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Jocelyn_Dart
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
Latest Update October 2020: Adjusted the title to reflect the new release SAP S/4HANA 2020. Added the SAP Note 2813396 - Fiori Setup: Content Activation for Business Roles that contains the improvements for the custom content activation task list

Latest Update May 2020: Added a new blog clarifying the Transport  approach for Rapid Content Activation, i.e. SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – SAP Fiori Rapid Activation: Transport from Development to Production sys...

Latest Update April 2020: Clarified the difference for refining roles between SAP Fiori launchpad content manager and the older task lists.  The older tasks lists should only be used as a fallback option as these necessarily involved a higher degree of effort to activate your apps.

Latest Update March 2020: Updated the title to reflect that this process is available for SAP S/4HANA solutions 1709 or higher. This was already explained in the body of this blog post, however changing the title just makes it a little easier for people to discover this e.g. via Google Search.

Latest Update December 2019: Added the option of using the task list SAP_FIORI_FCM_CONTENT_ACTIVATION to activate all apps in your custom catalogs, and highlighted role view in the enhanced Fiori launchpad content manager tooling.

Latest Update 13/08/2019: A small update to clarify the Transporting your apps section

Latest Update 1/08/2019: Rapid Content Activation now supports transport of OData Services similar to the older task lists.  So if you are looking to use Rapid Content Activation in DEV for transport to your QA and PRD systems, please refer to 2686456 – Fiori Setup: Content Activation for Business Roles.

If you want to customize or copy your activated business roles you can now take advantage of the Fiori Launchpad Content Manager as explained in the blog New SAP Fiori launchpad content manager tool available for S/4HANA 1709 and 1809 customers.  You will need to apply the SAP Note 2772270 - SAP Fiori Launchpad Content Manager to your system.

Latest Update 14/05/2019: added latest note for 1809 FPS01 SAP Note 2777142 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for Fiori in S/4HANA 1809 FPS01

In this final blog of the SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA Rapid Content Activation series, you will discover recommended approaches for customizing the delivered SAP Business Roles to fit your organization's business roles, and how to activate & transport them through your Development to Production system landscape. 

Congratulations! You have made it through the first 3 blogs and now know why & how to use the Rapid Content Activation task lists to experience Fiori for S/4HANA as quickly as possible.  Having experienced SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA, you will need to know how to move forward into your Development to Production System landscape.

At this stage you will have completed the Explore phase of SAP Activate Methodology:

  • Activated your selected Business Roles

  • Tested your selected Business Roles, the related apps & app navigation

  • Demonstrated your selected Business Roles to your business stakeholders

  • Discussed & agreed on how these apps will be deployed in a way that manages the pace of change for your organization


How you manage the pace of change depends on several factors, such as:

  • Desired business value & outcomes for your SAP S/4HANA project

  • Desired innovations - some parts of the organization may be more ready for innovation than others

  • Appetite & capacity for change - some business roles are likely to be more eager for change than others


For some customers, e.g. new S/4HANA installations, a big bang approach is usual. Other customers, e.g. S/4HANA system conversions, typically stage the journey over several phases.

You will reach a point towards the end of the Explore phase when you have a clear idea of which business roles, which apps, and which app-to-app navigations you want to deploy in your Development system and transport through to your Production system.

So you will need to adjust the Fiori launchpad content and create custom version of the business roles to meet your needs.



Once again here are the quick links to the blogs in this series to give you a complete understanding of the rapid content activation technique.

Part 1: Overview 

  • Why these Rapid Activation task lists were created

  • What’s in the Rapid Activation task lists


Part 2: Pre-requisites and executing the Fiori Foundation task list

  • Pre-requisites

  • How to execute the Fiori Foundation task list


Part 3: Scoping & Executing the Rapid Activation Task List for your business roles

  • Selecting your business roles

  • How to execute the Rapid Activation task list

  • Testing your activated business roles


Part 4: Customizing & transporting your activated business roles(this blog)

  • How to customize the business roles you have activated by the task lists

  • Transporting activation and activation alternatives

  • Where to get help


How to customize your activated business roles


Activating standard content quickly is great in your Sandpit system when you need to explore and decide what you want to use.

Of course, every customer is unique, and you all have different needs.  So having explored your newly activated Fiori content, and compared them to the real business roles in your organization, you might find that:

  • Some SAP Business Roles you are happy to use as-is

  • Some SAP Business Roles provide most of what you need but need some small adjustments – a few apps added or removed

  • Some don’t align closely to what you do, so only a few of the apps are relevant.


You can adjust for these differences when activating the content in your development system.

