I did a recent podcast for SAPInsider, the conference producer for HR2015. You can hear the podcast and view the transcript here. Many of the questions were a precursor to the kinds of the questions I am sure we will be hearing from customers this year at the HR 2015 conference as well as ASUG/SAPPHIRE. Questions specifically around the roadmap for HR Renewal versus SAP Fiori and where/when/how these roads will merge within the SAP HCM space. Lots of questions around integration, mashups, and what types of skill sets customers/consultants will need in the future around these technologies.
Here are some of the resources that are available to us out there, specifically around SAPUI5 and its related offerings:
I also suggest you check out some sessions on these topics by two of the finest in the business: Martin Gillet and Brandon Toombs. Both will both give you an independent viewpoint on what’s good (and bad) about these technologies.
Brandon’s session on “Guidelines and requirements for adapting to the HR Professional role UI” will definitely be one to check out for those interested in understanding what’s new for the HR Professional. The rest of his sessions are here. You might also want to check out his blog series on SCN on comparing Employee Central and HR Renewal/SAP Fiori here: Blog 1 | Blog 2
The HR event from SAPInsider is almost upon us. Please visit the website to see more details on what’s scheduled. Please visit me at one of my sessions, or at booth #410 in the Exhibit Hall during the show.
The Bellagio will host this year’s SAPInsider conference, HR2015
I just recorded a podcast with Ken Murphy, Features Editor for SAPinsider & insiderPROFILES, about the conference and some hot topics. It was a great discussion with him, as we exchanged thoughts on HR Renewal, SAP Fiori, SAPUI5, user adoption, change management, security, and other big league topics. I will update this post once that podcast is released so you can have a listen.
For those customers preparing for the conference, this is what I could be curious to listen for during the conference:
What are the latest innovations within the SAP HR space around SAP Fiori? Will there be another wave of HR apps released? If so, when? How will SAPUI5 apps be expanded in the HR space, or will they?
How will HR Renewal continue to innovate, in areas like SAPUI5 replacement (of Web Dynpro ABAP services), as well as a more intuitive navigation scheme? In my opinion, the current lane approach looks fresher than previous homepage layouts, but also can cause more challenges for user adoption. This is something that I will discuss at the conference.
Will HR Renewal and SAP Fiori “merge forces”, or will we they continue to be deployed in separate releases, style sets, etc? It’s important that we hear from SAP on these roadmap items, especially after Vishal Sikka’s (relatively) recent exit.
What’s the “portal of choice” now for customers? Or, is there even a frontrunner? Currently, we have SAP NetWeaver Portal, NetWeaver Business Client (NWBC), SAP Fiori Launchpad, SAP Fiori within SAP Portal, and other 3rd party portals (SharePoint, WebSphere are top). How do we navigate these options, and which one’s best for customers?
What’s new in the HR Professional role? For this, I would attend my co-authorBrandon Toombs‘ session “Guidelines and requirements for adapting to the HR Professional role UI”. Brandon is a force to be reckoned with on this topic.
This three-part whitepaper on SAP query is something I have been meaning to blog about. There are plenty of SAP HCM customers out there who continue to seek information on how to leverage the query application in SAP. As it is one of the most underleveraged of tools within the SAP HCM suite, one of my colleagues, Susan Traynor, has written a three-part whitepaper on the subject.
Thought I would share a few lessons learned around Compensation management using SAP ECM (Enterprise Compensation Management), but these could be used for any compensation system.
ECM supports the annual compensation (“focal review”) process, but not the off-cycle (ad hoc) increases associated to promotions, laterals, downgrades, etc. Don’t force the off-cycle process in the tool or it will turn ugly.
Ensure budgeting requirements are well understood early in the project between the compensation and project teams. For example, what is the budget/organizational freeze date (or, is there a freeze date?), can budget funds be re-allocated during planning, what do you do with terminated employees during the cycle, etc.
Don’t rely too much on “macro-eligibility” to drive your compensation eligibility rules. Infotype 0758 (Compensation Program) is where “macro-eligibility” is defined. Putting too much intelligence in this infotype is a recipe for disaster because you are at the mercy of master data maintenance (PA30/PA40 transactions). Bake your eligibility requirements into your “micro-eligibility” rules (including the eligibility BAdI) since you have absolute control over the logic.
