Solving one of the biggest issues in in SAP Fiori

I have been on multiple Fiori implementation projects and some of the feedback I often ran into was “Why do I have to scroll so much” (on the Launchpad). For many powerusers, they easily access between 20 – 40 transactions or maybe even more in their daily work. In the Fiori Launchpad today, depending on your screen resolution, you would be able to view between 15 – 25 tiles. Because of this, the user has to scroll to see more tiles. This issue is only becoming more apparent if you are using a tablet or a smartphone. SAP has made some attempts to solve the issue. In HCM they have created two “navigational” apps called my team and my services.

However these are only applicable for HCM and they are not reusing the Fiori Launchpad approach with tiles. Also you could go for the overview page, which looks great.

However it needs to be configured or developed for each app and the aim is not really just to have a simple navigational app, but more a quick overview of various KPI’s within a certain area. Addressing this issue we set out to develop a “Navigational” tile that will give the user a possibility to navigate to a sub folder from the main Launchpad. This approach has been used with great success in SAP Business Client on the index page. Imagine a user having a Launchpad with three tiles •Sales •Deliveries •Invoices They click on Sales and will now see tiles •Quotations •Sales Documents •Prices •Check Prices and availability If they click on Sales document they will see •Sales Order Worklist •Create Sales Order •Change Sales Order •Display Sales Order This was simply not possible before. However with Plaut’s new application for Navigation it is! We are reusing the Fiori catalogs from the Launchpad designer to filter which tiles needs to be shown in a particular folder. Also the user is able to use the back button to navigate back to a previous folder. As a customer you aren’t limited to just Fiori apps in the Fiori Launchpad with our approach, you can easily include SAP Gui Transactions, Web Dynpro, Screen Personas flavors and even external content from SAP. The application is a single application, so it is very simply to use and setup. See the animated gif for a demo on how you can experience a more navigable Fiori Launchpad tomorrow.

Driving a car in Malaysia

Last time I(Jakob) was in South East Asia and driving with a taxi I sometimes thought I should die. So it wasn't without a bit of concerns that we came here and rented a car. 
First of all there was the left lane driving,  this is pretty easily learned. My rule of thumb is that the driver always needs to be closest to the middle lane .  So that went fine.
But how about the way the Malaysians are driving? Well they are driving pretty good,  but they don't give away any space at all and if you are on the road and see a car coming out from a side road,  then you might as well brake,  because he will just turn out in front of you.  It's like a massive chicken run in the queues,  whoever pulls away last gets the space. It's quite funny to look,  but you really need to be careful. 
It seems like the speed signs are only a guidance as everybody is speeding,  in Cyberjaya the speed limit is 50, however if I kept to the speed limit I would be more a hazard than a good driver as everybody is going about 80 or 100.
Then there is the scooters...  Well they go the same speed as the cars,  they don't respect red lights and they show up in your side mirror quicker that you know it, and driving in close traffic they shoot past you close to normal speed.  I must admit either these motorcyclists are very courageous or just plain stupid.  I haven't seen any statistics over the number of traffic accidents,  but I would imagine it to be quite high,  even though it seems like it is working.

A joke among Malaysians is that if you go to Penang,  then you shouldn't use your indicators when you shift lanes,  this will only make the car behind you in the other lane speed up.

Setting down the pace

So we have in Malaysia for about three weeks now and what have we learned?

Well we had to set down the pace in more than one way. First of all the walking pace, if you walk you would do in Denmark, then you would be drenched in no time. The humidity and heat is quite high and when we decided to walk to the nearby mall after a few days here,  the guards looked at us like we very crazy and asked a second time if he shouldn't call us a cab. On the way we found out why, it was quite hot and we had to walk slowly to not a sweat.
Also the Malaysians feeling of time is very different than in the Nordic, in Denmark if you have a meeting or appointment at 7,  then you'd better be there at 7 or at latest ten minutes after and hopefully you did send a message saying you are late.
In Malaysia the time of the appointment is considered as a guidance, people will come around 7.30,if you invited them at 7.  So don't have the meal ready right on time. If you are throwing a party then the meal should be ready about an hour later the the appointment.
To be honest I kind a like that they aren't so dependant on time, however I hate being late myself, but those times i was on time then I was the first. So I try to be a bit late from now on ;-)

