QUICK AND EASY TO HANDLE: DEVELOPING A POWERFUL SCANNER APP FOR BKW

Specialized technicians, who store their tools and materials in their own warehouses, ensure a proper maintenance of the partly highly complex facilities. The technicians drive to the nearest warehouse and equip themselves for their assignment.

As of 2020, BKW no longer wished to purchase lower and medium voltage material including the corresponding logistic via external services, but rather through internal services. Sourcing/logistics and networks had to guarantee all the requirements for the integration:

• • New central warehouse at the maintenance depot Luterbach
  • Illustration of new business cases both process and system specific
  • Ensuring a solid master data management

 

Previously, the barcoded material was derecognized by a third-party scanner and stock was updated via its system’s interface in BKW SAP ERP. In the scope of mapping new business processes the implementation of a new scanner solution for purchasing and returning material became more and more necessary.

It was absolutely crucial that the technicians were keen on using the new solution. And easy handling on mobile devices and fast scan processes with integrated cameras were essential. It was challenging to respect the technician’s requirements, and on the flip side to stay within SAP Fiori guidelines. Which means that the desirable easy solution had to be realized with SAP possibilities.

In close collaboration with specialists of BKW ICT, expert representatives as well as designated key users the requirements were discussed and established in sundry workshops.

Clickable prototypes for the following Fiori apps were created after a first evaluation of the stakeholder’s requirements:

1. Show material stock
2. Purchase order
3. Purchase return

 

On the basis of these prototypes, we were able to polish and customize the requirements in order to develop the applications iteratively. The sundry possibilities of the SAP S/4HANA systems gave the chance to implement the applications in record time and were submitted for testing to the stakeholders.

The web applications are mobile ready, fully responsive and cost-effective in both development and operation. They are directly connected with the SAP S/4HANA system of BKW. The barcodes were replaced by QR codes. Thus, enabling the usage of significantly more data as well as much faster scan processes on mobile devices. In addition, an efficient roll-out of the apps via Fiori Client and a modern Mobile Device Management (MDM) is possible.

Up to now the single builds for the Fiori Client had to be executed elaborately on a local client. By using SAP Cloud Mobile Services, the build process of the Fiori client, which is used both for iOS and Android devices, is significantly easier and accelerated. At the touch of a button, it is possible to build new versions in the cloud and afterwards import them in the used MDM solution Microsoft Intune for roll-out.