TIP: For a fast way to customize or copy your activated business roles you can now take advantage of the Fiori Launchpad Content Manager as explained in the blog New SAP Fiori launchpad content manager tool available for S/4HANA 1709 and 1809 customers. You will need to apply the SAP Note 2772270 - SAP Fiori Launchpad Content Manager to your system.  This new tool is a mass maintenance option to view, copy and customize your catalogs.  It works alongside the existing tool Launchpad Designer, which you will still use to maintain the finer details of your tile definitions and target mappings.

If the SAP Business Role covers most or all of what you need you can use this same Fiori Rapid Content Activation tooling to activate the whole business role in your development system.  To make any adjustments:

You can use the task list SAP_FIORI_FCM_CONTENT_ACTIVATION to activate all apps in your custom catalogs.  This is a highly recommended option for use in Development environments where your custom business roles differ significantly from SAP Business Roles, especially where you have needed to create custom roles from scratch. For this make sure you have SAP Note 2813396 - Fiori Content Manager (FCM): Content Activation for Roles applied in your system.

IMPORTANT: Further improvements have been made to the Fiori Content Manager Activation Task List. To take advantage of these, please ensure that you have read and implemented the following notes before you execute the task list.

Note: If you need to deactivate any apps you can deactivate the ICF nodes in transaction SICF, and the OData Services in transaction /IWFND/MAINT_SERVICE

NOTE: The following approach is now considered a fallback option for older releases, i.e. SAP S/4HANA 1511 and 1610, or systems 1709 or 1809 where Fiori launchpad content manager has not been installed (e.g. because minimum prerequisites for support packs have not been met)

Transporting your apps


You can find the end to end transport approach for Rapid Activation explained in this blog post SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – SAP Fiori Rapid Activation: Transport from Development to Production sys...

Further background information:

Fiori app activations typically consist of only a few objects that are relevant for transport:

  • ICF nodes - This is the launch entry point for each app and needs to be activated in each system. There is typically 1 x ICF node per Fiori app.

  • OData Services - These are the heart of the app, they perform Create, Read, Update, Delete, and any other backend activity that your app triggers. There can be 1 or several OData Services per Fiori app.


NOTE: These are in addition to the Fiori app source code and Fiori catalogs that are explicitly assigned to transport requests as part of the installation and catalog configuration process. Also note that some apps can have additional functional configuration (check the App Documentation for each app), such configuration is also saved to explicit transport requests as part of completing the configuration. 

You can export your ICF node activations and import them into your new system. Use the standard program RS_ICF_SERV_ADMIN_TASKS to do this.

If you want to transport your activations to another system in your landscape, such as your Development, Test, Quality assurance or Productive system, both Rapid Content Activation and task list SAP_FIORI_FCM_CONTENT_ACTIVATION support transport of OData Services similar to the older task lists.  So if you are looking to use Rapid Content Activation in DEV for transport to your QA and PRD systems, please refer to 2686456 – Fiori Setup: Content Activation for Business Roles

NOTE: Alternatively you can also transport specific OData Service Activations by using the standard task list SAP_GATEWAY_ACTIVATE_ODATA_SERV.  Just check you have this SAP Note applied in your system to provide the transport capability: SAP Note 2630153 - Fiori Setup: Enhance OData service activation task list

Where to get help


Everything changes, nothing remains the same. So while a lot of effort has already gone into thoroughly testing the activation of many business roles, there are always new business roles and changes to existing business roles from release to release.

If you do happen to come across a problem make sure you check the composite note for your version, such as SAP Note 2777142 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for Fiori in S/4HANA 1809 FPS01

Look for the following sections:

  • Known Limitations

  • Special Roles – Prerequisites

  • Special Roles – Follow-Up Activities

  • Further Troubleshooting

  • References (for related notes)


If you still can’t resolve your issue, you can report it using the usual channels, such as raising a SAP Incident.

When raising incidents, if you have a problem with running the task list itself, please use component BC-INS-TC-CNT.

Otherwise if you have a problem with a specific business role, Fiori app,  or with the Fiori launchpad itself, use the recommended support component as listed in the SAP Guided Answer. How to create the perfect Fiori incident

If you are new to Guided Answers, you can find out how to use the Guided Answer in Fiori for S/4HANA – Speed Up your Fiori Support Incidents

Becoming a SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA guru


This particular blog series has been a collaborative effort between the S/4HANA RIG and the Global Fiori Design team.  I’d like to add my personal thanks to all the contributors – they know who they are!  And especially to my colleague hannes.defloo who has shepherded this initiative on behalf of the S/4HANA RIG, as well as drafting this blog series.

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

Brought to you by the S/4HANA RIG
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