Listen carefully to the requirements around compensation planning and approvals. For discretionary plans, ensure that the system is configured to handle the appropriate workflow and business logic to handle compensation worksheet level approvals, routing and escalation rules.
Ensure that all your process inputs (market data, performance ratings, potential ratings, etc.) are configured prior to the compensation worksheet being opened to management.
Agree with the compensation team on which master data will be entered by them in Production versus input by IT in Development (and transported to the upper environments). Time-sensitive information such as Business Unit Results, Black Sholes/Fair Market Value, Bonus modifiers/kickers, etc. should be controlled by the business in the Productive environment. This data may also be very confidential as well, for “comp’s eyes only”.
Give the compensation team the ability to proof the compensation worksheets before releasing to management. Seems a given, but worth it’s own line.
Conduct your system testing with a dedicated QA system with unmasked employee/compensation data. (This may not be realistic for all companies due to budgetary and/or environment constraints, I understand, but shoot for the stars and maybe you will reach the moon.)
Just because functionality is offered, doesn’t mean you should use it. Test the waters within a demo environment with the compensation team to ensure they really do want all the functionality offered. There is nothing wrong with hiding functionality until if (or when) it’s needed. For example, the Compensation Profile is neat but also can backfire on you if you expose too much data that’s difficult to explain (or – even worse – wrong!)
Don’t over-engineer the stock granting process. At maximum, collect and split the stock recommendations, but all other activities (vesting management, exercising, life events, etc.) should be handled by your stock plan administrator.
Photo in action during one of my self-service sessions in Nice, France during HR2014 Europe.
After my “spring conference tour” (HR2014 in Orlando, Mastering SAP & Payroll in Johannesburg, HR2014 in Nice, and SAPPHIRE/ASUG 2014), I have listed five key takeaways from my interactions with customers.
Customers are still struggling with the basics. Topics such as security/authorizations, reporting, organizational updates, portals, authentication, mobile enablement continue to plague customers. Throughout this exciting time of HR systems innovation, we often overlook that ‘business keeps happening’ (i.e., organizations are dynamic, employees need to get paid – and paid correctly). As consultants, we need to remember that we can’t mess up the basics as we are looking at the “new and shiny”.
There is significant interest from the SAP install base in HR Renewal and other ways to refresh the overall user experience for employees, managers, and HR Professionals. The update of the current portal interface using SAPUI5 (SAP’s take on HTML5) is a popular topic on the ground. Furthermore, and specific to HR Renewal (and other SAPUI5 services), knowing now that we can couple SAP Netweaver Gateway and SAP ECC provides customers with an even a lower TCO.
Hybrid (core HR on premise, full/partial talent in the cloud) will be commonplace for companies in the next 5-7 years. After talking with many organizations, the reality of integrations and their complications are here to stay. Integration strategy and middleware choice is increasingly important for customers running SAP HCM.
The “fury” over Fiori has been laid to rest. SAP Fiori is now included as part of the standard SAP maintenance fee for customers. It’s a pity that SAP customers had to fight for this like they did, but it does give some comfort in knowing that the user community is a force to be reckoned with when they believe something is unjust. The UI merging of HR Renewal, SAP Fiori, and SuccessFactors will seem to be a top priority. The vision of (since-departed) Vishal Sikka of a unified HTM5 UI may not be as farfetched as I originally thought.
HANA is still a nebulous term for customers (no pun intended), but some are starting to understand that it’s not just a database anymore. More and more professionals are starting to understand the importance of PaaS (Platform as a Service), and the capabilities of the SAP HANA Cloud Platform. As partners, many in the SAP eco-system look forward to the day when the HANA Marketplace will be as robust as AppExchange.
Feel free to comment below if you would like to add.
Like many of my colleagues attending HR2014 (produced by the @SAPInsider team), I am getting ready for HR2014 in Orlando March 11-14, 2014. I will be delivering 4 sessions this year:
Interactive discussion forum: Real-world lessons to deploy and optimize ESS and MSS applications – this is not a presentation, but a customer forum where I will facilitate a discussion around deploying ESS and MSS solutions within an SAP and SuccessFactors (and other 3rd parties). It is great because it is more of a knowledge transfer session among customers which always proves to be more engaging for the participants.
