Whether you are just entering in the world of mobile business solutions or are only interested in certain functionalities, we understand very well that the use of tablets and smartphones goes much further than just Angry Birds, YouTube and Facebook, and we see that their capabilities are not fully used yet. Employees often already have these devices, and if not, they certainly know how to use them and willingly do so. The question is: How to exploit this potential? Where to begin? From the perspective of SAP technology, this gives us many opportunities, but the technology’s selection is based on requirements, which in turn, arise from needs, so let’s start with mobile strategy.
Strategy
When considering equipping the employees with tools and mobile solutions, businesses go through a decision-making process, which typically results in (if the decision is “yes") the selection of one of two directions:
- Let’s take action – choose a simple functionality for a specific audience, and on this basis check how mobile solutions will be adopted in the company and how they will support our operational activities.
- Let’s prepare a detailed plan – we know that the future belongs to mobile solutions, so we plan to approach the project by taking into account all the needs; firstly we put all of our strength behind defining a target model and based on the results of this analysis we arrange a plan for further action.
In this article, we will focus on the first approach, which has a special, fundamental advantage – the sooner we start, the sooner we’ll see results. Starting from a precise and closed functional scope for a specific group of employees, we can see how mobile solutions work in the field (often literally). As a result, we quickly find a solution that does not require a large project, a great effort or great expenses. Most importantly, we have a documented success, tested approach and feedback from a select group of users. Complications can occur in this type of innovative project, in which case the risk is also reduced, because we are dealing with only selected areas and a narrow target group. If everything works as it should, it will be easier to get support for future initiatives of this type.
Such incremental planning and action is conducive to learning a new approach during the implementation and modification processes, as well as to a gradual, and rapid distribution of tools among employees that improve individual business areas. As you can see, there are a lot of common elements with agile methodologies. Our planning is closer to a “step by step" rather than a “big bang" approach. We work in a flexible manner, adapting our further actions to the situation, along with feedback, results achieved and the resources available.
The “agile" approach also favours a rapid response to innovations and the changing market of new and rapidly developing mobile solutions. With such frequent reshuffling in the balance of power among device suppliers, regularly updated operating systems and new devices being introduced into the market – separating applications from the tool on which they are going to run, is sometimes one of the most important prerequisites for choosing technology.
If in our scenario a functionality packaged in a mobile application is to be made available to a wide audience, to avoid the frequent changes that come about in the environment in which it operates, and not to rely on a system-hardware platform (BlackBerry today, iPhone tomorrow, and Samsung the day after) or a tool (a smartphone now, a laptop in an hour and a tablet in the afternoon), it is necessary to choose a solution based on the standards that are widely accepted by all equipment suppliers, systems and technologies.
HTML 5
Looking at software layers and the technology used for each of them, we notice that the visual layer of applications changes most frequently. In this area, new solutions appear very often to replace an earlier approach or coexist for a few years only to evolve in another direction or become outdated.
A popular trend these days is to simplify and “unload" the graphical user interface through the use of only a combination of proven HTML and CSS standards that have been relied on for years and their enhancement with JavaScript technology in order to enrich the overall look. The popularity of such a return of web applications to their roots was also affected by the appearance of new versions of these standards: HTML5 and CSS3 that introduce, not many, but very useful, improvements. The capabilities of this set of standards are also positively influenced by the development of JavaScript and the emergence of new versions of libraries and frameworks that support its use and improve the look and feel of the interface, such as jQuery.
Not without significance is the fact that while each mobile platform provider creates its own operating system based on a technology of their choice (of course a different one than in the case of the competing platforms), each of these systems is equipped with a web browser that supports and is built (more or less) on the standards established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), i.e. HTML and CSS. This makes it possible to reach a solution that is based on standards which have been used for years and at the same time works on all the leading devices connected to the Internet – today and in a few years.
Such a well-established and reliable standard facilitates the work of developers who do not need to learn any new technology. They can make use of public expertise and devote less effort to maintaining the software used, which reduces both the total cost of development (TCD) and the total cost of ownership (TCO).
Therefore, many software vendors use and develop these standards. Also SAP has developed its own HTML5-based framework, SAPUI5, which is currently used as the basis for developing applications that will work regardless of which device they run on. The purpose of this framework is to match the look and feel and operation of all the applications that have been created like this. All the buttons, tables, calendars, charts, and other components look and behave as expected by the user and they don’t distract user attention unnecessarily.
SAP Fiori – keeping simple things simple
An example of the use of this framework is SAP Fiori – a set of 25 ready-to-use mobile applications based on the HTML5 standard. These applications can run on smartphones and tablets as well as on desktop computers. The use of the responsive graphical interface, as it is called, allows the application to adapt to the screen on which it is displayed, so the employee may have access to the same tools regardless of whether he/she is at the office and uses a laptop, at a meeting with a tablet or with a smartphone on the way there.
SAP’s intention behind making Fiori available was the introduction of fast, user-perceptible changes in the use of widely and frequently used SAP software functions. Thus, the user does not have to log on to SAP GUI every time instead he runs the application with a modern interface on a mobile device or desktop computer via a web browser.
The functionalities available in SAP Fiori support business processes originating from different areas and allow for the acceleration of these processes through simple but important actions that can be performed easily. The range of applications provided includes transactions from SD, MM, HR, FI, and CO, and some of them also connect to the SRM system, and Workflow (see the table below).
