SAP Community - Design Thinking

Coach's Corner - What Questions Do You Have?

2023-06-05T17:19:09+02:00

Is there such a thing as asking a bad question?

Well, according to the teachings of Confucius, "The person who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the person who does not is a fool for life." What this tells us is that questions should be asked, because they help us gather information and gain knowledge, satisfy our curiosity, and helps us avoid making wrong assumptions. I'll take it one step further to say that asking questions is a fundamental skill in communication, because it lets others know we're interested and we're listening. By asking questions to those we engage, we are helping to build trust and strengthen the relationship.

However, not all questions are the same, meaning they offer different value depending on the situation. In coaching, where the value of questioning is to help our clients reflect and explore options, and decide on the appropriate actions that will help them achieve their goals, the question and how coaches ask it is paramount. I think you'll also agree that in all other walks of life there is such a thing as asking a better question.

Questions to avoid:

Low-value: "How are you?" My apologies if I've asked you this well-meaning, but useless, question before. This is a superficial question because most of the time, the person asking the question doesn't expect an insightful answer, and therefore the person who answers the question doesn't offer anything truthful or insightful.

Absolute or Leading: "Why do you always do that?" Using absolute terms like "always" or "never" puts others on the defensive, and this is not a good position to encourage others to share information. These questions restrict how others can answer, and how receptive you will be to their answers.

Self-Qualifying: "Does that make sense?" Questions like this make the speaker seem uncertain of what they just said. Worse, it makes the listener doubt whether they fully understood or appreciate what they were just told.

If you catch yourself asking these types of questions, ask yourself: How can I reduce or prevent myself from doing this? What alternatives can I use to accomplish my goal?

Better questions are:

Easy to understand. Try using simple and basic terms so others know what you're asking. Keep your questions short and succinct. Even 2-word questions like "What's next?" can be very impactful. Note 'easy to understand' doesn't mean 'easy to answer.' 🙂

Open to different answers. Curiosity drives learning and innovation, and is the 'appetite of our minds.' Without making assumptions or expectations, there is a time for Yes-No questions, and an even better time to be delighted by whatever response we get back.

More valuable for the person who answers the question. Coaches are trained and motivated to help their clients discover insights, revelations and self-enlightenment, and they do this by asking powerful questions. Perhaps everyone else doesn't need to be this dramatic, but adopting the coaching-mindset in our everyday lives through the practice of prompting pause and reflection can be a wonderful gift to others. "What haven't you thought of yet?"

The simple but powerful action of being impeccable with your words (from Don Miguel Ruiz' The Four Agreements) means we have a choice to either make a large or small impact on others. I advocate making a big impact by intentionally choosing the words we use to communicate with others. Crafting the questions we ask is a wonderful way of honouring those with whom we engage.

Let me know in the Comments section below: What is your most powerful question?

Related Coach's Corner posts:

Coach's Corner - How Did You Do That?

Coach's Corner - Words Matter

Coach's Corner - Curiosity is Courageous

Check out more blog posts in this series: Coach's Corner.

On the significance of a shared vision in software engineering

2023-06-16T12:55:40+02:00

When I read Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind by Harari a few years ago, the importance of a Shared Vision was one of the many things that stuck with me from it.

The most important insights I took away: a shared understanding is essential for people to work together in larger groups. This common vision is very powerful, but also fragile. For example, money, religions, states, corporations. These exist "only" in the human imagination. Not true? Then try to explain it to a dog. But the same is true for humans: some people share their understanding of them, others do not.

The relation to software development is obvious: when planning a new software or further developing an existing software, a vision of what should be developed has to be developed and the development team with different roles has to work together to make the vision become reality.

When planning a new software system, the first thing to do is to get different perspectives together and develop a common vision. One way to do this is to use Design Thinking to bring together Desirability (customer perspective), Viability (business perspective) and Feasibility (technology perspective).

In my department we document this common understanding in a Vision&Scope document. By means of this document, the common understanding is recorded. This makes it more stable - a shared vision is fragile. Additionally, it makes the shared vision shareable. Typically, in the planning phase only a few people are involved, for the implementation the vision has to be shared with all participants.

Is Design Thinking Still A Thing? My First DT Workshop At SAP

2023-06-22T17:58:44+02:00

Is design thinking still relevant? That's a question I recently found myself pondering. As a concept that's been around for a while, it can sometimes feel like just another buzzword. So, when Denise Wildner, my teammate and design thinking expert, mentioned there were spots open in an upcoming workshop, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to put design thinking to the test. Given Denise's excellent skills as a facilitator, I knew I was in for an informative and engaging experience.

Innovation is the key to any successful business. But, how do we ensure that our innovations truly meet the needs of our users? The answer lies in design thinking—a user-centric approach to problem-solving and idea generation (for more details on design thinking, I’d recommend reading Connecting Head-Heart-Hand).

Many leading companies, including Apple, Airbnb, IBM, Google, and of course SAP, have incorporated the design thinking approach into creating solutions that are perfect for us.

Diving into the Design Thinking Workshop: A Three-Day Journey

Day 1: Breaking the Ice and Charting Our Course in 360° Research

The workshop kicked off with a virtual meet-and-greet. With about 40 participants and 11 coaches, all having their cameras switched on, the atmosphere was exciting. It's not every day you see so many faces on an online call!

We were divided into teams and guided by design thinking coaches. Our task was to design the future of work at SAP in 2026 for SAP User Assistance (UA) and UX employees. Our team focused on User Assistance Developers.

We first needed to get to know the team and understand the challenge at hand by brainstorming and discussing the key phrases. Topics such as flexible work, automation, AI, customer contact, and stakeholders were mentioned.

We then moved on to creating an interview guide, focusing on open-ended questions to gain empathy for the end user.

Some questions we had:

Their typical tasks at work

Their pain points

Things they love doing

How do they stay in contact with customers

Whether they are familiar with AI tools (AI was a recurring topic in this workshop)

We felt nervous before the interview. What if we didn’t ask the right questions? What if our interviewee is shy? Fortunately, our interviewee, Tanja Wingert, a seasoned UA Developer openly shared her thoughts and experiences. In total, our group conducted 3 interviews, as we needed a substantial amount of data.

Day 2: Building Personas and Sparking Ideas

On the second day, we synthesized our interview findings into "golden nuggets"—key insights that would guide our design process. Some of the nuggets included:

“More customer contact”

“Improving tools to support the documentation process”

“Improving communication between UA and developers”

“Automate manual exhaustive tasks

“More space for creativity”

The need for creativity got me thinking. If repetitive tasks were automated, authors would have more time to craft creative ways to share knowledge, which in return would be more beneficial for our customers.

These insights were used to create a persona, a fictional character representing our user group. Our persona, Avo, a 45-year-old senior UA Developer, helped us empathize with our users and understand their needs and frustrations better.

Next, we formulated a problem statement: "How might we help Avo, a busy and experienced senior user assistance developer who struggles with communicating clearly with his developers, build a reliable framework for collaboration?" This statement guided our brainstorming session, where the real fun started.

One of the brainstorming exercises is a brain dump. You write down all your ideas—even those that seem unrealistic or silly—on sticky notes. There’s no judgment, and you only have 5 minutes.

On the first day, our group started off reserved, which initially made spontaneous discussions challenging. Yet, the workshop exercises soon ignited our creative energy. I learned that the coaches strategize to enhance teamwork, and their methods indeed sparked our idea generation. By the end, our diverse team was buzzing with vibrant discussions and innovative ideas.

Day 3: From Dream to Reality - Prototyping, Validating, and Iterating

The final day was all about bringing our ideas to life by creating a prototype of our solution. We could use Scenes by SAP AppHaus, which included sketches of characters, speech bubbles, and backgrounds, but we could also draw or insert images from the internet. Creativity knew no bounds.

Before regrouping, we learned how to pitch our prototype using storytelling techniques. We only had about 5 minutes to convince the audience of our persona, problem statement, and solution!

We then presented our prototype to the other participants. It was fascinating to see the diverse range of solutions other teams had come up with. Audiences asked questions making it feel a bit like being part of an episode of Shark Tank, only less intimidating.

The Verdict: Is Design Thinking Still a Game-Changer

Is design thinking still relevant? Undoubtedly. The workshop underscored its enduring importance in innovation. It highlighted the necessity of understanding users—their needs, their struggles—before even laying your hands on code. Global leaders' continued use of this strategy affirms its enduring relevance.

The session also showcased how collaboration and iteration on others' ideas could spark innovative concepts.

We recognized in our closing discussion that quality development requires time. However, by focusing on users' needs, design thinking can save time and resources in the long run. Despite the constant pressures of competition, a balance must be found.

We're not just creating services and products to have a market presence but to meet people's needs. This is why addressing their needs and easing their pain points is vital.

The workshop was just the start. Denise shared more methods within design thinking that can be applied to our daily lives. This approach allows us to understand a problem deeply and create a solution, rather than react blindly. Plus, fostering empathy can greatly improve the world.

In conclusion, design thinking is more than relevant—it's a vital tool for problem-solving in business and beyond.

Thanks to Design Thinking Coaches, Participants, and Interviewees

My heartfelt thanks to the knowledgeable design thinking coaches at SAP, whose expertise and dedication ensured a smooth, engaging learning experience. Equally, the unique insights and collaboration from my fellow participants brought the workshop to life, making it a dynamic and rewarding journey. I also appreciate the interviewees, who kindly shared their time and insights, enriching our design process.

I’m looking forward to the next workshop!

Coaches:

Denise Wildner
John Julian
Viktoria Klement
Johannes Hefft
Mengbing Guo
Carsten Schmitt
Michael Kronfeld
Annika Gonnermann
Petia Nikolova
Florian Schnarr
Benjamin Kelsey

Enhance Existing Process Map

2023-07-18T06:58:48+02:00

A couple of years ago my former team and I faced the issue that we had to enhance an existing solution with additional functionality. The issue was that said solution spanned from Financial Transaction Creation, Maintenance, Valuation, Posting and Reporting with all the steps in between like Correspondence and such and we had to make sure that the required features are reflected in each of those steps – if required that is. But how to figure out which feature requires adaptions in which steps? How to make sure that the adaptions we do are correctly reflected in the following steps?

To overcome that challenge, I tried to figure out a tool that could help us to collaboratively visualize and work on the process. As a result of that the Enhance Existing Process Map tooling was created.

The target of the activity is to have technical and functional experts working together to make sure no required enhancement within the process is missed. Unlike User Story Mapping it is specialized towards enhancing an already existing complex solution.

Working on the Map should not be seen as a one-time activity, but instead it can be initially used for finding required changes, then for release planning, during the development phase to add missed points that were not spotted so far, and for testing as input on test scenarios and where to look for effects of the done changes.

Result of the activity would be a map that could look like below.

We see on it the different process steps and Features. Mapped to each of them is what we think needs to be done.

CHANGE means that we are certain, that for this feature we require to change something within the process step.

CHECK means that we are not quite certain, that for this feature we require to change something here but need to investigate it in more detail.

VALIDATE means that within this process step we should see some change in data as of our changes in a previous process step.

NEIGHBORHOOD means that we need to interact with a fellow team to make sure that dependencies between teams are managed correctly and activities are planned jointly.

Color coding those findings helps keeping it structured. Therefore, using different colors for the four types of findings makes sense.

