SAP Community - User Experience

SAP Standard Content Vs. Custom-built Content for End-User Adoption in SAP Implementation Programs

2025-03-06T19:13:43.863000+01:00

I have been a part of various SAP Implementation programs to lead the efforts for End-User Adoption. During various customer engagements, I have observed the SAP Standard Content, plus have anchored teams to build plentiful Custom Content for End User trainings.

In this blog, I will share my findings on whether we can use SAP Standard Content alone for End-User training / adoption.

SAP provides the standard content through various ways, such as SAP Learning Hub, SAP Enable Now, and Help Documentation. Remember that SAP standard content provides good information; however, using the standard content alone for End-User Training is generally not sufficient.

Standard Content is generic in nature

Standard content is typically the generic content provided by SAP. This standard content is designed for a broad industry; it intends to be flexible to cover a wide range of industries and business functions.

The standard SAP content is drafted with model company, model configurations, best practices, and out-of-the-box functionalities. Some standard content does happen to be the cross-industry content, for example, the standard content like Finance, Procurement, HR, and Supply Chain applies across industries.

While this standard content from SAP is definitely good, but it is not tailored to specific industry or organization. This standard content does not fully address the organization-specific processes, configurations, custom workflows, business rules, policies, local regulations, legacy system integrations, etc. made during the implementation for the organization.

Standard Content lacks the implementation story / context

End Users typically prefer practical & role-based training, with real organizational processes. Additionally, while learning about process executions in the new system, the End Users also wish to get the following insights integrated with the process explanations, precisely & realistically:

SAP integrations with their organization's legacy systems
Business rules & SOPs
What’s changing information
Cross-role collaboration
Inter-departmental connections
Organization-specific settings & controls configured in the system
Localizations
...and more

Standard SAP documentation assumes SAP-centric environment, and generally does not cover the above-mentioned areas for the organization. In short, the standard content does not align directly with organization-specific user roles, integrations, policies, plus the overall implementation story & context; thus, making it difficult for End Users to apply the standard content in daily tasks. As a result, this leads us to the development of custom training content for End Users.

Standard Content does not reflect organization-specific workflows

In the initial phase of the implementation program, Functional / Technical Consultants gather requirements for the implementation, do Fit-Gap analysis, and then define multiple TO-BE business workflows, specific to the client's organization. These TO-BE workflows (typically swim-lane diagrams) cover how the organization's real business processes will be facilitated through the new system, encompassing various business roles, business rules, policies, legacy systems, and inter-departmental connections. Every such workflow tells a story from the organization’s perspective.

Now, here remember that these TO-BE workflows will play a crucial role for the following two scenarios:

First, Application Development Team / System Configuration Team need to refer to these workflows to develop & configure the new system to make it behave, exactly as expected by the client.
Second, Business Users / End Users must comprehend these organization-specific TO-BE workflows in a simplified way to know the new system's behavior and their interactions with the new system.

Here, the standard content from SAP will help the users understand the processes in general, but not in the context of the client's organization. As a result, this leads us to the development of custom content, explaining these TO-BE workflows in a simplified way (e.g., happy flows, alternate flows, exceptions, and other variables).

Standard Content does not reflect organization-specific system settings & controls

Here, let's assume that the SAP system is implemented with out-of-the box functionalities (with no customizations) for a client's organization. Now, even with out-of-the-box functionalities, the Implementation Team need to modify / customize certain aspects during the system set up / configuration, for example:

Configuring organization-specific product / material codes, catalogs, pricing conditions, roles-security constraints, order types, localization settings, and so on.
Enabling and disabling various controls in the system to make the system behave as per organization's requirements.

Now, when it comes to training, End Users prefer to learn the new system along with all these specifics configured / set in the new system. The standard content will not reflect the client-specific settings & controls, as it is drafted based on model company, configurations, settings, and SAP-centric environment. As a result, this leads us to the development of custom content to make it highly specific to the End Users.

Documentation Vs. Learning Experience

SAP’s standard content can be considered more like good product documentation / manual, explaining SAP’s product features, functional capabilities, and process overviews with probable business scenarios. This standard content is good reading material as a great starting point. However, we cannot achieve the required training / learning experience with the standard content.

Learning experience is typically driven by clear learning objectives tailored to user needs; practical & organization-specific context for better relevance; interactive elements (quizzes, simulations, scenario-based learning, micro-learning, real-life examples, interactive exercises, quiz, etc.) for better user engagement and retention, and so on.

Hence, if the goal is skill-building, knowledge retention, and behavioral change in End Users, then the carefully custom-built & instructionally-sound training is the best approach.

Consistency in Future Onboarding

When an organization undertakes a large-scale implementation and invests in Training, the organization also thinks about the future returns on the investment. For example, the organization wants to utilize the training materials for future onboardings of new hires, or use the training materials when employees leave or switch roles, etc.

Having custom-built training content with the organization-specific context & details ensures that every new hire receives the same level of knowledge & skills. If the organization simply relies on the standard content, then it will result in longer & inconsistent onboarding.
Having well-documented custom training materials help to maintain knowledge continuity as employees leave or change roles.

Different User Roles Using SAP in Unique Ways

In an organization, there will be different roles, who will interact with the new SAP system in unique ways, and will also have different comfort levels to use the modern technology / systems. For example, there will be roles, such as Warehouse Workers, Finance Teams, HR Staff, Procurement Specialists, etc.

Now, when the transformation is planned to happen in a big way (in just a few months) from old to modern systems, these roles will have their own apprehensions & reservations about how they will transition to the new world suddenly.

Here, to safely & carefully take these users to the new world and maintain the momentum for business operations in the new system from day 1 after the system go-live, custom training content needs to be built. This custom content will precisely & realistically reflect the daily workflows plus scenarios and system navigation for each role.

Some user groups may learn to use the new system just based on the standard content; however, we cannot generalize this for all user groups, specifically when the transformation happens at a large scale, and the organization's business operations & productivity will be at stake from day 1 after the go-live. In short, we cannot simply rely on the standard SAP content & generic system navigation, and expect that all user roles will transition confidently to the new world.

Conclusion

Training Team can effectively use SAP’s standard content, user guides, and process documentation as a base to build the initial understanding quickly, and then proceed to fast-track the development of custom training content, in line with client-specific workflows, business rules, policies, legacy integrations, what’s changing information, system settings, cross-role collaboration, and so on.

On the other side, as part of the flipped learning approach, organizations can use the SAP’s standard content as a great starting point to familiarize their employees with the new SAP product / system, its features, process overviews, functional capabilities, etc. and then formally execute the custom-built training content sessions. This ensures that end-users understand and effectively use the new system in their daily work.

How to Measure / Evaluate End User Adoption Training for System Implementation Programs

2025-03-06T21:58:52.920000+01:00

I have been acting as a Learning Consultant for various End-User Adoption programs for varied software implementations like SAP, Ariba, Oracle, Maximo, Microsoft Dynamics, and other custom technologies & platforms, for the clients across geographies.

Training Evaluation / Measurement is a critical area for the success of End-User Training. Typically, for training evaluation, we leverage the famous Kirkpatrick model with various levels of evaluation.

Based on my experience & research, I would like to share that we can also simply consider a set of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to carry out training evaluation. Here, I will explain the Training Evaluation, mainly for corporate end-user training programs in the context of technology implementation / transformation, for example, End-User Training for SAP implementation.

Based on my experience & research, I have tried to simplify & summarize the metrics as follows. You may want to consider these for training evaluation:

Participation Metrics
Performance Metrics
Impact Metrics
Usage Metrics

Let’s get familiar with these metrics, one by one.

Participation Metrics

For Participation Metrics, you may consider the following:

Training Completion Rate: Here, we consider the percentage of employees who complete the assigned training.
Attendance Rate: Here, we consider the percentage of employees who attend live or virtual training sessions, or complete the self-paced learning modules.
Drop-off Rate: Here, we consider the number of employees who start but do not complete the training.
Time Spent on Training: Here, we consider the average time employees spend on training modules.

Performance Metrics

For Performance Metrics, you may consider the following:

Assessment Scores: Here, we consider the average pre- and post-training test scores to measure knowledge improvement.
Certification Rate: Here, we consider the percentage of employees who earn certifications upon training completion.
Knowledge Retention Rate: Here, we use the follow-up assessments (e.g., 30/60/90 days post-training) to measure the retained knowledge.

Impact Metrics

For Impact Metrics, you may consider the following:

Employee Feedback Scores: Here, we consider the satisfaction ratings based on the post-training surveys.
Trainer Effectiveness Score: Here, we consider the feedback on trainer performance through evaluations.
Application of Learning: Here, we consider the percentage of employees who report applying new skills in their roles.
Reduction in Support Requests: Here, we consider the decrease in IT or Support tickets related to training topics. A high volume of support requests relating to SAP usage suggests that users struggle despite training.
Productivity Improvement: Here, we consider the changes in employee performance before and after training.
Production Milestone Achieved: Here, we consider the number of units / products completed during a specific period after go-live, for example, number of orders processed in the first week.
Error Rate Reduction: Here, we find out whether the training led to fewer mistakes or compliance violations over a period of time.
Time to Proficiency: Here, we evaluate the speed at which employees reach full competency in their roles.
Reduction in Process Cycle Time: Here, we consider the time taken to complete key processes, for example, order fulfilment, approvals, etc.
Self-Sufficiency Rate: Here, we track how many users can complete tasks without additional support or helpdesk assistance.
Customer Satisfaction Improvement: Here, we look at the increase in customer satisfaction scores post implementation as users start using the new system post-trainings.
ROI of Training: Here, we compare training costs against measurable business improvements (e.g., increased efficiency, reduced errors).

Usage Metrics

Usage Metrics help determine whether users are actively using the new system (e.g., SAP) after training. For Usage Metrics, you may consider the following:

Login Frequency: Here, we track how often users log in to SAP. A low frequency may indicate a lack of confidence or resistance to the system.
First-Time Login Rates: Here, we measure how many trained users log in after training. A low rate suggests they may need additional support.
Time to First Transaction: Here, we identify how long it takes for users to perform their first meaningful action in SAP. A long delay might indicate training gaps.
Transaction Success Rate: Here, we track the percentage of completed transactions without errors. A high failure rate suggests training gaps.
Average Time per Transaction: Here, we compare how long it takes users to complete transactions before and after training. If the time decreases, training was effective.
Time Saved per Task: Here, we look at the reduction in effort required for various tasks.
Tasks Completed per Employee: Here, we look at the increase in the number of tasks completed per user post-training.
Error Rates per Transaction: Here, we identify how often users encounter system errors, such as data entry mistakes or workflow issues.
Rework or Corrections Required: Here, we measure how often users need to correct data entries, which indicates training effectiveness.

Note: If you get low results for Usage KPIs, there could be several other issues in addition to Training, for example, e.g., system downtime, system glitches, technical issues, etc.

Data Sources

To collect data for various metrics, we can consider various data sources, such as:

Surveys, Learning Management System, User Feedback Sessions
Digital Adoption Platform Reports to check the consumption of In-app learning
Departmental Reports, Business Intelligence Platform
Data from Help Desk Tools (e.g., ServiceNow)
Built-in System Logs & Reports
Built-in Software Analytics to check page views, user interactions, tasks per user, etc.
SSO & Authentication Logs to check login frequency and daily/weekly/monthly active users
Various custom APIs enabled in the system
...and so on

An Example

Now, let’s consider one imaginary example of SAP Training Program to understand the application of these training evaluation metrics at a high level.

Imaginary Company Name: Global Manufacturing Corp (GMC)
Training Program Name: SAP S/4HANA Implementation for Finance & Procurement Teams
Scenario: Global Manufacturing Corp is transitioning from legacy ERP systems to SAP S/4HANA. To ensure a smooth transition, they conduct a corporate training program for 200 finance and procurement employees. The training includes:
- E-learning modules (basic SAP navigation, finance, and procurement processes)
- Live Workshops / Instructor Sessions with SAP consultants (Trainers)
- Hands-on practice in a sandbox SAP environment

Now, let’s try applying the Participation, Performance, Impact, and Usage metrics for this scenario.

Participation Metrics

A few examples of Participation Metrics are mentioned below.

