Business benefits of SAP Fiori: The driver of excellence in user experience (UX)

With SAP Fiori, organizations can simplify complex business processes and provide employees with a personalized and role-based user experience. As an SAP solutions provider company, we unravel SAP Fiori benefits and help understand why businesses should pivot to SAP Fiori now to stay ahead of the experience curve.

What is SAP Fiori?

User experience (UX) can be many things; but at a fundamental level, it is described as how customers interact with a brand. Every interaction is an all-or-nothing opportunity, potentially strengthening or weakening the bond between a brand and a customer. Therefore, organizations must strive to deliver smooth and efficient experiences through their suite of services and products and keep retention higher through continuous improvements.

SAP ventured into the thriving market of enterprise UX technologies with SAP Fiori in 2013. Initially, SAP services companies leveraged the platform for one simple motive: simplifying how users interact with SAP’s portfolio of systems and applications with a core focus on relevance, context, and personalization.

With the passage of time and the introduction of new advancements, SAP Fiori has transformed into a platform with a greater and more significant purpose. Today, SAP Fiori sits at the apex of user experience excellence. The technology continues to evolve and converge SAP user experience across SAP products while banking on cutting-edge architectural components and design principles.

From a technical standpoint, SAP Fiori is a collection of user interfaces for SAP that provides a modular, personalized, and responsive user experience. It comprises a set of apps built on the SAP Business Technology Platform, allowing enterprises to integrate with existing investments in a plug-and-play approach and expand functionalities seamlessly. It is committed to its mission of delivering meaningful experience and ensuring that enterprises leverage SAP systems at scale with ease, work more efficiently, and decide on their subsequent courses of action confidently.

The crowning features of SAP Fiori

1. Role-based access: SAP Fiori apps are designed to be role-based, meaning that these apps can be accessed based on defined user profiles, such as employees and partners. Role-based access helps users see what’s relevant to their job roles. 
2. Responsive design: SAP Fiori apps are responsive, have multi-device support, and can automatically adjust to the size and resolution of the devices in use. 
3. User-friendliness: SAP Fiori comprises apps with a consumer-grade user experience, allowing intuitive interactions and turning casual users into SAP advocates in no time. 
4. Coherence: With a single-minded focus on delivering consistent, coherent user experiences, SAP Fiori leads enterprises to redefine ways of work in the age of digital transformation with a 2X improvement in data quality and accessibility. 
5. Real-time: SAP Fiori apps operate in real-time, providing up-to-date information and functionality to users in real-time, without the need for manual refreshes.
6. Cloud-ready: SAP Fiori cloud helps enterprises run, customize, and maintain their mission-critical SAP in the cloud with the benefits of extensibility at scale. 

The evolution of SAP Fiori: From a new UI technology to a next-generation UX solution

SAP Fiori landed in the market in 2013 as a design language for SAP’s suite of software, facilitating a mobile-first display approach as its focal point. It had limited content, with only 25 apps. The original SAP Fiori design language was based on consumer app design principles to simplify and streamline enterprise tasks.  Over the years, it has evolved into a comprehensive UX solution, with over 7,500 apps covering various enterprise scenarios and offering a highly personalized, responsive, and simple user experience.

SAP Fiori 2.0 was introduced in 2016 as a design concept for SAP S/4HANA and SAP ERP. It featured an improved design, better navigation, and easier management of multiple applications. Additionally, it included updated floor plans and offered access to system events through notifications.

Soon, the news of the launch of SAP Fiori 3 picked up momentum, and it was announced in 2017 with the goal of delivering a more integrated and synchronized user experience across the suite. The new version as we know it today features a better design, customization options, and the capability of being adopted across multiple SAP products.

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SAP Fiori has been widely adopted by organizations worldwide and continues to evolve and expand, with new apps and features being added regularly to meet customers' changing needs. Today, SAP Fiori is considered a key part of SAP's digital transformation strategy, helping organizations streamline business processes and improve overall productivity.

Advantages and benefits of using SAP Fiori

The technology of SAP Fiori provides a number of benefits to users and organizations.

1. Elevates experience, putting users at the center of change: SAP Fiori provides a modern, personalized, and responsive user experience that helps simplify and streamline business processes for end users. The apps are designed with a clear and intuitive user interface that focuses on the most important information and tasks, reducing the overall time and effort required to perform everyday business tasks. The role-based feature further ensures that users only see the information and functionality relevant to their job roles, resulting in less confusion and more efficiency. 
2. Enables cross-device, omnichannel experiences: SAP Fiori apps are designed to be used on any device, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, which allows users to work from anywhere and on any device. This increases the workforce's flexibility and enables them to work on the go.Additionally, these apps allow users to collaborate and share information in real-time, enabling a solid foundation for improved communication, coordination, and planning across business verticals. The real-time feature ensures that users can access the most up-to-date information and functionality and are positioned to address disruptions confidently.
3. Drives a frictionless mechanism for the exchange of information: SAP Fiori's consistent and coherent design helps reduce the learning curve for users and improve the overall user experience. This allows the users to get accustomed to the new system quickly and reduces the need for additional training. SAP Fiori is built on the SAPUI5 framework, which provides better data security and compliance with industry standards. 
4. Leans on the principles of consistent design, improves engagement: Having been backed by the SAPUI5 framework, it allows organizations to leverage the existing investments in the SAP system. By unlocking economies of scale. Fiori reduces the total cost of ownership and improves ROI. Moreover, when integrated with other systems, the technology helps organizations leverage the existing data centers and systems in place, channeling intelligence through the business core and making way for more efficient planning and decision-making. 
5. Builds economies of scale: Having been backed by the SAPUI5 framework, it allows organizations to leverage the existing investments in the SAP system. By unlocking economies of scale, Fiori reduces the total cost of ownership and improves ROI. Moreover, when integrated with other systems, the technology helps organizations leverage the existing data centers and systems in place, channeling intelligence through the business core and making way for more efficient planning and decision-making.

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SAP Fiori: Reimagine UX in the age of digital intelligence

In conclusion, SAP Fiori is a game-changer in the world of user experience design. With its focus on intelligent, integrated user interactions, it has redefined the way people interact with enterprise software. The intuitive and customizable design, combined with its ability to integrate with various SAP products, has made it an indispensable tool for modern businesses looking to improve efficiency and enhance their overall user experience. 

SAP Fiori's continuous evolution is a testament to its commitment to delivering a world-class user experience in the age of digital intelligence.