But how to get to this map? I would suggest following those steps:

Gather technical and functional experts of the process and wished feature (Product Owner, Solution Architect, Technical Architect, Business Analyst, no matter how the roles are called in your organization)

Together write down the different process steps in the order they occur within the overall process.

Together list all the features that should be added within the process.

Together go through each individual process step for each individual feature and ask yourselves the following questions:
1. Do we have to change something here? If so, briefly describe the required CHANGE and stick it to the Map. If we are not sure, briefly describe why we need to CHECK and stick it to the Map.
2. Can / Should we validate some result of our change within this process step? Meaning do we expect that because of a change we do some behavior / data is visibly changed here? If so briefly write down what can be VALIDATED here.
3. If we are working in a bigger program with several teams or streams, we should also think about the neighborhood. Meaning: Do we know about dependencies? Are they working on data that we are about to change? Or do we require data from them? If so, we should also note that down and add that to the NEIGHBORHOOD.

In my experience when working on the Enhance Existing Process Map you will find additional steps while walking through the process. Especially if you do it for multiple features at once. In that case no worries. Add the just found step and after finishing with the current feature return to the features you already worked on and make sure to again ask yourself the above questions for the newly found – maybe also here relevant – process step.

Also try to not discuss whether a CHANGE is required or not. When in doubt simply add a CHECK note and follow up on it.

What do you think about the Tool?
Something you will give a try?
Personally, I think it gives you another option when looking for a suitable tool to gather requirements and while I would always prefer User Story Mapping over the Enhance Existing Process Map in a greenfield approach I think it is valid in its niche of brownfield process enhancements.

Advancing Sustainable Business Practices Through Sap Responsible Design and Production

2023-08-03T11:14:19+02:00

In the age of sustainability, it is important to consider how we can design and produce products responsibly and maintain Circularity . Sap responsible design and production is an important concept to consider, as sap-based production is an increasingly popular option for businesses and consumers alike. Sap responsible design and production can help to reduce environmental impacts and ensure that products are produced ethically and sustainably. This blog post will explore the concept of sap responsible design and production, the benefits of this approach, and the challenges of implementing it.

In this series I will publish blog on following products,

SAP Responsible Design and Production

SAP Sustainability Control Tower

SAP Product Footprint Management/ Sustainable Footprint Management.

SAP Sustainable Data Exchange

SAP Green Ledger

Overview

By utilizing SAP Responsible Design and Production, businesses can contribute to the health of
the planet and people, as well as increase their profits and customer loyalty. It is a
comprehensive system that helps companies create responsible and sustainable products. With
SAP Responsible Design and Production, businesses can make a positive contribution to the
world and have a long-term impact.

SAP Responsible Design and Production three types of business users are necessary

Administrator

Packing Expert

EPR Expert

Features

Data Replication: Based on the Requirement of the reporting from SAP S4 HANA using the API we can import the below mentioned data or using excel sheet file import we can do the import of this Data from any other system

Configuration data

Organization data

Customers

Products

Deliveries

Packaging elements

Packaging compositions

Material documents

Suppliers

Batches

Using the Configuration Cockpit app, you can create your own replication configuration to push data from an SAP or a third-party system to SAP Responsible Design and Production.

Viewing Data Quality Issues: As a part of the process we would need master data to be integrated to SAP Responsible Product Design and Production So as a part of the Process when the master data like Material , Batch, Packaging Material gets imported to the SAP Responsible Product Design and Production there can be issue with the master data setup and this data issue needs to be solved before we can proceed to the reporting

This View Data quality issue App is the providing us with the information what is the issue with the master and based on that either Packaging Expert can fix those issue's

Data Quality Issues App

Packaging Data/ Packaging Composition: Packaging Material Data is one of the important data that form the basis of the EPR reporting so the Packing Material need to be imported from the SAP S4 HANA or 3rd Party application . So the import of Packaging Material brings with it import characteristics of the material such as Weight , dimensions, type of material ( Plastic, Cardboard, Paper) .and UOM which is one of the important parameter as costing of the material for the Plastic taxes applicable .

Next important data element is the packaging composition which actually links the all the packaging material and groups the same type of packaging into same group which ease out the Plastics tax calculation

This packaging Composition can be created in SAP Responsible Product Design and Production using the App : View and Manage Packaging Composition

E.g Kraftpaper and the attributes define that it has

Color	Brown
Width	18 inch
Height	28 inch
Length	18 inch

Reporting: Based on the Reporting Categories which are already pre-filled by SAP we can choose to activate the Reporting category as per requirement . Based on the that we need to configure the Report with information like Report Name, Validity , Plant or company code ,delivery types and responsible user who can access the report , based on this information the report will the extracted for the organization

Then we need to activate the report and Run the report . Data in the Pre-filled format as per the PRO can be extracted in excel format .

EPR Dashboard

The following EPR reports are available as pre-filled reporting categories from SAP .

Country/Region	Report
Canada (Ontario)	Blue Box
France	Citeo
Germany	Dual Systems
Italy	CONAI EPR Report Form 6.2
Netherlands	Afvalfonds Verpakkingen

Conclusion

To summarize SAP Responsible Design and Production mapped Packaging Material to product ,tracked Product deliveries to various countries pulled relevant EPR data definition and automatically calculated the fees completed the necessary paper work to comply with local law. It focuses on the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) can be simply put as "producer must pay" for the costs of collection and treatment of products after use. Under existing EPR schemes in many countries worldwide, producers of goods must declare the EPR-relevant volumes of different materials that they use in their products and packaging. Depending on the country, there are different reporting and fee structures, and this makes EPR very complex. Producers cooperate with a single or multiple PROs depending on the country/region. SAP Responsible Design and Production makes it possible to generate EPR reports. An EPR report provides the data that can then be entered into an EPR declaration, usually on the PRO's website.

5 ways User Experience Drives New Business

2023-08-10T19:28:23+02:00

User Experience (UX) is a domain that goes beyond the visual. It's more than just how something looks. At its core, UX develops empathy for end-users. UX designers leverage a methodology to build digital solutions that are easy to use and bring joy. UX can also be used in various facets to drive business adoption. In this post, I'll talk about five scenarios that help identify UX opportunities to drive new business and increase software adoption.

5 Ways UX Drives Business Adoption

Scenario 1: Improve Processes within Organizations

Have you ever worked on a project that required sharing an Excel sheet? Do you remember how difficult it was to ensure it remained up to date? Many of the world’s largest organizations manage elaborate and complex processes through Excel. The main problem here is a lack of digitization and a central source of truth. UX designers can help bring together stakeholders and guide them through exercises and workshops to gain a high-level view of the processes at hand. We’re experts at facilitating and identifying areas in a business that need process improvement. We then guide customers towards digitization.

Scenario 2: Get Started with Innovation

Have you ever been on the brink of a new idea but struggled to articulate it? Maybe there’s a new sector or technology that you’re passionate about but remain unsure on how to get started. UX designers bring new ideas to reality. A designer can sit with a product owner to translate their ideas into user flows (steps of a process), wireframes and user interface screens. We iterate until we end up with a workable and clickable prototype. Suddenly, you’ve gone from a concept to a real-world solution (a product). UX design is a low cost and low risk way to get started with innovation.

Scenario 3: Digital Transformation and Brand Recognition

In addition to helping companies overcome the challenges of manual processes, UX designers can steer organizations toward adopting new technologies and digital transformation (like Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, etc.). Working with functional and technical consultants, designers walk customers through different business canvases (templates) to identify areas for transformation. In terms of brand recognition, UX designers focus on improving the usability of a company’s products, thus increasing positive brand sentiment. Consider a company like Apple, that has a tremendous amount of brand recognition for its easy-to-use products.

Scenario 4: Get to Market Quickly

Have you ever been involved in the development of software that didn’t go as planned? Perhaps the solution was difficult to use, or it didn’t meet the needs of your customer. You may have had to go back to the development phase with change requests that were costly and took time (while missing deadlines). UX design avoids these pitfalls by addressing them at the beginning of the software development cycle. Through our design methodology, including user research, wireframing and prototyping, we take an iterative approach that captures the customers feedback throughout. This results in fewer change requests and streamlines the development process, which ultimately means you’ll go to maker quicker. Not to mention, by involving the customer earlier, they are left with few surprises.

Scenario 5: Adoption and Usability

Have you ever developed a piece of software that took months to coordinate, plan and build, only to find that none of the end-users have adopted the solution? Or have you ever built a piece of software and found that for most users it was difficult to use, or even confusing? These are examples of low adoption and bad usability. Apple is famous for creating products that are easy to use and highly adopted. Ultimately the role of a designer is to use their toolkit to create world-class experiences for end-users of software. This means going through our methodology and ensuring that the real needs of an end-user are met.

Summary:

Keeping an eye out for the above five scenarios is an excellent way to drive new business with UX. Design is more than what something looks like. It’s an entire methodology that when applied correctly can drive results and increase business. Use the hints above and keep this list top of mind so that you can help your customers drive new business, improve their brand, and become design centric.

SAP S.C.A.L.E. in New Zealand

2023-08-15T01:41:43+02:00

The first SAP S.C.A.L.E. event happened in New Zealand on the 11th and 12th July 2023. The event stretched over 2 days with the first day at the SAP AppHaus Partner location of Datacom and the second day at the SAP offices in the City of Sails, Auckland.

What is S.C.A.L.E....? It is the SAP Cloud Accelerated Learning Experience, which embodies SAP's and it's partners' approach to on-boarding and engaging with young talent in our local markets.

Day 1 of SAP S.C.A.L.E. was hosted at the Datacom offices in Auckland.

It was awesome to be engaged and surrounded by some of the great young brains and solution experts from our local universities.

#datacom is proud to be the local partner who is championing this with #sap New Zealand. We welcomed the students to our amazing offices and covered how they could advance into the SAP ecosystem through early career planning and on-boarding with SAP or an SAP Partner like Datacom.

The topics for the 2-day event covered #designthinking, #sapbuild, #sapanalyticscloud and sustainability solutions to solve challenges with local public transport, food availability and affordable shelter for the people of Auckland.

Awesome to see the great ideas as the teams tackled sustainability and ESG challenges in our region around - Public Transport, Food Security and Homelessness.

Day 2 of SAP S.C.A.L.E. was hosted at the SAP offices in Auckland.

I loved the fact that each team was willing to take on a challenging topic and ideate around some great solutions. Kudos to the teams that built working prototypes and the mock-ups were fantastic, considering the short time line to work on framing the challenge, identifying the key pain point, working through a LEAN Canvas exercise and then providing a pitch for their solution or idea, along with either a wireframe or demo.

For many students, this was their first experience of what the Datacom SAP AppHaus is all about - solving "wicked problems"! The innovative solutions and thinking behind the team presentations showed us that there is a depth of talent coming through.

Well done to Team FABify (Fix Auckland's Buses) with their creative solution, gamification content and route planner. And a great effort from all the other teams as well, as each of them had to answer some challenging questions from the 4 judge panel.

Am looking forward to the next SAP S.C.A.L.E. event and more bright, young minds joining SAP!

Embracing the Circular Economy: A Paradigm Shift Towards Sustainable Prosperity

2023-08-24T07:49:09+02:00

Introduction

The Circular Economy, often hailed as a groundbreaking solution to the growing environmental crisis, has emerged as a guiding principle for businesses and industries worldwide. This innovative approach emphasizes system design, waste reduction, and sustainability as key components of a holistic business model. In this article, we will delve into the core concepts of the Circular Economy, highlighting the importance of system design, eliminating waste, integrating circular principles into core business processes, leveraging digital technology, and the steps companies can take to transition to a circular framework. Lastly, we will explore the road ahead as we collectively strive for a more sustainable future.

