Integrated Business Processes in SAP S/4HANA

2.1   New user experience

Looking at the classic SAP GUI user interface, we see that the contents of the screen are very complex. After all, in the very beginning, applications were designed with the business benefits in mind and not according to the user’s needs.

Moreover, it was not uncommon for the programmer to want to fit as many functions as possible into a single screen—a dynamic program screen (dynpro).

SAP Fiori also targets user groups that run an SAP application rather infrequently and exclusively on mobile devices. As a result, the group of occasional users established itself alongside the experts who had already been working with the GUI for many years, as well as the developers who tended to use the SAP application in a backend-oriented way. This group simply wants to execute only a few functions in the SAP system quickly, easily, intuitively, and preferably browser-based. Figure 2.1 compares the three different types of users.

Figure 2.1: Different user types

The GUI application uses transactions to provide a clearly function-based entry point to the SAP application that is in line with business benefits and for multiple roles without considering user types.

When SAP Fiori was launched, these transactions were broken down into several role-based applications (apps), following the experience of the respective user type. This enables the maintenance of a customer order to be handled with at least three different apps—depending on the role and user type—instead of just one transaction in SAP Fiori. In addition, SAP Fiori design specifications ensure a uniform and consistent look in every SAP application.

The SAP Fiori launchpad is now the central, role-based entry point for accessing all apps, also called tiles, as well as links and the search function—the Enterprise Search. The design concept is implemented using the SAPUI5 framework and is compatible with all S/4HANA applications.

There are three different types of SAP Fiori apps, as shown in Figure 2.2:

• Transactional apps
• Analytical apps
• Factsheets

Figure 2.2: Types of SAP Fiori apps

A transactional app enables the user to perform processes in a simplified GUI view. Any activity that involves the creation, modification, or deletion of data can be implemented as a transactional app. The concept of a split transaction is not implemented here, as the app is modeled 1:1 on the classic GUI transaction and is merely designed to be website-compatible.

The frontend components have access to the advanced business application programming (ABAP) backend server, where the business logic resides, via a trusted remote function call (RFC) connection.

An analytical app provides the user with insight into specific key figures. It provides real-time information from large volumes of data in a consolidated view—usually in a diagram. The presentation of the information in real time ensures a fast and flexible response to changing market conditions. These apps offer added content value by presenting business content—clustered according to predefinable key performance indicators (KPIs). An analytical app can only be used in combination with an SAP HANA database and an SAP NetWeaver Application Server (ABAP stack).

A factsheet provides the required information on a single screen. With corresponding navigation buttons, the user can move from point to point on this screen. The concept is based on single-page websites and the interface is intuitively designed and aligned. Individual factsheets within the applications have links to other factsheets and therefore provide fast, uncomplicated navigation from factsheet to factsheet. Factsheets also require an SAP HANA database in the backend and an SAP NetWeaver Application Server (ABAP stack).