Training Completion Rate: 92% of employees completed the assigned SAP training modules.
Attendance Rate: 88% attend at least one live SAP session with Instructor.
Drop-off Rate: 8% of employees start but do not finish the self-paced training.

Performance Metrics

A few examples of Performance Metrics are mentioned below.

Assessment Scores:

Pre-training Test: Avg. score 50% (low familiarity with SAP)
Post-training Test: Avg. score 87% (significant improvement)
Certification Rate: 80% pass the final SAP proficiency test and receive internal certification.

Impact Metrics

A few examples of Impact Metrics are mentioned below.

Employee Feedback Scores: 4.3/5 based on a post-training survey.
Trainer Effectiveness Score: 4.6/5 based on feedback from workshop attendees.
Application of Learning: 85% of employees report being comfortable using SAP in daily tasks.
Reduction in Support Requests: IT helpdesk sees a 35% decrease in SAP-related tickets within 2 months.
Productivity Improvement: Finance teams report a 30% reduction in time spent on purchase order processing.
Error Rate Reduction: Invoice processing errors drop by 20%, reducing rework and delays.
Time to Proficiency: Employees reach full efficiency in 4 weeks instead of the expected 6 weeks.
ROI of Training: Organization recovers training costs in 5 months due to improved process efficiency and fewer errors.

Usage Metrics

A few examples of System Usage Metrics are mentioned below.

Login Frequency (Number of times users log in after training): Example - 80% of trained users logged in within the first week.
First-Time Login Rates (Percentage of users accessing SAP for the first time post-training): Example - 95% of users logged in within two days of training.
Time to First Transaction (How quickly users complete their first task): Example - 70% of users completed their first purchase requisition within 24 hours.
Transaction Success Rate (Percentage of transactions completed without errors): Example - 85% of purchase orders were created successfully on the first attempt.
Average Time per Transaction (Time taken to complete key SAP processes): Example - Time to create a purchase requisition reduced from 15 minutes (pre-training) to 8 minutes (post-training).
Error Rates per Transaction (How often users make mistakes): Example - Incorrect data entry errors decreased by 40% after training.
Rework or Corrections Required (Frequency of users having to redo transactions due to mistakes): Example - The number of rejected purchase orders decreased by 25%.
User Self-Sufficiency Rate (Percentage of users completing tasks without assistance): Example - 90% of users completed procurement transactions without supervisor help.

Conclusion

We can creatively use the above KPIs as necessary in the technology / system transformation programs to evaluate the success of End-User training programs.

AI-Generated User Feedback Summary in Customer Usage Dashboard

2025-03-25T09:00:00.031000+01:00

Introducing User Feedback in SAP for Me: Empowering Customer Admins to Improve User Experience

The Customer Usage Dashboard in SAP for Me is an essential tool that helps organizations monitor their usage and adoption of SAP products, as mentioned in a previous blog post. With our latest launch, we've added a new AI feature to display end-user feedback. This gives the customer admins visibility into user challenges that can be resolved on the customer side to close the feedback loop. Currently piloted with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, this feature helps IT admins proactively address user concerns for a smoother adoption and better user experience.

How it works

We collect user feedback in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition via in-product surveys. You can read more about the data collection process here or in this blog post. There are two types of feedback given by the users in the free text field of in-product surveys: 1) feedback that SAP can take action on (i.e. feature related), and 2) user concerns that can be addressed on the customer side (i.e. implementation and onboarding related). By leveraging AI, we trained the system to filter and present relevant feedback, allowing customers to take proactive actions to improve their employees onboarding experience.

By integrating feedback insights into SAP for Me, we are enabling customer admins to:

Gain visibility into real user challenges that can be addressed on their side

Resolve issues faster, reducing user frustration and support tickets

Improve onboarding processes, ensuring users can efficiently adopt the product at no additional cost

Close the feedback loop, motivating both users and customer admins to engage more actively

Where to find the feature

On the usage tab, the “Product Experience” section is on the bottom of the page. You can read textual feedback summaries to understand user challenges. You can also export the feedback summary into excel by clicking “Export to Excel” button.

Possible scenarios & how to interpret them

Scenario 1: “Product Experience” section is available with feedback summary

What it means: Users are actively providing textual feedback and there are at least 7 actionable user feedback comments available. The feedback summary is generated and displayed.

How to improve: Look for common patterns in the feedback and take action to address them.

Scenario 2: The “Nothing here, sorry!” message display

What it means: When there are less than 7 actionable user feedback comments available, the data is not enough to generate a feedback summary. A low number of comments may also suggest fewer issues.

How to improve: Encourage end-users to provide feedback by promoting feedback features within onboarding communications.

Scenario 3: “Product Experience” section is hidden

What it means: Your company, country, or region currently do not allow users to provide feedback in the system.

How to improve: Contact SAP support for region-specific availability. Meanwhile, continue gathering user experience insights through internal feedback mechanisms.

Final thoughts & next steps

The introduction of User Feedback in SAP for Me marks a significant step forward in bridging the gap between user experience insights and customer administrators’ ability to take action. By providing a closed-loop feedback system, this feature ensures that customer admins can proactively improve user adoption, enhance onboarding experiences, and ultimately drive better business outcomes.

Start exploring User Feedback in SAP for Me today. For more details, please reach out to your SAP account contact to have a discussion. We also recommend raising awareness about the feedback functionality among end users to encourage participation and gather more valuable insights.

Related Blogs

SAP Customer Usage Dashboard:

Customer Usage Dashboard 2nd Edition for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

Do you want to see how your organization is using SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition?

User Feedback:

Continuous Improvements Continue with Your Feedback

Your feedback helps to improve SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

With highest Appreciation! Your Experience Feedback helps us improve Your Products

An Uber for Engineering?

Learn More

SAP for Me @ sap.com

SAP for Me @ SAP Community

SAP ONE Support Launchpad Transition to SAP for Me

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Topic Page

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"Build Better Dashboards" - Process

2025-03-27T16:13:09.072000+01:00

Please note that this article is part of a Dashboard Design Best-Practices blog series,
created to assist you in designing and building meaningful dashboards with SAP Analytics Cloud.
Click here to open the Dashboard Design Best-Practices blog series hub page in a new window

Intro

You want to build better dashboards but aren't sure where to begin? Here´s our suggestion.

Focus your attention on the 'design-led development' process, often successfully implemented in collaborative environments where end users, designers and development teams work hand in hand, can support your efforts.
By leveraging proven design thinking methods, this approach ensures an optimal user experience and the successful coverage of user needs.

Design-led development - process

Blog Content

We focus on the following 3 main steps of the process

1. Discover Phase
Understand the needs of your end users and turn this information into insights by working
step by step through the user research process.

2. Design Phase
Translate insights and results from the user research phase into a design proposal

3. Develop Phase
Implement the final results from the design phase into predefined SAC templates
and learn how to customize and extend the template to meet the needs of your individual app.

1. Discover Phase

The discover phase (also known as User Research) focuses on understanding customer and end-user needs through on-site visits, interviews, and observations. The goal is to comprehend business roles, tasks, pain points, and the sequence of activities. Documented insights inform the design phase, ensuring a high-quality user experience and benefiting both the product and end users.

Focusing On the User

What Are the Benefits?
There are some clear advantages of putting the end user at the center of an analytic product development from the start, and therefore tailoring the product to their needs.

First, and most important, focusing on the user helps the project team to gain an understanding of the necessary insights (context of use, user needs, requirements) related to the targeted product.
It can also lead to insights that in turn lead to further innovative products.
If different opinions regarding functions or content slow progress during the project, the insights gained from the users can help to find a common solution.
The user feels like they are taken seriously when they participate in the development of a product.
The user is more likely to use the product if their needs are met.
If the product fits the user, they don't have to choose another product, which builds brand trust.
The development team builds its reputation by developing customer-centric products that
end-users want to use.
If end users are available during the development process, it's easy to validate open questions or changes with them. Ultimately, this saves the company money and time.

User Research Process

Preparing Research

Before starting your research, plan your course of action. In the beginning, ask yourself:

What insights am I looking for?
What are the objectives?
What questions do I want answer?
There are several UX methods to gather user requirements and needs, such as user interviews, focus groups, surveys, A/B testing, and desk research. In this blog we´re focus on user interviews.
Basic Tips for conducting user interviews with End Users:
- Prepare an interview guide before the interview.
- Avoid questions that force the user to answer yes or no. Instead, use open-ended questions that start with "when", "how", "where", "why" or "what".
- To prevent the interviewees from getting confused, explain the purpose of the interview and the related goals at the beginning of the interview.
- Introduce yourself and others from your side during the beginning of the interview.
- Ask thoughtful questions that help the interviewees to formulate and clarify their model.
- Be aware that an interviewee will not always say everything directly, because:
  - The interviewee takes something for granted (even if it is not).
  - The interviewee can't think about everything in the moment.
  - Do not discuss technical feasibility too early, but try to understand the requirement correctly first.
  - Try to find note takers and observers for your interview, instead of conducting it alone. Other people might gather additional information and impressions.

Evaluate Research

After conducting your research, evaluate your insights to decide with ones are relevant for your project and will help you during the design phase and later. Synthesis is the process of combining findings and research results into useful information.

Step 1: Extract and Summarize Data
From the interviews conducted, find the relevant information that supports the definition of your product. Write these on sticky notes. The minimal size of the sticky note forces you to reduce the information to the most important parts. Try to use only one sticky note per piece of information.

Step 2: Group the Information
After collecting the information on sticky notes, group similar information/thoughts into a category. Give each category a heading. The headings can be general at the beginning, but the more you iterate across the different clusters, you will gradually discover more specific terminology.

Step 3: Turn "Information" into “Insights”
This is the most interesting, but also the most difficult, step. For this part of the process, the team transforms the collected information into actual insights. It's important to note that the definition of insights can be interpreted very individually. Therefore, try to challenge assumptions or opinions within the team. The team should establish appropriate definitions at this stage.

What might count as insights? Some examples:

Commonly known information, or the so-called “must-haves”
A new perspective from the user's point of view
Needs and problems about which the users themselves were previously unaware
How the end user really thinks or behaves
Insights that can influence design decisions
Findings that can be implemented currently versus ideas for future releases

2. Design Phase

Equipped with findings from the discover phase, the design phase can start, resulting in an initial prototype validated by end users. By the end of the design phase, a ready-to-implement design is achieved.

After gathering insights and results from the user research phase, the team should work together to translate the results into an initial design proposal. This can be implemented at various levels of detail. We recommend at least a "low-fidelity" Mock-Up.

Low-Fidelity Mock-Up
A low-fi (low fidelity) mock-up is a visualization that focuses mainly on the content, the structure, and the individual required steps of an application/dashboard. The result should be simple and without high-level details. This type of prototype offers advantages in internal team communication and allows for easy validation of design ideas with end users. You can either draw a mock-up by hand on paper, draw it digitally, or use the Figma Library for schematic dashboard visualization.

Gather Iterative Feedback, Decide, and Adjust
Creating low-fi mock-ups is subject to an iterative process. This means constant validation of feedback and decisions with the end users involved. With the help of a mock-up, it is easy to implement corresponding adjustments at any time. This ensures that the end result is a construct that meets the needs and requirements of the user. Ultimately, after the last round of validation with the user and the team, the final mock-up can then be implemented directly in SAC without the need to create another pixel-perfect high-fidelity prototype.

Mock-Up Drawn Using Digital Device
Low-fi mock-ups drawn by hand or digitally allow for quick and easy creation and immediate adjustments or refinements to the design, as well as rapid idea generation.

Mock-Up Created with Figma
Low-fi mock-ups created with the Figma UI Kit streamline the design process by providing ready-to-use components, ensuring a consistent and professional look for the mock-ups, while allowing for interaction.

Additional Ressources
Coming soon!

3. Develop Phase

Now it's time to implement the final design proposal in SAC.
To support you in this phase, you'll find the necessary
information in the links below.
(click links to open the information in a new browser tab)

Use the latest SAP Analytics Cloud Template and Fiori Horizon Theme:
Coming soon!

Learn how to customize and extend the template to meet the needs of your individual Insight application
Coming soon!

