“One of the users who took part in the activity conducted by SAP User Experience was Sherry Wheelock, a classic-case information worker. Officially, her title at Polk County Public Schools in Bartow, Florida, is “senior business analyst.” But Sherry Wheelock thinks that “senior seeker” would be a more accurate description of her job. Wheelock spends a good portion of her day scouring the vast virtual haystack most call the Internet, searching for text books, catering services, maps, addresses, sports apparel, office supplies, and just about anything else her school district needs. And Google just isn’t making the grade.
Meanwhile, in Palo Alto California, Adi Kavaler, senior director of product management in the Information Worker unit at SAP, is developing what he considers an “amazing solution.” It’s called SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Search, an application that allows users to quickly access not just Web pages, but documents in a company’s intranet, business applications, contacts, and internal analytical information as well. Furthermore, SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Search offers direct links to related business transactions and sales reports – in short, a search engine on steroids.
Sherry Wheelock and Adi Kavaler meet up at SAPPHIRE ’07 in Atlanta at one of the activities sponsored by SAP User Experience, a multinational working group that bundles many of the usability and user interface design-related resources at SAP. In total, 380 users participate on 24 stations during the three day event – testing a wide range of products from SAP xApp Analytics to SAP All-in-One.”