This is part of a multi-part series addressing myths about SAP Screen Personas.
I first started hearing this myth at TechEd in Las Vegas. One of our early SAP Screen Personas customers approached me after the Fiori and Personas session and asked if his company had made a mistake. I asked what he meant and he told me his management team heard lots about Fiori in the keynote and not much about Personas.
Wow, that’s a big leap to reach that conclusion, but I can certainly understand how they came up with that idea.
Let’s talk about a keynote at an event such as TechEd. The executives need to get on stage and highlight what is new and exciting. They need to inspire confidence among customers that they have made the right investment decision by choosing SAP.
Two of the hottest topics at SAP happen to be HANA and Fiori. They are both relatively new and both being embraced by customers seeking to increase the value they obtain from their investment in SAP. Keeping a tight focus on these two solutions makes it much more likely that attendees will walk away from the keynote remembering these key themes. Adding more topics, such as discussing SAP Screen Personas, could dilute the core message. Hence the focus on two main themes: HANA and Fiori.
Personas, however, has also been generating excitement among customers and partners, especially since we reclassified it as a Focused Business Solution when we introduced Personas 2.0 back in July 2013. We now have dozens of customers (the number increases every week). Partners now have access to build UX practices around Personas. In fact, several customers have gone live with Personas in the past few weeks. They are using this solution to drive productivity through personalization.
The strong interest in Personas was evident at TechEd. All the Personas sessions were packed. Interestingly, the most crowded sessions were those in which we discussed how Personas and Fiori complementary. People were clearly seeking guidance on how to choose between the two solutions.
The short answer is that you do not have to choose. Personas and Fiori each have their own distinct use cases where they excel. Fiori is based on SAPUI5 and provides a unified look and feel across all devices (mobile, tablet, desktop) for access to common SAP functionality. Personas allows you to modify classic ERP (Dynpro) to improve your users’ productivity by combining tabs and screens, automating keystrokes, and pre-filling fields. I know of several customers that are using both solutions to make SAP more intuitive for their users.
Outside of keynotes at major SAP events, SAP executives frequently speak about how Personas and Fiori address different parts of SAP’s user experience strategy. I often talk about both solutions with customers and partners. You can even see that the latest SAP Screen Personas presentation starts with an overview of the strategy and how Fiori and Personas work together.
Finally, I sometimes answer questions as to whether Personas is going away. Personas is a core part of SAP, connected at the kernel level. It is here to stay. We are continuing development on future versions of Personas, working with the kernel team and other groups within SAP to continue to improve performance, scalability, and ease of use.
By now, I hope you see that Personas and Fiori are complementary and that they each are part of SAP’s commitment to enhance the user experience for its customers.
In the next post, we will explore myth 7, about Personas and mobile devices.
For SAP Imagineering, peter.spielvogel.
Read the entire SAP Screen Personas Myth vs. Truth series
Myth 6 (this post)
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