Thank you to the 200+ people that attended the first webinar in our 4-part series, “Enhance Usability with SAP Screen Personas” on February 27. sebastian.steinhauer and peter.spielvogeldiscussed how to “Make SAP ERP Beautiful with SAP Screen Personas.” There were over 80 questions, which we have consolidated into the following Q&A guide, grouped into the following topics.
- Compatibility
- Technical requirements
- Scenarios
- Client
- Mobility
- Management/Implementation
- Features
- Technical Issues
- Licensing
To learn more about different aspects of SAP Screen Personas, please join us for the rest of the series:
March 6, 2013 Streamline Order to Cash Process with SAP Screen Personas
March 13, 2013 Personalization without Programming: SAP Screen Personas
April 3, 2013 Improve Master Data Quality with SAP Screen Personas
Register now to learn how SAP Screen Personas can help you improve SAP GUI usability.
Compatibility
Question | Answer |
Will this work with ECC and CRM? | We designed Personas to modify screens built with SAP’s Dynpro technology, which comprises approximately 60-70% of all SAP screens. The problem we set out to solve was to address usability issues related to the SAP GUI screens, which are Dynpro screens. Customers have been very satisfied with our solution as it fixes a long-standing need. CRM uses a newer and different screen rendering technology, so Personas does not work with that solution. |
What does this type of customization do to your ability to update your system with Support packs or Enhancement packs? | Personas operates independently of Enhancement packs, so you can make updates without any impact on the personalizations you make with Personas. |
Also can this integrate with the SAP Portal? And does it work for ABAP Web Dynpro? | You can display Personas content in the SAP Portal. Personas works only with Dynpro screens, not Web Dynpro. |
Is SAP Personas available for all modules (ECC, SCM, CRM, etc)? (and other variations of this question) | SAP Screen Personas works on Dynpro screens. ECC – yes SCM – yes, wherever a Dynpro screen is used CRM – no SRM – no |
Are z-transactions included? (and other variations of this question) |
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Technical Requirements
Question | Answer |
What are the technical requirements that need to be installed to be able to use Personas? (and other variations of this question) | You need to be on ECC 6. Kernel version 7.21 or later. (This was released in September 2012) Browser running Personas needs Silverlight (version 5) plug-in installed. This is available for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera. No other client software is required. You do not need the SAP GUI installed. |
Can this be used with standard SAP GUI 7.30? | Personas can co-exist with SAP GUI 7.30. You can modify screens using Personas and view them in a browser. Or, you can use SAP GUI 7.30 to view unmodified screens. |
Is it possible to call the Personas screens within a iFrame of a portal web page? | Yes. Personas would appear without the "flavor bar" to maximize the screen real estate for the transaction. |
Scenarios
Question | Answer |
With Personas I can take a transaction like PA40 which may go from screen to screen across 10 infotypes and create a transaction link and then a Personas view that shows only the fields for completion on one screen? Is that correct? | Yes, this is a great use case for Personas. |
Can multiple transactions be consolidated into one? (and other variations of this question) | Personas screens are mapped to the underlying SAP GUI transaction screens. You should not use Personas to modify business logic. You can bring information from one transaction into another, such as information lookup or carrying entries from one field into another downstream one. |
This looks like user personalization tool, so if I would like to bring a field from a tab in the main screen, can I do using Personas? | You can merge tabs using Personas. You can extract information from a tab and put it on another screen using Personas. |
Can you use this technology to change transaction screen for example VA01? |
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If you customize VA02, do you have to also customize VA01 and VA03? |
A change to VA01 will only affect VA01. |
Can you execute Web Dynpro screens without customization within SAP Screen Personas? I have been advised that I should embed Personas in NWBC. Is that so all screens can be customized? | You can embed a Web Dynpro application into a Personas screen as HTML content (just as you would embed a Google Map, YouTube video, or any other website). As with these other examples, you can interact with the object in the HTML window, but that is independent of the rest of the Personas screen (unless you pass a parameter into the web page). Running Personas in NWBC will allow you to render screens in the NWBC canvas area – it will not allow you to personalize WebDynpro applications. These can be personalized using Floor Plan Manager. |
Client
Question | Answer |
Does this also work on a standard GUI or only in web browser? | Personas works in the browser. There is no need to install the SAP GUI. Everything in the product is browser-based. All configurations are stored centrally. |
Is SAP Personas a separate SAP GUI, meaning do we need to install a separate Personas "Desktop Client" ? | There is nothing to install with Personas. It runs in the browser. There is no “Personas client” that needs to be installed. |
Is this SAP Business Client or SAP GUI for HTML or what tool? (and other variations of this question) | Personas is a standalone solution. This is separate from SAP GUI for HTML. It is complementary to NWBC in that Personas content can run in the canvas area. |
Mobility
Question | Answer |
Please compare/contrast against using SAP Mobile Platform to improve UI. | Many SAP users are desk-bound (call center staff, for example) or use a specific console to enter transactions (factory floor or warehouse for example). We built Personas to meet their needs. SAP offers purpose-built mobile solutions for scenarios suited to on-the-go applications (expense tracking, leave request, CRM, etc.) |
You said this would work on windows tablet, will it work on a iPad as well? (and other variations of this question) | Windows 8 Pro tablet – yes (it has a Sliverlight plug-in available for the browser in desktop mode) iPad or Andriod – no (no Silverlight plug-in available) |
Management/Implementation
Question | Answer |