Go to the Overview page of this blog series.
Dashboard Design - Best Practices

Visualizing Data with SAP Analytics Cloud

2025-03-27T16:13:20.067000+01:00

This article is part of a blog series on Dashboard Design BestPractices, created to assist you in designing and building meaningful dashboards with SAP Analytics Cloud. Click here to open the Dashboard Design Best-Practices blog series hub page in a new window

Content
This blog page focus on the art of visualizing data through the selection of appropriate
chart types to convey the intended message:

Comparison
Time-Analysis
Part-to whole
Cumulation
Deviation
Distribution
Correlation

First, let’s start with some general rules of thumb and quotas that you may consider when creating analytical content.

Show the necessary information comprehensively.
Everything on the screen has to make sense.
Support data comparison capabilities.
Everything that belongs together is grouped visually.
Show variances.
Use graphics whenever possible.
Use consistent terms.
Group with empty space.
Provide clear support of the information hierarchy.
Place time-series on the x-axies
Visually highlight the most important information.
Provide clear info where the action is actually needed.
Focus on aesthetically pleasing, clear visual design.
Avoid abbreviations (unless these are colloquial).
Do not use semantic colors in the design, e.g., green, yellow, and red (unless it's company branding).
Lead with purpose (guide the user to the appropriate actions).

Quotes

„The pieces on the dashboard have to be arranged in relation to one another“ - Stephan View
"Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on-demand"
-> Visual information seeking mantra by Ben Shneiderman"
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add,
but when there is nothing left to take away"
-> Antoine de Saint-Exupéry from "The little Prince"
"Less is faster" - Hick´s Law

Chart Types

Chart types are important tools for data visualization because they help transform raw data into visual formats that are easy to understand, analyze, and communicate. The correct chart type depends on the type of data you're working with and the message you want to convey.

1. Comparison (Structure Analysis)

Choose Bar and Column Charts as the most effective visualization for structure analysis, also called nominal comparison or category comparison.

Note:
When showing development over time, always use charts with horizontal category axes (Column Chart).
This is one of the most well-known guidelines established by IBCS (International Business Communication Standards) in its practical guidelines for the consistent design of reports.

They also propose the usage of semantic patterns to visually distinguish different types of values when comparing them.

Actual Values: What values are (solid pattern with dark color).
Previous Year Values: What values were (solid pattern with neutral grey color).
Forecast Values: What values might be (hatch pattern).
Plan Values: What values should be (empty pattern).

2. Time Analysis

Use a line chart if you want to emphasize the trend over time.

Use a column chart if you want to emphasize the values themselves.

Note that there are other time-related categories that have an intrinsic order and indicate progression or trend, such as age and age group.

3. Part-to whole

When thinking about visualizing parts of a whole, you are likely to turn to pie or donut chart.
However, in many cases bar chart is a far better option because you can:

Compare parts to each other
Display category labels and value labels associated with each part
Display multiple values
Display small values in a better way
Cut down on the usage of colors and corresponding legends you have to use

Part-to-Whole Analysis by Bar Chart

Part-to-Whole Analysis by Stacked Percentage Bar Chart

Donut Chart

Donut charts work best with a small number of categories (5-7).
Too many categories can make the chart hard to interpret (see Pic. 1).

Note that when using pie or donut charts, you should be careful when enabling the "Top N" options, as this will change the original percentage values and recalculate each segment's contribution to the total of the "Top N" categories (see Pic. 2).
Instead, use the group remaining function in chart widget menu to create a segment that represents the "Others" category (Pic. 3)

Tree Map

Tree map is a good visualization to present hierarchical data, with nested figures rendered by rectangles of different sizes.

In the example below, each rectangle signifies a department and its size in proportion to the number of department employees. You can use colors to differentiate employee genders, but here the chart displays only female employees.

4. Cumulation

You can use waterfall charts to analyze cumulative values. A waterfall chart accumulates successive values and shows how the cumulative value changes from an initial state to a final one.

Variance waterfall chart in vertical orientation displays the variance between different scenarios in structure.
In the example below, the variance waterfall chart shows the net sales in Europe from previous year (PY) to this year (AC). You can see that this year's net sales value is 14 million USD higher than the previous year and the difference in Spain is the largest.

Variance waterfall chart in horizontal orientation displays the variances across different time periods.
In the example below, you can see that shipping cost keeps growing from Q1 to Q4 in the whole year.
Q4 is expanded to show changes in months.

5. Deviation

Deviation charts, also known as variance charts, are used to visually display how a value deviates from a baseline or expected target.
They are particularly helpful for understanding the differences between actual results and a reference point, such as a goal, target, or historical data.

Actual and Plan Values and Deviation in Bar Charts Side by Side

Numeric and Percentage Deviation in Table with In-Cell Charts

Focus on Trend
If you want to focus on the trend of the variation, you can use a line chart as the examples below.

6. Distribution

Histogramm
A histogram displays the numbers of data points that lie within respective ranges, which is extremely helpful in emphasizing data frequency. In the left example, the axis displays age groups, and the columns show the numbers of employees that fall in different age ranges.

Column Chart
If your use case is to display the distribution of employees of each age group in percentage,
a column chart is a good option.

Stacked Column Chart
Distribution of Two Series by Stacked Column Chart.

You can use a frequency polygon with multiple lines when you want to compare the distribution of multiple sets of values.

Box plot
A Box Plot is an ideal option for displaying the concentration of data, which is constructed from minimum, first quartile, median, third quartile and maximum.

7. Correlation

Scatterplot and bubble chart are the most frequently used chart types to visualize correlation,
though line chart or bar chart side by side is also an acceptable solution.

AI in My Home enhances efficiency, accuracy, and decision-making for SAP users

2025-03-27T17:38:25.512000+01:00

Business AI offers numerous benefits that can transform organisations by enhancing efficiency, accuracy, and decision-making. AI allows business users to focus on more strategic, creative, or high-value work, increasing productivity. Over the past few years, we have seen the growth of AI within SAP products, including My Home in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. In this blog, I will discuss how AI enhances SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition My Home and look at future* AI - driven features.

In the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2408 release, My Home introduced personalised app recommendations powered by SAP Business AI. By analysing business users' history, behaviours, location, and authorisations, it recommended personalised applications to the business user. These recommendations make business users more efficient by allowing them to add these recommended applications to their app favourites. It also introduces them to applications that they may not be aware of which in return improves their productivity.

My Home Intelligent App Recommendations

Based on these intelligent app recommendations, My Home now intelligently generates Insights cards from these applications and pre delivers them for business users. Insights cards display valuable business information about business processes. They provide analytical information at glance so that business users can take action immediately instead of having to search for information. This also makes interactions with SAP systems more intuitive for new users, who may know what they need to do, but not necessarily know what application they need to find the business data.

Intelligent generation of pre-delivered Insights cards

With the success of these intelligent recommendations, we are now focused on how we can further enhance the user experience with the help of AI. With the 2408 release we pre delivered Insights cards to business users but received feedback that we could improve the experience of adding more Insights cards to My Home. Traditionally, Insights cards are added from supporting applications. Identifying the applications that can provide the information that business users require can be time consuming. Not only that, the type of applications that support adding Insights cards can be difficult to find. The business user not only has to identify the application, but they also have to apply certain filters to the data to ensure that the Insights card displays the information they require for it to be useful. We are currently working on a solution where business users can create Insights cards using natural language. They can describe their desired information without having to find the appropriate application and navigating to it.

My Home Smart Personalisation feature

Influence My Home Smart Personalisation feature

This Smart Card generation AI driven feature is available for Beta Testing with the 2502 release. At SAP, we're dedicated to delivering the best possible experience for our customers. That's why we're inviting you to participate in our Beta Testing Program , where you can provide valuable feedback on this new feature and help us refine it before its official release. By taking part in beta testing, you'll have the opportunity to explore the latest functionality before it's available to the wider customer base, and your input can directly impact the quality and usability of the features.

* Roadmap statement: Please note that some of the content in this blog is about unreleased solutions from SAP. SAP reserves the right to change its development priorities at any time, so please do not make any purchase decisions based on what you read here.

Announcement: Removal of Belize Theme of SAP Fiori

2025-04-01T16:46:22.846000+02:00

Executive summary

Automatic move to Horizon theme in SAP Fiori
Action is needed for custom themes based on Belize.

Themes in SAP Fiori

SAP Fiori is a design system that provides a consistent user experience for SAP software across platforms and devices. It is at the core of SAP’s product experience and design strategy. An essential element defining many aspects of the visual design is the theme. The latest Horizon theme is an evolution of the SAP Fiori design system and offers a modern, fresh look, and an improved user experience helping users to focus on their daily work.

Belize theme removal

A previous version of Horizon is the Belize theme, introduced with SAP Fiori 2.0. Belize is deprecated as of SAPUI5 1.120 (see Deprecated Themes and Libraries) and SAP recommends to move to the current Horizon theme.

Existing usages of Belize will be automatically redirected to the Horizon theme.
With SAPUI5/OpenUI5 1.136 the UI5 controls will not work any longer with the Belize theme.

For more details on Belize in SAP S/4HANA and other products, please see Upcoming Removal of SAP Fiori themes Belize and Blue Crystal from @ThomasReiss. Other UI technologies are affected in the same way:

Web Dynpro ABAP: SAP_UI 8.16 & SAP_BASIS 9.16
SAP GUI for HTML: SAP Kernel 9.16 used in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition 2025 and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2508
WebClient UI: SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition 2025 and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2508

With this focus on the Horizon theme SAP can deliver innovations faster. Also, runtime performance is expected to gain from a smaller CSS payload.

Custom themes based on Belize

Using the UI theme designer customers can apply their own branding by adapting a standard SAP Fiori theme: Customers may replace the logo or change the main branding colors of the UI by replacing the default brand and base colors of the theme. When creating a custom theme, an SAP standard theme (such as Morning Horizon) is selected as base theme.

Existing custom themes based on Belize need to be migrated before a mentioned UI technology version is used, see SAP Note 3595596. Details on this migration are given in

Sales Innovation with SAP S/4HANA, Business AI, and User Experience: A Practical Approach

2025-04-09T10:52:51.559000+02:00

From the perspective of a sales representative, in today's fast-paced companies, they must multitask all the time to keep up with the demands of their jobs, including nurturing connections with customers, negotiating and completing deals, and monitoring key performance indicators. With the help of business AI, the digital assistant Joule, and the new SAP S/4HANA system, sales representatives are now able to accomplish more in less time. In this article, we'll look at how SAP S/4HANA boosts sales rep efficiency, solves common business problems, and puts SAP ahead of the competition.

The Routine of a Salesperson Using SAP S/4HANA

Just picture yourself as a salesperson beginning each day with a synopsis of the most pressing matters that need your attention right away. This is made very easy and feasible using SAP S/4HANA. Important tasks, forthcoming meetings, and awaiting approvals are highlighted on a personalized dashboard made possible by the platform's user-friendly design. This clear view of your priorities allows you to start each day on a positive note.

Harnessing AI for Your Company

Integrating with advanced business AI is one of SAP S/4HANA's distinguishing characteristics. This technology helps sales representatives make informed decisions by analysing large volumes of data and providing actionable insights. To illustrate the point, AI can determine which leads have the best chance of converting, so you can direct your attention to the most promising ones. Furthermore, it can detect patterns and trends in consumer behaviour, letting you adjust your sales tactics appropriately.

Navigating SAP S/4HANA with Ease

The intuitive design of SAP S/4HANA makes navigating the system a joy. There is less of a learning curve for new users on the site because of how it is designed. With SAP S/4HANA, you can easily update customer information, generate sales reports, and track your performance KPIs. Focus on what matters most - creating relationships and closing business - with the help of the effortless navigation that saves time and boosts productivity.

Have a look at Joule: Your Personal Digital AI Assistant
The digital AI assistant Joule, which is a part of SAP S/4HANA, is going to revolutionize the way sales personnel do their jobs. When you use Joule, it's like having your own personal assistant that streamlines your work process. Would you like to set up a meeting? No problem for Joule. Are you in search of the most recent sales data? Get up-to-the-minute information with Joule. You can focus on more strategic endeavors with the time you gain from using Joule to automate mundane chores.