Pic credit: Circular Economy Guild

1. System Design: The Foundation of the Circular Economy

At the heart of the Circular Economy lies the concept of system design. Traditional linear economies follow a "take-make-dispose" model, where resources are extracted, transformed into products, and ultimately discarded as waste. The Circular Economy, in contrast, prioritizes system design that keeps resources in use for as long as possible. This means designing products, services, and supply chains with the end goal of reuse, refurbishment, remanufacturing, and recycling in mind.

2. Designing Out Waste: The Key to Sustainability

One of the central tenets of the Circular Economy is the elimination of waste. In a circular system, waste is not seen as a byproduct but as a valuable resource waiting to be reclaimed. Companies are encouraged to minimize waste by designing products for longevity, easy disassembly, and material recovery. This shift towards a waste-free approach reduces environmental impact, conserves resources, and often leads to cost savings.

3. Core Business Processes: Aligning with Circular Principles

To truly embrace the Circular Economy, businesses must integrate circular principles into their core processes. This entails reevaluating everything from procurement to manufacturing, distribution, and customer engagement. Companies should adopt practices like closed-loop supply chains, product-as-a-service models, and take-back programs. By doing so, they not only reduce their ecological footprint but also create new revenue streams and enhance customer loyalty.

4. The Role of Digital Technology

Digital technology plays a pivotal role in the Circular Economy. It enables businesses to track and trace products throughout their lifecycle, optimize resource use, and enhance the efficiency of waste management. Technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and data analytics empower companies to make data-driven decisions that support circularity. AI helps in rapid prototyping & testing and speeds up the design process.

5. Becoming Circular: Steps for Companies

Transitioning to a circular business model may seem daunting, but it is a necessary step for sustainability. To become circular, companies should:

a. Conduct a Circular Economy assessment to understand their current practices and identify areas for improvement.

b. Redesign products and services with durability, recyclability, and reparability in mind.

c. Implement sustainable sourcing practices, prioritize recycled materials, and reduce reliance on virgin resources.

d. Collaborate with stakeholders, including suppliers and customers, to create closed-loop systems.

e. Invest in digital technologies that enable better resource management and circular process optimization.

6. The Road Ahead

As we move forward on the path to a Circular Economy, collaboration and innovation will be key to duccess. Governments, businesses, and consumers must work together to create an enabling environment for circular practices. This includes incentivizing circular design, establishing regulatory frameworks, and raising awareness among the public.

In conclusion, the Circular Economy represents a transformative shift in our approach to resource management and sustainability. By prioritizing system design, waste reduction, circular business processes, and digital technology, companies can not only reduce their environmental impact but also unlock new economic opportunities.

As we collectively embark on this journey, the road ahead is one of promise, where environmental stewardship and economic prosperity go hand in hand in a truly sustainable future.

Exploring the Intersection of Design Thinking and Life-Centred Design

2023-09-24T19:36:31+02:00

In a world full of complex challenges, where global issues such as climate crisis and social injustice demand innovative solutions, the confluence of Design Thinking and Life-Centred Design offers a promising approach. A passionate group of Design Thinking coaches recently gathered at the SAP AppHaus in Heidelberg to explore this intersection. We felt the compelling tension between our inherent desire to be user-centred and the deep realisation of the broader system at play.

Zoom In with Design Thinking

We started the workshop by introducing our challenge, which could be approached from a human-centred as well as a systemic perspective. Once everyone had the same understanding of the scope, we jumped straight into ideation. Ideally, we work with existing Personas that have been synthesised in previous research phases.

SAP Design Thinking Process

In the ideation phase of the workshop, we explored a wide range of ways to approach the problem from the perspective of the Persona. Some of the ideas that emerged already considered the wider impact of potential solutions on ecosystems, communities and the planet. We realised that taking a step back from our relentless pursuit of user benefits could lead to more sustainable solutions.

Zoom Out with Life-Centred Design

Life-Centred Design expands the scope of responsibilities for the longer-term health of all life, society, and our planet. It offers a holistic perspective to understand relationships across interdependent technological and living systems.

Principles of Life-Cented Design

We explored the current reality and emerging future possibilities using a 4D Mapping embodiment practice. The process started by looking at the challenge from a meta-perspective and collecting the main stakeholders of the system. Each stakeholder was then represented by a participant who made a shape with his body, expressing a quality of that role.

Once all the roles had been embodied, the participants were able to adjust their position, level or direction in the space to make it more accurate to the current reality. From there a movement in the sculpture emerged representing a possible future.

The practice helped us to examine our assumptions, intentions and the complex interplay of our actions within the larger system. Participants and observers were able to witness changes in the system and the dynamics that drove them.

System Innovation Canvas

We used the insights we gained in the 4D Mapping to populate the System Innovation Canvas which provides a structured five-step approach to envisioning a future with sustainable impact:

1. Problem Space: Identifying the issue requiring systemic change

2. Key Factors: Understanding the factors causing and affected by the issue and their interrelations

Society: Demographics, Family Living Patterns, Lifestyles, Education

Technology: Technological progress, innovations

Economic: Levels and distribution of economic growth, industrial structures, competition, finance, micro and macro economics

Environment: Sustainability, climate change, pollution, resource depletion, biodiversity

Politics: Political viewpoints, (in)stability, regulatory roles, lobbying, legislation

Values: Attitudes, preferences, culture, social relations, mental modelsIntervention Points: Identifying opportunities for interventions.

3. Intervention Points: Identifying opportunities for interventions

4. Solution Space: Determining the capabilities needed to implement impactful interventions

5. Desired Future State: Visualizing the desired future state resulting from these interventions

System Innovation Canvas

Conclusion

In the workshop, the fusion of Design Thinking and Life-Centred Design allowed us to move effortlessly from a human-centred perspective to a systems-thinking mindset and back again. This fluidity aligns perfectly with the core principles of Design Thinking, which encourages us to oscillate between broad exploration and focused execution. We have found that Design Thinking and Life-Centred Design can work seamlessly together as partners on the journey to creating a better future.

Originally published on my blog imagium.de

EMEA South Innovation Task Forces '23 Case Study

2023-10-11T22:23:46+02:00

Blended learning to maximize employee engagement and value creation

Have you ever participated in the dreaded 'death by PowerPoint' ritual? You all know the one I'm referring to, when a 'teacher' or 'expert' reads off the slides word-by-word without looking once at the audience, pausing to gauge for understanding, or even attempting to break the boredom with an activity or two. Perhaps this is not the best way to retain the attention of the audience.

Have you ever attended a team-building exercise where you spent the day playing mini-golf, building a racecar from cardboard, or solving the code of an escape room? Sure, it was loads of fun and great to get out of the office. But you may have wondered how it was relevant to your day-to-day role. Perhaps it would have been more effective to link the activity's outcomes to the team's objectives.

Have you ever been invited to a design thinking workshop and enjoyed the experience of scribbling on post-its, designing personas, mapping customer journeys, and building prototypes - only to be informed that there were no resources (people, technology and finances) to bring your idea to life. Some industry experts refer to this as 'innovation theatre' - where an enterprise just ticks off the boxes that they 'did' innovation, but there was no real value creation or real-world execution. Perhaps it would have been more impactful to ensure alignment, support and buy-in from key stakeholders in the organization.

When we designed and pitched the idea for a regional innovation task forces program in Q1 '22, we aspired to develop a structured program that utilized multiple tools, frameworks, and modalities to maximize impact for the participants and value for the enterprise. We had several objectives in mind:

To provide an opportunity for employees from across Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA South) to directly support and co-create value around the three strategic pillars identified by our President.

To design a blended learning experience that enabled co-creation and leveraged proven tools from learning, design thinking, coaching, remote facilitation, and project management,

To align our team efforts with the organization's goals and secure a commitment to see these ideas through to execution (if they met the selection criteria.)

When we kicked off phase one of the program, more than 100+ participants from across our region expressed their interest in participating. Their engagement led to the creation of fourteen innovative value propositions that resulted in five high-fidelity validated solutions being brought to life to bring value to the organization, our customers, and our partners.

The program was designed to complement and enhance the participant's learning outcomes whilst ensuring a constant focus on value creation. We leveraged several distinct approaches to achieve this outcome:

Personalized Video Content: it was essential to build interest in the program and link to the three strategic pillars identified by our President. We used customized video messages from our three executive sponsors. This strengthened the campaign and allowed potential participants to understand the challenge space further.

Informative calls: these calls were designed for the whole group of participants. They were used to communicate details about key milestones, share messages from sponsors, align on OKRs and introduce essential mindsets/tools required for success.

Masterclasses: these interactive engagements were co-created in advance with the participants and allowed them to suggest topics they wished to learn more about. In response, we invited subject matter experts to share their insights on the topic and answer questions from the participants related to their specific challenges. It was no longer a one-size-fits-all approach like in the informative calls but had a level of personalization that supported the task forces with their particular challenges.

Design thinking workshops: we designed a standardized MURAL template based on best practices from our experience working with customers, partners, and internal stakeholders. We identified and enabled a community of twelve design thinking coaches who facilitated expert workshops over six weeks, leading the participants from discovery to ideation, to value proposition design. In these remote workshops, the role of the coach/facilitator was to support the task force to achieve their desired outcome without contributing to the content.

Pitch calls: at the end of the ideation phase of our program, the fourteen task forces pitched their final value propositions to a steering committee comprised of members from our regional leadership team. Their pitches were reviewed, and an anonymous scoring system was devised to enable us to consolidate the results to move to the execution phase.

In addition to the blended learning approach explained above, we also focused on core 'team' skills that were essential to the success of the program:

Execution team: the execution phase required essential 'skills' to be present in the task force to successfully deliver a functional prototype. We ensured that there was a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities, which included tasks like attending weekly SCRUM calls with the project manager (which was also a new role created for the execution phase), preparing weekly status and RACI reports, conducting research & testing, building prototypes, and most importantly aligning their value proposition with existing SAP initiatives.

Experts and specialists: we also brought in several experts and specialists (e.g., BTP expert, data scientist, and creative designer) to support the task forces in developing their final solutions and ensure a level of fidelity that demonstrated the functionality of the solution.

Project managers: we also identified and recruited a project manager for each task force that made it to the execution phase. This was essential for the program's success because we now had a single point of contact for each team who could communicate key milestones core deliverables and 'rally the troops' when needed. It was also very valuable to have the PMs in our weekly SCRUMs (one representing each of the finalists) and have a holistic view of the status of the teams, share updates and learn from each other.

When we first designed the program, we were adamant about bringing these solutions to life and ensuring they can grow and thrive within the enterprise. The program was designed to have two main convergence points. The first was at the end of Phase One, where we consolidated the ideas, agreed on which ones to take forward, re-formulated the teams based on their expertise and consolidated the value propositions based on desirability, feasibility, and viability. The second was at the end of Phase Two, where we aligned with internal stakeholders to develop execution plans to bring the solutions to fruition.

As an outcome of our leadership's trust and belief and as a testament to the team's great teamwork and disruptive thinking, we are happy to report that all five solutions are either being piloted, have received support from our global teams, or have been partially integrated into existing solutions that are in our '24 roadmap.

