Why it’s time to slay your good old SAP Portal and move on to the new SAP Launchpad.

There should be no doubt by now, that SAP’s Fiori design and underlying development elements are very simple to use and easy to understand. Also, they are powerful, mature and rapid to develop around. In fact, most of SAP’s own webpages, the SAP Cloud development pages and their SAP ONE Support Launchpad are created in the same development framework.

Isn’t it about time that you do the same?
From within the new Launchpad, you can link from a tile direct to standard and custom Fiori applications, to an older Web DynPro application, to your SuccessFactors, to your Concur, or to any other custom-developed application or website. This makes the Launchpad the perfect starting point for you to start any connection to your enterprise applications. Even if your SAP ERP system is an older on-premise system or an SAP HANA Cloud system, it can be done. Talking about HANA, all new SAP HANA screens are built by SAP using the Fiori Framework, and your own custom created Fiori Applications can easily be used in your coming HANA setup as well. We, therefore, call the new Launchpad “the old portal slayer”!

The Launchpad can be running from your SAP Gateway Application server or direct from your SAP new Cloud Portal solution. Within the new Cloud Portal solution, you can even run complete webpages, internal dashboards, customer web-shops or whatever you would like to build. If you do not have the Gateway Application server, it would be good to then go for the Cloud version by using the OData Provisioning service that replaces the need for the Gateway. Furthermore, the Cloud setup is ready to handle all your previous Single Sign-on problems with ease, including two-factor authentication and ADFS support. This saves many companies from a lot of complicated work these days when faced with compliance requirements of two-factor authentication.

Below is an example of how the different tiles can link to other webpages, other cloud systems, Web DynPro applications as well as Standard Fiori applications of course.

It is important to understand that the same interlinking can go on from within one open SAP Fiori application to another. Thereby you can easily jump to a specific “Track Shopping Cart detail page” from the “My Worklist application” (without needing to click back to the launchpad) and go into the Tracking app and search for the specific Cart ID. All relevant applications can be interlinked very nicely this way.

“So, how does my company get started?”, you may ask.

The best way to get started is to get started 🙂

Get the Fiori Launchpad up and running in your gateway or in the cloud, map out all links going out from your old portal, and create tiles for each link in the new the Launchpad including the same links. This way you can stop paying licenses for your old portal faster than you think!
Hereafter, you can start looking into a prioritization of what Fiori applications to implements first.
Where do you gain most benefits fast?

The goal should be “Consumer Grade Applications”.
Now the doors are open for new Fiori standard and custom Applications. This enables you to deliver applications to your employees, that are effective, nice and easy to use and understand. They are going to love to use these applications, just the same way as their favourite consumer applications.

But don’t forget!
Every great app starts with a design thinking workshop including all stakeholders – especially the end-users. The workshop is important to ensure that you get the prioritizing right, that you create the most satisfying and precise prototypes, and that you do not keep repeating bad habits. An external professional workshop facilitator is recommended to ensure these workshop keeps the focus on creating the right applications. The digital team at 2BM is ready to help you get started by facilitating a workshop and, luckily, the team also consists of experts in the Fiori Launchpad setup and Fiori app development, both on-premise and in SAP Cloud. Feel free to contact us.

August Engkilde

is a Digital-consultant, IT-architect, UX-Specialist and project manager at 2BM. August is also an invited member of the SAP Fiori Makers Club. He has worked on an extensive amount of custom mobile applications for well over 10 years. His main focus is to help companies and leaders to empower their employees by giving them the right information and actionable apps at their fingertips, through a personalized user experience. These features are supported by built-in analytics, IoT connections, machine learning, and automated scripted flows.