I will also be doing an Ask-The-Experts session with several other industry colleagues during one of the evenings. This is an underutilized part of the event where you can grab a beverage and sit with someone in a relaxed atmosphere to discuss anything you want. For this year, the SAPInsider team was able to compile a great group of folks including:
There will be a great group of speakers this year with fresh content. You can see who is speaking here. Too many sessions to mention that sound great, so I won’t even attempt to list…
Some of the hot topics from this year will surely include (in no particular order):
HANA roadmap for HCM, specifically anything in addition to the payroll work that has been done so far…
SAP Fiori and the roadmap for HR apps. Wave 2 brought no HCM apps, will we see what Wave 3 will bring for HR?
SuccessFactors Talent Management enhancements (such as the new “Presentations” functionality which was just released 1402). By the way, if you haven’t already done so, please join the new LinkedIn group dedicated on SuccessFactors Talent Management.
SuccessFactors Employee Central updates. I am looking forward to hearing the 12 month roadmap especially around Time management.
Updates related to the Customer Connection program in areas such as on premise Compensation, Learning (SAP LSO), and E-Recruiting.
Further integration of SAP Jam into everything SAP HCM and SuccessFactors.
HR Renewal 2.0 and the roadmap ahead for SAP Core HR innovations.
Hope to see you there. If you are not able to make one of my sessions, please drop by booth #315 in the Exhibit Hall and say hi to me or one of my Worklogix colleagues during one of the breaks.
Yesterday, SAPInsider hosted a Q&A on SAP and SuccessFactors Compensation Management. You can view the full transcript here. It is always challenging and fun to do these live Q&A blogs because when you are in the “hot seat”, you need to think (and type!) fast. Because we only had less than two weeks of marketing for this online event, I was skeptical on the amount of attendees who would show up, but the turnout was a lot higher than I thought. I did see a ton of questions flood in but was only able to answer an hour’s worth.
Some takeaways from my chat were the following:
Customers are still confused about the longevity of SAP ECM (Enterprise Compensation Management). I had to (again) reinforce that SAP will not be stopping support of this module. In fact, there is a program called “Customer Connection” which SAP exclusively has for listening to the user community for minor enhancements to the product.
SAP is currently building an integration between SAP HCM On premise and the SuccessFactor’s Variable Pay module. One of SAP’s Product Managers for Compensation/Variable Pay, Deeksha Mittal, was nice enough to join me in on the conversation to articulate some high level timelines for this. She mentioned: “we are working towards an integration between Variable Pay and SAP HCM as well and is definitely on the roadmap for 2014. By the end of 2014 (your next planning cycles) you should be able to take advantage of the integration between Variable Pay and SAP HCM.”
Regardless of using on premise or cloud compensation, customers’ pain points are focused in similar areas, such as: data integrity, process efficiencies (workflow/approvals), and integration with payout process (payroll and/or data extract to equity 3rd party administrator). It doesn’t matter where you deliver your compensation – these themes follow us regardless of platform.
As in other modules, customers who have implemented on premise solutions are trying to understand how extensible SuccessFactors Compensation/Variable Pay is. I briefly mentioned the introduction of the MDF (Meta Data Framework) as well as SAP HANA Cloud Platform as ways that SAP/SuccessFactors are opening up the platform. Will cloud compensation ever be fully customizable? No, but these tools can be evaluated by the customer to see if their processes’ complex and/or unique logic can be incorporated into SuccessFactors’ technology.
Some mention was made with respect to future modeling capabilities coming in SuccessFactors. Deeksha Mittal mentioned: “At present, the SuccessFactors Compensation & Variable Pay modules provide flexible ways for defining budgets. We are definitely looking at more advanced modeling features that will help HR to develop more effective comp and bonus plans that are in-line with the company’s financial and HR goals.”
I think it would be beneficial to do another compensation session later in the year since there was so much interested. I will talk to SAPInsider about that.
Over the past 5 weeks, several industry colleagues and I have traveled in the US (Las Vegas and Orlando) and Europe (Copenhagen) meeting with over 50 customers from over 20 countries for a seminar on SuccessFactors’ Talent Management.