Dealing with Problems Facing the Company
Managing client connections, monitoring sales success, and keeping up with market developments are a few of the common challenges that sales professionals encounter. Let’s follow the system and navigate to understand this better way. Here Jessica Walker acts as a sales representative. Let's start the demo -

I am Jessica Walker, a sales representative, and I commence my day by examining tasks and notifications that want prompt attention.

Fig 1 Task & Situations

Rather than navigating multiple reports and dashboards, I review "My Home" for a crisp overview of urgent tasks and notifications. Thereby addressing the following task.

- Approving a quotation that requires immediate attention.
- Examine situation notifications regarding the uploaded incomplete PDF and assess the deficient data.

Fig 2 Incomplete SO

Clicking on notifications directs me to the impacted sales order. The status indicates "Data Incomplete." A notification bell captures my attention.

Fig 3: Item Level SO error

I promptly review the warning and discover that the system has already diagnosed the issue and suggested a solution.

Fig 4 : AI guided Explaination

Upon the accurate update of data, the system permits a side-by-side display for verification.

Fig 5: PDF comparisonThe data has been updated, and save it for subsequent processing.

Fig 6: Udate Missing data

Then I scroll down and observe many "Insight Business Cards." One of them is "Sales Order Blocked." It is also displaying an itemized list of sales orders. As a sales representative, I am accountable for the seamless execution of the sales cycle. I opt to examine a single sales order from the list to understand the underlying details.

Fig 7: Insight Card "Delivery Block"Fig 8: Remove Delivery BlockFig 9 : Delivery Block Removed

From the "Insight Card," I swiftly transition to the sales order and discover it is in a blocked status. Upon comprehensive examination, I remove the block and allow it to proceed further.

Fig 10: Updated insight card

Upon returning to the "Home Page," the affected sales order is no longer visible in the insight card.

Now I subsequently return to the homepage. I have a customer meeting scheduled for later this week. I seek a summary of recent customer activities and an analysis of significant financial transactions and contracts in preparation for the meeting. I use Customer 360 to obtain this information, providing me with a comprehensive overview for the customer.

Fig 11: Customer 360Fig 12 : Customer 360 : Business TransactionsFig 13: Customer 360 : All Transaction view

I intend to verify specific customer facts through the "Customer 360 View." I leverage "Smart Filtering" to identify specific customers from an extensive list. All consumer details are now before me. I can examine every minute detail of it. I utilize “AI—Smart Summarization” to extract all important facts about that customer. I want to communicate this information to the management for weekly meeting.

Fig 14 : AI summary for productFig 15: AI summary for Sales

A customer contacts me regarding an inquiry concerning a sales order, providing the "customer reference" number. (It is ZXW-560 in this case.) I can utilize the launchpad search within an application to promptly locate the business object.

Fig 16: Customer ReferenceFig 17: Result of Customer reference

The system retrieves the precise order through efficient search and presents it for inspection.

For my upcoming task, I intend to seek assistance from the AI-powered chatbot named "Joule." I am mostly engaged in sales activities, but due to the sick leave of the return clerk , I have to take care of that part too. I receive a return from a customer but lack familiarity with the return creation procedure. I use Joule to ascertain the method for facilitating a return effortlessly.

Fig 18: JouleFig 19: Joule for Customer returnFig 20: Create Return

I have initiated a chat with "Joule". I seek assistance with "return order management" and am requesting guidance from "Joule." Joule is providing comprehensive information, including the application name, direct navigation, and assistance features. I have accessed "Manage Customer Return" through direct navigation from Joule.

However, there are numerous fields that remain unfamiliar to me. I request assistance from "X-Ray" to comprehend certain fields and their values. Subsequently, I observe that the system has initiated AI-driven auto-recommendations for return orders. This feature facilitates a seamless return creation process.

Fig 21: Help recomendationFig 22: X Ray helpFig 22: Auto RecomendationFig 23: Choose RecomendationFig 24: Save & Release

Upon the creation of a return order, I wish to pass on its data via Microsoft Teams to another team member for subsequent processing. The returns clerk receives a Microsoft Teams notice on their mobile device for the next action.

Fig 25 : Share in Microsoft TeamsFig 26: Display in MS card

This step concludes the system navigation/demo.

SAP S/4HANA tackles these problems directly:
You can see your clients from every angle using SAP S/4HANA, which is great for CRM (customer relationship management). You may better comprehend their requirements, communicate with them on a personal level, and develop more profound relationships.
2. Sales Performance Tracking: With the platform's real-time analytics and reporting, you can keep tabs on how well you're doing compared to your goals. You can quickly pinpoint problem areas and implement solutions with this level of transparency.
3. Up-to-Date Market Trends and Insights: The business AI in SAP S/4HANA is always analyzing market data to bring you the most recent trends and insights. If you want to keep ahead of the competition and adjust your sales tactics to fit the ever-changing industry, you need this information.

Advantages for Clients
Customers, not just salespeople, may reap the benefits of SAP S/4HANA. Customers are guaranteed fast and personalized service with SAP S/4HANA's help, thanks to its ability to streamline sales processes and enhance efficiency. The software keeps clients informed about the status of their orders and any potential concerns through real-time updates and analytics. This openness cultivates trust and encourages loyal patronage in the long run.

An epic shift for SAP business artificial intelligence (AI), intuitive user interface (UI), and digital assistant Joule all come together in SAP S/4HANA, making it a revolutionary product in the corporate software industry. A key differentiator for SAP S/4HANA is its ability to alleviate sales agents' problems while simultaneously increasing client happiness. Salespeople can remain busy, educated, and responsive because to the platform's easy design and powerful features, which drive corporate success.
To sum up, SAP S/4HANA is revolutionizing the day-to-day work of sales reps. Its digital assistant Joule, user-friendly UI, and incorporation of business AI make it an essential tool for sales teams. Sales agents work more efficiently with SAP S/4HANA, and the company solidifies its position as an industry leader in enterprise software by alleviating typical business pain points and increasing customer satisfaction. Without a question, SAP S/4HANA will be pivotal in determining how sales operations are shaped in the future as firms undergo continuous evolution.

For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:

SAP S/4HANA Cloud release info here
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Early Release Series Webinars here
Latest 2502 SAP S/4HANA Cloud Release Blogs here
Product videos on our SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA YouTube playlist
SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition Early Release Series here
SAP S/4HANA Cloud for User Experience and Cross Topics, Public Edition Continuous Influence Session here
Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
openSAP microlearning for SAP S/4HANA here
Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud here
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Community: here
Feature Scope Description here
What’s New here
Help Portal Product Page here
Implementation Portal here

Please Check out my latest Blogs on SAP S/4HANA Cloud:

All AI Blogs :

Sales Innovation with SAP S/4HANA, Business AI, and User Experience: A Practical Approach

All End to end Journey Blogs:

Special Functionalities/Scenario Blogs:

Capabilities of Solution Order Management in S/4HANA Cloud, public edition 2302 release

AATP Blogs:

Configuration & Business Case of SAP S/4HANA Advanced ATP (AATP) with Business Process Scheduling (B...

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Switching to Spaces and Pages Experience Sharing – My Three Best Practices of Using Spaces and Pages

2025-04-10T00:17:35.149000+02:00

Introduction

From Release 2408, all our SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition customers have moved from Groups to Spaces and Pages. After eight months of practices, some customers asked me about the Best Practice of using Spaces and Pages. I think it is a good idea to give some of my advice on this topic.

My Three Best Practices

My best practices are three:

Declogging My Home Page
Personalize Pages to Your Needs
Use As Many SAP Delivered Spaces and Pages as Possible

Best Practice 1 – Declogging My Home Page

My Home is the standard entry page with several sections. The below picture shows one of the systems I have access to. It is colorful and marvelous to showcase all the bells and whistles of My Home Page. However, as a system administrator, I don’t use all of them on a daily basis. I need to tailor the My Home Page to my needs by only listing those objects I need to do my job.

A Very Busy My Home Entry Page

Besides Spaces Menu, all the below work is conducted in the My Home Settings dialog under User Actions Menu (the menu listed under your name).

Spaces Menu – Unpin not commonly used Spaces from the Shell Bar. Keep in mind that I can bring back these Spaces at any minute from the hamburger bar at the upper left.
To-Dos Section – if you are critical to a workflow process, you need to leave the To-Dos section there. Because it hits your eyes right away every morning when you log on to the system.
News Section – at this moment, the News section is prepared for you based on RASD information collected from your activated features and functions. Yes, its content is tailor made for you based on your information. Depending on your interest, you can reduce the content, or only display it right before and after a major upgrade. In other words, it does not need to be on everyday.
Pages Section – although you are allowed to pin eight pages here, choose the most important one’s matter to you, not necessary all of eight. You have another section Apps to pin the right apps to be handy.
Apps Section - Favorites – this is the place you need to pay attention to. Pin those mostly used apps in the Favorites tab. In addition, if you follow a workflow, you can put relevant apps in one Group. For example, when I create a set of new business users, I use four apps. Now I bundle them together to be a User Creation Group.

Group a User Creation Workflow related Apps into One App Group

Apps-Most Used and Recently Used – these tabs contain all the apps you used. The list is extracted from Recent Activities under User Actions Menu (under your initials at the upper right corner). There are two sections: Recent Activities and Frequently Used. They correspond to Apps-Recently Used and Apps-Most Used, respectively. They are convenient tools to help you find the app you used.
Insight Tiles – add no more than five system overview tiles here. In my case, the IAM Info System and Application Jobs are import to me. For other apps, I can go there directly from the App Finder on a needed basis. They don't need to be pined on the My Home page all the time.
Insights Cards – Very similar as Insights Tiles, I only pin those needed reports here. Remember, when you pin many reports here, it takes resources to get the data when you open the My Home page. The more reports you want to see them by default, the longer it takes to prepare and display them.

Best Practice 2 – Personalize Pages to Your Needs

The below figure is the Identity and Access Management Page of Administration Space. It is an SAP delivered page and your system administrator assigned it to you based on your business user roles.

SAP Delivered Identity and Access Management Page

Many users thought they should not modify these SAP delivery pages. Any changes should be made by the Administrator for all users. Well, there is a misunderstanding here. You can use “Edit Current Page” under the User Actions Menu to modify the page. The modification only affects you, not others with the same page. This is a user specific modification on current tenant, not transferable to other tenants.

After editing, it becomes a very simplified page

The Identity and Access Management Page after Editing

If you change your mind, you can redo your modifications.

One note: if you want to preserve an app but not showing it, you can create a new hidden section and move the app tile to be there.

Working Session of the Edit Content Page

Best Practice 3 – Use As Many SAP Delivered Spaces and Pages As Possible

In the SAP Community, I had several discussions with community members on the pros and cons of using SAP delivered roles and their associated Spaces and Pages. One strong argument of against using SAP delivered business user role is from our SAP Activate:

“For the business roles in the Production System, it is strongly recommended to create custom business roles based on the identified workplaces.”

Let’s focus on Spaces and Pages here without too much discussion on the business user roles. Put in a simple way, Spaces and Pages are organizing apps according to a user’s job responsibilities. SAP UX designers put in a lot of effort to organize these apps in a most reasonable way with the end users in their mind. It is a waste if not using them. Even if you develop your own business user roles, it still makes sense to use a similar SAP delivered Space and its Pages. In case your business user role doesn’t have a certain authorization because of lack of certain business catalogs (see my blog on User Management), the app just won’t show up on the page (marked as “Out of role context”). It doesn’t cause any damage to the Page. The below figure from my blog Switching to Spaces and Pages Experience Sharing - Assigning Predefined S&P to Your Own Biz Roles just illustrate this concept.

Page with "Out of Role Context" App Tiles

Conclusions

In this short blog, I explained my three best practices for using Spaces and Pages with reasons and examples. I believe this can make your daily work more efficient and enjoyable with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

References

Dashboard Design Best-Practices

2025-04-14T13:49:57.933000+02:00

Welcome,

With this blog series, we want to help you to create dashboards with SAP Analytics Cloud that optimally meet the structural, visual and in terms of content the requirements of your end users.

Please note that the predominantly content of this blog series, applies to the creation of analytical content generally. But, If you are working on Insight Apps in the context of SAP Data Products, we recommend to note and get familiar with the content in the various blogs in order to communicate a uniform content and visual consistency with the finished apps to the outside world.

