SAP ReX 2.1 is out and from its improvements we can learn a lot

[SergioFerrari]

The evolution of SAP Retail Execution (ReX), the most powerful SAP Mobile App in the store, is fascinating.

Understanding the area of improvements we can also connects the dots and figure out the general trends related to the underline Sybase Unwired Platform (SUP) technology.

The goal of this blog is to comment about the way the App is evolving and not to list the new features that are already well documented in the official manuals.

iPad

SAP Retail Execution 2.1 provides a brand new User Interface for iPad and the first time I used it I even didn't recognize it.

Also taking a look to the wiki page SAP Mobile Store Apps by john.moy, we can learn that the evolution of the Apps includes the supports for new platforms.

It's quite evident that building native Apps with Sybase Unwired Platform (SUP) it’s not enough to get the support for all the devices and platforms.

SAP ReX is developed as a native application and this approach requires some effort to support new platforms but also to differentiate the App per screen size (Canvas).

SAP developers took the opportunity offered by the huge screen size of the tablet improving so much the navigation and rearranging the fields on the new layout.

Embedded Analytic and a SAP BW as the third backend system

SAP Retail Execution 2.1 for iPad embeds great charts generated via Mobile Analytic Kit (MAKit), the generic charts component provided by Sybase Unwired Platform (SUP).

We can see the first set of contextual charts that means for example that after selecting a customer some really nice charts will show trends of distribution with data coming directly from any query of the third backend that is SAP BW (we had already SAP CRM and SAP ECC).

This is a very interesting step forward that for sure we’ll find in many other Apps.

Rotating Wheel

This is the first advanced UI element I discovered in the App.

The Rotating Wheel is a nice kind of graphical 3D menu to navigate to the available scenarios.

WOW effect is assured

Print the sales order

Not sure it’s really new but the look and feel of the printed Sales Orders is now really professional.

Direct printing from the mobile devices is another interesting area for evolution.

Languages

A significant number of new languages are now supported.

Let's keep in mind that even if the platform is capable, each language to be supported requires some effort.

So, after looking to the past in the blog unofficial History of SAP Mobile Application Platform (wiki http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/mobile/unofficial+History+of+SAP+Mobile+Application+Platform), and to the latest news from SAP Retail Execution, what do you think about the SAP Mobile Application Platform evolution?

Any specific expectation? Any staff I didn't mention?