Through this combination of stakeholder-centric design, blended learning, and program management, we have increased employee engagement and maximizing learning outcomes while creating value for the organization.

"Knowledge is not power, but it is the understanding, and the application, of knowledge that truly unleashes our potential as individuals, teams and organizations."

Navigating the AI Landscape: A UX Designer's Guide

2024-02-14T11:01:22.387000+01:00

Introduction

As we stand on the brink of a technological revolution, AI is reshaping the way we interact with the digital world. I'm here to share my insights regarding this evolving landscape, offering observations into how AI, machine learning, and other related technologies can enhance our work in UX design.

Brief Overview of AI and ML

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the overarching concept of machines carrying out tasks in ways that we consider 'smart'. It's a broad discipline aimed at creating systems that can simulate various aspects of human intelligence. Machine Learning (ML) is a subset of AI, focused on algorithms that enable machines to improve at tasks with experience. Think of AI as the universe of intelligent computation, with ML being a planet within it.

Deep Learning, in turn, is a subset of ML. It involves neural networks with many layers (hence 'deep') that can learn and make intelligent decisions on their own. Deep Learning has been instrumental in achieving significant breakthroughs in areas like image and speech recognition.

Then come Foundation Models, a recent development in AI. These are large-scale models (like GPT-3) that are trained on vast amounts of data and can be adapted to a wide range of tasks without being specifically trained for them. They are called 'foundations' because they provide a base layer of understanding that can be built upon for various applications.

These technologies are interrelated, forming a hierarchy from broad to specific. AI encompasses everything intelligent that a machine might do. Under AI, ML is the method through which machines learn from data. Deep Learning is a further specialization of ML with a focus on complex, layered neural networks. And Foundation Models are the cutting-edge, versatile systems pushing the boundaries of what AI can achieve.

Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) and Transformer Architecture

GPT, or Generative Pretrained Transformer, is a type of language processing AI. It's built on the Transformer architecture, which is revolutionary in the way it handles data. Traditional models processed data sequentially, one piece after another. The Transformer, however, allows for parallel processing, looking at entire sequences of data at once. This is done through mechanisms called 'attention' and 'self-attention,' letting the model weigh the importance of different parts of the input data and learn the context more effectively.

GPT takes this architecture and applies it to language, learning to predict the next word in a sentence. It's trained on a vast corpus of text and then fine-tuned for specific tasks. This pretraining is what makes it 'generative' - it can generate text, not just understand or classify it.

Inception of Generative AI

Generative AI came into existence as a natural progression from earlier AI models that were primarily discriminative. While discriminative models could classify and understand data, they couldn't create new data. The inception of Generative AI marked a shift from understanding to creation.

This shift was fueled by advancements in neural networks and an exponential increase in computational power and data availability. Researchers began exploring how neural networks could not only recognize patterns but also use those patterns to generate new, similar data. This exploration led to the development of models like Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and Variational Autoencoders (VAEs), and eventually to large-scale models like GPT.

Integrating Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback

Adding to this is the concept of Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback (RLHF). This approach trains AI systems not just on static datasets but on dynamic feedback loops. It’s akin to teaching a pet new tricks: the AI tries different strategies and, based on human feedback, learns which actions are desirable or undesirable. This human-in-the-loop methodology ensures that the AI’s learning trajectory aligns more closely with human values and preferences, making it particularly potent for personalization and adaptive learning scenarios.

Incorporating RLHF into the design of AI systems compels us to consider not just the initial user interaction but the ongoing relationship between the user and the AI as they adapt and learn from each other over time.

Various Approaches to AI

Understanding the various approaches to AI can be daunting, but it's crucial for harnessing its full potential:

Symbolic AI: Based on the manipulation of symbols and rules, this approach tries to mimic human reasoning.
Probabilistic AI: Focuses on using probabilities to make predictions and decisions.
Statistical AI: Uses statistical methods to infer patterns and make predictions.
Large Language Models (LLMs): These are trained on vast datasets to understand and generate human-like text.

Each approach has its strengths, and knowing which to apply can significantly impact the success of a project.

How Are Models Trained?

AI models are trained using large datasets. They learn by recognising patterns and making associations. For instance, an image recognition model might learn to identify cats by being shown thousands of pictures of cats and not-cats. Over time, it improves its accuracy through a process called backpropagation, where it adjusts its internal parameters to minimize errors.

AI and Design

In the realm of AI, as designers, we're tasked with shaping a human-machine relationship that is continually evolving. Unlike traditional design, where interactions are fixed, AI-based design involves a fluid, ever-changing dynamic. Non-AI systems interact in a consistent, unchanging manner. However, AI systems learn and adapt over time, leading to a constantly developing relationship.

As both the machine and humans learn and adapt, they engage in a reciprocal learning process, forming a dynamic feedback loop. This loop is characterized by an ongoing exchange of information, with both parties growing and adjusting to the interaction. Our role as AI designers is to foster effective communication within this vibrant human-machine relationship.

In this context, data becomes the pivotal element. Previously, data interaction was straightforward — a user command followed by a machine response. With AI, data is the foundation of learned behaviours, informing the machine and shaping its growth. Here, data inputs are about educating the machine with information, not just instructing it. Conversely, machine outputs are no longer fixed; they have generated responses that necessitate explanations of how the data led to a particular conclusion.

As designers, we are charged with orchestrating these interactions throughout the entire data lifecycle. This includes the initial data capture, guiding the machine's learning process, designing clear and understandable data outputs, and ensuring a seamless flow of information back into the system for continued learning. Our responsibility extends beyond creating interfaces; it's about crafting experiences that support this rich, ongoing dialogue between humans and AI, ensuring clarity, transparency, and a mutual growth trajectory.

A comparison can be drawn from the days when selecting a movie at a DVD store involved browsing aisles for a favoured title or relying on a recommendation from a salesperson. In contrast, platforms like Netflix now curate suggestions tailored to our tastes, informed by our viewing history.

Designers find themselves at the intersection of innovation, with three distinct yet interconnected realms to explore:

1. Designing with AI: Crafting Alongside AI

Designers are now partnering with AI in a collaborative dance of creation, where the output is a fusion of human ingenuity and machine efficiency. Imagine the synergy of a designer working with AI to conjure up ground-breaking architectural structures, much like Autodesk's venture in utilizing generative design principles to conceive their Toronto office. Here, AI becomes an ally in the creative process, providing new perspectives and solutions that push the boundaries of traditional design.

Moreover, designers harness AI to streamline repetitive tasks, freeing up creative energy for more complex challenges. Tools like Airbnb's system for transforming sketches into digital wireframes or Netflix's algorithm for adapting graphics across different cultures exemplify this trend. These innovations signify a new era where AI does not replace the designer but rather amplifies their capabilities.

2. Designing for AI: The Human-Centric Design Approach

Designing for AI requires a human-centred lens, focusing on crafting systems that prioritize user needs and experiences. It's about spotting those unique opportunities where AI can not only function but flourish in addressing real-world problems. Here, the designer's role transcends aesthetics, venturing into the realm of functionality and utility, transforming user needs into data-driven AI solutions.

Human-centered design makes AI effective. These are some ways:

1. Beyond Interfaces: Embracing Human-Centered Design in AI Algorithm Development

UX can aid in designing algorithms that mirror the decision-making processes humans employ, by considering their information, goals, and constraints. It can ensure that the decision environment, which encompasses both the algorithm and its human users should be thoughtfully constructed. Users should comprehend their AI tools well enough to use them effectively. Designers also aid in establishing guidelines and business protocols that translate algorithmic predictions into actionable insights, advising when human intervention is appropriate to supplement or override the AI.

2. To Translate User Needs into Data Requirements: A designer can aid in identifying the type of data necessary for training the model, considering various factors like predictive power (A percentage that refers to an ML model’s ability to predict outcomes given a certain input correctly), relevance, fairness, privacy, and security. Ensure the training dataset is comprehensive, reflecting the real-world scenarios the AI will encounter, and free from biases.

3. Knowing the source of the data & Tuning the Model: Evaluating data sourcing and collection methods for their suitability of the project is critical. Once deployed, A designer will assess if the AI meets the target user’s needs as per predefined success metrics. Provide feedback on adjusting the model’s parameters as needed to enhance its performance, focusing on metrics that reflect user experience, such as customer satisfaction or the frequency of users following the AI’s recommendations.

4. Addressing Bias, Fairness, and Transparency: UX designers can help analyze data with an understanding of the domain, Goal definition, possible and required outcomes and the process that generated it. This leads to designers being a crucial part of designing algorithms that are mindful of the environment they will operate in, avoiding controversial predictors. They aid in conducting usability tests or audits to detect and eliminate unintended biases.

5. Managing the Handoff in AI Systems: Designing for smooth transitions between AI and human control in situations demanding common sense or contextual understanding is very important. The accountability for any action in the real world still lies with human users as over-reliance on technology can leave users unprepared for instances where AI fails, necessitating more skilled human intervention. A UX designer can analyse such situations and will aid in designing smooth handoff processes.

6. Designing Reward Functions and leveraging User Feedback for Model Improvement: Designing the AI’s reward function is critical as it influences the user experience significantly. User feedback is essential in refining AI models and enhancing user experience. Designers analyse and optimize the reward data to enhance the model for long-term user benefits and anticipate the downstream effects of your product. This also allows users to contribute to the personalization of their experiences, thereby increasing their trust in the system.

7. Anticipating Errors and Designing Response Pathways: A Human-centred design prepares your AI system to facilitate user responses to inevitable errors, turning them into opportunities for learning and improvement.

8. Educating Users and Setting Realistic Expectations: Designers help communicate the capabilities and limitations of your AI product to customers. Help users develop accurate mental models and understand how their interactions train the system. It’s essential to balance user trust, avoiding both undue scepticism and over-reliance on AI.

9. Guiding User Trust in AI Systems: Users need to adjust their trust in AI systems appropriately, rather than relying on them implicitly in every situation. The phenomenon of 'algorithm aversion' is well-documented, where users may be sceptical of software systems. Conversely, there are instances where users place excessive trust in AI capabilities, expecting more than what the system can deliver. Designers help users develop a balanced level of trust, aligning with the system's actual capabilities and limitations by taking a human-centred approach.

For instance, openly acknowledging the potential inaccuracies in AI predictions can temporarily reduce trust in those specific outcomes. However, this honesty can foster a more sustainable trust in the long term. Users become more judicious in their reliance on the system, reducing the likelihood of disappointment due to misplaced expectations."

3. Designing of AI: The User Experience Frontier

When it comes to the design of AI, it's about envisioning and sculpting the interactions between AI systems and their human users. It's a space where new forms of engagement, like voice-activated assistants or image recognition software, become gateways to enhanced user experiences. The key challenge here is transparency: designing interfaces that not only serve but also educate. Users should be able to grasp, with just the right level of detail, how AI systems make decisions and learn over time.

An example could be the intuitive dashboards in our cars that provide real-time insights into the vehicle's AI, or the smart home devices that learn our preferences and conversationally explain their actions. These are no longer scenarios from a sci-fi novel; they are today's design challenges that call for a blend of technical knowledge, user empathy, and creative foresight.

In essence, the designer's canvas has expanded, not just in size but in dimensionality. As AI continues to intertwine with our daily lives, it invites designers to step into roles that are as diverse as they are dynamic, shaping not only how AI looks but also how it behaves and interacts in the fabric of human experience.

