Lessons Learned Deploying Fiori at Scale

A greenfield implementation of SAP S/4HANA for one of SAP’s long-time customers demanded a modern, user-experience-centric (UX) approach based on SAP Fiori UX. Yet deploying around 1,400 apps to users in more than 50 countries proved quite a challenge. Join this session for a full-stack view of our solution to this challenge, covering hosting infrastructure, network optimisation, personalisation of SAP Fiori Launchpad, custom app development, and related topics.

Presented at SAP Singapore User Group 2020, as an updated version of the SIT Online 2020 talk.

Transcript

1. Public Lessons Learned Deploying SAP Fiori at Scale Sascha Wenninger Technology Lead, 4S Program Orica
3. A Global Company 3
4. A Global Workforce 4 13,000 people 57 countries
5. 8 End-to-End Business Processes Business plan to reporting Market intelligence to order to cash Issue to resolution Source to purchase to pay Plan to inventory Project inception asset acquire to retire to project closure Recruit to hire to terminate Master data management Business budgeting, forecasting, month end, half year and full year reporting. Opportunities, bid management, sales contracts & orders, shipments, billing & accounts receivables. Complaints management. I.e., returns, credit notes. Sourcing, purchase contracts and orders, goods receipt, accounts payable. Sales and operations planning, distribution requirement planning, material requirement planning, discrete/continuous manufacturing, goods receipt in stock. Project approvals process, asset acquisition & maintenance, integration to fixed-assets, asset obsolesce & project closure. Recruitment, on boarding, succession planning, performance review, payroll, mobility, off boarding and organisational structure. Create / change / delete master data (i.e. customers, vendors, SKU’s) and enterprise structure, (i.e., company codes, plants, storage locations). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
6. Architecture
8. Business Vision One System Consistent processes globally Quality Master Data Controlled IT system risks Predictability Visibility One way of working
9. Technology Vision Anywhere, Any Device Productivity
13. Architecture
14. Azure Our Architecture S/4HANA 1809 Business Suite (PY) Business Suite (GTS, EM) HANA 2.0 HANA 2.0 Front-End Server Web Dispatcher
15. Azure …if we were doing it again… S/4HANA 1809 Business Suite (PY) Business Suite (GTS, EM) HANA 2.0 HANA 2.0 Front-End Server Web Dispatcher
16. Landscape Design Highly customer-specific! • Greenfield or Brownfield? • How many systems? How many S/4HANA? • SaaS footprint? • Scalability? Take the time to plan this! Also see SAP Fiori Deployment Options and System Landscape Recommendations
17. Location
18. Choosing a Location Availability of SaaS apps IaaS feature availability Legal & Privacy Network connectivity Costs
19. Network Bandwidth Source: https://global-internet-map-2018.telegeography.com
20. IaaS Cost Source: https://azureprice.net/Region
21. HTTP/2
22. What is it? New version of HTTP, feat: • Binary transfer • Multiplexing • Header Compression • Encryption
23. Multiplexing With HTTP/1.1, browsers open 4-8 TCP connections per origin For each connection: • TCP Handshake (2 Round-Trips) • TLS Handshake (2+ Round Trips) • TCP Slow Start HTTP/2 Multiplexing avoids this! 1 TCP Connection for everything
