SAP Fiori - Design philosophy & utility that enhances UX
The most successful business solutions today offer a simple and elegant user experience through an intuitive and user-friendly interface that makes them utilitarian. These solutions prioritize user friendliness above aesthetics. Delivering exceptional UX also earns customer loyalty and a lasting relationship that directly impacts business profitability.
Banking on UX’s reliability SAP made the necessary transition to the era of intelligent enterprise solutions as they unveiled SAP S/4HANA more than a decade ago. SAP envisioned and designed Fiori when they moved from the fixed graphical user interface (GUI) to a flexible user interface (UI) for SAP S/4HANA. Designed to function in expansive roles that come with SAP S/4HANA, Fiori offered a unique blend of opportunities that quickly allowed it to scale and mold ERPs for users. Let’s unveil what makes SAP Fiori an exceptional application as we explore its design philosophy and underlying elements.
Philosophy & utility of SAP Fiori
SAP Fiori’s emergence came at a time when UX was receiving the due credit and rightfully so, the application was built with user requirements at the core. Design thinking was the underlying philosophy used in this case. This philosophy is used to analyze users’ mindset, gather their needs, and plan the development roadmap around those needs. In Fiori’s case, the requirements were,
- Role-specific customization- As ERPs grow and evolve to cater emerging needs of businesses, there are new roles that must be accounted for. Fiori’s ability to offer role-specific customization for users enhances their experience and generates improved engagement while allowing them to adapt quickly and work seamlessly in the new ecosystem.
- Uniform visual design language – Conforming to a consistent design language, aesthetics, and visual language, SAP Fiori offers ease and intuitiveness throughout the application it is deployed with. Be it managing financial transactions or handling supply chains or tracking performance or measuring efficiency, users can derive a sense of familiarity rooted in the design language thus providing the much-needed uniformity.
- Simple functionality – Simplicity offers speed and allows users to quickly familiarize themselves with the tools. Hence it is tied to the design philosophy of SAP Fiori. It allows users to choose aspects of critical nature and create easier access as they see fit thus allowing them to focus on important functions without requiring excessive technical intervention.
- Adaptive and flexible (to move across devices) – The most common requirement of users in the current business scenario is the freedom to work from different devices allowing them to quickly switch between platforms and thus saving critical time and resources. This functionality allows users to interact using a mode of their choice resulting in improving their ability to work with the applications in short timeframes.
- Secure – Even while prioritizing these design requirements, Fiori adheres to strict security protocols in place to authenticate logins and protect against malware attacks. With strict contingencies and continuous monitoring capabilities in place, user identity and business data will continue to remain as confidential and secure as ever.
All these capabilities offer a plethora of benefits including customer satisfaction, improved employee productivity, and alleviated workforce morale. Offered as an off-the-shelf addition with SAP S/4HANA, SAP provides lifetime support for licensed users without any additional fees for Fiori.
Despite all the ease it offers for business users and customers, the effort required to set up SAP Fiori along with the HANA or S/4HANA migration is significantly high. The complexity also varies depending on the extent to which the ERP application is deployed.
As an experienced and renowned SAP partner, Exalogic Consulting offers expert assistance leveraging specialist knowledge, making the transition to SAP simpler and more effective.