Understanding the Limitations of AI in UX Design

Incorporating AI into UX design comes with distinct limitations that underscore the irreplaceable value of human insight and direction.

1. Hallucinations and Reliability

AI "hallucinations" refer to instances where a model confidently generates an incorrect response. These can be caused by inconsistencies within a large data set or errors in the model's training methodology. In fields where precision is critical, such as financial reporting or legal documentation, these inaccuracies can introduce significant risks. Combatting this requires robust document structuring and advanced prompt design techniques to direct AI towards more dependable outcomes.

2. Prompt Sensitivity

Large Language Models (LLMs) are highly sensitive to user input. The nuances of how a prompt is phrased can lead to varied and unpredictable responses. This sensitivity necessitates a careful and strategic approach to prompt engineering, ensuring that the AI's responses align with user intentions. The evolving role of "Prompt Engineer" is a testament to the significance of crafting prompts that steer AI toward delivering consistent and accurate results.

3. Context Window

Limits The context window, the amount of information an AI can consider when generating a response, is a notable constraint. As the context window expands, so does the computational complexity. Despite improvements like GPT-4's extended context window, there remains a ceiling to the volume of data an AI can process at a time. This limitation is particularly challenging in tasks that require the review of extensive documents, where the AI must understand and analyze large quantities of text. Designing for AI in UX thus requires a thoughtful balance between the AI's capabilities and the complexity of the tasks it is expected to perform.

Things Designers Should Know Before Designing for AI

Technical Knowledge

Grasping the basics of data science and AI techniques like NLP and deep learning.
Basic Understanding of the AI toolchain and DevOps processes for AI development.
Access to clean data set.

Ethics in AI

Integrate ethical standards into the design and development process, ensuring accountability, fairness, and transparency.
Navigate GDPR/compliance mandates and be mindful of the financial and human impacts of design decisions.

Collaboration is Key:

Work closely with data scientists and engineers to understand the technical aspects and constraints.
Foster a shared vision across multidisciplinary teams and participate actively in the AI development lifecycle.
Engage in design thinking activities tailored to AI and address the needs of diverse users.

AI Strategy

Develop and communicate a user-focused AI strategy, explaining barriers to adoption and the business and user benefits.
Articulate your company's AI strategy, differentiators, and the journey toward AI success.

Designing AI Interactions

Translate AI model outputs into understandable insights for users and design interactions that capture human input for machine learning.
Prototype and test AI solutions frequently, and design for various stages of the AI lifecycle, such as model maintenance and data collection methods.

User Trust and Transparency

Build trust by making your AI interactions transparent and understandable.

In conclusion, AI is not just a tool but a new frontier in design. By embracing it, we can create more personalized, efficient, and engaging user experiences. Let's embark on this journey together, continuously learning and adapting to ensure technology serves humanity in the most beneficial ways.

Resources to Refer :

Generative AI at SAP: https://open.sap.com/courses/genai1
AI Ethics at SAP: https://open.sap.com/courses/aie1-1
Designing for Generative AI: https://experience.sap.com/internal/fiori-design-web/generative-ai-design/
Designing for Intelligent Systems: https://experience.sap.com/internal/fiori-design-web/designing-intelligent-systems/
SAP AI community file: https://www.figma.com/file/SJh2Eb5KrBIbaK3Bo2wqtq/AI-UX-Pattern-Community-Explorations?type=design&node-id=737-200772&mode=design
AI Design Community Teams Channel
AI Design Community Exploration File
Prompt Pattern Presentation Figjam

Building Intelligent Enterprise by Adopting AI, Design Thinking, and Enterprise Architecture

2024-02-26T08:52:31.130000+01:00

AI holds immense potential to transform enterprises and businesses, with a projected global market size of $190 billion by 2025 according to Statista. However, according to a report by McKinsey, only 8% of enterprises have successfully scaled AI initiatives across their departments, processes, and business lines. This highlights the need for a structured framework and ways of working that can guide enterprises in integrating AI effectively.

Enterprise Design Thinking is a human-centered mindset and approach to innovation that emphasizes empathy, creativity, and iterative prototyping. By applying Enterprise Design Thinking principles, enterprises can better understand the needs and expectations of their customers and employees, internal and external stakeholders, leading the development of more impactful AI solutions.

Furthermore, Enterprise Architecture provides a blueprint for aligning an enterprise's business and IT strategies. By incorporating AI into their enterprise architecture frameworks, enterprises can ensure that AI initiatives are closely aligned with their overall business objectives. According to a survey by Deloitte, 69% of enterprise architecture programs have started incorporating AI into their strategies.

To effectively integrate AI, Enteprise Design Thinking, and Enterprise Architecture, enterprises can follow a light four-step framework:

Define and Frame the Problem: Begin by identifying a specific enterprise/business challenge or opportunity that could benefit from AI. Use Design Thinking principles to empathize with stakeholders and gain a deep understanding of the problem. Then using problem framing to frame the right problems to solve within enterprise.
Design the Solution: Use Enterprise Design Thinking to ideate and prototype potential AI solutions. Focus on creating solutions that are user-centric and align with the enterprise's overall strategy.
Integrate AI into Enterprise Architecture: Develope a detailed adaptive strategy and plan for integrating the AI solution into the enterprise's existing architecture. Consider factors such as data integration, security, and scalability.
Monitor and Iterate: Continuosly monitor the performance of the AI solution and gather feedback from users. Use this feedback loop to iterate and improve the solution over time.

By following this light framework, enterprises can ensure that their AI initiatives are not only technically sound but also deliver tangible business value. By combining the power of AI, Design Thinking, and Enterprise Architecture, enterprises can build intelligent enterprises that become more agile, innovative, and stakeholder-focuses.

Creating a story with Dynamic Version & Date Combinations

2024-06-26T22:52:39.109000+02:00

Introduction

Designing a story in SAP Analytics Cloud can be easy and straightforward with many features to create calculations, columns, styles. The drag and drop functionality helps users create reports with different layouts of various complexity . Optimized story design is also helpful to create advanced stories and reporting layouts using JavaScript to achieve complex functionality and user interactions.

When designing any report or input form, if the layout contains Version and Date dimensions, adding multiple members of versions and Months or Years can result in a Layout that has columns with all the combinations of the members. For example, if the selections contain Actual, Budget for Version and Date contains years 2024 and 2025, the report will have 4 columns. Even though the intention is to show only 2 columns with combinations of [Actual, 2023] and [Budget, 2024], the final report contains all 4 combinations.

There are ways in which we can show only valid/required combinations, for example hiding unwanted columns or suppress columns with no data or using Advanced Filters. But these approaches are not dynamic. Every time there is a change in Version or Date, the columns need to be adjusted manually. It might also create many static reports to achieve different combination reports.

The alternate approach is to create dynamic reports is using Optimized story design using JavaScript and SAC Advanced Script API to show columns with only valid/required combinations. This blog provides required design and logic required for interactions and filtering.

Step 1 - Creating Design Elements

The design of the dashboard uses dropdown menus instead of filters define within Story. The user can select required Dimension members from dropdown and on submit the selections will be sent to the table filters dynamically. We will use story calculations to create required combinations and further use SAC Analytics designer and API to update dimension filters with required combinations.

Step 1-a

Create a New story using Optimized Story design.
Add 4 Dropdown menus ( Insert -> Filters/Controls -> Dropdown). 2 for Actual / 2023 and 2 for Budget/ 2024.
Dropdown names dd_fy1, dd_fy2 for years & dd_cat1, dd_cat2 for versions.
Add 1 submit button ( Insert -> Button )
Button name : btn_1
Add 1 Table and connect to model. Add necessary filters. ( We need to update the filters at a later stage to show necessary columns)
Table Name: table_1

Step 1-b

Once the dropdown menus are added, from the script edit page, add the values required for the dropdown menus. Year dropdown has values as Years and Version dropdown has values as Version names. Below images show the options used for each dropdown.

The final result will be 4 dropdown menus with values and a Submit button.

Step 2 - Logic

Till now we have added design elements in the Story. Now we need to add logic to capture the values selected from dropdown menus and send them story filters.

logic to be added on btn_1 onClick function

The logic has 3 main parts.

extract the selections used from the dropdown menus and pass them to variables and arrays
create valid combinations by combining Version + year values and push into array
Filter the Version, Year and Valid Combinations values on the table

//extract selected versions into variables 
var version1 = dd_cat1.getSelectedKey(); 
var version2 = dd_cat2.getSelectedKey(); 

// append public to variables created above 
var col1_version = "public."+version1; 
var col2_version = "public."+version2; 

//extract selected versions into variables 
var col1_fy = dd_fy1.getSelectedKey(); 
var col2_fy = dd_fy2.getSelectedKey(); 

// save table into variable 
var ds_table1 = table_1.getDataSource(); 

// get dimension names into variables. Note the order of dimensions added in columns. 
// 0 is version, 1 is for year 
var version_col =table_1.getDimensionsOnColumns()[0]; 
var fy_col =table_1.getDimensionsOnColumns()[1]; 

// create an empty array to hold version values and add the version variables created above 
var version_cols_values = ArrayUtils.create(Type.string); 
version_cols_values.push(col1_version); 
version_cols_values.push(col2_version); 

// create an empty array to hold year values and add the year variables created above 
var fy_cols_values = ArrayUtils.create(Type.string); 
fy_cols_values.push(col1_fy); 
fy_cols_values.push(col2_fy); 

// create an empty array for valid combinations 
// for example Actual2023, Budget2024 
var valid_comb = ArrayUtils.create(Type.string); 
valid_comb.push(version1+col1_fy); 
valid_comb.push(version2+col2_fy); 


// set the 3 dimension filters for Version, Date, valid_combinations on the table 
ds_table1.setDimensionFilter(version_col,version_cols_values); 
ds_table1.setDimensionFilter(fy_col,fy_cols_values); 

ds_table1.setDimensionFilter(table_1.getDimensionsOnColumns()[2],valid_comb);

Step 3 - Story

The JavaScript logic above filters the dimension values for Version and Time , Fiscal Year values. But filtering alone on Version and Time still result in additional columns which are not required. So we need to create an additional calculated dimension call "valid_combinations" to identify the required columns and filter them during the runtime.

Below is the code used for creating the calculated dimension. The code uses Version and Fiscal Year to derive the all the possible combinations of columns. One can add many versions, years and create all past and future values possible.