24. Basic Setup Requires kernel >= 7.49 WebDispatcher and ICM support this SSL mandatory! 2 Steps: 1. icm/HTTP/support_http2=true 2. Restart ICM More info: Nick Yang’s blog post SAP Web Dispatcher ABAP System Java System ICM HANA DB HANA DB HTTP/2 HTTP/1.1 ICM
25. Advanced Setup Requires kernel >= 7.49 WebDispatcher and ICM support this SSL mandatory! 3 Steps: 1. icm/HTTP/support_http2=true 2. wdisp/support_http2_to_backend=true 3. Restart ICM More info: Nick Yang’s blog post SAP Web Dispatcher ABAP System Java System ICM HANA DB HANA DB HTTP/2 HTTP/2 ICM
26. Performance Gains 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 Frequency Load Time (n=10) Fiori Launchpad: Load time -20% 18s 14s
27. SAPUI5 CDN
28. +
29. Akamai Edge locations Source: Akamai
31. SAPUI5 CDN Read more: Blog post by Jorge Baltazar, or Note 2526542 Map credit: $200inaire ~200ms ~20ms
32. Will it Help? Often A Good Idea, but depends on network topology • Where are your users? Is Akamai really “closer”? • Do you have Riverbed WAN Acceleration? • Is your internet link congested? • Is your proxy slow? • Individual results will vary
33. Our Experience with Fiori Launchpad HTTP Requests 2.6 MB 550 kB HTTP Requests 39 37 SAP Front-End Server SAPUI5 CDN
34. 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 Frequency Load Time (n=10) Fiori Launchpad: Load time Performance Gains -20% 18s 14s -20% 11s
35. Access from Anywhere
36. 0 50 100 150 200 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 More Workers on Site Access from Anywhere 3,500+ Workers at Customer Sites 400+ Customer Sites “Access SAP from any Computer”
38. Azure Application Proxy Azure App Proxy Connector https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/manage-apps/application-proxy
39. Azure Application Proxy • Managed by Azure • Single Sign-On with MFA • Pre-authentication • WAF features • Scalable • Secure • Cheap
40. Software Currency
41. Software Currency Keep up to date! Update your Front-End Server! – Performance improvements (e.g. FES 5.0) – Features (e.g. in-place GUI for HTML) Beware of version dependencies: Note 2618605 – usually some updates needed in all systems Beware of custom themes and dependencies with UI5 library
42. Software Currency Stateful Application Container for SAP GUI Improves performance for launching GUI for HTML and Web Dynpro Refer to Jocelyn Dart’s blog post on how to set this up Launchpad Generation Upgrading to FES 5.0 reduced load time by ~30%! 11s -25% 8s
43. Google Analytics
44. Visibility Read more: Blog post by Nathan Ingram
45. Our Scope
46. 1,424 Fiori Tiles 456 UI5 apps 75 custom Analytics Tooling GUI for HTML N W B C UI5 URL Link Web Dynpro UI Technologies
47. Prepare for the Effort
48. Activating standard apps SAP-delivered Roles often don’t align to company processes Installation via Rapid Content Activation is not perfect… (though much improved since 1610/1709) Troubleshooting takes effort! Discover Activate Troubleshoot Evaluate 3.5 Apps/person/day 180+ SAP Incidents
49. Team Structure 4 Basis consultants Close collaboration with Security Once activated, it’s all about Security! Technology Development Basis Fiori Security
53. Design Thinking
54. But… “Big Bang” Go-Live ~630 Jobs (personas) 57 countries
55. Business Process Management
56. Top-Down Decomposition E2E Model Process Model Process Step Value Chain Diagrams
57. E2E Model Process Model Process Step Value Chain Diagrams Top-Down Decomposition Generated by SolMan from lower-level models
