The Rising Power of End User Feedback - Live at an SAP Customer and Partner
About ConvergentIS
ConvergentIS is a Calgary, Canada based software and professional services firm that specializes in the enhancement of SAP User Experience. Convergent is focused on the design and delivery of SAP Fiori, SAP S/4HANA, SAP Mobility and SAP HCP solutions.
Shaun Syvertsen, Managing Partner, says: "We believe strongly in a user centric approach to enterprise software design and delivery. Believing strongly in leading by example, we are also one of the first organizations to be live on S/4HANA."
ConvergentIS is a growing firm of about 30 employees and more than 120 happy customers.
SAP Fiori at ConvergentIS
Internally, SAP Fiori is used as the front line to run ConvergentIS operationally.
Joseph Chinnabathini, FIORI Architect, explains: "We use SAP Fiori to manage our entire quote to cash process: both employees and contractors use it to enter time and we use it to generate near-real time invoices for our clients. Additonally, we manage with SAP Fiori our entire business via mobile devices - from sales and sales forecasting to project delivery to managing cash flow with S/4HANA Finance. It is also the only place our employees go for Employee Self-Service (ESS) and Management Self-Service (MSS) functions."
Asked whether ConvergentIS uses SAP or custom Fiori Apps Joseph answers: "We have built several custom apps for internal use including Employee Verification Letter. We are using customized SAP Standard Apps for Time Entry and Service Order Notifications. Even though we do not run SAP CRM, we are using SAP Fiori to surface data from ECC in meaningful easy to use way for our sales force so that they can create and manage opportunities, customers and contacts."
SAP Fiori for Convergent IS Customers
ConvergentIS customers use SAP Fiori for many different applications covering standard applications, custom applications, and applications ConvergentIS has productized such as specialized versions of ESS/MSS, Guided Purchase Requisition Creation, Employee/Manager Performance & Goals Management, Mobile Materials Management (including barcode integration) and many others. More details can be explored on http://www.convergentis.com.
All ConvergentIS SAP Servers are maintained through Amazon Web Services (AWS).
User Centric Approach - The Rising Power of End User Feedback
Joseph explains the motivation to introduce Integrated End User Feedback: "We want to lead by example with our own user experience and user engagement. Our internal deployment of S/4HANA, while successful, will always continue to evolve. Part of this evolution is how our users interact and enjoy the interfaces and how they assess the productivity. The Integrated End User Feedback function gives our employees a quick and easy way to provide input while using SAP Fiori, and we can collect and act on the feedback easily. Furthermore, since we are a distributed workforce with employees in three countries, this also allows users to send feedback and suggestions regardless of time zone and location. The Integrated End User Feedback is also for our contractors an easy and quick way to give their thoughts and views on the tools we have provided to them."
Oxana Li, Operations Lead, says: "I think an End User Feedback feature is very handy, because I can red flag an issue right when I am at it. It's straightforward and quick. I also like that I can use it when everything works - it's a neat way to say thanks to our team for an excellent job and provide some positive feedback."
End User Feedback in Practice
10 - 20 feedbacks per week are sent by ConvergentIS employees and partners: incidents, suggestions, UI/UX issues and also positive feedback. ConvergentIS implemented an internal feedback cycle so that Joseph directly receives what end users tell.
ConvergentIS uses SAP Fiori launchpad for all internal business processes. For ConvergentIS as a small and agile company "Give Feedback" is also used for incident reporting without the necessity of a third party tool. End users are very happy having everything in place in the work context.
Joseph states: "All issues reported I receive immediately. We save a lot of time here. I can handle requests for access, new features or new catalogs/groups quickly and efficiently."
For incident reporting bigger companies need scalability and transparency and therefore have incident management systems in place. For example, the incidents reported within SAP have many different categories, systems and support colleagues behind. The scalability and dispatching mechanisms are reflected in our SAP incident management system. "Give Feedback" and the mechanisms behind it are not designed to substitute incident reporting systems. SAP Fiori launchpad offers the feature "Contact Support" which allows customers to embed any incident reporting system in place. In this context "Give Feedback" offers a simple possibility of quickly addressing issues you wouldn't open a ticket for.
ConvergentIS uses the Integrated End User Feedback for internal continuous improvement. The same does SAP IT Services. And both with success and for the benefit of end users. - Thanks Shaun and Oxana for your statements. Thanks Joseph for explaining details and the whole end user feedback cycle at ConvergentIS.
Links
The Rising Power of End User Feedback
SAP Runs SAP: The Rising Power of End User Feedback for SAP IT Operations
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