IF(([d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Version].[p/ID]="public.Actual" and [d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Time].[p/FISCAL_YEAR]="2022"),
        "Actual2022",
        IF(([d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Version].[p/ID]="public.Actual" and [d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Time].[p/FISCAL_YEAR]="2023"),
                "Actual2023",
                IF(([d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Version].[p/ID]="public.Actual" and [d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Time].[p/FISCAL_YEAR]="2024"),
                        "Actual2024",
                        IF(([d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Version].[p/ID]="public.Actual" and [d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Time].[p/FISCAL_YEAR]="2025"),
                                "Actual2025",
                                IF(([d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Version].[p/ID]="public.Budget" and [d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Time].[p/FISCAL_YEAR]="2022"),
                                        "Budget2022",
                                        IF(([d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Version].[p/ID]="public.Budget" and [d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Time].[p/FISCAL_YEAR]="2023"),
                                                "Budget2023",
                                                IF(([d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Version].[p/ID]="public.Budget" and [d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Time].[p/FISCAL_YEAR]="2024"),
                                                        "Budget2024",
                                                        IF(([d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Version].[p/ID]="public.Budget" and [d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Time].[p/FISCAL_YEAR]="2025"),
                                                                "Budget2025",
                                                                IF(([d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Version].[p/ID]="public.Plan" and [d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Time].[p/FISCAL_YEAR]="2022"),
                                                                        "Plan2022",
                                                                        IF(([d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Version].[p/ID]="public.Plan" and [d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Time].[p/FISCAL_YEAR]="2023"),
                                                                                "Plan2023",
                                                                                IF(([d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Version].[p/ID]="public.Plan" and [d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Time].[p/FISCAL_YEAR]="2024"),
                                                                                        "Plan2024",
                                                                                        IF(([d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Version].[p/ID]="public.Plan" and [d/"PLANNING_MODEL_SAC":Time].[p/FISCAL_YEAR]="2025"),
                                                                                                "Plan2025",
                                                                                                "Actual2025"
                                                                                        )
                                                                                )
                                                                        )
                                                                )
                                                        )
                                                )
                                        )
                                )
                        )
                )
        )
)

Result

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SAP for Me: Involving customer feedback

2024-08-29T13:58:33.619000+02:00

In today's 24/7 business environment, time is an organization's most valuable resource, especially when dealing with outages that require immediate resolution to keep systems and applications running. To streamline decision-making during such events and reduce solution time, SAP collaborated with four customers to develop a new Outage Experience within SAP for Me, the personalized central entry point providing quick access to SAP products, support, and services.

Actively involving customers

With the SAP Fiori Makers, SAP offers customer bootcamps to design solutions for specific use cases. Recently, adidas, Boehringer Ingelheim, Endress+Hauser, and BASF participated in a four-day bootcamp, gaining valuable insights into SAP Fiori and their end-user needs.

Customer Sascha Dörner, Head of SAP Cross Applications at Boehringer Ingelheim, highlights the success of these bootcamps and his user experience in a positive vein: “We were extremely surprised on how well the finished solution met our expectations and requirements. The methodology and implementation of the bootcamp deserves a special mention, as both played a key role in ensuring that the solution includes end-user feedback and brings real added value. I came to the workshop with a precise idea of the problem and how it could be solved. The professional approach opened further perspectives and dimensions for us, which ultimately led to an even better result.”

Supporting this view, Judith Schneider, UX Designer and SAP Fiori expert, describes the bootcamp setup and goals stating, “We include customers and users from the very beginning of our development journey. In doing so, new ideas flow and areas for improvement can be identified early on. Following this design-led development approach, our customers help shape the user experience according to their expectations.”

SAP’s design-led development process guarantees a solid and consistent user experience that addresses the needs of end-users across all lines of business, tasks, and devices.

To ensure that the outage solution will meet end-user needs, the main persona—an IT admin—has been defined and SAP’s Scenes tool has been used to visualize the user story during an outage. This collaborative process identified additional personas, key notifications, and communication channels, leading participants to create low-fi mockups and ultimately translate the use case into SAP Fiori for a high-fi mockup and a future software prototype.

With Scenes, storyboards about products and services can be created fast, collaboratively, and iteratively.

Benefits of the new Outage Experience in SAP for Me

The new Outage Experience in SAP for Me ensures that users stay informed with real-time event handling across mobile apps and smartwatches. Nathalie Pardini, SAP Product Owner, emphasizes, “This innovative solution gives customers the ability to customize outage notifications according to their specific business needs. By targeting specific users, businesses can ensure that the right people receive important outage information in a timely manner. Thanks to the valuable input from our representative customers, this solution has been widely embraced since its launch and continues to gain momentum.”

The new feature, Bundles, is a flexible grouping of cloud services and systems that offers three key benefits to SAP customers:

Customers can give intuitive names to Bundles and mark them with a business criticality, allowing for customized and prioritized notification management.
Notifications provide clear and accessible information about the specific parts of their business and processes affected by downtime, enabling customers to quickly understand the impact and take appropriate action.
Only relevant and impacted key users will be notified thanks to subscriptions on Bundles, ensuring that the right individuals receive timely and essential information. A notification history provides ongoing updates and post-incident summaries, complete with root cause analysis, helping prevent future outages.

Martin Buselmeier, Solution Architect Integration and Platform at Endress+Hauser, highlights the way this new solution meets their organization’s expectations: “Bundles are the perfect opportunity for us to group various SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP services that relate in various ways. By freely choosing the names, we can use Endress+Hauser's own terminology for recognition and quickly establish the context. Through the subscription, it is now also possible for us to automatically inform stakeholders outside SAP for Me, such as key users or project managers, about downtimes without having to involve an interpreter.”

The new Outage Experience now offers all the user-desired information to handle future outages most efficiently.

Optimizing products with user research – be part of it!

Engaging customers and end-users with their feedback early in the development of the Outage Experience was pivotal in creating a solution that genuinely met their needs. By gaining both a deep understanding of their pain points and needs, SAP successfully developed a product that resonated with users. As one end-user noted, "This is a very user-friendly and functional solution that truly helps customers adapt to specific scenarios or events."

This underscores the critical role user research plays in driving successful product development. In 2023, SAP introduced the SAP User Research Panel, a user research initiative that invites end-users to participate in remote research activities. They can share their product and design experiences, help shape SAP products to better align with their needs, while also offering them a preview of new features or products.

Make your voice heard! Join the SAP User Research Panel. Registration is unbinding and easy, taking part in research studies is convenient, taking ten to sixty minutes.
To learn more about the SAP Fiori Makers bootcamp offering, which includes a few days long physical workshop following the design-led development process, please visit their webpage.
Are you interested in more info about the Outage Experience and Bundles feature? Explore more in Nathalie’s most recent blog. For more information about SAP for Me, have a look here.

This article originally appeared on SAPinsider.

Building a Sales Organizational Structure in SAP: A Bottom-Up Approach

2025-02-28T10:03:39.697000+01:00

In any organization, a well-structured sales hierarchy is key to managing operations efficiently. Instead of looking at it from the top down, let’s take a bottom-up approach, starting from the execution teams and working our way up to strategic decision-making.

1. Sales Group: The Frontline Sales Force

At the foundation of any sales structure is the Sales Group, which consists of the individuals responsible for selling products in their assigned regions. These teams interact directly with customers, generate sales, and ensure smooth order fulfillment.

Creation: Sales Group

Path: Enterprise Structure → Definition → Sales and Distribution → Maintain Sales Group

Assignment: Sales Group to Sales Office

Path: Enterprise Structure → Assignment → Sales and Distribution → Assign Sales Group to Sales Office

2. Sales Office: Managing Regional Operations

Each Sales Group reports to a Sales Office, which acts as the regional hub for sales activities. These offices oversee sales teams, provide support, and manage operational logistics.

For example:

The Singapore Sales Office oversees operations in South East Asia.
The Germany Sales Office handles sales for East Asia.

Creation: Sales Office

Path: Enterprise Structure → Definition → Sales and Distribution → Maintain Sales Office

Assignment: Sales Office to Sales Area

Path: Enterprise Structure → Assignment → Sales and Distribution → Assign Sales Office to Sales Areas

3. Sales Area: Defining Product, Channel, and Organization Alignment

Before products reach customers, they must be assigned to a Sales Area, which is a combination of three critical elements:

Sales Organization (the business entity responsible for sales)
Distribution Channel (the method of selling)
Division (the type of product)

For example:

Sales Org: Food + Wholesale Channel + Carcass Division → This area focuses on selling raw food products through wholesale distributors.
Sales Org: Food + Retail Channel + Processed Division → This area manages processed food products sold directly to retail customers.

Each Sales Area determines pricing, customer contracts, and order management processes.

Assignment: Sales Area Setup

Path: Enterprise Structure → Assignment → Sales and Distribution → Set Up Sales Area

4. Division: Organizing Product Categories

A Division categorizes products based on how they are handled in the supply chain. The three divisions in this structure are:

Carcass → Raw, unprocessed goods.
Processed → Packaged and ready-to-consume products.
Live Stock → Direct sale of live animals.

Divisions ensure that sales teams know which products they are responsible for and how they should be distributed.

Creation: Division

Path: Enterprise Structure → Definition → Logistics – General → Define, Copy, Delete, Check Division (T-code: OVXB)

Assignment: Division to Sales Organization

Path: Enterprise Structure → Assignment → Sales and Distribution → Assign Division to Sales Organization

5. Distribution Channel: Delivering Products to Customers

Once products are categorized, they need a Distribution Channel to reach customers. The company uses three primary channels:

Wholesale → Bulk selling to large-scale buyers.
Retail → Direct sales to consumers through stores or e-commerce.
Distributor → Third-party partners who handle sales and distribution.

Each channel serves a unique market and requires different sales strategies.

Creation: Distribution Channel

Path: Enterprise Structure → Definition → Sales and Distribution → Define, Copy, Delete, Check Distribution Channel (T-code: OVXI)

Assignment: Distribution Channel to Sales Organization

Path: Enterprise Structure → Assignment → Sales and Distribution → Assign Distribution Channel to Sales Organization

6. Sales Organization: The Strategic Backbone

At the highest level, we have the Sales Organization, which oversees all sales functions. In this structure, there are two main Sales Organizations:

Food
Packaging

These organizations define high-level strategies, pricing policies, and overall business goals for their respective industries.

Creation: Sales Organization

Path: Enterprise Structure → Definition → Sales and Distribution → Define, Copy, Delete, Check Sales Organization (T-code: OVX5)

Conclusion

By building the SAP Sales Organizational Structure from the ground up, we can see how each layer supports the one above it. The Sales Groups execute the strategy, the Sales Offices manage regions, the Sales Areas define product-market alignment, and the Sales Organization oversees the entire operation.

This bottom-up approach highlights the importance of each role in ensuring seamless sales execution, efficient distribution, and strong market presence.

Energy supplier badenova transforms work order coordination with SAP Fiori Makers boot camp

2025-04-15T14:15:44.307000+02:00

In September 2024, SAP customer and German energy supplier badenova embarked on a transformative journey to streamline its work order coordination processes. To better manage the persistent operational challenges around customer requests, its subsidiary badenovaNETZE joined the SAP Fiori Makers program for an intensive, hands-on boot camp in Freiburg, Germany.

The boot camp focused on addressing and analyzing the real challenges faced by the company’s work order coordinators to optimize their daily work experience and routines.

The challenge: A fragmented, manual process

Before the boot camp, badenovaNETZE’s work order coordination was a fragmented mix of tools and processes. Coordinators were juggling SAP software, custom programs from SmartService Solutions, and basic applications like Word and Excel to complete their tasks. The status quo resulted in a couple of challenges to address and optimize:

Improve user experience: The existing interface was difficult to navigate, leading to user frustration and reduced productivity.
Avoid manual processes: Coordinators had to both transfer information across multiple systems and update data manually, making routine tasks time-consuming and prone to errors.
Reduce error rate: The repetitive, manual tasks increased the risk of data entry errors, causing delays and additional workload.
Increase transparency: With limited visibility into work order statuses, coordinators spent a lot of time tracking down information and monitoring progress.

The solution: A hands-on transformation

The company participated in a four-day SAP Fiori Makers boot camp, bringing together customer end users, IT teams, and partners. The focus of the boot camp was to improve the usability of the work order cockpit by transitioning from manual tasks and workarounds to an SAP app prototype as a tangible starting point. It aimed at implementing process automation, incorporating dashboards, enhancing the user experience, and reducing error rates.

