Data exchange and SAP GUI with Fiori

With Fiori apps, SAP is counterbalancing the complexity of the traditional SAP user interface (GUI) and laying the foundation for a mobility strategy.

Fiori makes important SAP Business Suite functions available to users on any mobile device in addition to the desktop. This is possible thanks to the use of Responsive Design concepts, which mean that the user interface automatically adapts to the respective device and operating system and always looks similar.

Fiori users are thus provided with a modern user interface on which they should be able to operate all the functions of their everyday business as easily and intuitively as their consumer apps.

By using predefined roles and permissions, companies also determine which apps and data users are allowed to access.

There are limits: Although SAP is the most powerful integrated enterprise software system on the market, it can only fulfill some important requirements for smooth data transfer to a limited extent on the back end, such as monitoring, message control, error handling and dynamic load balancing in complex system environments.

Particularly in the case of mobile Fiori use, it is important to provide the data from the SAP backend in a precisely fitting manner, since the user interface is limited in terms of space.

For example, while it is possible for a buyer to view all current orders in the conventional SAP GUI, this area must be greatly restricted in a Fiori app if the buyer does not want to quickly lose the overview or orientation.

However, since the existing SAP functions hardly offer the possibility of making SAP data available in exactly the form required in the individual apps, companies would have to invest a lot of time and effort in developing additional solutions.

Plug-in for heterogeneous system landscapes

An alternative is offered by the SAP plug-in Zenos, which works in the backend as a layer between the communication technology and the functions. This plug-in has so far proven its performance strength primarily in heterogeneous system landscapes by ensuring seamless data exchange between the SAP backend and the enterprise software - whether the data is to be fed into SAP, read from SAP or transferred between different SAP systems.

In addition, comprehensive monitoring and error tracking are guaranteed. The solution is particularly advantageous for companies that regularly process large volumes of data.

Since it also provides its own development and runtime environment, both system maintenance and new process development become much easier.

With this spectrum, Zenos can also support the user in implementing the SAP mobility strategy more quickly with the Fiori apps. In the process, data provisioning (data provider) is already standardized in the backend and automatically includes monitoring and error handling.

This makes the use of data transparent and controllable. Integrated into the backend, the plug-in supplies the NetWeaver gateway, which in turn serves as a bridge to the Fiori apps, with selected data and structural information.

Once this information has been converted by the NW Gateway to the standard OData (OpenData) web protocol, it can be targeted for display on the HTML5-based Fiori user interfaces.

From practice

As one of the first customers, MAN Diesel & Turbo conducted a proof of concept (CoP) to also use Zenos to optimize communication between the SAP backend and the Fiori apps.

In this way, the company intends to leverage the advantages offered by the solution for controlling and monitoring data transfer in SAP environments in its mobile SAP application.

In addition to targeted data compilation and data processing in the individual process steps, one project goal is to build browser-controlled functions based on Fiori technology that provide users with comprehensive transparency about the situation on the individual interfaces from any end device.

For example, if an interface or process manager receives an error message from the app on his or her smartphone, he or she no longer has to sit down at his or her computer to log into the system via the SAP GUI.

Instead, with the appropriate Fiori app, he accesses the SAP system directly from his smartphone to immediately identify the cause of the displayed malfunction and can take appropriate countermeasures.

E-3 Short interview:

Actum Managing Director Volker Brandenburg

E-3: Who is responsible for the Responsive Design of Fiori - and for ensuring that the system works with the large amount of end devices?

Volker Brandenburg, Actum: Our approach focuses on the SAP backend and on communication to the gateway, so the technical requirements of the end devices and their functions are basically irrelevant.

The app developer consumes the necessary data from the app. Zenos only comes into action when data is exchanged between the gateway and the backend - and changes to the design or technology of the end devices or to HTML5 have no direct effect on this connection.

E-3: What Fiori construction sites can Zenos specifically solve?

Brandenburg: The focus of our solution is on data retrieval or data processing in the backend. One of the most important Fiori construction sites is data consumption:

In order to be able to access the existing modules in the backend at all during app development, the modules must first be adapted according to the app requirements.

We package the existing building blocks and deliver the custom-fit entities for the gateway - and most of this is customized. This drastically reduces the implementation times.

The interface between the SAP backend and the gateway remains stable; the respective modules can be easily changed without jeopardizing the interface.

E-3: Does this affect the response time behavior?

Brandenburg: No. We provide the technical parameters for the backend that are exchanged in the interaction between app and gateway to generate performance benefits.

And: The data exchange in the backend is "monitored" by Zenos. This results in further advantages: The backend is enabled to initiate further process steps, to analyze business and also technical error situations and to actively control the data exchange. This is a great help for application management, so the deployment pays for itself quickly.

E-3: Where exactly will Zenos be implemented and what resources, infrastructure and interfaces does Zenos need? Which functions and programs must be available on the SAP side?

Brandenburg: Zenos is a plug-in on the SAP backend side - it does not require any resources other than the already existing infrastructures and has been developed in its own namespace and is imported as a transport request.

The software uses the communication technology supported by SAP. For Zenos customers, this means that nothing additional needs to be purchased or implemented.

E-3: What does the Zenos licensing model look like? What impact does it have on the SAP licensing environment?

Brandenburg: The SAP license model remains unaffected. Our license is based on productively used SAP clients - no restrictions on quantity or number of interfaces!