Design Thinking · SAP Fiori · Field Service & Warehouse on S/4HANA
How Patterson Companies captured $1.3M in annual revenue by rethinking field service on SAP Fiori
Patterson Companies, Inc. Delivered 2024
Mindset ran Design Thinking with Patterson's field technicians, built a new SAP Fiori service app in two weeks, and within 16 weeks of rollout 85.9% of the team had adopted it voluntarily, cutting 60-day open service orders from 13,000 to under 4,000 and capturing $1.3M in annual revenue.
By the numbers
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$1.3M
Annual revenue captured from reduced open orders
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13,000→<4,000
60-day open service orders cut
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85.9%
Voluntary adoption within 16 weeks
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$100K
Annual time savings valued by the client
Before
A click-intensive process with a growing backlog
- Service technicians logging work in CRM after the visit, then waiting for it to sync to SAP ECC, with no logic to prevent open orders piling up.
- Over 13,000 service orders sitting open past 60 days, delaying invoicing and doctor communication.
- Warehouse returns and sales enablement with no dedicated Fiori tooling, and customer data stranded on personal devices.
After
A Fiori estate Patterson's own team owns
- A single 'Complete Visit' click replaces the multi-step CRM process, with built-in logic that stops orders from accumulating.
- Open 60-day service orders down from 13,000 to under 4,000, with $1.3M in annual revenue now collected on time.
- Warehouse returns, sales enablement, equipment inventory, and field service all covered in Fiori, with Patterson's internal team running and extending it.
“Mindset has been a great partner in our digital transformation journey. We embrace Mindset's Design Thinking and Agile/bimodal delivery of applications, and the AppHaus is a very useful addition to our alliance with them.”
Built on
- SAP Fiori
- SAP UI5
- ABAP
- Design Thinking
- Agile / Scrum
- Mobile (device-agnostic)
Why this matters
Patterson's field service team adopted a new SAP Fiori app at 85.9% voluntarily, without a mandate, because the Design Thinking process made the tool fit the job. That adoption number and the $1.3M revenue recovery are both the direct result of getting into the field first.
The challenge
Patterson Companies runs a large field service operation where technicians visit dental offices and veterinary clinics, then have to log their service work back in CRM before it flows into SAP ECC. The existing process was laborious and click-intensive. Techs were saving open orders to finish later, which meant confirmations piled up. At any given time, over 13,000 service orders sat open past 60 days. That backlog delayed invoicing, slowed communication with doctors, and left real revenue sitting uncollected.
In the warehouse, Fiori covered core operations but had a gap around returns. Returns processing lacked any dedicated Fiori tooling, which meant warehouse staff were working around the system rather than through it. Meanwhile, Patterson's sales reps were relying on third-party apps running on personal devices. Customer data wasn't flowing into Patterson's systems.
Across all of this, Patterson's leadership wanted to extend their Fiori investment and build their internal team's ability to keep building. They needed a partner who could design for real users, deliver quickly, and leave something durable behind.
What we did
Mindset started every project the same way: by getting into the field. For the Technical Service engagement, the team shadowed field technicians on actual visits, mapped their process flows step by step, and ran Design Thinking workshops that brought users and IT into the same room to prototype solutions. A tangible product came out of that in two weeks. The pilot ran with 17 super-user technicians across 17 locations before full rollout.
The resulting Fiori app collapsed a multi-step confirmation process into a single 'Complete Visit' click, with built-in business logic to prevent the save-for-later behavior that caused the order backlog. The design was device-agnostic so techs could use it on whatever they had in the field.
From there, Mindset delivered across the broader SAP estate over several years: a Warehouse Quality and EWM app (through three versions), an OTC-CRM and Sales Enablement app that moved reps off personal-device third-party tools, a Returns dashboard with real-time KPI tiles and drill-down for warehouse fulfillment centers, and an Equipment Inventory Improvement program. Every engagement included knowledge transfer so Patterson's own team could maintain and build on the work. Patterson's Blane Beebe co-presented the service-tech Design Thinking story with Mindset at the UX4ERP Summit in 2023.
The outcomes
The Technical Service app hit 85.9% voluntary adoption within 16 weeks of rollout, with no mandate. Open service orders past the 60-day mark dropped from 13,000 to under 4,000. Patterson valued the time savings alone at $100,000 annually, and the faster order closure translated to $1.3M in annual revenue captured that had previously been sitting in the backlog.