What is the typical situation - business users controlling their own changes or is IT involved? | While we designed Personas to be easy enough for an end user to make his or her own screen changes, generally, IT will control this and push out approved screens to their users. This is completely dependent on the policies set by the company that purchases Personas. |
How long does it take for the installation and rollout of this functionality? | Installation should take about half a day or less. You can build a screen in 10-60 minutes. Full rollout depends on how much time you spend developing scenarios, performing user testing, and other IT governance issues. |
Can each flavor be associated with security roles or organizational assignment? |
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Can each end user choose to switch Personas on or off? | IT chooses what permissions each user has. If they allow users to change flavors, then a user can stick with the basic view (effectively turning Personas off). |
Since this is web based, Can this be expanded to external customer across Firewall and DMZ? |
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Do you have to customize each t-code or can you mass update multiple t-codes? | For now, changes on one screen do not affect any other screen. |
Where Is the new screen design saved? Local on the desktop? | Everything is saved on the server. Users access everything through a browser with nothing stored on individual client machines. All configurations are stored and managed centrally. |
Is it integrated with standard SAP roles, or do you need to go via the groups you showed? | SAP Screen Personas allows IT to handle groups independently of authorizations or roles to allow for cross functional groups. The groups can be configured. |
If the role of a person changes, his Personas does not automatically change? | The user profile, which stores the user-specific selection of flavors, does not update directly. If a user gets assigned to a new Personas group new flavors can appear in the flavor bar or the flavor gallery. |
Features
Question | Answer |
Please speak to handling custom fields where it fits in. It was a challenge with an earlier version of this idea. Some competing approaches require custom development. | Personas can handle custom fields (as well as custom transactions) out of the box. It “sees” them in the transaction and you can modify them just as you would any other content on the screen. |
Does it support any scripting, like adding extra button which can call a button from tool bar (e.g. Override ship to address button on order)? |
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Can you place a button on the screen that runs a Selection Variant? | Yes – any user action or sequence of user actions can be played back – so a selection variant is just one example. |
Do Personas support SAP HCM Structural authorization? | Authorizations are handled in the backend and all authorization steps happen the same way whether you use Personas, the SAP WebGUI, or the SAP GUI. |
Will it also work with Enjoy-Transactions (e.g. MIGO) where dynpro-elements | SAP Screen Personas handles Enjoy controls nicely. Currently some limitations exist around the support for drag & drop. |
Will there be more advance UI components in future versions? | SAP continually enhances its software. We are working closely with our early customers to address any unmet needs in the product. |
Technical Issues
How does Personas work with ITS? | SAP Screen Personas extracts screen definitions through the ITS (Internet Transaction Server). It uses a dedicated interface to do so, which is accessible though HTTP or HTTPS. |
Performance Impact? Is there a hit on speed when navigating screen-to-screen? (and other variations of this question) | All else being equal, performance should be comparable to the WebGUI. If you remove many screen elements, Personas will be faster. If you use scripting to push multiple process steps to the back-end, skipping intermediate screens, Personas will be faster. |
Is the design component a Dynpro App? Are the Personas deployed in Portal and/or as Dynpro Apps? | The flavor design in edit mode happens entirely within SAP Screen Personas – the screen designer itself is not a Dynpro application. Flavors are not stand alone applications, but screen modifications designed to be used in SAP Screen Personas only. |
Why the choice of Silverlight? (and other variations of this question) | The short answer is that using Silverlight allowed us to bring SAP Screen Personas to market faster than other alternatives. Microsoft is supporting Silverlight through 2021, which should give us plenty of time to examine alternative technologies that enable broader platform support. |
When someone updates a Personas screen and submits data back to sap, will this look like a HTTP request to SAP or a normal dynpro request? | You will not be able to distinguish a Personas request from a WebGUI request. In SM04 you will see a plugin session. |
Licensing
Does Personas require an additional license? How is Personas licensed? (and other variations of this question) | Personas is licensed on a per-user basis. Users are defined as anyone that uses a modified screen. There is no developer license for people that build Personas screens. This is included in the license. |
Is there already a chance of getting a demo-license? (and other variations of this question) | No demo licenses, but as of July 2013, there is no minimum order so you can purchase several licenses to get started. |
View a recording of the event.
2013 H1 Personas Webinar Series
Original Broadcast Date | Recordings no longer available as of 2014 | Q&A Transcript on SCN |
February 27, 2013 | Make SAP ERP Beautiful with SAP Screen Personas | http://scn.sap.com/community/gui/blog/2013/03/05/qa-transcript-from-sap-screen-personas-webinar-1 |
March 6, 2013 | Streamline Quote to Cash Process with SAP Screen Personas | http://scn.sap.com/community/gui/blog/2013/03/09/qa-transcript-from-sap-screen-personas-webinar-2 |
March 13, 2013 | Planning, deploying, and managing Personas in your SAP environment | http://scn.sap.com/community/gui/blog/2013/03/18/qa-transcript-from-sap-screen-personas-webinar-3 |
April 3, 2013 | How to improve master data quality with SAP Screen Personas | http://scn.sap.com/community/gui/blog/2013/04/09/qa-transcript-from-sap-screen-personas-webinar-4 |
April 24, 2013 | Varian Medical Improves Sales and Distribution with SAP Screen Personas | http://scn.sap.com/community/gui/blog/2013/05/02/qa-transcript-from-sap-screen-personas-webinar-5 |
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