58. E2E Model Process Model Process Step Value Chain Diagrams Top-Down Decomposition
59. Value Chain Diagrams Top-Down Decomposition E2E Model Process Model Process Step
60. Each Process Step has Executables Links to Fiori App ID, Semantic Object
61. E2E Model Process Model Process Step Value Chain Diagrams 8 x 38 x 149 x 498 x 4,257 x BPM Library
62. Job-Role Mapping Person Job Swimlane Role Fiori App
63. FLP & Security Process Models + Org Structure Authorisations + Fiori Launchpad content = Person Job Role
64. Target Design (This is dummy data from the dev system!)
65. Target Design Tabs represent “Level 2 Processes” Sorted alphabetically
66. Target Design (This is dummy data from the dev system!) KPI Tiles always at the beginning
67. Target Design Transactional Apps sorted alphabetically
68. Target Design Display-only Apps as Links to save space
69. Target Design Target Mapping ~630 jobs Fiori Group ~38 groups Fiori Catalog ~38 catalogs • Catalog contains all tiles available for the user to choose from, accessible from App Finder • One Catalog for each Level 2 process defined in BPM • Fiori Group contains Tiles displayed on first logon. • Rules-based organisation (KPI tiles first, alphabetically sorted, Display-only apps as Links) • Target mapping controls which Tiles will be shown/hidden based on Swimlane Roles, which are grouped to form Job Roles.
72. Iterate and refine: Find logical groups Separate into new Group
73. Use the App Finder Reduces clutter on the Launchpad Lets people discover less-frequently-used apps Encourage users to personalize!
74. Sample Launchpad Default Fiori Launchpad for Senior Manager, Logistics
75. Stay Standard We chose Belize Light + Orica logo Consistent with SuccessFactors, Cloud for Customer Minimises upgrade effort Fiori 3 will bring further UI alignment. Eventually…
76. Stay Standard Even this caused some CORS pain! Root cause: SAP’s poor Theme Editor implementation! Cross-Origin issues with GUI in Stateful Container CORS
77. Stay Standard. Really! Monthly UI5 patching was much more complex, and prone to error. èWe are back to standard now!
78. Engage SAP MaxAttention Innovation Control Centre Regional Implementation Group (RIG) Customer Engagement Initiatives SAP Community Network …
80. Effort & Time! Deploying Fiori needs both. Needed from Design to UAT and hypercare. A dedicated team is best. Skills: Basis, Security, Empathy, Patience
81. Pain Point: Sorting • Must be done manually in Launchpad Designer! • Slow for large Groups (>1 minute to move a tile!) • There is no Excel upload/download or bulk maintenance Next time, we’ll build some custom code!
82. Pain Point: Smart Business Tiles • Cannot be controlled using Target Mapping • Always shown even no authorization to data! • Must use personalization to hide Next time, we’d probably put these into a separate Fiori Group Refer SAP Note 2644149
83. Fiori Launchpad Content Manager
84. Fiori Launchpad Content Manager Released in July 2019 Requires SP upgrade of SAP_UI 7.52 or later If you can, use it!
85. Pain Point: SolMan Process Modelling SolMan’s Executable Library is keyed by Semantic Object + Action. Apps cannot be added to the library automatically! Several Fiori apps have identical key values! Difficult to determine correct App for Job or Role…
86. Pain Point: User Experience of Old Apps Not all Fiori apps are beautiful Some require user to remember codes and IDs between apps. Many don’t implement navigation Newer apps generally much better: filtering, type-ahead, app-to-app navigation, etc. Still many inconsistencies (e.g. User Defaults in Me Area)
87. Pain Point: Personalization User friendly but challenging to maintain. Some changes can corrupt personalization data for some users. To fix, reset personalization. Complicates consistent look & feel across people with same Job.
88. Lessons Learnt Prepare & Plan Create a Factory Combine Security & Fiori teams Build your own tools Keep systems up to date Stay Standard! It’s not easy!
89. Sascha Wenninger sascha.wenninger@orica.com +65 8799 1446 @sufw Thank you! P.S. the slides are here: https://slides.sufw.me/ssug2020
90. Some Links • SCN Fiori Wiki – great central place for all things Fiori – Fiori on S/4HANA – specific for S/4HANA – Fiori Elements – more and more relevant as Fiori Elements matures • SAP Fiori Deployment Options and System Landscape Recommendations • Nick Yang’s blog post on enabling http/2 • Configuring SAPUI5 CDN, by Jorge Baltazar • Calling GUI and Web Dynpro apps without opening new tab, by Jocelyn Dart • SAP Fiori Launchpad Content Manager Keep monitoring Customer Influence!