SAP Fiori and SAP Screen Personas – how to choose
In a previous post, I talked about how SAP Fiori and Sap Screen Personas are two complementary parts of SAP’s user experience strategy. Since then, I have had many conversations with customers, partners, and SAP colleagues about how to choose between these two solutions. While both Fiori and Personas allow customers to improve the usability of their SAP GUI screens, they follow slightly different approaches.
For routine tasks, such as the most common transactions, Fiori runs out of the box to deliver SAP in a clean, intuitive way across smart phones, tablets, and the desktop. Fiori is a great solution for the majority of casual SAP users in an enterprise.
Personas offers a do-it-yourself approach that allows customers to modify any SAP GUI transaction quickly and easily to streamline the way their users interact with the system. For complex transactions with multiple screens, tabs, or tables, organizations can use Personas to simplify the process and show only the information they need, in the proper context.
How to choose
There are a few dimensions to consider that will guide you towards one or both of these solutions.
- Content. If you are interested in addressing usability for common transactions, then Fiori will probably work for you. If you want to use specialized SAP transactions, then Personas is usually the right solution.
- Device. If you are focused on using SAP across a variety of devices, then Fiori is right for you. We designed Personas primarily for desktop users.
- Personalization. If you use a wide variety of highly specialized or customized transactions, then Personas will be right for you. Fiori runs out of the box and allows minimal changes to the look and feel, but not the underlying transactions.
In some cases, you may benefit from both solutions: Fiori for employee users and Personas for professional users.
For more information about SAP Screen Personas, SAP Fiori, and how to choose between them:
SAP Screen Personas: http://www.sapscreenpersonas.com
SAP Fiori: https://experience.sap.com/fiori
How to choose: http://www.slideshare.net/peterspielvogel/sap-screen-personas-and-sap-fiori-help-me-choose
We will have product experts and live demos of both solutions at all the TechEd events. If you want to learn more, this will be a great opportunity. I hope to see you in either Las Vegas or Amsterdam. I’ll post a list of all the Personas sessions at TechEd with a couple of weeks.
Since Fiori is SAP UI5 based, there is a need for a comparison between Personas and SAP UI5 based UX.
Hi Peter Spielvogel, thank you so much for sharing this knowledge. Are you able to send your "How to choose" presentation with us ?
Thanks you so much,
R
Hi Rodolfo,
You can download the slides from Slideshare. If you have problems with this, please send me an email.
Regards,
Peter
Thanks Peter, I have some problemas with Slideshare. Hope you are able to send it. (raperez@pe.ibm.com // I do not have ur email)
Is SAP Fiori a replacement of SAP Portal?
No.
Hi Amr,
SAP Fiori is not replacing the SAP Portal, but renewing the User Experience of SAP (and the SAP Enterprise Portal as a key component of the SAP User Experience strategy).
Let me give few examples:
To summarize, SAP Fiori and the SAP Enterprise Portal are two complementary concepts/products. One does not replace the other. Together, with additional solutions delivered by SAP like: SAP Screen Personas, SAP NetWeaver Business Client, SAPUI5, SAP River RDE,… they form the building blocks of the SAP User Experience.
Happy to clarify any additional question in case you have.
Regards,
Aviad
Hi Peter,
What if a certain Fiori app meets the business scenario for, let's say, 80%. What would your recommendation then be? Customizing the out-of-the-box app to make it work or move to Personas to personalize the respective transaction in SAP GUI? Let's assume for now that the focus is desktop only.
Of course, the answer is "it depends".
You can use Theme Designer to make basic changes to the Fiori app, mostly on the appearance. If this works, it will be the easiest approach.
For more extensive changes (adding custom data fields, for example), you can use the River Rapid Development Environment (RDE).
You will need to evaluate how extensive the changes are that you want to make to the app and determine what will be the fastest and least expensive way to deliver the desired functionality to your employees.
Another factor is whether you have already deployed the Fiori app and already have the necessary infrastructure in place. If not, you need to include this setup as part of the time and effort to roll it out.
To summarize, in some cases it will be better to modify the app, in others, it will be creating the desired functionality with SAP Screen Personas.
Sorry to not have more specific guidance, but it really does depend on your specific needs and IT environment.
Regards,
Peter
Hi Peter
We are facing the question whether to use SAP Personas or NewWeaver Business Client in Order to meet requirements. Do you have any advices regarding NW Business Client in comparison with Personas?
Regards
Albert
Hi Albert,
NWBC and SAP Screen Personas are two completely different products with very different use cases. They are complementary and many customers use them together.
NWBC is a role-based, single point of entry to the SAP solution space, independent of the UI technology. It integrates Dynpro, Web Dynpro, and SAPUI5-based applications. This gives employees a single entry point to SAP systems.
SAP Screen Personas allows you to simplify Dynpro screens, which can then run inside NWBC, SAP Portal, or simply a web browser.
Regards,
Peter
Hi Peter,
Do you know when is the GA date for Personas 3.0? The plan should be Q1 2015, but it's already Q2 so I just had to ask.
Also, can we call personas apps from fiori launchpad? It's about time that we can integrate everything into one place.
Regards,
Donnie
Hi Donnie,
Of course you can launch SAP Screen Personas flavors from the Fiori Launchpad. We had a packed session on this at the ASUG Annual Conference. At some point, we will package this content for SCN.
SAP Screen Personas 3.0 GA is planned for end of Q2 2015. We extended ramp-up to allow time to integrate suggestions from a few key customers.
You can get started today on SAP Screen Personas 2.0 and migrate your flavors when you are ready. Your work will be preserved.
Regards,
Peter