the migration, contact TotalTek.