The boot camp provided badenovaNETZE with the tools and an open, agile workshop format needed to tackle these challenges. Based on this close collaboration with the company’s coordinators, the SAP team developed customized solutions that streamlined processes and the final outcome. “The beauty of our boot camps is that we get to know and truly understand the challenges of our end users,” SAP UX Designer Christina Salwitzek summarizes. “Together with the end user and from the beginning, we designed and developed a more efficient solution for this complex workflow.”

Preview of a work order screen at badenova (menu items are in German)

The objectives

badenovaNETZE faces operational challenges when managing numerous customer requests in metering, including meter replacement, installation, and removal. Together, the teams set ambitious yet achievable objectives to ensure long-term success. Operational readiness by 2025 was the top priority, with a clear goal of transitioning to an optimized, future-proof system in the first half of the new year.

To support this transition, the boot camp helped increase SAP technology knowledge and development skills within the badenovaNETZE team. The team is now prepared to maintain, adapt, and expand the new solution as their needs evolve. “What surprised me the most is that we actually made such good progress together and that everybody was able to contribute something,” says Paulina Deren, order coordination advisor at badenovaNETZE.

Finally, the team established a prioritized road map—a clear, phased approach designed to guide the customer through each stage of the transformation, enabling a smooth journey from concept to realization. The SAP Fiori Makers team included three UX designers, an SAP Fiori elements front-end developer who brought the visual designs to life, and a backend developer specializing in the SAP Cloud Application Programming Model framework to help ensure robust, scalable functionality. The team was guided by Andreas Spahn, principal technology & innovation manager from the SAP Services team, who moderated the boot camp and facilitated collaboration. “What makes SAP Fiori Makers so special is that we have one problem statement and we have one team to analyze today’s problem with the end user and solve it,” he says. “This involves experts from technology, design, and development.”

The SAP design system is ready to usher in the next evolution of enterprise software

Learn more

The experience

A core element was the creation of a user-centric and future-focused design for a new work order cockpit. The team used design thinking techniques in combination with the capabilities of SAP Fiori, SAP Fiori elements, and SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) to get started. Being one of Germany’s largest regional suppliers of electricity, natural gas, heat energy, and water, badenova already used SAP BTP for integration scenarios and started using it for application development with this project.

For its intuitive, streamlined interface, the team conducted a thorough feasibility assessment to validate the proposed solution’s technical and operational viability. They then rapidly co-created and prototyped solutions in close collaboration with actual users.

The derived prototype not only simplified complex workflows but also significantly reduced manual tasks, minimized errors, and eliminated data silos. By centralizing all relevant information into a unified system, the team delivered a seamless user experience, initiating the groundwork necessary for full deployment.

The result garnered positive feedback from participants, reflecting the practicality and innovation of the solution. “Most impressive to me was the headway made,” Daniel Oberle, business architect at badenovaNETZE, says. “Without the SAP Fiori Makers boot camp, we would be looking at another half a year to get to where we are just now.”

Real user feedback

To ensure the solution truly resonated with its users, the team conducted three on-site, moderated usability tests using a Figma prototype. Each session included two notetakers capturing live feedback directly within Figma, allowing for immediate insights and adjustments. The initial user stories were visualized using SAP’s Scenes storytelling tool, which enabled the team to quickly create collaborative, visual narratives without the need for drawing skills. These early concepts were then refined with SAP Fiori design stencils in Figma, streamlining the transition from rough ideas to polished prototypes.

The involvement of SAP users during the boot camp was instrumental, providing real-time evaluation through cognitive walkthroughs. “If the user experience fits, employees are happy and enjoy using the software,” Teresa Mayer, UX designer at SAP, says. This hands-on, iterative process helped ensure the final design aligned closely with user expectations and needs.

This example underscores the critical role user research plays in driving successful, error-free, and beneficial product development. To strengthen its user feedback approach even further, SAP introduced the SAP User Research Panel program. This initiative invites users to participate in remote research activities, allowing SAP’s product teams to get feedback along the product life cycle. Users can share their product and design experiences to help shape SAP products to better align with their needs while also getting a preview of new features or products.

Conclusion

The SAP Fiori Makers boot camp proved to be a pivotal step in badenovaNETZE’s digital transformation journey. By combining cutting-edge SAP technologies with a user-centric design approach, the team not only tackled complex operational challenges but also delivered a solution that significantly enhances efficiency and user satisfaction. The rapid progress made during the boot camp—cutting down development time by six months and projecting savings of 115 working days per year—underscores the power of collaboration and innovation.

With the project already underway and goals for 2025 set, badenovaNETZE is well-positioned to continue refining and optimizing processes with an even more engaged and satisfied workforce.

Make your voice heard by joining the SAP User Research Panel initiative. Registration is easy and taking part in research studies is convenient. To learn more about the SAP Fiori Makers boot camp, which includes a workshop following the design-led development process, visit our web page.

This story originally appeared on SAPinsider with the support of Suparna Chawla.

From Hype to Reality: AI Discovery Workshop in SAP Serialization Life Sciences

2025-08-19T15:14:20.284000+02:00

Big Ideas begin with small sketches

Over the past decade, serialization has become a cornerstone for ensuring compliance, traceability, and supply chain integrity, particularly in industries like pharmaceuticals, life sciences, and consumer goods. As regulations grow more complex and data volumes increase, the need for intelligent, automated insights within serialization processes has never been clearer.

That’s why we recently conducted an AI Discovery Workshop focused on SAP’s Serialization solution, bringing together cross-functional teams from over 17 largest companies in the US to explore how Artificial Intelligence can elevate serialization from a compliance tool into a strategic business enabler.

🔍 Why Focus on AI in Serialization?

SAP Serialization solutions provide rich, structured data - batch numbers, production line metrics, event histories, and global traceability records. This makes them an ideal foundation for AI-driven innovation.

During the workshop, we explored several high-impact use cases, including:

Predictive Exception Management – Flagging anomalies in serial number generation, shipping delays, or partner reporting issues.
Intelligent Root Cause Analysis – Using AI to trace deviations or failures back to specific batches, suppliers, or production events.
Smart Data handling – Automating error detection in serial number hierarchies across complex supply networks.

🧠 Leveraging the SAP AppHaus Approach for AI Innovation

A key differentiator of this workshop was running a Business AI Discovery Workshop, facilitated by @AmirBonakdar from the SAP AppHaus. Grounded in SAP’s proven human-centered innovation methodology, this approach ensured we:

Empathized with serialization users — from supply chain managers to compliance officers — to uncover unmet needs and pain points.
Defined clear problem statements rooted in business impact.
Co-created practical AI use cases that are both technically feasible and truly valuable for end users.

💡 Workshop Insights: Beyond Compliance, Unlocking Real Business Value

Exception Management is a High-Impact Starting Point:
Serialization data often surfaces numerous exceptions - missing serial numbers, shipment inconsistencies, or data input errors - that require manual investigation. The workshop highlighted how AI-driven predictive exception management can dramatically reduce manual effort by automatically flagging high-risk issues before they escalate, improving operational efficiency and reducing costly delays.
Value Extends Well Beyond Regulatory Compliance:
While compliance remains fundamental, participants recognized serialization data as a rich source for strategic analytics. By leveraging AI, organizations can gain deeper supply chain visibility, optimize inventory flows, and enhance supplier collaboration - delivering tangible cost savings and customer satisfaction improvements.
Analytics as a Foundation for Continuous Improvement:
Real-time AI-powered analytics dashboards and alerts emerged as essential tools for driving ongoing process improvements. The ability to detect trends, identify recurring root causes, and monitor compliance dynamically equips decision-makers with actionable insights to proactively mitigate risks.

👣 What’s Next?

We’re exploring pilot initiatives, both focused on intelligent exception handling and traceability assistants. The goal is to improve operational agility and compliance confidence while laying the foundation for more advanced AI capabilities.

If you’re working with serialization in SAP and wondering how to take the next step with AI, I’d be happy to share more or connect you with the right resources.

Let’s move beyond compliance - and into intelligence.

SAP Information Collaboration Hub for Life Sciences SAP Advanced Track and Trace for Pharmaceuticals

Unlocking the Potential of Templates in SAP Build Store: A UX-Led Transformation

2025-08-20T10:12:29.806000+02:00

In early 2024, we discovered something surprising.
The average user spent just 1 minute and 14 seconds in the SAP Build Store. Even more striking: nearly 60% of users left within 15 seconds.

We had invested in pre-designed, ready-to-use solutions, what we call Templates, to accelerate project creation, reduce repetitive tasks, and improve efficiency across SAP Build. But the data told us something else: the feature was practically invisible.

The challenge: our locked treasure

Why was engagement so low? Our research revealed a few key reasons:

Terminology like “Store” and “Ready to Use” was confusing
The design was outdated and not aligned with SAP’s Fiori guidelines
Navigation was weak, leaving users without clear entry points
Most users only discovered the feature via a lobby shortcut. Without it, usage dropped dramatically

We had a powerful capability, but no visibility.

The original design: outdated, unclear, and often overlooked

Strategic context and research

This redesign was not done in isolation. It aligned with the SAP Build 2025 strategy, which emphasizes predefined processes and best practices to accelerate time to value.

We also reviewed how similar solutions in the market are positioned. A common theme was the strong emphasis on clarity and discoverability, which reinforced the importance of making SAP’s Templates more visible and actionable

The big idea: make Templates impossible to ignore

Our guiding principle was simple: Visibility, Clarity, Efficiency.
If users did not see it, they would not use it.

So the mission was twofold:

Make Templates more discoverable, even without shortcuts
Clarify their purpose so users could quickly understand and act

Transformation in action

We redesigned the experience with these goals in mind:

Consistency: A modern, structured UI aligned with SAP’s design language
Navigation: Clearer pathways and filters so users could find relevant templates more easily
Cards: A more engaging presentation with images, clearer actions, and hierarchy
Clarity: New status badges and improved copy to reduce confusion
Guidance: A new dialog to help users understand the difference between Pre-built and Sample templates
Terminology: We also introduced several naming changes to reduce confusion and better reflect the feature’s purpose, such as renaming “Store” to Templates, “Ready to Use” to Pre-built, and “Template” to Sample. These adjustments might look small, but they made the feature’s value clearer and easier to understand.

In short, the redesign turned Templates from a hidden corner into a visible, structured, and valuable part of the experience.

The redesigned templates: clearer hierarchy, modern visuals, and consistent actions..

New Select Template dialog: shown when creating a template that supports both options, helping users choose between Pre-built and Sample with clearer guidance.

Testing with users

To validate the new approach, we ran two usability studies:

July 2024: with 6 internal SAP colleagues who used the Store daily
December 2024: with 5 SAP customers from Vodafone, AIRBUS, Merck, and Twinnings

The feedback was clear:

Users finally understood Templates
Many admitted they had not known the feature even existed before
Excitement grew as they realized Templates could meaningfully support their workflows

One participant summed it up:

“Positive step to move from Store to Template. The UI is much better from the old Store, it is awesome.”

The impact

This redesign has not yet been developed, and there is no confirmed timeline for implementation.
But the usability studies made one thing clear:

More visibility → more usage
More clarity → more efficiency
More usability → more business value

Key takeaways

Do not wait for permission. If something is broken, fix it
Business impact and usability go hand in hand
Visibility is everything. If users do not see it, they will not use it

This journey reminded me that some of the most impactful UX work is not about adding new features, but about unlocking the hidden value that already exists.

