The 10 Key Attributes of Digitally Native Applications

[Former Member]

Most of my friends in the U.S. will spend November 8 watching election news and wondering what the future holds for the country.

Me? I’ll be at SAP TechEd Barcelona, sharing my thoughts and discussing with developers on what could be the future of next-gen business applications. And if I succeed, then these applications could be as simple and intuitive as consumer apps like Uber and Spotify.

The excitement building up for SAP TechEd is palpable. Our SAP Digital team has two booths - EZ35 and EZ36 - that cover a broad range of topics. These include digital transformation with the Center for Digital Leadership, user-based packages for SAP HANA Cloud Platform, a partnership with the European Space Agency, and much more. This video sums it up well:



But I’m most eagerly awaiting the passionate discussions with developers. I want to help them meet consumer-style expectations with business-oriented applications.

Wait - a consumer experience in business applications?

The boundaries between business and consumer applications are blurring fast. Today’s savvy business users are increasingly demanding the same intuitive, seamless digital experiences that are delivered in consumer applications.

This explains the rise of applications like Slack, Asana and ToDoist. They’re succeeding because 70% of B2B revenue now comes through digital channels from customers who make 60% of typical purchasing decisions prior to even reaching out to the supplier.

This is my goal for Barcelona: To help developers understand the 10 key attributes that are necessary for an application to meet the expectations of modern business buyers.

What’s a digitally native app?

It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that today’s business users expect it to be just as easy to buy and use business applications as it is to search the best local restaurant on Yelp.

We call this the “digital native experience.” It’s easy to describe — but a lot harder to build. At SAP Digital, our team has identified the 10 key product attributes that customers expect in a digital product experience:

1. The offering can be purchased in individual, bite-sized units


2. Pricing is low and transparent to enable simple transactions


3. The offering can be provisioned in 15 minutes (or less)


4. Setup and configuration of the offering are intuitive and self-driven


5. Usage is facilitated by guided in-app tutorials


6. The offering is seamlessly scalable with evolving business needs


7. Self-help is enabled via in-app support to ensure a persistent product experience


8. The offering learns from its usage patterns to mitigate users’ pain points


9. In-app purchase capabilities make it easy to extend the core capabilities


10. User notifications/emails are streamlined and focused

Wouldn’t you love to have some, or all of these attributes in your favorite business applications? It’s likely that you are nodding your head.

Now, if you’re a developer, compare these attributes in the applications that you’re building. If your head isn’t nodding quite as vigorously, then I would love for you to attend my session at SAP TechEd so we can continue the discussion there.

SAP TechEd Barcelona is November 8^th through 10^th. By the end of the week, we’ll know more about the U.S. political future - and attendees at SAP TechEd will have more control over their digital future.