ARCHITECTURAL BLUEPRINT #79 • DIGITAL EXPERIENCE & BTP PORTALS

SAP Build Work Zone, Fiori Launchpad & Common Data Model (CDM) Content Federation Guide

Master enterprise portal architecture with SAP Build Work Zone. Learn how to federate business content from SAP S/4HANA using CDM 3.0, configure zero-trust Principal Propagation, and unify disparate SAP systems into a single clean-core entry point.

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1. The Shift to Central Launchpads in Clean Core

In legacy SAP ERP landscapes, each system hosted its own independent Fiori Launchpad: one for S/4HANA Finance, another for SRM, another for CRM, and separate portals for custom Cloud Foundry applications. End users faced constant bookmark switching, broken single sign-on sessions, and disjointed notification streams.

In a Clean Core architecture, SAP Build Work Zone acts as the central digital front door. S/4HANA systems expose their business content as standardized JSON descriptors using the Common Data Model (CDM 3.0), which Work Zone consumes seamlessly.

2. Common Data Model (CDM 3.0) Deep Dive

The Common Data Model defines the schema for business content federation. A CDM package consists of three decoupled layers:

📦 The 3 Core Building Blocks of CDM 3.0

1. Applications: Definitions of target Fiori Elements apps, Web Dynpro, or SAP GUI for HTML tiles, complete with semantic objects and intents.

2. Catalogs: Logical grouping of apps that represent a functional capability (e.g. Accounts Payable Processing).

3. Roles & Spaces/Pages: User assignment layers that define launchpad layout, sections, and visible cards.

3. Work Zone Standard vs. Advanced Edition Comparison

Capability	Work Zone Standard Edition	Work Zone Advanced Edition
Primary Purpose	Central Fiori Launchpad replacement	Collaborative digital workplace portal
Content Types	Fiori tiles, links, cards	Widgets, UI Integration Cards, blogs, documents
Workspaces	No (Spaces and Pages only)	Yes (Team, Public, and Private Workspaces)
CDM Federation	Native S/4HANA & BTP CDM 3.0	Native CDM 3.0 + Third-party widget runtime
Licensing Tier	Included in SAP S/4HANA Cloud (RISE)	Dedicated user-based BTP subscription

4. Zero-Trust Identity Federation with IAS

Clean core portal architectures enforce SAP Cloud Identity Services (IAS) as the single central Identity Provider (IdP) or identity broker between Corporate Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) and backend systems:

Users authenticate to SAP Build Work Zone via OIDC or SAML 2.0.
Work Zone calls on-premise S/4HANA via the SAP BTP Destination Service using Principal Propagation.
The SAP Cloud Connector generates a short-lived X.509 client certificate for the authenticated user, logging them in securely without transmitting passwords.

5. Production Implementation Checklist

Follow these battle-tested steps when setting up SAP Build Work Zone CDM Content Federation:

Step 1: In S/4HANA, run transaction /UI2/CDM3_EXP_SCOPE to expose selected Fiori Catalogs to CDM.
Step 2: Configure SAP Cloud Connector resource mapping for path /sap/bc/ui2/cdm3/.
Step 3: Create BTP Destination with property wz.content.federation = true.
Step 4: In Work Zone Channel Manager, create a Content Channel pointing to the destination and trigger content sync.
Step 5: Assign federated roles to user groups in SAP BTP Cockpit / IAS.

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