Have you faced a similar challenge in making an important feature more visible and usable? I’d love to hear how you approached it in your product.

Marketing and Sales Digital Transformation Story: SAP Social Sabbatical Program - Bhayli & SAP

2025-08-21T14:17:04.701000+02:00

⭐Bhayli & SAP: One Team, One Dream ⭐ Jai Seva — Victory in Service ⭐

As I look back on my final week in Jaipur, it feels like the culmination of not just a project, but of a journey of growth, collaboration, and shared purpose. What began four weeks ago with introductions, first impressions, and a steep learning curve has now come full circle with a clear strategy, a strong partnership, and lasting memories.

The SAP Social Sabbatical program brings together SAP employees from around the world to support innovative non-profits and social enterprises, helping them tackle real business challenges. Every organisation we’re working with are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which makes this experience extremely meaningful, as it is fully aligned with some of my most treasured core values. This opportunity hits close to home — using the skills I’ve built over the years to support communities and businesses doing good in the world has always been a personal pursuit.

This last week marked an important milestone in our work with Bhayli — a women-led initiative that empowers artisans and supports the circular economy by transforming waste into beautiful, meaningful products. Bhayli empowers rural women in Rajasthan by training them to transform waste materials — like plastic bottles and beverage cans — into beautifully handwoven and handcrafted products. You can find more about Bhayli’s mission and vision in their website here and Instagram account here. Together with my SAP teammates Lucrecia Maphupha and Nidia Miguel in collaboration with Bhayli, we finalized a new Marketing and Sales phased business approach designed to capacitate Bhayli scale sustainably, strengthen its partnerships, and expand its impact.

Bhayli & SAP: One Team, One Dream

Design Thinking workshops

Building the Strategy

The fourth and last program week was all about bringing together the insights we had gathered over the previous three weeks. We refined the customer journeys, aligned on marketing opportunities, and worked through pricing strategies that would make sense both for Bhayli and its creative partners. It was an intense but rewarding process of distilling complex discussions into a clear, actionable roadmap.

One of the highlights of our collaboration with Bhayli was running a design thinking workshop with their team. The session brought together artisans, partners, and our sabbatical group to reimagine how Bhayli could expand its reach while staying true to its mission. Using hands-on exercises, we mapped customer needs, brainstormed new opportunities. What stood out most was the energy in the room: every idea, no matter how simple, sparked discussion, and every prototype carried a sense of pride and possibility. It was a powerful experience that not only generated practical insights for Bhayli’s growth but also built a deeper sense of connection and shared purpose among everyone involved.

There were moments of debate, brainstorming, and back-and-forth alignment — but that’s exactly what made the process so powerful. Each one of us brought different perspectives, shaped by our backgrounds and experiences, and those perspectives enriched the final outcome. It wasn’t just a project handed over — it was a true collaboration, built on trust and respect.

Bhayli's Business Growth Framework

Bhayli & SAP

The Final Presentation

Our program concluded with the final presentation, where we officially handed over the project deliverables. Standing together as a team, sharing our recommendations, and watching the Bhayli leadership nod with excitement and recognition was a moment of pride. It reminded me why programs like the SAP Social Sabbatical exist: to connect corporate skills with social impact, and to create bridges between business frameworks and grassroots innovation.

The presentation was more than a transfer of work — it was a celebration of the journey we had shared with Bhayli’s team, from long discussions over chai, to creative workshops shaping recycled materials, to aligning on business strategy that will help them grow their mission.

Final Presentation

Reflections on the Journey

As I reflect on these four weeks, what stands out most are not just the deliverables, but the people and experiences behind them. I think of the women artisans at Bhayli, whose creativity and resilience give life to products that carry both beauty and purpose. I think of the chaotic but vibrant streets of Jaipur — the honking symphony of traffic, the monsoon rains, the shared laughter over spicy meals. I think of my teammates, who became more than colleagues — they became friends, united by the shared challenge of making an impact.

This sabbatical has taught me that impact is rarely linear. It is messy, unpredictable, and sometimes overwhelming — but it is also deeply rewarding. By stepping out of our comfort zones, immersing ourselves in a new culture, and working alongside local partners, we not only helped build solutions but also learned to see the world through different lenses.

Taj Mahal visit

Gratitude

I am incredibly grateful to everyone who made this experience possible. To my fellow team members Lucrecia and Nidia— thank you for your dedication, your creativity, and your energy. To the Bhayli team, thank you for opening your doors, sharing your story, and allowing us to walk alongside you in this chapter of your journey. And to Pyxera Global, especially Shilpa Ahluwalia , Matrena Martin and Amisha Choudhary, thank you for organizing, guiding, and supporting us every step of the way. A big thanks to my extended SAP Team who shared this Journey with me: Evelyn Fromm, Oscar Fonque, Gisela Picaro, Daniel Fritsch, May Seet, Vera Volgina, Sebastian Lutz, Jackson Rogers, Carrie Barth and Vani Barg. Lastly I want to thank my manager Sam Forel for supporting me in this endeavor.

SAP Social Sabbatical Extended Team

Closing Thoughts - Key Takeaways

When I joined the SAP Social Sabbatical in Jaipur, I knew it would be a unique opportunity, but I didn’t realize just how much it would change me. My role was to work with Bhayli on creating a phased sales and marketing plan to capacitate their business scalability. On paper, it sounded like a familiar challenge. In reality, it pushed me far beyond my comfort zone and gave me lessons I’ll carry with me for years.

The biggest change I experienced was building resilience, adaptability, and cultural awareness. Working in a completely new environment, with different ways of thinking and operating, forced me to let go of assumptions and really listen. It taught me to adapt quickly, stay resilient when things didn’t go as planned, and appreciate perspectives very different from my own.

On a personal level, this opened my horizons. I discovered so much about Indian culture, the dedication of the artisans, and the sense of community around the work. I found myself becoming more empathetic, not only toward others but also in how I see the world — valuing patience, creativity, and the human stories behind every business.

SAP Social Sabbatical Extended Team

Professionally, the experience sharpened skills I thought I already knew. Leading design thinking workshops in this context showed me the power of collaboration and creativity when diverse voices are brought together. Managing scope and expectations in an environment so different from my usual work strengthened my ability to navigate ambiguity and lead with clarity.
As a former SAP CRM consultant focusing in marketing and sales business, it felt refreshing being able to use my knowledge in this context. In additional, my experience as Customer Success Manager in building relationships and retaining SAP Customers, also contributed to reflect on strategies and best practices that can be adopted by Bhayli.

I also gained a deeper understanding of how businesses in India — and particularly artisan-driven businesses — operate, which gave me fresh insights into ecosystems far outside the corporate world. On top of that, having the chance to engage directly with C-level leaders from local organizations helped me grow my confidence in stakeholder management and strategic conversations.

Looking back, Jaipur wasn’t just about contributing my expertise — it was about growing as a person and a professional. I came back with a stronger sense of resilience, an openness to new perspectives, and practical leadership skills that I apply every day as a Customer Success Manager. More than anything, it reminded me that real impact comes from empathy, collaboration, and the willingness to learn as much as you give.

As our sabbatical in Jaipur comes to an end, I carry with me not just professional learnings, but also personal reflections. This experience was a reminder that true change happens when people come together with openness, humility, and a shared vision for a better future.

Jaipur will always remain in my heart — not just as a place I visited, but as a community that welcomed me, challenged me, and inspired me. This is not the end, but the beginning of new ways of thinking about business, impact, and collaboration.Shaping a Hand Embossed Hosting Tray

Shaping a Hand Embossed Hosting Tray

Hand Embossed Hosting Tray

Unlock S/4HANA Cloud Secrets: Hybrid Events+APIs Strategy for Seamless BTP Data Flows

2026-02-12T01:30:35.487000+01:00

Strategic Financial Data Extraction from SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition to SAP BTP

Using Transfer Pricing as a Real-World Example

Transfer pricing represents a perfect use case to demonstrate generic financial data extraction strategies from SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Multinational organisations need GL, Controlling, Material Ledger, and Asset Accounting postings to flow reliably to external engines hosted on SAP BTP—but Public Cloud’s “no direct database access” constraint demands architecturally sound patterns.

Why Transfer Pricing Perfectly Illustrates the Challenge

The business need: Calculate inter-company markups (cost-plus, resale-minus) using real-time ACDOCA postings across multiple currencies, profit centres, and cost elements.
The constraint: Pure cloud extensibility—no RFCs, no custom ABAP, no direct table extracts.
The solution: Three proven patterns that work for any financial data integration scenario.

Pattern 1: Event Notifications (Real-Time Push Model)

How transfer pricing uses it: GL postings trigger automatic business event notifications routed through SAP Event Mesh to BTP applications.

Event Notification

Generic applicability: Works for any posting-driven process—revenue recognition, inter-company reconciliation, compliance monitoring.

High-level activation:

Integration configuration apps → Activate accounting-related event notifications
Communication scenarios → Configure outbound event destinations
Event Mesh subscription → Point to BTP service endpoint
Payload contains: Company codes, ledger amounts (local/group), profit centres, material valuations

Pattern 2: Standard Query Services (Scheduled Pull Model)

How transfer pricing uses it: BTP service queries S/4HANA nightly for new/changed financial postings.

Query ServiceKey services (release-dependent availability):

Financial line item services → GL/CO/ML/AA postings
Profitability services → Margin analysis data
Material valuation services → Cost component details

Generic applicability: Perfect for scheduled reconciliation, historical backfills, or validation runs.

Pattern 3: Hybrid Extraction (Production Resilience)

Transfer pricing demands 99.9% coverage. Smart architects layer all three patterns:

Use Case	Primary Pattern	Transfer Pricing Example	Generic Use
Real-time GL postings	Event notifications	Invoice → immediate markup	Any posting trigger
Historical catch-up	Standard APIs	Month-end reconciliation	Data migration
Day 1 implementation	Bulk extraction	Full ACDOCA baseline	Initial loads
Custom calculations	BTP processing	Exception overrides	Business rules

Three-tier reference flow:

Hybrid ExtractionBTP Implementation Patterns (Transfer Pricing Example)

Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP)

service FinancialIntegration {
  entity Postings as projection on external financial services;
  entity PricingResults as projection on HANA staging;
}

Pattern: Event handlers + scheduled queries → unified HANA staging → business rules.

ABAP RESTful Application Programming (RAP)

define root view entity FinancialDataView
  as select from standard financial services

Pattern: Analytical CDS views over external data → transactional services.

Architect’s Production Checklist

✅ Tenant validation: Test events/APIs in your specific S/4HANA Cloud environment
✅ Quota management: Monitor Event Mesh throughput + API rate limits
✅ Fallback design: API polling validates event stream completeness
✅ Quarterly readiness: SAP evolves event coverage and API fields continuously
✅ Pure cloud: Zero custom code in production S/4HANA

The Universal Pattern

Transfer pricing proves the strategy works for complex financial scenarios. The same architecture applies to:

Inter-company reconciliation
Revenue recognition automation
Compliance reporting engines
Analytics data pipelines
Any standard data object/model driven process

Universal PatternKey takeaway: This isn’t “just for transfer pricing”—it’s your reusable blueprint for any S/4HANA Cloud → BTP data integration.