Applications available in SAP Fiori
| Application | Role | Application description | |
| Application approval | Manager | Allows for a connection to the standard generic Workflow in SAP | |
| Leave request approval | Manager | Allows managers to accept leave and sickness leave requests quickly and easily | |
| Time sheet approval | Manager | Allows a manager to access his employees’ time sheets awaiting approval and to quickly approve them | |
| Business trip request approval | Manager | Provides a connection with the SAP Travel Management application, which allows a manager to accept or reject individual requests | |
| Business expenses approval | Manager | Allows a manager to view business travel expenses along with the status of each available budget report within a defined policy and the ability to accept or reject expenses | |
| Shopping cart approval | Manager | Informs a manager of shopping carts awaiting approval, significantly accelerating the purchasing process by allowing him to quickly accept or reject a cart | |
| Purchase order approval | Manager | Allows managers to approve purchase orders with the option of adding comments or making changes | |
| Requirement approval | Manager | Allows managers to approve employee requirements | |
| Purchase contract approval | Manager | Allows a manager to view purchase contracts with the option of accepting or rejecting them | |
| My expenses | Manager | Allows a manager real-time access to accurate data related to the budget and expenditure within subordinate departments and projects | |
| My leave requests | Employee | Allows employees to create leave requests with a view into the already submitted requests and available leave quota | |
| My time sheet | Employee | Allows employees to manage and record their working time | |
| My business trip requests | Employee | Provides a connection with the SAP Travel Management application,allowing for easy management of business trip requests | |
| My pay slips | Employee | Allows employees to easily check, compare and manage pay slips | |
| My benefits | Employee | Provides an employee with information on benefits to which he/she is currently entitled within benefits made available to him/her by the employer | |
| My shopping cart | Employee | Allows an employee to manage purchases in one place by creating a shopping cart, collecting acceptances, etc. | |
| Shopping cart tracking | Employee | Allows the shopping cart statuses to be viewed and tracking the approvals and execution of purchases | |
| Sales order modification | Sales representative | Allows sales representatives to change customers’ sales orders (e.g. addresses and delivery modes) | |
| Customer invoices | Sales representative | Provides a view of the data on: unpaid, overdue and rejected customer invoices, which provides a better picture of the customer’s history and the existing issues and their causes | |
| Purchase order tracking | Purchase representative | Allows access to the status, quantity and amounts of submitted purchase orders | |
| Purchase order from purchase requisitions | Purchase representative | Facilitates the creation of purchase orders and sends them to suppliers based on available purchase requisitions | |
(Presentation of SAP Fiori available at: http://help.sap.com/fiori)
25 applications within SAP Fiori is just the beginning. By the end of 2013, SAP is planning to release another 25 applications (Wave 2) of which:
• 15 will connect with SAP ERP (applications for sales representatives, production workers and project management support applications),
• 10 will connect with SAP CRM (the most important functionalities will support the activity of field force).
In addition, a third Fiori application package (Wave 3) is planned, and also ca. 85 applications supporting, among others, analytics and performance on SAP HANA. It is said that the total number of Fiori applications will be more than 200.
The number of Fiori applications is growing. The launch of the next package of functionalities is planned based on the same licenses. Of course, the range of packaged applications will never use up all the possible uses, therefore SAP allows additionally for the creation of your own solutions based on SAP UI5 and on the same approach to the access to the backend systems as Fiori.
The number of Fiori applications is growing. The launch of the next package of functionalities is planned based on the same licenses.
SAP NetWeaver Gateway
SAP offers a new approach also for interfaces between Fiori mobile applications and the systems from which the data is supplied. This refers to the SAP NetWeaver Gateway component which is the new standard of access to SAP systems via mobile and web applications. Gateway, in contrast to the SAP Mobile Platform (SMP, formerly Sybase Unwired Platform, SUP), is not a complex mobile platform, but rather an extension which can be installed both as a standalone system and also on the same system as for example SAP ERP which already runs.
The aforementioned “light" HTML5-based graphical interface boosts solution performance, which is particularly important in the case of mobile applications where the data transfer is subjected to low connection bandwidth and frequent disruptions. We cannot, however, significantly speed up the application, if we transmit data to it in the wrong way. What, then, is Gateway for? Well, first of all, it allows you to implement communication based on the Open Data (OData) protocol and prepare interfaces, taking into account the specific features of mobile applications.
Without going into too many technical details, suffice it to say that OData allows you to better manage the scope of the data transmitted by the interface by creating queries on this data. In short, it allows Gateway to prepare interfaces so that it will be possible to further limit the scope of the transmitted data and to apply the desired filters. This is how with an already “light" graphical interface, you can speed up your work by further selecting only the data that is required and in the amount that is needed at that particular time.
Result
The combination of new technologies and new implementations of proven standards allows you to quickly and with little effort reach a stage in which you are able to streamline the use of SAP systems by making their functionality more widely available on mobile devices or via a web browser on desktop computers. Ergonomics, availability and solution speeds should convince even the most dedicated fans of SAP GUI.
The approach, which is the basis on which SAP Fiori functions, allows you to achieve all these benefits without large investments, because the implementation itself and licenses are reasonably priced. With the release of Gateway, SAP allowed indirect access to SAP systems based on a new licensing model that should allow for the opening of the doors that were previously closed due to excessive costs.