Rocket:Mobile - Optimising the SAP Mobile Experience

There is a low risk of obsolescence due to non-proprietary technology. Rocket:Mobile clients can take ongoing support and maintenance in-house if required.

Rocket Mobile components co-exist with the SAP ITS Mobile components and it is possible to choose which are used. Where used, enhanced ITS replaces the SAP ITS HTML generator.

The UI Development Framework & Library is designed and set-up during the implementation.

The ITS HTML Generator / Enhanced ITS HTML Generator is responsible for generating the HTML templates / screens from the ABAP screens. This is done on first use of a screen or after any changes, i.e. when executing the live transaction. It does not pass through the HTML Generator component.

There is a licence cost for the framework. There is also an annual software maintenance cost.

The Rocket Mobile components are either imported (transport) or manually set-up within SAP ITS Mobile. Client-specific style guidelines are then implemented into the Rocket Mobile framework. These can be at a global level for all transactions, by specific groups or even individual transactions.

No changes are made to any standard SAP components.

Minimum Specification:
Android 6.0 or newer, iOS 7 or newer, Window XP or newer, Windows 10, MacOS 10.7 or newer
Minimum screen resolution: 450 x 450 pixels

Recommended Specifications:
Device camera for advanced RM features
Touchscreen for best UX experience
Industrial browser best suited for the given device

Browsers must support HTML5. Most modern industrial/rugged mobile devices are running Android O/S (this is also our recommendation). These are generally shipped with HTML5 compatible browsers. 

We strongly recommend the use of industrial browsers suited to the mobile device. 

Generally, no additional software is required for Rocket Mobile (or SAP ITS Mobile). However, we strongly recommend the following for any mobile deployment to ensure robust performance:

Use of industrial browsers suited to the mobile device. These would be loaded onto the device during device provisioning.

Device set-up is critical for robust operations and we recommend our best practices for SAP EWM mobile technology for this.

In specific scenarios additional software and content may be required on the devices:
- Voice - local voice engine and library
- Performance scenarios where local content such as a logo may be used
- Mobile Device Management software
- Security – where a mobile VPN is required.

Rocket Mobile is not a Mobile Device Management software.

As part of our deployment best practices, we use either our recommended (SOTI) or client selected Mobile Device Management software combined with our own Mobile Device Provisioning Profiles Library.

SAP EWM provisioning profiles for 15 commonly used mobile devices:

- Device lock-down
- Screen profiles
- Connectivity settings
- Scanner settings
- Automated deployment
- Deployment guides
- Troubleshooting guides

Rocket Mobile does include features to aid the end-user support process.

Good mobile performance is dependent on correctly deployed SAP infrastructure (platform, application, database, network, RF network, processes & devices). Rocket mobile provides numerous end-user performance gains through the improved usability as well as technical performance gains such as image handling and data access.

No proprietary skills are required, meaning your existing SAP ABAP developers can develop mobile transactions in the same way as SAP ITS Mobile transactions.

Rocket Mobile Runs work on rugged mobile devices or consumer smart devices running android or iOS, as well as Windows 10 devices such as tablets or workstations, or vehicle mounted devices.

The Rocket Mobile framework is designed to work with and optimise a wide range of rugged mobile devices, ranging from handhelds, wrist mountable and vehicle mount devices.

Yes, Rocket Mobile will work alongside a wide range of mobile device management software, including the commonly used Avalanche and SOTI.

Rocket Mobile interface works with standard and customer-specific transactions previously built in SAP ITS Mobile. There is a small amount of standard installation and set-up time that includes the migration steps for standard transactions and customer-specific transactions. This all takes place with zero changes to standard SAP code or existing customer transaction code.

No. For many SAP customers Fiori isn’t always available in their landscape, so the majority of standard SAP mobile transaction are provided by ITS mobile. We wanted a solution that didn't force customers to adopt new SAP design standards. Fiori into Rocket Mobile allows businesses to run a hybrid, taking the best of each for each specific use case.

Rocket Mobile on EWM does not require the modification of SAP standard. For the implementation of Rocket Mobile on SAP Standard RF transactions in EWM, the SAP best practice is to create a custom display profile and enhance/change only a couple of template screens (these are custom as part of best practice implementation anyway). No changes are made to the SAP sub-screens.  Any changes to SAP business programming logic after SAP upgrade/support packs etc will be used within the Rocket Mobile screens.

For typical transactions, such as putaway, picking, packing and yard movements the data usage is very low and comparable to native SAP ITS mobile. For example, a typical picking transaction would use < 140 kbytes.

For advanced features that include the use of photos/document scans / PDFs the data packets will be larger and are best assessed on a case by case basis.

SAP BSP is a component in the SAP ABAP workbench that allows SAP transactions to be executed in a Web Browser rather than in the SAPGUI, thus taking advantage of the HTTPS protocol and allowing the use of standard products like firewalls and proxy servers.

Rocket mobile uses only the web application hosting aspects of SAP Business Server Pages (SAP BSP). It is not deployed as a BSP application, but does require web hosting application for some aspects of the solution.

Rocket Mobile keeps the technical landscape as simple as possible, using standard SAP components typically installed or easy to add into typical SAP landscapes. We therefore use SAP BSP as the web application hosting services as it provides a simple, secure and fully integrated approach that avoids the need for additional servers or third-party licenses. Importantly this approach satisfies the need to be co-hosted with SAP ITS mobile and get latency low.

Ease of deployment and maintenance of Rocket Mobile is crucial. As SAP BSP is a component of the SAP ABAP workbench this allows the web application objects of Rocket mobile to be easily imported, managed and transported between systems as part of the usual SAP transport objects and process.

SAP show no sign of discontinuing their use of BSP as it remains a constant in their roadmap and is part of the SAP S/4 landscape components.

Alternative deployment can be supported using third party Web Application servers or SAP Business Technology Platform. This approach is not part of the standard install and would be on a case-by-case basis.