Many of you might be already familiar with FIORI architecture and the concept. So, I do not have any intention to repeat the technical aspect; rather will discuss the real feedback from end users.
Let me state a fact: Fiori implementation is unlike any other SAP implementation: You are not only going to implement a product – put some additional effort to prepare yourself to answer any weird question that will be thrown at you..!!
Confused? Many of you might have raised your eyebrows by now. :razz:
Let us reveal the story here:
We have decided to implement Fiori on Steel manufacturing business, where SAP EHP6 SPS04 is installed. The company has implemented SAP in 2013 with the modules (SD, LE, PP, QM, PM, Fi, CO, MM, WM-HU, PS, HR…), a perfect platform to deliver Fiori. It was a complete in-house implementation.
The below link suggest all possible apps for this implementation.
Many of the apps listed here require HCM, whereas the company doesn’t have complete HCM suite. So the project was limited to MM, Sales, PP, QM, PS apps. There are 2 apps for LE and FI but is not relevant for our business and is excluded.
The project completed in just 2 months, including the Gateway server setup, applying a considerable number of notes and Apps configurations. The BADI customizations will be as per business requirements. If you plan to implement Fiori, make the customizations as short as possible. Reason is simple – there’s no limit once you start customizing each app.
To me, except for SD apps, you shouldn’t go for BADI. In Sales, every Fiori app works based on the linkage between Sale Employee and customer. So, you have to link SAP ID of each person to HR employee ID. Then add this ID to each customer’s sales area (partner functions- t code xd02). In corporate business practice, this is a standard practice. But, in case of industries, or other small scale marketing structures, this is not always practical. Many sales guys will be in touch with a single customer. On top of this, management would like to know what’s going around. So, you cannot add all these people into customer’s sales area. You cannot create dummy Id for this purpose as well.
By saying this, to get the above screen, you need spend some time and train the users as well. Any top management user would like to have the 3 apps – Track Sales, Change Sales and Customer invoices. On a user’s point of view, it is slightly confusing when Track and Change were showing different counts on similar screens.
For example: Track Sales Apps: Order 771 is showing 72 Items and in 53 open, 16 WIP and 3 Shipped
Change Sales app: shows 0,4,15. The reason is – this screen shows the delivery schedules only. Change sales order app is only for Address change, plus the additional functions which track order couldn’t display. As the screens are similar, it is difficult for a user to understand the same :???:
To add on this, we used to get the same figures in both screens at first place, before the note 2072294 was applied, which I have mentioned in the discussion http://scn.sap.com/thread/3663505
Apart from the above restrictions, FIORI provides beautiful features and user friendly screens. You do not have to plan much time for user training. In some areas, a mere training doc with screenshots would solve the purpose. The graphical display will help to gain user satisfaction :smile:
Procurement screens with actionable items are widely accepted. Any management user will be dying to get such a feature rather than going to regular screens. A screen below:
In case of PP Apps, the confirmation app shows a graphical display which is good to have for a managerial user.
Once we were ready with the Apps, we thought of going for a demo, which is probably the reason why I’ve stated the “fact” at first place :wink:
The plan was to start with the features of Apps and advantages of it, but the questions started flowing:
1. Why do we need Fiori?
2. Why the current SAP screens can’t be changed this way?
(Guys, you have screen personas).
3. What is the security level? How do you prevent hacking if the site is published over internet?
(SSL and https)
4. How do you ensure the production authorizations are followed in Fiori?
(Explain architecture, Gateway server, authorizations etc)
5. Does FIORI throw an error when someone is already on edit mode in SAP?
(This is an improvement area: FIORI throws “You are not authorized” error instead of “Transaction is already locked by user”)
6. What if someone lose the phone?
(After calling network provider, call Basis team too :wink: )
7. What is the meaning of Fiori? Which flower? Italian word? Why not German? Is this a 3rd party software?
8. Can I get an alert on top if there’s anything pending with me? Just like WhatsApp? You only have to summarize count of approval apps, right? :shock: :twisted:
(True!! Many people have already achieved this using mobile programming, like Kapsel programming. Still If SAP Fiori Client app has this as built in, that will be an awesome feature to have).
Finally, we have delivered FIORI mobile app on 31st December as a New Year Gift. Indeed, this is a “like to have feature” for any organization, especially once your business processes are stable. It not only eases user experience, but also resolves many of the reporting requirements.
Thanks,
Prem
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