Content

Build Better Dashboards - Process
(based on "Design-Led-Development" Business Strategy Process)

From the necessary collaboration with end users, the visual realization as a design mock-up,
to SAC-best practices in dealing with the provided template and theme.
These process should help you to create analytical content that have real impact and value.
Navigate to Blog Post

Design and Patterns

Understand Analytical Page Types, learn more about the Design Patterns as predefined combinations of components the template is using , get an overview about the Fiori Horizon Color Palettes or rules to apply in terms of IBCS (International Business Communication Standard)
Navigate to Blog Post

Horizon Theme and Templates

Our template features a proven layout for presenting analytical content in a structured manner.
Combined with the modern SAP Fiori Horizon design language inherent in the theme, using the template allows you to create analytical content directly without starting from scratch.
Blog Post coming soon!

Data Visualization

Use appropriate chart types to convey the desired message of the data
Navigate to Blog Post

SAP Analytics Cloud - Best - Practices

Use predefined best practice tips for SAP Analytics Cloud, get to know performance considerations and be inspired by already implemented analytical scenarios in the Inspiration Gallery.
Blog Post coming soon!

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.

Dashboard Design Patterns

2025-04-16T13:03:02.561000+02:00

This article is part of a Dashboard Design Best-Practices blog series,
created to assist you in designing and building meaningful dashboards with SAP Analytics Cloud.
Click here to open the Dashboard Design Best-Practices blog series hub page in a new window

Focus in this blog:

Analytical Page Types
Layout Patterns
SAP Fiori Horizon Color Palettes
IBCS (International Business Communication Standard) Recommendations

1. Analytical Page Types

Monitoring Page (What´s happening right now?)
For users who want a quick overview of business performance, the Monitoring page is an interactive analytics page with a high visual appeal. Unlike other dashboards, the Monitoring page uses semantic colors, semantic patterns, and business insights to quickly visualize and understand the situation presented in charts.

Planning Page (What could the future look like?)
For users who want to create and maintain a business plan to improve the efficiency of business and management processes, the Planning page offers an interactive page that allows them to determine the
future in various scenarios. It combines forecasting and simulation scenarios.

Reporting Page (What happened looking back?)
For users who want a comprehensive overview of business performance in a predefined, consistent formal structure, the report page is an analysis page with a relevant storyline, high information density, and a consistent business notation system (IBCS) that provides interpretations and summaries. Unlike other business reports, the report page should be well-structured to convey the underlying messages clearly to the viewers.

Exploration Page (What's the cause?)
For users who want to explore data in an analytical view of a specific business situation, the Explore page is an interactive analytics page that helps them conduct active analyses and discover news. Instead of displaying predefined content, the Explore page allows users to easily modify measures and dimensions and select dedicated dimension members with facet filters to visualize business insights. A good example of this is the
Data Analyzer, integrated in SAP Analytics Cloud.

Please note that depending on the use case, the content and intentions of the different page types may overlap and should be viewed in a common context

2. Patterns

Patterns are predefined combinations of components that address specific analytical consumption requirements, such as info group, control group and logical group. They can consist of one or multiple components.

1. Layout Patterns:

Info Group (KPI Row)

Info group contains page-level statistical information that summarizes specific business scenario.

It can be either presented at the top of the page or on the left of the page depending on the page structure.

It mainly contains KPIs and small charts such as simple bar charts and integrated variance charts. When business users launch the analytics page, they will gain an overview at first glance and then move to logical groups for more details.

Control Group (Page Filter)

The control group consists of various page-level input controls, such as filters and time sliders, that affect all analytical content across the entire page. It allows users to define complex conditions to specifically filter analytical content.

Logic Group

The purpose of a logic group is to visually group multiple widgets together to show relationships to a specific message from different perspectives. For this reason, a logic group consists of at least two communication objects.

2. Interaction Patterns:

Filter & Positioning

There are four types of filters including story filter, page filter, logical group filter and widget filter. Each has its specific scope in filtering contents to achieve better results.

Story filter and widget filter are native features directly supported by SAC.
Page filter and logical group filter are the input controls that you can build on the consumption pages.

1. Story Filter stays in the filter panel on the left. It impacts all the contents within the whole story.

2. Page Filter applies to all the widgets on the same page. It appears in the control group in collapsed mode.

The filters on the canvas are mirrored redundantly in the filter panel

3. Logical Group Filter applies to all the widgets within the logical group. It stays in collapsed mode at the top of the group or in expanded mode on the left of the group.

Place collapsed logical group filters at the top of the group.

Place expanded logical group filters on the left of the group.

4. The Widget filter can be set in the Builder panel by selecting the corresponding widget.

After definition, these are displayed in the filter panel.

Different Filters on a page working together

2. Linked Analysis

When you create filters or analyze hierarchical data in a chart with linked analysis, the same filters will be applied to other charts you want to include in the analysis. All widgets in linked analyses follow the order from left to right and top to bottom.

As a rule for Insight Apps, linked analyses can only be performed within the same logical group and cannot be applied across groups.

However, if a filter affects the entire page, this rule does not apply.

3. SAP Fiori Horizon Color Palettes

Insight App related:

When it comes to Insight Apps related content creation, the following 3 Color Palettes can be used:

IBCS Palette (International Business Communication Standard)
Blue Palette
Colorful Palette

All Color Palettes are already defined in the Theme

Which Palette should I choose?

Each palette is a valid choice. However, we recommend using the IBCS or Blue palette, as too many colors, such as those found in the Colorful palette, often make the content appear visually cluttered. If you want to ensure objective, fact-based communication, choose the IBCS palette.
Reducing the display to near-grayscale prevents visual overload and focuses attention on the actual data. If you prefer more vibrant colors, choose the Blue palette. However, there may be cases where the Colorful color palette is the right choice.

1. SAP IBCS Palette
The SAP IBCS palette is designed to enhance the clarity and readability of business communication, particularly for financial and performance reporting, where standardization and consistency are crucial. The color palette supports quick data comprehension, reduces cognitive load, aids in data-driven decision-making, and minimizes errors in data representation.

2. Blue Palette
The SAP Blue palette is a monochromatic blue alternative inspired by the SAP Blue color value, integrating IBCS concepts with SAP’s Horizon theme. This palette strike a balance between standardization and flexibility, ensuring our products are visually appealing and consistent with the SAP Fiori Horizon look and feel.

3. Colorful Palette
SAP’s Colorful Palette contains SAP’s base chart colors that are intended to be used across all the SAP technologies. It has been designed to provide visual differentiation between data points by virtue of the fact that each color is visually distinct.

4. IBCS Recommendations

The same elements should look the same and have the same name.
For time, remember that “yesterday is visually to the left of today"
-> the time-series are always on the x-axis.
Green means “good” and red means “bad”.
Tables should have bold sums at the bottom.
Use fill patterns instead of colors:

Actual values - solid
Previous year/month - solid with reduced opacity
Forecasts - hatched
Plan values - outlined

IBCS Color Values

Unified Currencies

Use consistent currency abbreviations.
Use three-letter acronyms such as EUR, CHF, USD, and GBP.
The use of special currency symbols such as €, $, and ₤ is not recommended
if a report includes many different currencies.
Use consistent metric prefixes (in lower case).
Example: “k” for thousand, “m” for million and “b” for billion.

Unified Numbers

Thousand delimiter: 1 234 (narrow blank space)
Decimal sign: 1,23 or 1.23 (SI allows both versions)
Negative values: - 123
Positive values do not have a plus sign, unless they represent variances.

Titles and Subtitles for Widgets
IBCS proposes three lines in total:

First Llne: "Who" (example: ABC Corporation)
Second line: "What"(example: Profit in mUSD, by products)
Third line: "When" (example: 2024-Q1, Δ 2023-Q1)

For Insight Apps scenarios, two lines should be sufficient, because the "Who" is mainly described with the title of the logic group, page, or Insight App.

Therefore, we recommend formatting widget headers like the following:

First line: "What" (example: Profit in mUSD, by products)
Second line: "When" (example: 2024-Q1, Δ 2023-Q1)

Title for Logic Group
Beside the titles and subtitles for the widgets, logic groups also have a logic group title. Because the purpose of a logic group is to show information related to the same topic (such as “Profit”), name the group accordingly.

Date
Use: YYYY-MM-DD, such as “2024-05-14"

Terms and Abbreviations

Titel	Abbreviation
Actual (year, month, quarter..)	AC
Previous (year, month, quarter..)	PY
Forecast	FC
Plan	PL
Current Year	CY
End of Period	EOP
Fiscal Year	FY
January, February...	JAN, FEB, ...
Quarter 1, Quarter 2, ...	Q1, Q2, ...
Year over Year	YoY
(Monthly) Average from 2024	Ø2024
(Daily) Average from January	ØJan
From 2020 to 2024	2020..2024
Year to Date (Month)	YTD (Month)

Stacked Bar Chart

Stacked bar charts are used to display the structure of data in a given time period or at a given point of time.They are most effective when there are no more than five or six data series used, and if 25 or fewer structure elements are presented.

Stacked bars/columns often require a legend.
As SAC offers the option of selecting the individual data points using the legend in the runtime, this should be displayed below the chart and center aligned.

If the relative deviation between the categories is important, set the chart as a 100% stack.

Variance Charts
One of the most important aspects of analytical applications is looking at the data with the question: “How does this compare to [x]?" (Example: This year compared to the previous year.)
IBCS recommends displaying this difference in variances.

General rules when using variance charts:

Positive variances have a “+”
Negative variances have a “-”
Numbers in tables that represent variances are colored based on defined variance colors

Absolute Variances:

Relative Variances (in Percentage):

Variances as Data Label

Integrated Variances

Variance Waterfall Chart

Chart Legend

Only use the legend if it offers additional value.
Legend should be below the visualization and center aligned

Tables
General rules for designing tables:

Numbers and column headings are right-aligned
Calculation results are bold
Calculation results are at the bottom
Gaps instead of vertical lines

SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA - How to find Enterprise Search connectors for SAP Fiori applications

2025-04-21T08:18:10.899000+02:00

Enterprise Search is a great way to start a task when you have been asked for information about a specific document such as Supplier, Customer, Purchase Order, Sales Order, or so on. It can enable you to search for a specific application as well. SAP S/4HANA delivers over 300 search connectors out-of-the-box. You may want to optimize the searches activated in a Fiori client by identifying the exact list of search connectors that are required by your business or industry.

For a deep-dive into how to restrict searches, check out the blog SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA –Limit Search Object Access in Fiori Launchpad made easier by Jocelyn Dart.

This blog explains a few strategies to identify the search connectors for an SAP Fiori application.

Understanding the 2 types of Search Connectors

There are two types of searches,

Classic Index-based searches
Newer CDS View-based searches (don't require indexing)

You can used both or just the CDS View-based searches. See SAP Help - Setting Up Enterprise Search for ABAP CDS-Based Search Models and SAP Help - Enterprise Search Guide in SAP S/4HANA. To end-users the searches look exactly the same but they use different technologies on backend.

For a list of Classic Searches available in SAP S/4HANA, check SAP Note 2513435 - Enterprise Search models available for S4HANA On Premise release

Note: For a list of mapping between the two types of searches, check SAP Note 3122697 - Equivalence between CDS views and classical search models. There are more searches have a mapping between Classic Index-based and CDS View-based search connectors in S/4HANA 2023.

Starting from SAP S/4HANA 1909, you can use SAP Fiori App F3036 Manage Search Models to manage CDS-based search connectors.

Scenario 1: Classic Index-based Search Connector for Fiori App is available in Fiori Apps Reference Library

In this case, the SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library has information about the search connectors for the application.

Let's take the example of F1758 Display House Banks or House Bank Fiori application. We want to find all search connectors that we need to activate to be able to search for this application.

1. Go to SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library.

2. Search for the F1758 Display House Banks or House Bank Fiori application.

3. Go to Implementation Information tab

4. Open “Configuration”

5. Classic Index-based Search Connector details are under “Search Connector” section. The search model is HOUSEBANK_H under software component SAPAPPLH.

