Options for Building SAP Mobile Apps on iOS and Android

What are your options when it comes to building native SAP mobile apps fast for SAP, .NET, Angular or JavaScript developers?

We are hearing from an increasing number of SAP shops looking to mobilize their SAP ERP modules. SAP runs at the core operations for global organizations, but those on-premises deployments were not engineered for sub-second mobile access or horizontal scale to support increased loads for mobility. As mobility initiatives increase, app team leaders and enterprise architects are faced with several options to deliver, and this article will focus on organizations looking to build mobile touchpoints that leverage SAP as its system of record.

Who Can Build It?

SAP shops may prefer to work with an application development partner or build it in-house. Either way, enterprise application development skills commonly include teams building with web/HTML5, SAP, .NET and other teams that may not be familiar with development on iOS or Android.

1. SAP provides mobile SDKs for developers via SAP Cloud Platform across Hybrid (Kapsel and Cordova plugins for UI5 and SAP Fiori) and native iOS or Android. SAP developers can build on two available SDKs which include the SAP Mobile Platform SDK and SAP Mobile Platform SDK for iOS. SAP Fiori for iOS also includes reusable design components which may be attractive to SAP developers.
   

   
   
   

2. A commercial alternative for app teams unfamiliar with SAP is the Progress Kinvey serverless backend that provides 13 SDKs for any team to deliver SAP mobile apps. The SDKs abstract the complexities of accessing SAP data for devs unfamiliar with SAP/ABAP. For organizations without iOS or Android developers, Progress created the NativeScript open source project—NativeScript enables existing teams of enterprise developers to build apps on a single code base across Angular, JavaScript, or TypeScript which runs on iOS and Android with full access to native capabilities such as push notifications, location, camera, touch authentication, etc. In contrast, .NET dev teams can leverage the Xamarin SDK and there are SDKs for hybrid apps and PWAs.

    

   

What Infrastructure is Needed to Mobilize SAP for Those Devs?

1. SAP provides mobile services via SAP Cloud Platform (formerly SAP HANA Cloud Platform) that mobilize SAP S/4 HANA, SAP and 3^rd party systems. Backend services include offline access, push notifications, business logic, analytics and logging. Platform services include API and identity management, integration, SAP HANA database and security.
2. The commercial alternative for infrastructure teams is the Progress Kinvey serverless backend which is engineered to mobilize enterprise systems. Included are prebuilt Rapid Data connectors for SAP that enable data integration and authentication without code. Integration is provided via SAP RFC (remote function call), SAP Netweaver or API Management Layers. The backend is fully managed to scale out for large numbers of users through advanced data caching, offline sync, security, compliance and more to provide an SAP data experience without disrupting the back end systems of record.

Here's a summary of mobile solutions from SAP and Progress:

Learn More about SAP on iOS and Android

Failing to deliver on mobility projects related to high profile SAP systems will make you look really, really bad. Turn to a trusted appdev ecosystem with SAP expertise and corporate strength such as SAP or Progress. Note that Progress is a member of SAP PartnerEdge and a supplier of data access infrastructure for use in SAP business applications.

Watch this video to see a demo of Kinvey for SAP.

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If you’re looking for an application development partner, you can request a quote from a Progress Kinvey partner with SAP experience.