SAP make the software that runs many of the world’s largest companies. Their software is powerful, flexible and proven in the most challenging environments. SAP solutions process billions of transactions every day, and are behind many of the experiences we have as consumers – often without realising it.
Having said that, SAP can also be challenging for end users.
What can organisations do to make SAP solutions easier for people to use successfully? And with fewer errors?
SAP is often customised for each organisation, meaning that standard user training is not always possible. And a customised SAP platform may mean that SAP products for simplifying the user experience will not work.
The power and flexibility of SAP means that the user interface can feel overwhelming.
Common issues that users experience with the standard SAP graphical user interface (GUI) include:
Complexity
Unnecessary fields invite errors and slow people down.
Workflow
If the standard SAP GUI flow doesn’t match the user’s previous approach, they may struggle to adapt
Unnecessary steps
If the SAP GUI includes entire screens that are irrelevant, users may look for workarounds – or just waste their time clicking through redundant pages.
Missing logic
If the SAP GUI does not apply essential business logic, then problematic data can enter your system.
SAP Fiori – one route to simplification
One way to simplify your SAP environment is to add the SAP Fiori product to your installation. Fiori covers more than 25 SAP applications, but it is time-consuming to adapt to custom SAP implementations. If your SAP installation relies on any custom configurations, then it is not an easy option.
Another potential challenge with SAP Fiori is that it incurs a significant cost-per-user.
Employee training
Providing additional training for your employees can be an effective way to improve the performance of your teams – at least in the short term. In the long term, your employees will change, and new joiners will face the same struggle.
There is also the question of whether you want to train employees to work around the challenges presented by your SAP solutions – or devote resources to simplifying and optimising the user interface. After all, any employee workarounds will never resolve issues such as complicated workflows or unnecessary fields.
And as we mentioned above, training may be costly to provide if your SAP environment is non-standard, as most are.
Gateway for Microsoft
Microsoft Office applications like Word and Excel are famously easy to use. While they are powerful tools in their own right, most business users are comfortable using them every day.
At Cordis Solutions, we develop a range of applications for purchasing, finance, HR and business processes that provide a Microsoft interface for SAP solutions. We use a unique implementation of SAP’s Gateway for Microsoft to provide a familiar window into your SAP data and applications. We have built our own Cordis Connector product base on SAP Gateway for Microsoft to make implementation of our tools incredibly easy to achieve.
By giving your users a customisable Microsoft interface, we can accelerate many of your daily business processes, making it faster for users to input data, complete transactions and extract business information. And because we simplify the user interface, there are fewer opportunities for errors, or for users to follow the wrong path.
Cordis Solutions deliver significant benefits to SAP users, including:
Want to keep your users on track, and maximise the return on your investment in SAP? Contact our team for a free demonstration of our applications.
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