I've been thinking a lot lately on the topics of Digital Transformation, User Experience and Enterprise Mobility. Mobile and UX are often confisdered key drivers of the concept of Digital Transformation, a fairly recent term that has taken the enterprise world by storm. While this isn't a new concept in the UX world, the way we design human interactions with computing interfaces has evolved significantly in recent years - especially with the rapid proliferation of mobile devices For example, creating great user interfaces for the Web brought greater attention to users needs. The great user interfaces that were brough about by the simplicity of mobile devices also played a significant role in the tides changing. The digital transformation movement blends information architecture and UX design to help build solutions that truly drive customer engagement and loyalty.
Just think... if the world hadn't been changedby these simple-to-use mobile devices that anyone from a 2 year old to a 102 year old can use, then perhaps Digital Transformation wouldn't be a topic discussed in today's boardrooms. But since it is, lets discuss in more detail.
User experience should be an integral part of the design process of any enterprise application from early concepts to the final product. UX plays a vital role in the development of all digital resources including the desktop and mobile apps that are likely part of your digital transformation initiatives. After all, if users cannot quickly learn how to utilize applications, they will simply leave them behind.
As I've worked on this topic, I've been thinking about it in three ways. I hope this breakdown can help explain how SAP is reinventing the user experience by offering new solutions, renewing existing solutions and providing tools to improve user experience. Lets take a look at each of them:
- Simplifying the process of creating apps with integrated tools from design to development to deployment
- Accelerating the process of adopting UX with minimal impact and achieved a reduced ROI
- Mobilize apps keeping user experience as a key priority
First, the topic of app development. A simple and intuitive UX experience is a ‘must-have’ both from the perspective of usability and return on investment. But enterprise application UX is not as simple as consumer UX. SAP’s UXaaS cloud offering includes tools and content that enable you to scale great user experience in your company across the "discover, design, develop and deploy" lifecycle. The great part about this is that we are now starting to bring non-technical users, product managers, designers, business experts into the design world by providing them with user-centered design and prototyping tools.
Now, if you don't want to build your own apps, or if you have some common use cases that you know SAP has likely already addressed, then what you likely need is a simple and fast way to modernize UX - without disruption – and with minimal implementation and maintenance effort. Here comes the cloud-based, simple deployment option for SAP Fiori known as SAP Fiori, cloud edition. It runs on SAP HANA Cloud Platform, while consuming business data from your on-premise systems, so you can easily extend your current investment and increase usage of your enterprise systems with a great UI.
Finally, what use is a great UX if it isn't running on mobile devices? As I talk to customers I've learned that almost everyone (lets say 95% of those I've talked to) are revamping their UX to provide access to their systems from mobile devices. Its important to consider the tools that your users rely on every day! I'm a strong believer that mobile and user experience go hand in hand – optimizing for mobile is really about better usability and simplicity. Optimize for mobile with a consumer-like mobile experience and leveraging mobile features like camera, location and barcode scanners are increasingly important topics when thinking about your UX plans.
To help make these points a little more clear, you can join SAP experts for three webinars coming up over the next few weeks. We'll dive into these topics in way more detail.
March 24: Fast Track Development of Beautiful SAP Fiori Apps Using User Centered Design
April 5: A Simple Route to Modernize User Experience
April 19: Optimize SAP Fiori Apps for the Best Mobile Experience
