User Experience consultant – a new career path in the SAP area

User Experience specialists can already develop their careers at Sii Poland as UI5 / Fiori consultants at the SAP Competency Center. The position combines front-end development and UX skills, as well as the knowledge of the SAP user interface. Tomasz Polański, UI5 / Fiori consultant in Sii Poznań branch, spoke about the specifics of work in this area.

What is worth knowing about SAP Fiori?

Tomasz Polański, UI5 / Fiori Consultant in Sii Poland: SAPUI5 / Fiori is a relatively new technology – the Fiori interface has been available on the market only since 2013. It significantly improves the comfort of work of users who can freely use SAP applications known to them, both in the cloud and on premises. They receive a consistent, responsive and simple environment to perform everyday tasks, regardless of what device they work on.

What do you do as a UI5 / Fiori consultant, what was your career like?

T.P.: Initially, I wasn’t even particularly interested in the subject of Fiori, my attention was drawn to another JavaScript framework, very new at that time – Angular. However, I noticed the changing trends on the labor market and the growing popularity of the SAPUI5 library. I noticed a niche around SAP and finally decided to work as a front-end programmer in this technology.

At Sii Poland, I mainly work on maintenance projects. Therefore, my most common tasks include typical front-end debugging and implementation of improvements. However, there are also tasks consisting in designing and implementing a completely new application from scratch. In such cases, a combination of knowledge and skills not only in front-end development, but also UI and UX design is required. SAP Fiori design principles imposed by the framework maintain the integrity of the entire user interface of the application, are also helpful here.

The undoubted advantage of working at Sii Poland is the possibility of remote work and flexible working hours, thanks to which I can plan trips, which are my passion. First of all, my task is to provide a solution to the identified issue. How do I organize my time and workplace plays a secondary role and depends to a large extent on me.

What is the difference between a UI consultant and an ABAP programmer?

T.P.: Actually the same as a front-end developer job from a back-end developer for any other technology. When I am dealing with the UI layer of the application, I make sure that the data provided from the back-end is displayed correctly and that it is convenient for the user to use it. My task is to enable the execution of all actions planned in the application functionality in the simplest, fastest and most enjoyable way possible. In turn, the role of ABAP programmer is to find data in the depths of SAP system databases and display them formatted for front-end queries.

What could the career path of a UI5 Fiori consultant look like?

T.P.: In my opinion, knowing any other front-end framework is a very good start of the adventure with UI5 Fiori. Of course, there are differences, elements and mechanisms that you simply need to learn in the SAP world to be able to create correct and efficient UI5 applications. However, I think that this is something that every software developer is able to absorb with a little determination.

What do you think work prospects in this area will look alike?

T.P.: Fiori is a new default user interface for the S/4HANA system, to-be the most popular ERP system in the world, but can also be run on the older versions of SAP system, which are still used by many companies. Those who already have it, constantly improve and develop it, adapting it to their needs. Seeing the growing popularity of Design Thinking philosophy and the approach that puts in center, the user of the application and his convenience, I am sure that this trend will not change for a long time and will translate into the demand for good UI5 / Fiori consultants.

If you want to learn how the SAP Competence Center can support your business, please visit our website.

If you are interested in working in this area, check our job offers.