Digital Learning

The value of the SAP Companion

In the context of user adoption of (cloud) solutions and on-the-job learning, I am convinced that the SAP Companion can add value to your company.
Stine Jensen Amista
Stine Jensen
SAP companion header

In the context of user adoption of (cloud) solutions and on-the-job learning, I am convinced that the SAP Companion can add value to your company. How can I be so sure? Read on and find out!

SAP Companion in a nutshell

Before we start, I would like to explain the SAP Companion briefly. Anyone familiar with SAP Enable Now* knows that SAP Companion can be implemented on several SAP solutions (S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors,…), but it can also be integrated on some third party applications (non-SAP). Once SAP Enable Now is installed, it is available within the application layer of the SAP Solution. The SAP Companion is an online support tool that the user can activate when he or she needs (urgent) help in completing a task. The user simply has to click on the question mark (top right – see image below) and he or she will immediately see all the learning content currently available for a particular screen. This content is bundled in a carousel, of which you can find an image further in the blog.

*SAP Enable Now is an enterprise cloud and on-premise application for (Digital) Learning management.

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Sap Companion types of content

Content types

There are three types of content that the user can access:

  1. Context Help consists of help and link tiles. With these tiles, you can highlight or explain a specific S/4HANA tile, field or icon in detail.
  2. Guided tours show step by step what the user must do to complete a certain procedure successfully.
  3. The learning center is a collection of (all) e-learnings that you have created with Producer (the main authoring tool from SAP Enable Now). You can therefore link these e-learnings to the SAP Companion for a specific screen or S/4HANA tile.

Within the SAP Companion, there is already standard content created by SAP, but it is also perfectly possible to create your own SAP Companion content. This often happens in companies where they have customized certain transactions during the S/4HANA implementation. As a result, the standard SAP content does not match and we are “forced” to create content ourselves.

Most important benefits

Fast and efficient

But what are the benefits? Imagine, a user is live in the system and needs help to complete a task. Instead of contacting a colleague and having to wait for an answer, the user can be helped quickly and efficiently. The SAP Companion immediately displays the various content options with one click. Only the relevant content is shown, making it easy for the user to search for his or her answer. It is therefore a quick solution for the user and he or she does not have to disturb other colleagues.
In practice, I often notice that they do not immediately (dare to) ask the question to their colleagues, which means that it can take a long time before they receive an answer. This can lead to frustrations, which the SAP Companion can help solve.

In addition, there is a change in work culture. On the job training and working from home are more popular (and necessary) than ever before. We must therefore offer employees tools that they can use to learn independently and solve problems on their own. The various content options of the SAP Companion, as described above, provide the perfect support. The tool can also be useful for onboarding new employees. On the one hand, they can get to know the new SAP Systems independently. On the other hand, after classroom training, they have enough tools to fall back on if they have forgotten certain transactions (blended learning).

The fact that the SAP Companion offers fast and efficient help is also beneficial in this rapidly evolving (digital) world. To keep up in this digital era with the increasing pace of innovations and new software solutions, users need to be supported directly with help embedded and instantly available in their applications. With SAP Companion, users will have 24/7 access to embedded user assistance in SAP S/4HANA.

 

“Users access the SAP Companion at any time when they need it within the SAP system they work with on a daily basis. It gives employees the confidence they need to complete specific tasks.”

 

Combining different types of learning content

The SAP Companion wants to provide fast and efficient help when it is needed. As a result, little attention is often paid to context information. What do I mean by this? For example, you have made a guided tour of how a buyer can create an order. You do this by explaining the steps chronologically. You do not want to provide too much information while explaining these steps, because of information overload and you don’t want to distract the user from completing the task. In that case, context information is often lost, such as:

  • What is an order?
  • Where in the purchasing process does this occur?
  • What happens next?

This is information that we always include in an e-learning to provide guidance to the user. So, this may sound like a disadvantage, but it is absolutely not! The SAP Companion solves this in two ways. First, you can choose to combine a guided tour with context help. As described above, we use Context Help to emphasize and/or explain something in detail. Secondly, you can create an e-learning with Producer and link it to the SAP Companion by means of a link tile or the learning center. In this way, the user is stimulated by different types of content to learn.

Modern design

Finally, we must of course also talk about the design. The SAP Companion looks modern. One-click activates the tool and opens a carousel. Each type of content (guided tour, context help, …) is displayed with its own icon. The carousel can be fully or partially collapsed again if it takes up too much space on your screen (double arrow at the bottom right). You can customize the design of the SAP Companion by, for example, adjusting the colors. Within companies, I often see that they work with predetermined color codes. These codes can be used to make the SAP Companion business-proof.

Summary

In short, the SAP Companion has many advantages:

  • Deliver fast and efficient (customized) help content
  • Provide the right tools for independent learning and problem solving
  • Combine different types of learning content
  • Modern (customizable) design

It is therefore an ultimate must to have within your company. To enjoy these benefits, it is not enough to just implement the SAP Companion. In addition to implementation, you should also focus on encouraging employees to work with the SAP Companion. They will have to use the tool the most, which for many employees requires a (digital) change. The better that change goes, the more employees will discover the many benefits of the SAP Companion. As discussed earlier in this blog, ‘on the job training’, ‘working from home’ and ‘a rapidly evolving digital world’ are hot topics at the moment, which all require a (digital) change. The SAP Companion, and its advantages, are therefore the perfect tool to facilitate this change.

More info or a demo?

At Amista, in addition to the technical implementation and the creation of customized content, we also take the employee experience into account. The benefits of the SAP Companion and the expertise of Amista is a perfect combination for your company.

Stine Jensen Amista

Stine Jensen

Digital Learning Team Lead