SAP S/4HANA EWM goes no-code with SAP AppGyver : Technical Deep Dive

This blog post is the next part of  the use case of mobile storage bin-based inventory counting in the warehouse with SAP EWM on SAP S/4HANA 2021. We leverage SAP AppGyver as a platform for this mobile application – without a single line of code: Not in the frontend, not in the backend. It is relevant for you if you run business processes on-premise or cloud systems and intended to spark new ideas.

As described in an earlier blog post by my colleague Mohini Verma  i.e.

https://blogs.sap.com/2022/03/09/sap-s-4hana-ewm-goes-no-code-with-sap-appgyver/,

the business process of storage bin-based inventory counting Has certain challenges in traditional warehouse inventory and stock management.

In this blog post, We will deep dive into technical architecture for this use case and how we can re-use the same as a reference architecture to extend SAP S/4HANA Business Processes.

Challenges:

1. Scalability
2. Manual Data Entry
3. Inaccurate and Untraceable counting
4. Time-consuming
5. Additional Workforce to complete the counting in the given time

How can SAP BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM Extension Suite help?

SAP BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM extension suite has a wide range of services and tools to extend SAP Cloud as well as On-premises solutions seamlessly, securely, and in a quick period.

SAP AppGyver is one such to Low-Code-No-Code tool to create UI on the fly and allows to leverage S4Hana cloud business processes by extending it in quick time.

Use Case Architecture

Deep Dive into Technical Components:

SAP Business Technology Platform Services:

SAP Business Application Studio:

• Web Integrated IDE allows the creation of multi-target applications which can be then deployed on the Cloud Foundry application runtime.
• It provides a design-time environment to develop and design AppGyver applications with in-built add-on plugins, which provide enhanced ways to maintain, debug and deploy applications.

API Management:

• It allows securely consume Cloud as well as On-Premises system APIs.
• Provides life cycle management for API.
• Pre-Post policy checks provide developers ease of configuration APIs against DDoS i.e. Denial of Service Attack, cross-platform security threats, Data filtering, and many more features.
• API portal enables monetization as well as monitoring of APIs through out-of-the-box Dashboard analytics

Cloud Connector:

• SAP’s implementation of Reverse-proxy utility, which sits at customer/on-premises infrastructure, Hence It eliminates security concerns to expose to data to cloud systems and provides a controlled mechanism to expose resources to the outside world.
• It also allows Cloud Applications deployed on SAP BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM to get authenticated and authorized access to underlying system resources

Above architecture helps specifically to our use case of bin-storage for inventory management described as below:

Outcome/Success Criteria:

1. Single Mobile App for Scanning and updating inventory
2. Quality and accuracy of counting increased
3. Resource optimization: Faster execution and less cost/time/effort
4. Smart Validation and tracing for error/failure

AppGyver with SAP Business Application Studio

• Empowers business users and citizen developers to deliver pixel-perfect standalone apps and extensions in a full no-code composition environment
• Boosts development productivity for pro developers
  with a low-code experience based on the SAP opinionated technology (CAP, Fiori, UI5, HANA, and more
• Deliver the applications the business needs when it needs them
• Enable anytime, anywhere availability in the multi-cloud SAP environment

Business Value Drivers

• Enhanced ROI by optimizing existing investments using simplified integrations from SAP
• Maximized speed and agility through accelerated delivery
• Greater collaboration through co-development between business and IT
• The reduced total cost of development

Considering all these capabilities, we can extend the above architecture as a template and extend multiple business processes as shown below:

It allows developers to provide sustainable, scalable, and rapidly developed Side-By-Side extensions for SAP S/4HANA Cloud systems across Finance, Supply Chain, Sales, Procurement, etc verticals.

The core processes and data still reside inside SAP S/4HANA and AppGyver provides a modern and interactive WEB UI that allows End Users to perform operations, decisions making, and analyze data effectively.

Some of the popular business processes which often need to be extended and customized for S4Hana can be listed as

• Allow exceptional editing of Time Record After Approval
• Analyze Sales Orders using SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP Analytics Cloud
• Combined reporting of Professional Services and Sales Orders
• Enables Custom Fields and Custom Logic in Purchasing Process
• Validate customer addresses
• Workforce utilization reporting

Conclusion:

For application development, SAP focuses on both low-code and no-code application development environments to empower developers and non-developers to be part of the solution.

With SAP AppGyver We empower users to deliver sophisticated enterprise-grade applications without code by extending and integrating with SAP Cloud and On-Premises applications

Reference Links:

AppGyver Help Documentation

https://docs.appgyver.com/sap-appgyver-on-business-technology-platform

AppGyver Service offerings and related mission

https://discovery-center.cloud.sap/serviceCatalog/sap-appgyver?region=europe(frankfurt)&service_plan=standard&tab=feature

SAP API Management Service

https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_CLOUD_PLATFORM_API_MANAGEMENT/66d066d903c2473f81ec33acfe2ccdb4/7d8514b4ab46455e8416723003b414d7.html

SAP Cloud Connector

https://help.sap.com/docs/CP_CONNECTIVITY/cca91383641e40ffbe03bdc78f00f681/e6c7616abb5710148cfcf3e75d96d596.html