Enrolling the SAP Business ByDesign mobile apps into a Mobile Device Management (MDM) application and rolling it out to users in an enterprise has been possible for quite some time now. Many SAP Business ByDesign customers already use this approach as MDM applications ensure a secure way of distributing enterprise-approved apps and help to stay in control of aspects like data protection. They also play a crucial role in shielding enterprises against modern-day security threats.
SAP Business ByDesign Mobile App Onboarding Configurations
Let me introduce to you the feature in SAP Business ByDesign’s 2111 release that improves the experience of user onboarding to ByDesign mobile apps via MDM applications.
It is now possible to default the values for the following two fields in prominent ByDesign mobile apps.
- System URL
- User ID

Pic.1 - System URL and User ID
Using any modern MDM application, one has to simply maintain values for the following two configuration keys for a specific ByDesign mobile app, to have them defaulted into the app's respective fields during runtime.
- serverURL
- userName
serverURL is the SAP Business ByDesign's system URL, which is a mandatory information the users are required to provide in all of the ByDesign mobile apps. It is used to connect the mobile app to their company’s ByDesign system. Customer feedback has shown that this is often a tedious process as in many cases the users are not aware of this information and need to be informed about this while trying to onboard them on to the ByDesign Mobile apps.
userName is the User ID, used in the Basic Authentication login scheme. This configuration can be set to individual users.
Sample Configuration

Pic.2 - Configuration for SAP Business ByDesign Mobile app in Microsoft Intune
SAP Business ByDesign Mobile Apps that Support this Feature
- SAP Business ByDesign Mobile - iOS and Android
- SAP Time Recording - iOS and Android
- SAP Manager Approvals - iOS (only serverURL is supported) and Android
Benefits
- A smoother SAP Business ByDesign mobile app onboarding experience for business users. They now have to neither remember nor manually take over crucial login information into the ByDesign mobile apps.
- Key users can now enable easy onboarding to business users by maintaining only a few configuration keys
Summary
We believe the above feature would significantly simplify the onboarding step for business users.
Do you use an MDM application to roll out SAP Business ByDesign mobile apps? Let us know your experience of adopting this feature in your enterprise. We would love to hear your feedback.