House Banks Fiori app in Fiori Apps Reference Library

6. Search connector HOUSEBANK_H can be activated using the GUI transaction STC01 and running the task list SAP_ESH_INITIAL_SETUP_WRK_CLIENT. You can administer Classic Index-based search connectors using the GUI transactions ESH_COCKPIT and ESH_DASHBOARD.

Scenario 2: CDS View-based Search Connector for Fiori App has the same Semantic Object as the Fiori App

According to Jocelyn Dart's blog SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA –Limit Search Object Access in Fiori Launchpad made easier , if a Fiori application's Tiles and Target Mappings use the same Semantic Object as an activated CDS View-based search connector's Semantic Object, then the Fiori application will appear in search results.

If you want to find which Fiori applications in your SAP S/4HANA system are assigned to a particular Semantic Object, you can use the Fiori Launchpad Content Aggregator tool (GUI transaction /UI2/FLPCA). For more information, check Use Case 2 in Jocelyn Dart's blog SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – 3 simple use cases for Launchpad Content Aggregator .

Example 1: Let's take the example of F3664 Display Journal Entries in T-Account View . We need to find the CDS View-based search connector that has the same Semantic Object as this Fiori application.

1. Go to SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library.

2. Search for the Fiori App Display Journal Entries in T-Account View (F3664)

3. Go to Implementation Information tab.

4. Open “Configuration”

5. Find Semantic Object for the Fiori App under “Target Mappings”. The Semantic Object is AccountingDocument.

Display Journal Entries in T-Account View app in Fiori Apps Reference Library

6. To find the CDS-based search model for the app, navigate to SAP Fiori App F3036 Manage Search Models

Manage Search Models Fiori App

7. Search for “Accounting Document”. No search results appear. We need to adjust the search.

No search models available for Accounting Document

8. This app is related to General Ledger Journal Entries search object. Search for “Journal”. A list of search models will appear. In this case, the “Journal Entry” search model seems similar to the search object we are looking for. Click on “Journal Entry”

Journal Entry search model found in Manage Search Models app

9. Go to “Navigation” tab. The Semantic Object for this search model is “AccountingDocument”. This matches the semantic object of the Fiori app. "Journal Entry" search model needs to be activated so that Fiori application Display Journal Entries in T-Account View shows up in the search results.

Semantic Object for Journal Entry search model is "AccountingDocument"

10. Journal Entry search model can be activated using program ESH_TSK_SETUP_ESH_CONNECTOR in GUI transaction SA38.

Example 2: In this example, we are looking at a SAP GUI for HTML application Create Sales Orders (VA01) . Again, we want to find a list of Semantic Objects for the Tiles and Target Mappings of this application. Then we want to match the Semantic Objects with the Semantic Objects of the CDS View-based search models in SAP S/4HANA.

1. Go to SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library.

2. Search for the Fiori App Create Sales Orders (VA01)

3. Go to Implementation Information tab

4. Open “Configuration”

5. Find the list of Semantic Objects under “Target Mappings”. The semantic objects are CreditMemoRequest, DebitMemoRequest, SalesDocument and SalesOrder.

Create Sales Orders (VA01) app in Fiori Apps Reference Library

6. To find CDS View-based search models for this application, navigate to Fiori app F3036 Manage Search Models.

Manage Search Models F3036 Fiori app

7. The search models that need to be activated are Credit Memo Requests, Debit Memo Requests, Sales Orders.

Search model "Credit Memo Requests" uses semantic object "CreditMemoRequest"

Search model "Debit Memo Requests" uses semantic object "DebitMemoRequest"

Search Model "Sales Orders" uses semantic object "SalesOrder"

8. The CDS View-based search models Credit Memo Requests, Debit Memo Requests and Sales Orders can be activated using program ESH_TSK_SETUP_ESH_CONNECTOR in GUI transaction SA38.

Let us know your experience with finding search connectors for Fiori applications and if the above strategies are helpful.

Getting Support

The SAP support component for Enterprise Search is NetWeaver Enterprise Search (BC-EIM-ESH).

It is recommended to check for the latest improvement and SAP Notes related to Enterprise Search in SAP for Me (https://me.sap.com) using the component BC-EIM-ESH.

Becoming a SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA guru

You’ll find much more on the community topic page for SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA

Other helpful links in the SAP Community:

Follow our tag SAP S/4HANA RIG for more from the SAP S/4HANA Customer Care and RIG

See all questions and answers about SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA

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Upcoming Design Updates for the SAP Business Suite (SAP Fiori for Web)

2025-04-22T13:59:03.321000+02:00

Consistency of the user experience across the various applications used by a user is an important part of overall usability, helping users to feel confident and at ease when using a suite of products – no unexpected surprises. We have identified areas directly relevant to users and plan to introduce a number of design updates in SAP Fiori for web across our suite of products to further increase consistency. We are confident that they will all improve user satisfaction – but take a look for yourselves!

The areas we have redesigned and which we plan to provide across our suite of products this year and next year are:

Shell bar (at the top of the screen)
Navigation menu: side navigation
User menu
Notifications
Search in the shell bar

All these planned improvements are all very intuitive. Nevertheless, you might want to inform your users about these changes prior to an upgrade.

A definite highlight for users of SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA is the planned new side navigation menu, which gives users direct access to their favorite apps from wherever they are – without having to first go to My Home to find them. This is currently planned to become available in the releases in the second half of 2025.

This post consists entirely of forward-looking statements, for which our usual legal disclaimers apply: our plans are subject to change without notice. The features are planned to appear in stages, so don’t expect all of them necessarily to come in the same release. Also, the design previews you see here are not all 100% final, so expect some minor changes before they get released in products.

Shell Bar

The shell bar appears at the top of every screen of every SAP application, and already looks very similar across our products. Now we are going one step further by specifying it in such a way that it follows an identical design, and ensuring this with our UI technology SAPUI5 by providing a web component for use by our products in implementing the design. For example, we plan to replace the existing implementation of the shell bar in the SAP Fiori launchpad with the new web component seamlessly embedded in SAPUI5.

Figure 1 shows the target design. In the examples in the next section “navigation menu” you can see a preview for SAP S/4HANA Cloud running in the SAP Fiori launchpad (Figures 7 and 8).

The target design provides:

A consistent product representation across our suite of products by having a dedicated place for the product identifier.
Guidance for providing standard patterns for the part in the middle – for example as shown in Figure 1 indicating that you are in a trial system with 30 days remaining, or in Figure 8 indicating the name of the application in SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA.
Stable positioning of shell actions such as opening Joule, Notifications, Help and User Menu.

The design also gives you a sneak preview of a planned product-switcher icon, which would allow users to switch directly to other products, and which would probably come later than the new shell bar itself. Similarly the “Trial” indicator may come with late releases.

Figure 1: Target design for the updated shell bar. Some of the features shown may come in later releases than others. Alt Text: Image shows only the shell bar, with the menu icon on the left, followed by the SAP logo, text “Product Identifier”, a vertical separator line, text “Trial” in a mauve container and text “30 days remaining”. On the far right an icon with 3x3 dots for the planned product switcher, then going left: a user avatar, a help icon, a notifications icon with a red indicator showing unread notifications, the Joule icon and a search field.

Navigation Menu: Side Navigation

Many SAP products already offer a navigation menu on the left of the screen. With today’s wide screens on desktops and laptops, this is a good use of screen space, and also a pattern already familiar to many people. Hence we have decided to apply that approach to navigation across the SAP Business Suite in upcoming releases.

The new design offers three variants, as depicted in Figure 2. In all cases, the navigation menu appears on the left of the screen. The menu can be always fully visible (“Expanded”), or it can be collapsed to leave more space for the actual application UI (“Collapsed”), or it can appear as an overlay, after the user has clicked on the menu icon (“Overlay Mode”).

The menu can have a hierarchy of entries. In Figure 2, the “Favorites” section has been expanded to show two items below it, each labelled “Favorite item” in the example.

Figure 2: Side navigation variants. Alt Text: three variants shown for a vertical list of navigation targets: Expanded, Collapsed and Overlay Mode: The collapsed mode shows only icons, Expanded and Overlay Mode show names next to each item. At the top, the list starts with “Home” and “Favorites”. Below that that a “Navigation Group” which has been expanded to show five “Nav Item” entries, one of which is expanded to show two “Child Item” entries. At the very bottom, separated by vertical white space from the navigation targets, two quick actions are displayed (“Quick Create” and “New Item”).

Figures 3, 4 and 5 show design mock-ups of an imaginary application listing sales orders using the patterns “Expanded”, “Collapsed” and “Overlay Mode” respectively.

Figure 3: Side navigation: example of the “Expanded” pattern. Alt Text: The expanded pattern on the left of the screen. The majority of the screen to the right shows a tabular list of sales orders.

Figure 4: Side navigation: example of the “Collapsed” pattern. Alt Text: The collapsed pattern on the left of the screen, which shows a tabular list of sales orders.

Figure 5: Side navigation: example of the “Overlay Mode” pattern. Alt Text: The overlay mode pattern on the left of the screen, covering the first two columns of the tabular list of sales orders.

Side Navigation in SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA

Figures 6, 7 and 8 give you a preview of what this would look like for SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA (on-prem) later this year (Q3/2025 and Q4/2025 respectively) – as you can see, we have opted for the “Overlay Mode” pattern. Note that some minor details of the design are likely to change before being released.

Figure 6 shows the initial menu, as it would look when a user clicks on the menu icon the first time. What is new compared to the current navigation menu is the section “Favorite Apps” which contains the user’s favorite apps, which they have personalized on the My Home page. As before, the menu provides direct access to a user’s Spaces and Pages.

Figure 6: Planned side navigation for SAP S4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA: Initial menu. Note that the design is subject to minor changes before being released. Alt Text: The image shows the top left of the My Home screen with the menu opened in overlay mode. The list starts with the entry “My Home”, followed by “Favorite Apps” with an “>” indicator that it is not expanded, “My Spaces” which has been expanded and shows entries “Billing”, “Sales Management”, “Price Management”, “Order Fulfillment Managem…”, “Order Fulfillment Execution”. “Price Management” and “Order Fulfillment Execution” are single entries, the others have ”>” indicators that they have not been expanded. At the bottom of the overlay, below a horizontal separator line: “All Spaces” can be chosen.

Figure 7 shows the “Favorite Apps” expanded while on the My Home page. You can see that the list of favorite apps corresponds to the apps in the Favorites section of My Home (the section directly below the navigation menu). The user has defined two folders in the Favorites section (“Sales” and “Billing”); these are also shown as folders in the navigation menu. Similarly, the “My Spaces” section of the navigation menu lists the spaces which the user has pinned to the top of the My Home page.

Figure 7: Planned shell bar and side navigation for SAP S4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA: Favorites expanded. Note that the design is subject to minor changes before being released. Alt Text: The image shows the whole My Home page, with the navigation menu on the left, showing the Favorites expanded, containing a list of eight apps followed by two groups “Sales” and “Billing”. These have the same names as the two groups and eight apps shown in the My Home page, in the same order (from left to right in My Home).

The main advantage of the new side navigation for users is the fact that they can access their favorite apps as well as their spaces and pages directly from any application, without first having to navigate to the My Home page. Figure 8 shows what this would look like, using the “Manage Sales Orders – Version 2” application as an example.

Figure 8: Planned Side Navigation for SAP S4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA: available from within every application. Note that the design is subject to minor changes before being released. Alt Text: Image shows the top left of the screen, showing the same navigation menu as in Figure 7, but overlayed above the “Manage Sales Order – Version 2” app, which shows a list with only one entry.

User Menu

The user menu, which appears when clicking on the user’s avatar icon at the top right of the screen, has also been redesigned. Figure 9 shows the target design, which gives more space to show the user’s photo, if one is maintained. The design specifies that the settings should always appear at the top of the list, followed by the product-specific menu items. The sign-out option is now more clearly visible in its own separate section.

Figure 10 shows what the new design is planned to look like for SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA later this year, comparing it with the current user menu.

Figure 9: Target design for updated user menu. Alt Text: Two images of an overlay are shown. The image on the left, below a heading “Simple”, shows a centered circular photo of the user, with their name, e-mail address and role below it. Below that, left aligned, three items are listed, each first with an icon and then the name “Settings”, “Legal Information”, “About”. At the bottom, below a horizontal separator bar, right aligned in blue an icon and text “Sign Out”. The image on the right, below a heading “With Other Accounts”, is identical to the one on the left except for a “Manage Account” button below the user’s role, and below that an item “Other Accounts (3)” followed by a an edit icon. There is an expand indicator “>” to the left of the “Other Accounts (3)” text.