Getting our house in order

We are still waiting for our stuff from Denmark to arrive,  but we have brought a number of furniture here,  as the plan was as well.  We have bought a king size bed,  queen size guest bed,  couch,  terrace furniture,  bed for Anton and a small table and chairs for his room as well. 
The prices are about two thirds of the prices in Denmark and then it is possible to haggle as well,  actually when you see some furniture you like,  then you always should ask the seller what the price is, even though it is staring you in the face,  they will always give you a discount and then you start haggling. A rule of thumb is that you should get around 30% off the list price. 
It will be really good,  when our own stuff comes as well and then being able to make a proper home,  as it is quite tiring not to have anything here.

We bought some Duplo for Anton yesterday and he really seems to like it,  probably because he misses his own stuff quite a lot,  hopefully we should get it within the next two weeks.

How is the food

Well Anton isn't to fond of it (yet),  we really hope he will be at some stage.  But for us it's good,  you don't use the same amount of salt as you would do in Denmark,  because everything is quite spicy,  they really love their chillies in Malaysia.  The kitchen is split between using mainly rice or noodles, and then mostly chicken or beef.  You can get pork,  lamb,  duck and mutton as well.  The prices are very reasonable being around 10 ringgit for a meal,  that's about 2 us dollars.  So if it weren't for Anton,  then we probably wouldn't cook as much ;-)
The names of the food doesn't really say anything about the contents,  so mostly we have been looking at pictures to figure out which dish to get.  But so far everything has been quite good and tasteful.
One dish that i(Jakob)  has grown quite fond of is Char Kway Teow, it a noodle dish with some brown gravi-like sauce that is quite strong,  it comes with spinach and then some kind of meat,  I'm still not really sure what is in it,  but it tastes really good :-)

Getting the house

We were quite excited to see how Cyberjaya looked. Every blog we read and my colleagues at the office said it could be quite boring at night, to that I answered that we had a young son, so that wasn't a problem. Cyber (As the Malay's call it) is quite a new area, it started with big tech companies in the late nineties and it was only in 2008 onwards that residential houses rose. This means that many of the houses here are very new and quite eco friendly with solar power, reusable water for the garden and so on.
There are plenty of agents, who are very willing to help us find a house. We managed to look at four houses and a condo the first day after we arrived. We already decided on a house and after a negotiation of what the owner should put in before we move in, we were ready to sign.
However the practice of renting out a house is quite different in Malaysia compared to Denmark. Before we will recieve a contract, we had to pay a booking fee and sign a letter of booking, which is like a pre contract which locks the owner and tenant from choosing something else. Now we are waiting for the owner to sign on tuesday and then hopefully move in within fourteen days.

We decided on a 3000 square feet house with 3 levels and 4 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms. Here every bedroom has its own bathroom and then there is a guest toilet and a maids toilet. The kitchen is split into a wet and dry kitchen, which is something we need to get used to as well. Because the house is so new, only released in March 2014, it means that we got a very cool new smart-home with great lighting, solar power, and everything such as lights, AC and cctv can be controlled from our Ipad, this is awesome for a tech nerd like me :-)

Pictures will come when we move in.

Arrival in Malaysia

We landed in Kuala Lumpur International Airport on the 24th of June 2014. I got a posting for a year with a IT company in Cyberjaya, where we will stay. The flight went great with our little two year old son, he slept 7 hours and didn't make much of a fuss on the plane or in the airport. After immigration we got our luggage and got into a cab. A 7 seater cab to Cyberjaya costs RM 170, which we gladly payed.
We checked in at Cyberview Lodge, a nice resort with good food, nice personel and a great pool for the kid. The picture below shows the wading pool and after a small waterfall there is a big swimming pool.