SAP Fiori is not just a technology, it’s a concept. It’s a way of simplifying how you do business through applications tailored to user roles and business processes. More than merely some software that you use, SAP Fiori is a paradigm shift away from monolithic enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions towards lightweight apps tailored to the users’ tasks.
In our last article, 10 SAP Fiori Apps You Need to Explore, we covered what SAP Fiori apps are, the benefits they can bring to your business, and some of the most popular apps to make your workday easier. Now we’re going to take a look at how to put those apps into action—through the SAP Fiori Launchpad.
Let’s dive in.
What is SAP Fiori Launchpad?
Fiori and the Fiori launchpad have quickly become the primary way people use SAP. Not only is Fiori a simpler, more intuitive, and better-looking interface, it’s also mobile-friendly, which supports the way people do business these days. And the Fiori launchpad is essentially a framework that hosts SAP Fiori apps all in one place while giving users services like embedded support, navigation, and the ability to personalize their views.
Fiori launchpad is often used as an employee’s home page, allowing them to access business applications based on their role, (as opposed to giving everyone access to the same enormous collection of tools and applications). With Fiori launchpad, a user’s role determines which app tiles they can see and interact with. You can also set up tiles to display details like live status indicators and the number of open tasks.
In short, the purpose of Fiori launchpad is to bring all of the applications that a user needs (and only the applications they need) into one place, enhancing user experience and helping to boost productivity.
Setting Up SAP Fiori Launchpad
So if the SAP Fiori launchpad is where users interact with role-based apps, how do you decide which applications best suit the needs of your organization? We recommend the following three-step process:
1) Outline Your Business Processes
Begin with a business analysis, specifically outlining the step-by-step process by which your organization executes business processes. Let’s use purchase orders as an example. Most companies create POs of one kind or another, but depending on how your business is set up and the transaction codes you’re currently using, certain SAP Fiori apps will satisfy your requirements better than others.
Once you’ve analyzed your business processes and determined the functionality you need, it’s time to start looking for applications in the SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library.
Fun Fact—Did you know that SAP Fiori apps library allows you to search for applications based on SAP transaction codes?
2) Start a Pilot Launchpad
Once you start exploring the SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library and find the applications you think will work for your purposes, we recommend building a simple pilot launchpad. Clients often begin with human resources (HR), as nearly everyone has HR, and these kinds of apps offer a lot of bang for your buck. Start off with something simple but time-consuming, such as timesheet creation, and then add more applications as needed.
3) Customize Your Applications
While most every SAP Fiori app is useful straight out of the box, no two organizations (and especially no two users) are exactly alike. Luckily, SAP Fiori makes it easy to customize apps as needed, giving users the ability to tweak simple things like adding a field to their view. When it comes to making more fundamental changes, however, such as changing the underlying logic of an app, that’s when you’d be better served by some custom development.
Benefits of Working With an SAP Fiori Expert
There’s a lot of information on setting up Fiori launchpads on the SAP website, but if you don’t already know what you’re doing, using it as a guide can be a bit like trying to drink from a firehose. That’s why many organizations turn to third-party consultants (like those from Surety Systems) to help them streamline the process.
Our expert consultants will help you review the transaction codes you currently depend on, evaluate which apps in the SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library offer those same functionalities, and then create a shortlist of those that are a likely fit based on your SAP landscape. Next, they can set up a workshop with your team to conduct a gap analysis, getting you a list of applications specifically catered to your business needs, as well as those which will require enhancements or customizations. Our consultants can even help you figure out which apps can be found in the library and which will need a developer to create from scratch.
Finally, our consultants will help you consider how the applications will be supported once you’ve built the Fiori launchpad, (an important step that clients often overlook).
Based on where you are in the process, we can guide you on getting started with SAP Fiori or help to optimize your current environment. It’s certainly possible to launch a Fiori launchpad all on your own, but knowing which apps best suit your needs, which ones need to be tweaked, and which ones must be built from scratch can be a struggle.
Let us put our experience and resources to work to help you set up the best SAP Fiori launchpads configured for your unique organization. Our senior-level, US-based SAP consulting team has years of experience covering the entire SAP portfolio, including SAP Fiori, SAP HANA, and S/4HANA.
Contact us today to explore how we can partner with you for success.
