Ingenious things are often simple – a new design for easysquare workflow

The easysquare workflow process control tool (formerly OPPC) has become established and is used in practice by many of our customers. Thanks to our many years of experience in customer projects we know it is no secret that SAP® screens are renowned for their complex presentation of transactions with numerous functions, tabs and detailed displays. Today, companies no longer can or want to expect their employees to have excellent user skills and specialist knowledge to be able to use ERP systems. easysquare workflow reduces complexity and makes SAP® more simple than it has ever been.

back to overview

Easysquare workflow will continue to be the right solution in practice in two respects: firstly, process control will make previously non-transparent procedures at the company visible and map them in a procedure-oriented process landscape. This will make it fast and easy to see which employee is currently working on which process. Secondly, the design and structure of the new easysquare workflow interface will facilitate intuitive operation of the application. This is because, alongside the new design for the easysquare mobile app, for which PROMOS focused in particular on user friendliness, the interactive components of easysquare workflow have also been fine-tuned and adapted.

It is a fallacy that software need only be useful; in fact, it has to satisfy a range of requirements. As well as correct functioning, fitness for purpose is a key factor, and increasingly so are requirements for an aesthetically pleasing interface design. The best example for this is the launch of the iPhone, which linked one-dimensional operation with an extensive functional underlying structure for the first time. With the iPhone, Apple generated a new and fascinating experience for users, with aesthetics, innovation, fun and the functional added value combining to provide users with a positive quality of experience. The success and user experience of mobile terminal devices and web interfaces are role models that inspired PROMOS to implement a revised design in SAP^®, too, with the new easysquare workflow brand.

Elegant elements in a new design

To improve the intuitive handling, symbols and icons guide user interaction even without an explanation. The new icons are implemented in the “flat design” that is currently popular. The clear design language is based on reduced shapes and strong colours, and consciously does not use realistic textures, shadows, embellishments or three dimensional elements. Flat design has the advantage of not appearing cluttered, which in turn improves the clarity of the application. In addition, colours are used more extensively to facilitate intuitive operation, with various colour schemes referring to different specialist areas. Flat design brings functionality and simplicity to the fore, where shadows, 3D effects and elaborate colour sequences had previously been standard. The simple, modern design of easysquare workflow clearly shifts the focus to the content, allowing a company’s employees to concentrate fully on completing their respective processes.

Useful functions for productive work

With the Process Cockpit, you always have an overview of the status. This supports you in working on processes in a structured manner and creates a transparent overview of the current work progress. Employees are guided clearly through the process – from the start of the process to the conclusion of the project. This allows employees to see at a glance which process step needs to be performed next and makes it impossible to forget any tasks.

The processing window is divided into three clear parts:

The process header provides general data regarding the real-estate property, the status and the name of the process. Employees can enter notes here, add useful information for other people involved in the process and attach documents.
The process structure visualises all the steps of a process, with colours and icons providing information regarding the status of the process step in question.
In the process details section, employees work on the process step with all the activities provided for this.

The personal work basket contains all the tasks still to be performed. Regardless of which area of SAP^® the employee is in, the work basket is available in every business area and provides a central overview of all processes to be executed. Useful information fields highlight the number of outstanding tasks.

More effective processing thanks to new functions

As well as the design, PROMOS also provides small, new features in easysquare workflow that customers can look forward to using. Among other things, users can:

Select the screen background for menus and processing from several colour schemes
Suppress symbols and thus the option to maintain notes and attachments in the process steps
Fill in sub-process fields from step fields or link these field types so that reports can be analysed for step fields that are shared by different processes
Assign employees a skills-based responsibility in addition to the simple responsibility for a step (functional representation) and
Show and hide details in the process header

The various adjustments in easysquare workflow also cover the ticket system and CRM cockpit. For example, customer fields such as free text fields, date/time fields, check boxes and catalogues can be adjusted on a customer-specific basis and process cancellations are consistently possible throughout the entire CRM cockpit. Further optimisations result in notable performance increase within easysquare workflow environments in which many thousands of processes are available.

Certified quality with easysquare

In December 2014, SAP certified the high quality of the IT application for SAP NetWeaver^®, meaning easysquare workflow can now be advertised with the supplement “SAP Certified – Powered by SAP NetWeaver”. Customers thus benefit from faster and easier integration into the SAP solution environment and improved interoperability with existing SAP^® applications. Platform User Licences (PUL licences) can be procured via PROMOS as an SAP^® partner, which allows licensing of external users of a mobile platform. These are significantly cheaper than full SAP^® user licences.

Ideally, the new design supplemented with innovative optimisations will result in a consistent and clear overall concept that encourages viewing and use. With easysquare workflow, PROMOS offers its customers a simple tool for intelligent and easy process control.

If we have sparked your interest in easysquare workflow and its new design, please do not hesitate to contact our consultants at PROMOS. We would be happy to advise you on implementing and using easysquare workflow in your specific, individual case.