How to Unlock SAP® Efficiency with Fiori Apps, REST APIs, and More

Key Takeaways

• Adopt a cloud-first automation strategy to streamline SAP processes, integrate applications seamlessly, and enhance security and scalability.
• Leverage REST APIs for easy SAP integration, reducing manual data entry, improving process governance, and connecting SAP with third-party applications.
• Automate SAP Fiori and GUI for HTML workflows using no-code/low-code tools to improve efficiency, data accuracy, and business agility while preparing for SAP S/4HANA.

Manual data entry, disconnected workflows, and integration challenges can slow down your SAP processes, creating inefficiencies and errors that impact your bottom line.

Many SAP users struggle with ensuring data accuracy while keeping up with the increasing complexity of business processes.

The good news? Automation can transform how you manage data and workflows, making your business more agile, secure, and cost-efficient. It enables you to:

• eliminate repetitive tasks and free employees to focus on higher-value work
• improve data integrity with standardized workflows that prevent errors
• ensure smooth integration across enterprise systems for efficient end-to-end automation

By leveraging a mix of desktop automation, workflow automation, and RESTful APIs, you can modernize SAP operations while preparing for a streamlined transition to SAP S/4HANA. Let’s take a closer look at how to succeed with these capabilities.

The Future is Cloud-First

More organizations are shifting to a cloud-first strategy for their core business applications, and SAP process automation is no exception. By moving beyond traditional, on-premises automation methods, you can unlock new efficiencies and scale your automation efforts while maintaining security and control.

Cloud-based automation solutions provide a combination of desktop and workflow automation capabilities that streamline complex, data-intensive SAP processes, making your business more agile and improving initial data quality. A cloud-first approach allows you to:

• seamlessly integrate multiple applications while maintaining SAP governance
• enable business teams to drive impact at scale by reducing manual efforts
• securely manage data and control process governance to ensure accuracy

A hosted automation solution like Automate Evolve helps you achieve this – offering an integrated platform that supports:

• workflow automation
• secure data management automation for mass data processes
• a no-code/low-code environment for citizen developers
• API connectivity

Instead of relying solely on IT-managed solutions, citizen developers – business users without extensive coding expertise – can create and maintain automated workflows using user-friendly interfaces. This enables them to play a key role in scaling up automation efforts, while still maintaining tight control over user capabilities.

And API connectivity is an increasingly essential capability in helping you overcome integration headaches and enhancing your overall digital transformation and automation efforts. We’ll explore APIs in more detail next.

REST APIs: The Key to Seamless SAP Integration

One of the biggest hurdles in SAP process automation is system integration.

In fact, a 2024 survey of SAP customers, conducted in partnership between Precisely and the Americas’ SAP Users’ Group (ASUG), found that 61% of organizations cite integration as their biggest automation challenge – a surprising 22% increase from 2023.

This growing trend makes APIs a must-have for businesses that need to optimize automation.

How REST APIs Work

REST APIs (Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interfaces) allow your various systems to communicate seamlessly by following standardized web-based protocols. They enable:

• secure, real-time data exchanges between SAP and external applications
• automated updates and transactions without manual intervention
• scalability by eliminating the need for RPA bots that rely on screen scraping

Three key REST APIs in Automate Evolve support SAP automation:

1. SAP Data APIs: Provide direct integration with SAP ERP without requiring robotic process automation (RPA). These APIs streamline processes by sending data directly into SAP, reducing errors and eliminating slow, screen-based automation methods.

Use case example: Embedding SAP Data APIs into generic RPA bots, partners, and third-party applications like Salesforce or Mulesoft to interact with SAP ERP data efficiently.

1. Digital Access APIs: Enable external applications to connect to Automate Evolve workflows, facilitating seamless data transfer between SAP and third-party systems. You’re able to add or update data before it’s posted to SAP.

Use case example: Using Salesforce to automate customer data creation across CRM and ERP systems.

1. Third-Party API Support: Helps integrate SAP with external RESTful APIs, like ServiceNow or SAP systems using OData for data updates.

Use case example: Collecting and managing data across multiple platforms for new product introduction workflows.

By leveraging these REST APIs, you simplify integration – eliminating error-prone manual data management to ensure better data quality and SAP process governance.

Throughout your automation journey, it’s important to remember that there’s not a one-size-fits-all automation tool. The best way to cost-efficiently scale automation throughout your organization is to use a combination of tools that are best suited to your unique use cases.

Expanding Automation to SAP Fiori and GUI for HTML

Now, let’s talk about SAP S/4HANA migrations. If your organization is in the process of transitioning to S/4HANA, you may already be using SAP Fiori apps for web-based access to SAP data.

What is SAP Fiori?

SAP Fiori is a design system used to create web-based business data applications with a user-friendly interface across different SAP systems. Fiori web browser apps fall into three main categories:

• Factsheets display information about specific objects like purchase orders.
• Analytical apps provide dashboards with insights from multiple data sources.
• Transactional apps enable users to create and update SAP data (this is the type supported by Automate Studio).

Are you currently using Fiori apps? If so, you may have found that there are some challenges when compared to SAP GUI transactions, including:

• manual data entry that slows you down and results in poor-quality data
• Fiori-exclusive functionalities that require you to adapt to new workflows
• inconsistent user experience that leads to inefficiencies and errors

Nearly all respondents (95%) in our survey with ASUG said their organization is currently using or planning to use modern Fiori apps in some capacity – and the majority (58%) are using a combination of the Fiori apps and the SAP GUI client, rather than moving entirely to web-based UIs.

This makes it critical to address these challenges – and that’s where exciting new updates in Automate Studio can help.

Automating SAP Fiori with Automate Studio

Automate Studio 24.1 introduces easy-to-learn-and-use automation for SAP Fiori transactional apps and GUI for HTML apps. These new capabilities enabling you to:

• mass-create and update data using familiar Excel-based automation
• empower data stewardship by validating information before uploading it into SAP
• leverage deep SAP integration for fast and reliable uploads to SAP
• adopt a no-code/low-code approach so your business users can automate tasks without technical expertise or reliance on IT

Unlike traditional RPA-based automation, which relies on screen scraping, Automate Studio uses API-based integration (OData) to ensure faster and more reliable data uploads.

By automating Fiori transactional apps, your business gains greater flexibility, efficiency, and process governance across your SAP environments – with two new modules for SAP Fiori and SAP GUI for HTML that complement existing automation tools.

Future-Proof Your SAP Strategy with Automation

SAP landscapes grow increasingly complex, businesses need a smarter approach to automation. By embracing workflow automation, RESTful APIs, and cloud-hosted solutions, you can:

• reduce manual effort and improve efficiency
• strengthen SAP process governance and data quality
• scale automation with no-code/low-code tools
• seamlessly integrate SAP Fiori and GUI for HTML apps into your automation strategy

It’s time to move faster, boost agility, ensure data integrity, and set the stage for a successful SAP S/4HANA migration.

Ready to unlock the full potential of SAP process automation? Request a free trial of Automate Studio and start optimizing your workflows today.