Figure 10: Current and planned user menu for SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA. Note that the “Adapt UI” entry is not included on the right since the example user does not have the necessary key user authorization. Alt Text: Two images are shown, each only showing the top right of the screen with the user menu pop-over under the user avatar in the shell bar. On the left the current user menu is shown, on the right the planned menu, which is larger, and starts with a user avatar followed by the user name and e-mail address, and then the menu items left-aligned. At the bottom, below a horizontal separator bar, an icon and “Sign Out” text is shown, right-aligned.

Notifications

The new target design for notifications standardizes how notifications are to be displayed across the SAP Business Suite in the future, for applications as well as for central services such as SAP Build Work Zone. Figure 11 shows the target design, which shows what notifications from a central notification service could look like, with notifications from various products. Users will be able to sort the list: by date or by importance. As you can see in figure 11, the results in the list are grouped, e.g. by today, yesterday, last week and so on. Clicking on the settings icon takes you directly to the notifications section in the user settings dialog.

Figure 11: Target design for notifications. Alt Text: The image shows the top right of the screen, with the notification pop-over below the shell bar notification icon. It shows two expanded groups “Today” and “Yesterday”, each showing two items with header in bold and two lines of text. Below the text a line indicating the source product and application along with a date or time. The first item has an additional line containing a red “Important” indicator. The header of the pop-over has “Clear All” text, a sort icon and a settings icon on the very right.

Search in the Shell Bar

Finally, we are also planning to standardize the design of search in the shell bar, as you can see in Figure 12. The most relevant items should appear at the top of the suggest list, followed by groups of further search hits.

Figure 12: Target design for search in the shell bar. Alt Text: The image shows the shell header bar with the text “John Walters” entered in the search field, below which a drop-down menu lists five hits (“John Walters”, “John’s Digital Services”,…), followed by a section “Sales Orders” followed by two entries (“15665566 – Media John Productions”,…) and a section “Sales Quotes” (“46465464 –John’s Ventures”,…). At the very bottom, below a horizontal separator bar, the text in blue “Show All search Results [N]”.

Final words

I hope you are looking forward to seeing these design updates in our products as much as I am!

In case you missed my recent series of blog posts about our recent UX innovations, do have a look, it starts with this one:

SAP User Experience Q1/2025 Update – Part 1: Many New Innovations Available (AI, Joule and More)

Particular highlights in the series are the great uses of GenAI in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and in SAP SuccessFactors, which are covered in parts 2 and 3. But you’ll also learn about the new Home Page in Fieldglass, new applications and innovations in Ariba and SAP CX, SAC and BTP with Horizon, plus UI design and technology updates. Here is the full list of the posts with links:

Central UX Services (the first post)

Joule – latest UX innovations
Central entry points and services:

SAP Start / SAP Build Work Zone
SAP Task Center
SAP Mobile Start

ERP: SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2502 and SAP Fiori launchpad (AI, Joule and More).
HR: SAP SuccessFactors (AI, Joule and More).
Spend: SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass.
Selling: SAP Customer Experience and SAP Industry Cloud – Retail.
Analytics and Platform: SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Business Technology Platform.
UI Design and Technology for web and mobile.

Designing the Context Menu in Advanced Scheduling Board

2025-04-23T06:18:43.574000+02:00

Objective

To design context menus for the Advanced Scheduling Board Fiori app, that is both modular and scalable.

Context menus are triggered when the user right clicks on a column of any particular table (Table Context Menu) or any shape on the Gantt area (Shape Context Menu)

Persona

Advanced Scheduling Board is primarily used by Production Planners for scheduling various planning objects.

Persona : Production Planner

Problem Statement

Existing context menu in Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS)

Context Menu in PP/DS

The Menus are not organised and it is very difficult to find specific menus that are relevant to specific operations.

Issues with the existing context menus

The actions and sub actions were not intuitive.
The Main toolbar actions had a different hierarchy and structure than that from the existing context menus.
Had a single menu which was not very contextual.

Major findings from the usability study conducted

The end users primarily used the context menu options to perform the specific tasks, even though the tasks can be performed from the main toolbar options.

Solution

Understanding the Anatomy of the Context Menu

Similar actions or similar set of actions should be grouped together and separated by divider.

Designing the Context Menus

Specific set of context menus should appear on the table side and gantt side for each type of charts. These context menus should help the planner carry out tasks specific to the respective tables or respective shapes.

Table Context Menus

1. Resource Chart (Gantt Chart)

Resources Table Side Right Click

2. Order Chart (Gantt Chart)

Order Chart Table Side Right Click

3. Product Chart (Gantt Chart)

Product Table Side Right Click

4. Operation Chart (Gantt Chart)

5. Product Stock Visualisation Chart (Time Continuous Chart)

Product Stock Visualisation : Table Side Right Click

6. Resource Utilisation Chart (Time Continuous Chart)

Resource Utilisation : Right Click Table Side

Shape Context Menus

A Context Menu is displayed with various options when the user right-clicks on a shape in any of the charts. These options are specific to the chart and shapes on which the right-click was performed. The shapes can be selected either manually or with Lasso Selection and upon right-click, the context menu is displayed.

Note : Product Stock Visualisation and Resource Utilisation Charts will not have context menus on the chart side, since there are no interactive shapes or objects.

Resources Chart and Operations chart

Right click on any shape will show the following menu.

Right ClickOrder Operation

OrderOperation

The Context Menu's are cohesive, and distinguishable. The Sub menu's are also the exact same just as the same from the main tool bar menus, maintaining a consistant hierarchy.

Product Chart and Order Chart

The Product and Order Chart will not have any Operation related actions.

Hence with this approach, we are able to show only relevant actions pertaining to specific tables and shapes contextually.

Improve SAP UI5 Application Performance using Lazy Loading

2025-04-29T19:04:55.156000+02:00

Hi Everyone,
Today, I’m writing a blog about How to improve Performance of SAP UI5 Application.
Below, I'll guide you through a simple step-by-step process How to improve Performance of UI Application.
What is Lazy Loading
Lazy loading is a performance optimization technique that loads only the necessary resources at first,
and defers loading the rest until they are actually needed.
In SAPUI5, lazy loading can be applied to views, fragments, components, and data. Here's how to do it:
Improving application performance using lazy loading in SAPUI5 is a great topic for blog.
Lazy loading means loading only what's needed at the time—like loading views, fragments, or heavy datasets only when required instead of at startup. this makes the app faster and more efficient.

Here’s a step-by-step guide with source code and clear explanation using View and Controller to demonstrate lazy loading of a fragment when a button is clicked.
What We'll Do
Create a simple View with a Button.
Load a Fragment only when the button is clicked (lazy loaded).
Use the loaded fragment to show a dialog.
Folder Structure (for reference)

1 Main View (Lazy loading trigger)
View1.view.xml

<mvc:View controllerName="project1.controller.View1"
    xmlns:mvc="sap.ui.core.mvc"
    xmlns="sap.m">
    <Page id="page" title="{i18n>title}">
        <VBox id="_IDGenVBox" class="sapUiSmallMargin">
            <Button id="_IDGenButton1" 
              text="Open Lazy Loaded Dialog" 
              press="onOpenDialog" />
          </VBox>
    </Page>
</mvc:View>

2 Fragment to Load Lazily
DialogFragment.fragment.xml

<core:FragmentDefinition
  xmlns="sap.m"
  xmlns:core="sap.ui.core">

  <Dialog
    id="myLazyDialog"
    title="Lazy Loaded Dialog"
    draggable="true"
    resizable="true"
    contentWidth="400px"
    contentHeight="200px"
    class="sapUiResponsivePadding--header sapUiResponsivePadding--content sapUiResponsivePadding--footer"
    >
    
    <Text id="_IDGenText1" text="This dialog was loaded lazily!" />

    <beginButton>
      <Button id="_IDGenButton" text="Close" press="onCloseDialog" />
    </beginButton>
  </Dialog>

</core:FragmentDefinition>

3 Controller (Lazy loading logic)
View1.controller

sap.ui.define([
    "sap/ui/core/mvc/Controller",
     "sap/ui/core/Fragment"
], (Controller,Fragment) => {
    "use strict";
  return Controller.extend("project1.controller.View1", {
        onOpenDialog: function () {
            var oView = this.getView();
            // Check if dialog is already loaded
            if (!this._pDialog) {
              this._pDialog = Fragment.load({
                id: oView.getId(),
                name: "project1.view.DialogFragment",
                controller: this
              }).then(function(oDialog){
                oView.addDependent(oDialog); 
                return oDialog;
              });
            }
      
            this._pDialog.then(function(oDialog){
              oDialog.open();
            });
          },
        onCloseDialog: function () {
            // Close the dialog
            this.byId("myLazyDialog").close();
          }
    });
});

When will you click on open Lazy Loaded Button it's will show Lazy loaded Dialog Fragment

Explanation:
Why this improves performance:
Without Lazy Loading: All fragments load at app start, even if not used.
With Lazy Loading: The dialog is only loaded into memory when the user clicks the button.
What’s happening:
Fragment. load() is asynchronous, returning a promise.
It loads the fragment only once and caches it using this._pDialog.
add Dependent() ensures the fragment is destroyed when the view is.

SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA - Simplifying My Home Activation from SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS02 or higher

2025-04-30T10:20:12.802000+02:00

Innovation made easier! Enabling My Home for SAP S/4HANA has been streamlined from SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS02. Save time and effort by using the settings in task list SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4.

In our previous blog, "SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA - Empowering Your Homepage: Enabling My Home for SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01", we explored the detailed steps required to enable My Home in SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01. We walked through the structure, technical components, configuration steps, and necessary authorizations to activate My Home manually.

IMPORTANT : If you are looking to understand the structure of My Home i.e. its main components”, or its building blocks and technical components, please refer to our previous blog.

With the SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS02 release, the process of enabling My Home has been further streamlined. As a part of this blog, we will focus on the enhancements introduced in FPS02, where Steps 1 through Step 4 described in the previous blog are now automated via the SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4 task list. This significantly reduces manual effort, making My Home activation quicker and more efficient.

Comparison of SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4 Task List Across SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01, and FPS02

Simplified My Home Activation with SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS02

Automation via the SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4 Task List

With the SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS02 release onwards, Steps 1 through 4 explained in the pervious blog are now automated as part of the SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4 task list. This task list consolidates these key setup steps into a single run, simplifying and streamlining the activation process.

Note:If you have already activated SAP Fiori foundation on your SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS02 using Rapid Activation and executed the SAP Fiori - Initial Setup for Fiori Application S/4 (SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4) task list, the following tasks are automatically included as part of the default task list run, and no additional manual execution is required.

However, if you have upgraded from SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS01 (or lower releases of SAP S/4HANA) to SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS02, you must re-execute the following four tasks (from the SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4 task list ) described in this blog to ensure My Home is fully enabled with the latest updates.

Step (described in the previous blog)	Corresponding task from the SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4 task list	Automation Details
1 - Enabling Spaces and Pages Layout	Activate and Configure FLP for Spaces and Pages (/UI2/FLP_CUS_CONF)	Configures FLP property SPACES with system setting checks.
2 - Activating the My Home UI5 Component	Activate HTTP Services Foundation	Activates the SAPUI5 Component ux.eng.s4producthomes1 (SICF node: BSP PRODUCT_HOMES1).
3 - Activating the Required OData V2 and V4 Services	Activate Gateway OData Services Foundation (/IWFND/MAINT_SERVICE) & Publish Service Groups Foundation (/IWFND/V4_ADMIN)	Publishes the following service groups: - /IWNGW/NOTIFICATION (Notification) - /UI2/INSIGHTS_SRV (Insight Cards) Note: TASKPROCESSING (My Inbox) and C_SITNMYSITUATION_CDS (Situation Handling) are NOT included in this automation and must be activated manually if required. Please refer to Step 4 from the previous blog for manual activation steps.
4 - Configuring Launchpad Parameters	Activate and Configure FLP for Spaces and Pages (/UI2/FLP_CUS_CONF)	Configures all necessary FLP parameters for My Home page, including enablement of the page, Custom Component, and UI5 Insights.

