To allow users to conduct business scenarios at companies using SAP ERP, Kakao Enterprise aimed to expand the capabilities of Kakao Work, one of its business-to-business (B2B) solutions. Kakao Enterprise and SAP developed 68 cross-industry use cases; three use cases with SAP Business Technology Platform were identified and chosen for the first implementation round in the third quarter of 2021. The Kakao Work package went live on SAP Store in June 2021.
Kakao is the No. 1 business-to-consumer (B2C) mobile service company in Korea. In 2019, the company established subsidiary Kakao Enterprise to provide B2B artificial intelligence (AI) services. The new solution Kakao Work is a mobile messenger and app-based collaboration platform that enables employees to communicate, share files, and integrate third-party services.
The company aimed to expand Kakao Work capabilities to allow users to conduct business scenarios at companies using SAP ERP. In close strategic collaboration with SAP, a project team discovered use cases, designed the user experience (UX), and developed the service. As a first milestone, Kakao Enterprise launched the Kakao Work packages on SAP Store in June.
This new service for enterprise customers is built with SAP Business Technology Platform. Its capabilities can be expanded in the future to include more business scenarios, and across various industries.
“Collaborating with SAP AppHaus, Kakao Work was able to take one step closer to innovate users’ work experience as a comprehensive work platform,” shared Ju-Young Chung, executive director of Kakao Enterprise. “We were able to empathize with the real-world pain points of corporate customers with the help of the human-centered approach of the Sunrise Program and developed solutions to address it through Kakao Work.”
Building with SAP Business Technology Platform
Kakao Work allows users to perform business scenarios using SAP ERP through the mobile messenger app. Users can conveniently search data and process transactions, such as checking sales order status, processing goods receipt, and work order status.
The improved business value in SAP’s elaborated scenario integrates other SAP solutions and provides productivity and accessibility to maximize utilization for business users. It operates regardless of any environmental constraints end users may have and delivers business processing faster.
SAP Business Technology Platform provides the capability to integrate Kakao Work with SAP Ariba, SAP Concur, SAP SuccessFactors, and other cloud solutions in addition to SAP ERP.
From 68 Scenarios to Three Top Use Cases
The SAP AppHaus team in South Korea interviewed business process experts and identified 68 scenarios as potential new work packages, followed by additional interviews, and prioritized by scoring them in terms of expected users, frequency of use, and work performance.
Along SAP’s human-centered approach to innovation, the team conducted an exploration workshop with Kakao Enterprise and a development partner. Based on feasibility and importance, three high-priority use cases were selected:
- Checking sales order status
- Processing goods receipt
- Checking work order status
Business Messenger Solution Created with Innovation Toolkit from SAP AppHaus
Due to COVID-19, the project team conducted interviews remotely along the proven innovation toolkit for virtual and on-site collaboration. The project members started designing with the clear goal that employees would be able to perform ERP-related tasks more easily through Kakao Work.
The project team shared a prototype with process experts for validation and further improvement. The result was then discussed in an online workshop with Kakao Enterprise, development partners, and SAP process experts. To finalize this first project, SAP AppHaus colleagues incorporated all feedback in the solution’s UX design. Based on this, Kakao Enterprise and the development partner developed the application.
The result can be seen on SAP Store: Kakao Work, mobile business messenger that supports efficient and productive communication.
