Today, businesses are increasingly more competitive. Their online presence is becoming a critical factor. Over the past several years, businesses have gone from simple websites, to company information platforms, to systems integrating applications and information, to platforms for efficient collaboration. Additionally, the amount and sources of data required to run a business have grown more numerous and complex, while the time for processing the information has shrunk.

Today's employees' tasks revolve around navigating various applications and retrieving business data. Employees require access to data and services that fall under the responsibility of multiple departments in their company, and of other companies altogether. Various Data Silos are accessed for Business Information such as Transactional systems and legacy databases, Data warehouses, Decision support solutions, Internet and intranet sites, Transactional systems and legacy databases etc.,

The term "user experience" also plays a vital role and covers more than what anyone just sees on the screen. It goes beyond the pure user interface – the visual design and layout. It covers the overall experience and how a user engages and interacts with the company and the solutions. This can apply to a product, a service, or even the Website. The user productivity can be increased because users get the task done very efficiently. An understandable and intuitive user interface also reduces the need for training and seeking support help desks.

Furthermore, the human errors are reduced when using user-friendly software, which also leads to higher data quality in the system of records. The more business applications and services are made available to the users, the greater the need for a central entry point. Portals have evolved from a static link list or application launchers to smart digital workplaces.

Portals play a major role in user experience. Because of their dynamic and intelligent features they send notifications and assist the user to get the task done very efficiently.

"SAP Cloud Platform” is a Platform as a Service (PaaS). This platform and the services are used to design, develop, and run business applications in the cloud.

SAP Cloud Platform provides the necessary tools and services to implement various scenarios. The portal offers a design-time environment to build branded Web sites that follow corporate design guidelines. Using portals, users can easily consume content and services from on-premise or the cloud, with secured access via role-based authorizations. SAP offers out-of-the-box, pre-packaged business content. The standard solutions can always be extended, or own sites can be created using customizable templates and accelerators. And finally, the developers are enabled to create their own sites and widget templates to build a truly customized user experience. From easy and intuitive access to information and services, it leads to greater productivity and end user satisfaction. Administrators also support the line of business experts with innovation or modernizing the user experience of their existing IT systems. Furthermore, the administrator benefits from ready-to-use templates, prebuilt content, and the open framework for integrating remote content and services. The extension points and APIs are available for developers to customize and enhance the solution. There is an integration with SAP Web IDE and UI theme designer. The functionalities can be easily customized and adjusted according to the business need via custom development. Each customer has a unique scenario and expectations about the best possible user experience which is driven by individual preferences and guidelines for corporate design.

Based on SAP Cloud Platform and the portal, various use cases can be implemented, from simple launchpads to very sophisticated extranet sites. Therefore, the portal offers the administration tools and services to create and run portal sites, either freestyle or SAP Fiori experience. Pre-packaged business content that can be used to accelerate the implementation or to create a complementary extensions.

Articles by Mensis Agency Web Development