How to Unlock the Full Potential of Your SAP Fiori App With Mobile Data Capture

Why do businesses love SAP Fiori apps?

According to Gartner, users value their responsiveness, ease of use and of course, their versatility. With over 200 apps for everything from HR to manufacturing and finance, it’s easy to find a framework that can be tailored to almost every business process.

In an age where almost every business interaction can be digitized and completed on a smartphone or tablet, having the right tools is fundamental. And yet, in spite of the strength of the Fiori portfolio, many digitization processes using them still fail or don’t achieve their full potential.

Why is that? Well, as any builder will tell you, great tools alone will not make you a house.

The cost of poor data collection

The same can be said for digitizing business processes. Often, ‘faulty’ technology takes the blame for a failed project, when the key problem can in fact be traced to poor data collection and continued reliance on manual data entry by the workforce.

The same applies to the digitization of business processes. Faulty" technology is regularly blamed for a failed project, although the main problem is often actually due to poor data capture, and the continued reliance on manual data entry by the workforce also plays a role here.

One tried-and-tested solution is to remove the problem at its source by integrating mobile data capture directly into the Fiori app. Using the camera on any standard smartphone or tablet, data can be instantly collected, digitized and transferred to a backend system.

Not only is this practice 20 times faster than manual data entry, but it is also far more accurate, eliminating the everyday mistakes caused by a weary eye, or the slip of a thumb.

How does this work in practice?

Let’s take an example from the warehouses of Tyrolit, a world-leading tool manufacturer. The company integrated mobile data capture from Anyline into their SAP Fiori application to enable their workforce to digitize the registration of incoming goods.

With mobile scanning technology integrated into their mobile app, staff are able to easily scan lot numbers and automatically send the data to the central SAP system for further processing. This helps Tyrolit to eliminate manual mistakes and false deliveries. According to Eduard Kohler, their Head of Business Application Management, the project has led to “large improvements to our supply chain processes and has become a cornerstone of our digital transformation strategy.”

Turning to the energy sector, OMV has found similar success by integrating mobile data capture for utility meters into their SAP app. The company had previously relied on their workforce to manually enter the readings from innumerable meters in their refineries. This process was not only highly time-consuming, but resulted in sub-par data quality.

Since adding Anyline into their SAP apps, the process is significantly faster, with near-perfect reading accuracy. Most importantly, data can be collected on-site, even where no internet connection is available, which can then be seamlessly transferred to the company’s SAP system.

Integration of mobile data collection

Working closely with our partners at CloudDNA, nyline can enable businesses to integrate mobile data capture into 50 different SAP Fiori apps. This enables users to scan multiple data sources with their mobile device—such as ID information, serial numbers, meters and more—and transfer this directly into their SAP system.

In this way, businesses can unlock the full potential of SAP Fiori apps by making it easier for workforces to collect data, while also bringing huge improvements to the company’s overall data integrity.

Conclusion:  

Businesses around the world are using SAP Fiori apps for their daily business, and it’s no surprise why. But with poor quality data collection, they are building a house of cards that can collapse at any moment. Leaders who want to take their SAP Cloud products to the next level should complement them with integrated data capture technology to build the strongest foundations for their business.