The Sales Enablement app drove a marked increase in mobile usage and pulled customer data back into Patterson's systems instead of stranding it on personal devices. The Returns app closed the warehouse Fiori gap, giving staff a centralized dashboard with real-time KPI visibility and standardized returns workflows across fulfillment centers.
Patterson's CIO named the Design Thinking and Agile delivery model publicly as central to why the work landed the way it did. The relationship spans field service, warehouse, sales, and returns across a multi-year Fiori program that Patterson's own team now runs and extends.
If we built this today
Concept · not delivered scopeClose the visit before the tech leaves.
This is a forward-looking concept, not the scope we delivered on this engagement. It is the build we would reach for now, grounded in SAP that ships today.
Patterson's field techs were stranding $1.3M a year because clunky multi-step CRM confirmations let 13,000 open service orders pile up before anyone could tell the doctor the work was done.
The Joule agent
Field Tech Co-pilot
Reads the technician's open service orders, schedule, equipment history, and parts used on the visit, then drafts the full confirmation and closeout so the tech approves one 'Complete Visit' instead of clicking through CRM. It flags confirmations sitting open past the 60-day window before they turn into stranded revenue.
SAP S/4HANA Service, SAP Field Service Management, SAP EWM, SAP CRM · PROPOSE · Open service orders aging past 60 days, and revenue captured from timely confirmation
The Fiori app
Create Maintenance Request/Order with embedded Joule
The OOTB S/4HANA service and maintenance order apps now carry Joule in the launchpad, so a tech can ask for their open visits and complete a confirmation in plain language instead of navigating the old multi-path flow. For the dispatch and scheduling side, SAP Field Service Management adds AI-assisted scheduling on top.
Embedded in the Fiori launchpad
The data product
Asset and service data product on SAP Business Data Cloud
There isn't a named field-service Intelligent Application yet, so the honest grounding here is a governed asset and service-history data product on SAP Business Data Cloud, joined through the SAP Knowledge Graph so the agent reads equipment, service-order, and warehouse meaning the same way Patterson's people do. That semantic layer is what keeps a 'Complete Visit' suggestion accurate instead of guessing.
Data product on SAP Business Data Cloud
We'd mine the real confirmation process in SAP Signavio first to see exactly where the clicks and open orders stack up, map the CRM-to-S/4HANA landscape in SAP LeanIX, and lean on MIND accelerators to carry the old Fiori service apps forward to the agentic flow.
What we built
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Technical Service Fiori app
A device-agnostic field-service confirmation app built through Design Thinking, piloted with 17 super-user technicians across 17 locations before full rollout. Collapsed multi-step CRM confirmation into a single 'Complete Visit' click with built-in business logic.
85.9% voluntary adoption in 16 weeks · 13,000 open orders cut to under 4,000
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Design Thinking delivery model
Field shadowing, process-flow mapping, and launchpad prototyping workshops that brought real users and IT together, then a two-week build to a tangible working product.
Working prototype in 2 weeks · piloted across 17 locations
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Warehouse Quality and EWM apps
A Fiori application suite for warehouse management, delivered from MVP through Version 3, covering warehouse quality and Extended Warehouse Management functions.
MVP through Version 3 shipped with knowledge transfer
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Fiori Returns dashboard
A centralized returns-processing app with real-time KPI tiles and drill-down capability, standardizing returns workflows across Patterson's fulfillment centers. Delivered in multiple phases: prototype, sprints, UAT, go-live, and hypercare.
Closed the functional Fiori gap for warehouse returns processing
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OTC-CRM and Sales Enablement app
A mobile, device-neutral sales tool that replaced third-party personal-device apps and got customer data flowing back into SAP. Built on Fiori with Design Thinking discovery.
Marked increase in mobile usage
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Equipment Inventory Improvement program
A multi-phase program to improve equipment inventory visibility and accuracy, including a Design Thinking workshop focused on equipment workflows.
Delivered across 2023 and 2024
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Knowledge transfer and team capability
Every engagement included structured knowledge transfer so Patterson's own team could maintain and extend the Fiori apps going forward.
Internal team now operates and builds on the Fiori estate
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UX4ERP Summit co-presentation
Patterson and Mindset co-presented the service-tech Design Thinking story at the UX4ERP Summit 2023, with Patterson's Blane Beebe presenting publicly.
Public client co-presentation, 2023
A look at the work
