News

SDK for iOS Enterprise Apps Coming from SAP

• By David Ramel
• February 27, 2017

Enterprise software company SAP SE today announced an upcoming SDK for iOS development for the newly rebranded SAP Cloud Platform.

Formerly known as SAP HANA Cloud Platform, the SAP Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) features an in-memory database (HANA) and services for building, customizing and connecting enterprise applications.

The upcoming SDK for iOS is part of the German software giant's development-focused business partnership with Apple Inc., announced last May.

The new iOS SDK, coming March 30, will help developers incorporate mobile and other services and provide functionality such as single sign-on, offline data synchronization and better supportability in iPhone and iPad enterprise apps.

"As promised, SAP is delivering real-time enterprise software to iOS devices, transforming core work processes for companies of all sizes with powerful native apps built specifically for iPhone and iPad," said SAP exec Bernd Leukert. "Customers, partners and SAP can now quickly develop apps that deliver data with the cutting-edge capabilities of SAP Cloud Platform and SAP S/4HANA. The partnership comes at the right time for our customers as more and more companies build their mobile strategies around iOS."

The SDK -- featuring the Swift programming language built in, rather than the fading Objective-C language -- includes a library of prebuilt UX components to jumpstart application development.

"The SDK is intended to be complemented with innovative tools to identify available UX building blocks, existing enterprise services and application programming interfaces (APIs) to access SAP S/4HANA and other third-party systems, and to generate code snippets to reduce complexity and let the developers focus on creating apps that deliver incredible user experiences," SAP said in a news release today.

Along with the soon-to-be-launched SDK, the company said the SAP Academy for iOS is now open for business with some starter training resources and workshops, with a more robust global rollout planned for later in the year. Offerings include Introduction to Swift, Introduction to iOS SDK and Native mobile app development with SAP Fiori for iOS.

The SAP Fiori for iOS design language is another part of the SAP/Apple partnership, helping developers simplify the UX and create next-generation apps.

SAP said it's now creating such native iOS apps that can transform core workflows across a variety of industries, having already created a SAP Project Companion mobile app that will also be launched on March 30.

"The apps plan to integrate through SAP Cloud Platform into the SAP S/4HANA Professional Services Cloud solution, taking advantage of real-time data and dramatically simplifying the experience for consultants, project managers and other users who are typically on the go," the company said.