Assigning Analytical Apps to the Business User

The apps of SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics are organized by roles (also called business roles).

One or more roles can be assigned to each business user. This is the job of the security administrator who has permission to perform this task.

SAP provide a large number of ready-made roles that can be used for a quick start. SAP have already assigned apps that are useful for each role. Using the SAP Fiori apps reference library that we looked at in the previous lesson, you can find out which role the app has been assigned to.

However, the definition of a role can vary significantly between organization and the SAP-provided role might not contain all the relevant apps for your organization. The standard roles might also contain apps that are not relevant to the roles in your organization. So you should consider the standard roles as templates for creating you own custom roles so that you can remove the SAP provided apps that you don't use and add your own custom apps. There are a few roles that are generic so these might be suitable to use out-of-the-box, but the majority of roles will need to be customized. Also, bear in mind that when SAP deliver new releases of SAP S/4HANA, the standard roles may change. This is another important reason why you should not use standard roles.

Launch the video below to learn how to identify the role to which the app has been assigned, and then how to assign the role to a user so they can get started with the app.

The applications (apps) of SAP S/4HANA are launched using Tiles that are displayed on the SAP Fiori Launchpad of each user. Each user will have the necessary tiles presented to them on their Launchpad according to their role.

As an analytics specialist, it is helpful to have a basic understanding of how tiles are assigned to users so that they appear on their Launchpad. In the previous lesson we learned how the tiles that launch apps are made available to the business user through role assignments. However, there is a little more to learn about how, and precisely where, the tiles actually appear in the Launchpad.

To display a tile on the Launchpad requires configuration by the system administrator who has the authorization to use the Launchpad design tools. The final position of the tiles on the Launchpad can be set by the administrator, but can also be adjusted by the end user if they are not happy with the default placement. Tiles that are not frequently used can be hidden. Tiles that are frequently used can be added to a user's My Home section that is in easy reach.

Let's take a look at the architecture that illustrates how a user is linked to tile that they need in their job.

• User - every user in the system has their own unique user id.

• Role - a collection of one or more catalogs and one or more spaces. A role defines a job or responsibility such as Sales Manager or Compliance Officer. A user must be assigned to a minimum of one role, but usually a user is assigned to many roles.

• Catalog — a collection of related apps that are organized around business or technical functions or tasks, such as Sales Performance Overview and Delivery Performance Overview. SAP provide ready-made catalogs that contain apps, but administrators can also create custom catalogs using a special tool. Business users do not maintain catalogs. A role will always have at least one catalog assigned but a role usually has many catalogs assigned and catalog are often assigned to multiple roles. Remember, once a user has been assigned to a role that contains a catalog, they will not immediately see the catalog's apps on their Launchpad. However, they can launch the apps using the Launchpad search field or App Finder. This approach is more likely for the apps that are rarely used and should not clutter the Launchpad. A user can easily add the app later to their Launchpad if they find themselves using it frequently.

Now we have understood how to provide access to an app, let's continue to learn how we ensure the most important apps automatically appear on the Launchpad that make sense for the user. We will now works from the right side of the diagram.

• Section — a collection of tiles that should be displayed together in the Launchpad that the user frequently accesses. Administrators create sections using a special app. Business users can also create their own custom sections if they don't like the way the administrator has set up the sections. An empty section does not appear on the Launchpad. Sections are optional and are intended to organize tiles when there are many.

• Launchpad Page — a collection of sections that should appear together on the Launchpad that the user frequently accesses. Administrators create pages using a special app and at this time they create sections for each page. If there are not too many apps then sections do not need to be created. A business user can only display one page at a time on the Launchpad and they choose the page they want to display using the page selector at the top of the screen.

• Launchpad Space — a collection of pages that should be presented to the business user. Administrators create spaces using a special app. During space creation, the administrator assigns one or more pages to the space. A page can be assigned to multiple spaces. For example, you might have a commonly-used page called Maintain Products that should appear in the Sales space and also in the Procurement space. The administrator must assign the space to one or more roles to complete the assignment. Then, each user who is assigned to the role will immediately see the tiles from the pages of the space, appear on their Launchpad.

Notice, in the diagram above, even though app C is not assigned to a page in a space, the user can still access it using the App Finder or using the search field on the Launchpad start page. This is because the app is assigned to a catalog that is part of the user's role.

Here is an example of a business user's Fiori Launchpad to illustrate how spaces, pages and sections organize the tiles.

Remember, once a user has been assigned to a role that contains a catalog, the apps in that catalog are immediately available to that user. But having the apps presented using tiles in ready-made pages and sections makes finding apps a lot easier for the user.

Roles are maintained using the transaction code PFCG in SAP GUI.

A role always has assignments to catalogs, but usually a role also has assignments to spaces. If no spaces are assigned, then the user could still add the tiles of the catalog to their My Home section and even create multiple sections to organize the tiles. However, it is helpful if the administrators predefine some spaces to help the users get started with common apps they need.

Watch the video to learn more about catalog and space assignment to a role.

Catalogs, spaces and pages are maintained with Fiori apps that only the administrators should have access to. Changes to spaces or pages could impact a large number of users.

Above, you see the apps that are used to maintain spaces, pages and catalogs. The administrator needs to have the special role assigned that makes these apps available to them.

SAP provides standard roles, catalogs, spaces and pages.

Finally, we should mention that spaces, pages and sections are quite new for SAP S/4HANA on-premise and SAP S/4HANA Cloud and replace the former Groups. Groups were too simplistic and did not provide re-usability (pages can be re-used on many spaces) and flexibility (groups were 'flat' and did not have sections), and so SAP replaced these. Customers can decide to implement spaces for individual users or for the entire organization, at their own pace. The two concepts can also be used side-by-side in the same system. The user has a setting in their profile on the start page of the Launchpad under Settings where the user can switch between spaces and groups. The administrator can also switch all users to use spaces. SAP now deliver the tiles in spaces/pages and will not maintain the groups in future.

A business user is able to customize their Launchpad pages without affecting the standard page definition used by other users. Watch the following video to learn how to do this.