Fiori, Franks and Fireworks

As a Canadian, I love the 4^th of July for many reasons. One of which is the ability to blog uninterrupted while my American colleagues are out of the office enjoying parades and fireworks.

I read today on usnews.com that “80% of Americans attend a barbecue, picnic or cookout” on the 4^th of July. That’s exactly the same percentage of people who download SAP Fiori with the intent of accessing SAP systems from mobile devices. While a very high number, this statistic shouldn’t be surprising considering mobile is the preferred consumption method of millions of employees working across a wide variety of roles at companies globally.

We often refer to the concept of taking SAP Fiori web applications and enabling them to act as true mobile applications on a mobile device as the “SAP Fiori mobile experience”. Delivering the best possible mobile app experience requires more than a good app level user interface.

The mobile environment is full of challenges. Anyone who has tried to use a browser on a mobile device to access corporate content behind a firewall can tell you the issues. But there are many unique challenges inherent to mobile that should be considered, such as:

• Optimizing the experience so users can be productive away from their desktops
• Making it easy for users to complete small tasks quickly and easily
• Providing the option to work both online and offline
• Taking advantage of the unique capabilities available of mobile devices
• Addressing security concerns that may impact user experience
• Providing an app store experience that users have come to expect.

The US smartphone market surpassed 150 million devices a year and a half ago. This weekend alone, Americans are expected to chow down on 150 million hot dogs. As we consume both hotdogs and mobile data, lets keep in mind that the average mobile consumer checks their device 150 times a day. It is in this environment of rapid change and heavy mobile usage that we have to provide easy access for employees to be productive at work. And we can help you do this with the SAP Fiori mobile experience.

As you’re planning to take SAP Fiori to your mobile users, and you’ve started to consider the issues you’ll face, I encourage you to join my colleague Scott Steadman and I as we deliver a webinar on this topic on July 22^nd. If you’re interested in learning more and registering, check out the invitations for either the 11am eastern session or the 8pm eastern session.

We’ll cover topics including the end-to-end development tooling and process, implementing security features like certificate provisioning, multi-factor authentication, and central policy management, and delivering a native, more responsive and better performing user experiences to Fiori mobile apps are top issues to consider.

While you’re enjoying your hotdog and fireworks display, think ahead to your plans to take SAP Fiori mobile in 2015. Join us as we help enable you to be successful in the mobile environment.