Step 1 through Step 4 can be executed cumulatively on SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS02 (or higher)

Navigate to the transaction STC01 (Task Manager for Technical Configuration).
STC01 : Task Manager for Technical Configuration
Enter the Task List name as SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4 (which is used to activate Fiori foundation) and click on the Generate Task List Run (F8) button.
On the next screen with generated task list, uncheck all the tasks using Skip All Tasks (F7) button and then only Select the task Activate and Configure FLP for Spaces and Pages (/UI2/FLP_CUS_CONF). After selecting the task, You will get an Information popup that the activation step has dependencies on other steps like creating transports, activating services etc., click Continue for all the dependent steps.

Skip all tasks for SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4 and select 'Activate and Configure FLP for Spaces and Pages (/UI2/FLP_CUS_CONF)' task

By clicking on the Change Parameters button for this task, you could configure the following Fiori Launchpad Parameters required for My Home enablement, which have been highlighted already as a part of the blog. For now, you could just leave them as-is to default and continue.

Change Parameters for the task 'Activate and Configure FLP for Spaces and Pages (/UI2/FLP_CUS_CONF)'
Additionally, also select the task Publish Service Groups Foundation (/IWFND/V4_ADMIN) which would publish the /IWNGW/NOTIFICATION (Notification) and /UI2/INSIGHTS_SRV (Insight Cards) OData V4 services.

After selecting this task, only the following 5 task should remain selected.
- Create / Select Customizing Request (SE09)
- Activate and Configure FLP for Spaces and Pages (/UI2/FLP_CUS_CONF)
- Activate Gateway OData Services Foundation (/IWFND/MAINT_SERVICE)
- Publish Service Groups Foundation (/IWFND/V4_ADMIN)
- Activate HTTP services Foundation
Click on the Start/Resume Task List Run in the Dialog button to start the task list run.

IMPORTANT: As mentioned above, the task list SAP_FIORI_FOUNDATION_S4 available with SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS02 would not activate the optional functionality like My Inbox and Situation Handling related OData services. Please follow the references mentioned in the original blog should you be interested to activate them.

Step 5: Assigning Relevant Authorizations via a PFCG Role

The role creation and authorization setup for My Home in SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS02 remains the same as FPS01. You can follow the same steps described in the previous blog to create and configure the required PFCG role.

For a quick summary, here are the key steps:

Create a PFCG security role (e.g., Z_SR_MY_HOME)
- Navigate to transaction PFCG, enter a role name, and click Create Single Role.
- Provide a role description and switch to the Menu tab.
Add the Required OData Services
- TASKPROCESSING (for My Inbox)
- C_SITNMYSITUATION_CDS (for Situations)
- INTEROP (for personalization, should already be active)
- /UI2/INSIGHTS_CARDS_READ_SRV (for Insights Cards)
Assign Target Mappings for My Inbox and My Situations
- Use SAP Fiori Launchpad Content Manager (UI2/FLPCM_CUST).
- Create a Launchpad Catalog (Z_BC_MY_HOME).
- Add Target Mappings for My Inbox (F0862) and My Situations (F4154).
Assign the Role to Users
- Open the Role Maintenance transaction PFCG, go to the User tab, and assign the role to business users.

Note: Ensure that users have business roles containing spaces and pages, so My Home functions correctly.

Note :

Becoming a SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA guru

You’ll find much more on our SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA topic page

Preliminary What’s New Information for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2502.3

2025-04-30T14:27:52.163000+02:00

Preliminary versions of What’s New information and of the Product Assistance are now available for customers and partners to get a preview on the upcoming new and changed features of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2502.3.

You can find this preview on the current Help Portal page SAP S/4HANA Cloud (see What’s New section “Preview of SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2502.3”). To access the Preliminary What’s New information, please use the What’s New Viewer or the Release Assessment and Scope Dependency (RASD) tool.

The RASD tool provides you with a personalized and tailored view on What’s New information based on the activated and used scope within your system. The preliminary information for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2502.3 will be available in RASD within the next few days. We recommend using RASD to prepare for upgrades and updates of your system and to focus on the new and changed features that are relevant for you. A valid S-User ID is needed to use the RASD tool and to view all the preliminary content stated above.

For any feedback you may have, try the Commenting Feature for What's New documentation in this release. See this blog for more information.

SAP Fiori for Web v6.0

2025-05-08T09:26:58.489000+02:00

We’re excited to share that the latest version of the SAP Fiori for Web UI Kit is now live in the SAP Figma Community!

This update is essential for anyone designing enterprise web apps: it helps teams work faster, avoid rework and ensures your designs stay consistent, efficient, and ready for implementation.

The updates below include new components, improved variants, and refreshed design variables, all of which directly impact how you build and maintain high-quality UI elements.

Check it out here

SAP Figma Community

What’s New - and What’s Evolved? 

Here’s a quick overview of the most important updates we’ve introduced over the past few versions, now all included in the new file:

9+ New components:

Tool Header, User Menu, Settings, Shell Bar, Side Navigation, and Notifications introduced.

Disclaimer: This image is a conceptual composition and does not represent a real-life use case.

Form has been added to streamline structured data input.

Form component

The Legend provides a visual guide for interpreting content in the Calendar. The Legend Item represents individual status indicators within the Legend.

Calendar with Legend

A new badge type called the Attention Badge has been introduced for Buttons, building on the existing Counter Badge.

Button with Attention Badge

Variables:

All design variables have been updated to align with the latest version, ensuring consistency and accuracy across components.

Component Improvements:

Additional variants have been added to existing components.

What This Means for You

You have access to an accurate, easy-to-use, and regularly updated UI Kit - all in one place. Whether you're designing, prototyping, or building with SAP Fiori for Web, this setup ensures you're always working with the latest standards.

Thanks for being part of the journey. We’re already preparing for the next update. We can’t wait to see what you create with the SAP Fiori for Web UI Kit!

Feel free to check out our other kits in the SAP Figma Community.

Authors: Siyana Dicheva (UX Designer, SAP Core Design Team) and Janina Fichtner (UX Designer, SAP Core Design Team)

User Experience Overviews at SAP Sapphire Orlando & Madrid

2025-05-13T18:29:01.995000+02:00

Join us in Orlando May 20-21 or Madrid May 27-28 to get an overview of the latest user experience innovations along with an outlook on what is planned.

Figure 1: Alt Text: Image of Arin Bhowmick, Chief Design Officer, SAP, with the title and ID of his talk, along with date and location for Orlando.

Listen to Arin Bhowmick, our Chief Design Officer:

Title: SAP's user-experience strategy to achieve better outcomes

Orlando: PUX2821, May 20, 2025 3:30 – 3:50 PM EDT

Madrid: PUX1497, May 27, 2025, 1:30 – 1:50 PM CEST

Abstract: Understand how SAP is leading the way to help business users get work done easily and with better outcomes. Our strategy provides a consistent and integrated suite-first experience, infuses AI nearly everywhere, makes it easier for our customers and partners to design and build great UX, and leverages our user research framework to meet your needs.

Figure 2: Alt Text: Image of Thomas Reiss, VP of SAP User Experience Product Management, with the title and ID of his talk, along with date and location for Orlando.

Join me for my road map talk:

Title: User experience innovations in our products: For today and tomorrow

Orlando: PUX2826, May 20, 2025 4:30 – 4:50 PM EDT

Madrid: PUX1498, May 28, 2025, 9:00 – 9:20 AM CEST

Abstract: Have a look at the latest UX innovations across our suite of applications, along with cool innovations coming soon. Examine SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA, as well as cloud products such as SAP SuccessFactors and SAP Ariba solutions. Also, check out selected highlights from UI technologies.

Orlando: Further UX Talks

Let me call out these additional UX specific talks:

Suite-first experience: Seamless, consistent, and integrated
PUX2825 Tuesday, 1:00 pm
Creating a great UX for your own applications with SAP Design System PUX2827 Tuesday, 1:30 pm
AI on the go: Run your business with SAP Mobile Start and Joule
PUX2818 Tuesday, 2:00 pm
From insights to impact: Elevating product success through your feedback PUX2822 Tuesday, 3:00 pm
AI-first user experience: What's in it for you?
PUX2824 Wednesday, 11:00 am
An overview of our AI-fueled mobile products across SAP Business Suite PUX2819 Wednesday, 11:30 am
Our mobile experiences empowering today’s and tomorrow’s business users PUX3224 Wednesday, 1:00 pm

Find out more in the session catalog for Sapphire Orlando, May 19-21: Product and User Experience Track.

Beyond that, there are a number of interesting UX-related talks in other tracks, have a look here for a nice summary by Peter Spielvogel:

UX, AI, SAP S/4HANA transformation sessions at SAP Sapphire and ASUG Annual Conference 2025.

Madrid: Further UX Talks

Creating a great UX for your own applications with SAP Design System PUX1499 Wednesday, 11:30 pm
From insights to impact: Elevating product success through your feedback PUX1495 Tuesday, 11:00 am
An overview of our AI-fueled mobile products across SAP Business Suite PUX1494 Wednesday, 3:30 pm

Find out more in the session catalog for Sapphire Madrid, May 26-28: Product and User Experience Track (6 talks).

More Information

I hope to see you either in Orlando or Madrid – feel free to approach me and ask questions!

In case you missed my recent series of blog posts about our recent UX innovations, do have a look, it starts with this one, which contains links to all the other six posts in the series:

SAP User Experience Q1/2025 Update – Part 1: Many New Innovations Available (AI, Joule and More).

SAP Community - User Experience

SAP Standard Content Vs. Custom-built Content for End-User Adoption in SAP Implementation Programs

Standard Content is generic in nature

Standard Content lacks the implementation story / context

Standard Content does not reflect organization-specific workflows

Standard Content does not reflect organization-specific system settings & controls

Documentation Vs. Learning Experience

Consistency in Future Onboarding

Different User Roles Using SAP in Unique Ways

Conclusion

How to Measure / Evaluate End User Adoption Training for System Implementation Programs

Participation Metrics

Performance Metrics

Impact Metrics

Usage Metrics

Data Sources

An Example

Participation Metrics

Performance Metrics

Assessment Scores:

Impact Metrics

Usage Metrics

Conclusion

AI-Generated User Feedback Summary in Customer Usage Dashboard

"Build Better Dashboards" - Process

Intro

Blog Content

1. Discover Phase

Focusing On the User

User Research Process

Preparing Research

2. Design Phase

3. Develop Phase

Visualizing Data with SAP Analytics Cloud

Chart Types

1. Comparison (Structure Analysis)

2. Time Analysis

3. Part-to whole

4. Cumulation

5. Deviation

6. Distribution

7. Correlation

AI in My Home enhances efficiency, accuracy, and decision-making for SAP users

Announcement: Removal of Belize Theme of SAP Fiori

Executive summary

Themes in SAP Fiori

Belize theme removal

Custom themes based on Belize

Sales Innovation with SAP S/4HANA, Business AI, and User Experience: A Practical Approach

Switching to Spaces and Pages Experience Sharing – My Three Best Practices of Using Spaces and Pages

Introduction

My Three Best Practices

Best Practice 1 – Declogging My Home Page

Best Practice 2 – Personalize Pages to Your Needs

Best Practice 3 – Use As Many SAP Delivered Spaces and Pages As Possible

Conclusions

References

Dashboard Design Best-Practices

Welcome,

Content

Build Better Dashboards - Process(based on "Design-Led-Development" Business Strategy Process)

Design and Patterns

Horizon Theme and Templates

Data Visualization

SAP Analytics Cloud - Best - Practices

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

The challenge: A fragmented, manual process

The solution: A hands-on transformation

The objectives

The experience

Real user feedback

Conclusion

Dashboard Design Patterns

1. Analytical Page Types

2. Patterns

1. Layout Patterns:

Info Group (KPI Row)

Control Group (Page Filter)

Logic Group

2. Interaction Patterns:

Build Better Dashboards - Process
(based on "Design-Led-Development" Business Strategy Process)

What’s New - and What’s Evolved? 