SAP Fiori gets its name from the Italian word for flower. We know that flowers are nice to look at, are shaped with nature’s intelligent design, and are delightful to behold. That’s somewhere close to why SAP called its user experience (UX) layer SAP Fiori, and that’s also why users see a flower when they fire up this software-based layer for applications.

Always described as a UX innovation, SAP Fiori provides a way to create a set of applications devoted to serving common business functions including work approvals, financials, more complex calculation apps, and a variety of self-service tools.

But it’s not really a “set of applications” in and of itself. SAP Fiori is actually a design language that allows us to create applications based on exact (or close to exact) user roles, user preferences, and business processes. It is meant to be a lightweight and speedy way to build transactional apps, fact sheets, and analytical apps within the realms of a modern (i.e., not clunky or monolithic) ERP system. The company describes SAP Fiori as a “set of components and patterns” that can be reused in different combinations and that include descriptions and guidance regarding usage, visual design, copy, tone of voice, and integration.

Planting SAP Fiori’s Seeds