The below list is in no particular order but reflects some important themes, questions, and comments:
Integration is still a main concern. Integration has always been central to SAP’s value proposition. The recent focus on cloud cannot derail this. I was fortunate to spend these sessions with fellow speakers from SAP. From the messaging and interactions with them, I can confirm that SAP / SuccessFactors is committed to continued investment in integration (they term them “iFlows”). This is a very good thing for customers, to ease the transition for using cloud technologies where practical. Prashanth Padmanabhan, SAP’s Senior Director, has written a recent blog on the topics for talent hybrid and full cloud integrations. Revisiting my list of concerns from nearly two years ago,many of these items are being addressed. (That blog post alone has gathered over 3,000 unique page views since June 2012).
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) will be the differentiator. Like other functional areas, the HANA Cloud Platform will be a critical piece for HCM to make the suite competitive in a very competitive cloud space (Workday, Oracle Fusion, Infor). The HANA Cloud Development environment is key to SAP’s eco-system. Worklogix is actively developing applications and excited about the opportunities here with the future HANA marketplace (think Apple’s App Store but for SAP).
In my opnion, HANA (as a database) is a distraction to HCM customers. Yes, SuccessFactors would like to dump its Oracle databases (and soon will), but we need to focus on the platform HANA so that customers and partners can develop apps on. This has been articulated by Vishal and Hasso as well, but hasn’t reached most customers yet. My hope is that this eco-system ramps up like salesforce.com has done.
Speaker Team in Las Vegas and Orlando
Can we crack the User Experience nut? Most hybrid customers have two (if not three or four) portals by the time they implement SuccessFactors. How will we truly make the user experience seamless? This is an area I have a lot passion in, as I have worked with employee, manager and HR self service since 1998 when I was a wee lad at Price Waterhouse. We cannot be in the business of building and supporting “Frankenstein” portals (my term). However, the reality is that we need to support customers with their own internal realities. (For example, many customers will have to make sense of how their intranet, SharePoint, NetWeaver, and SuccessFactors sites/portals all come together). This isn’t new but is becoming a pervasive issue as we venture into hybrid customers adding SuccessFactors into the mix. Putting simple (and single) sign on aside, we still need to team together to figure out how this all will be transparent to the end user.
Access control (security authorizations) is a major pain point for hybrid customers. Since authorizations won’t (and can’t) magically port over from SAP to SuccessFactors (or vice versa), we need to put this at the top of our list during design sessions. Especially with customers using complex structural authorizations (including context-sensitive structural authorizations). This will be – GULP – a big area for SIs and customers to work out together.
Mobility, mobility, mobility! Should I say it again: mobility! I don’t need to mention how important this area is for SAP HCM / SuccessFactors in order to keep up with customer demand as well as the competition’s offerings. How to offer one customer-facing (i.e., employee-facing) mobile app (or apps?) will be a challenge, and will be huge over the next 5 years. If/when SuccessFactors will go device-agnostic (e.g., HTML5) is to be determined. (Secondary question: how does SAP Fiori come into play here – if it even does?). Mobility is another passion of mine, and one that I will speak on during next year’s HR2014 conference. Here are the session details.
Speaker Team in Copenhagen
Proxy functionality needs to be killer. In fact, I will call proxy (or delegation) management the third (or fourth?) killer app (this is self-proclaimed, but where can I copyright this???). SuccessFactors has done a nice job with proxy management. You can both manage proxy assignments, as well as use the proxy functionality easily within the tool. Compared to SAP HCM functionality, customers will be enthused. On premise SAP HCM has always struggled with transactional and approval authorization (in part why Worklogix built the Proxy Manager product).
Social collaboration is great, but its benefits are not yet well understood. SAP Jam is a great tool (we use it internally, during our SuccessFactors trainings, as well as to share knowledge within the SAP/ SuccessFactors eco-system), but many customers don’t understand its context in the (corporate) world. They ask: “Why do I need a LinkedIn / Facebook for the enterprise if I have access to LinkedIn and Facebook?” We need to evangelize on the importance and power of team collaboration, especially with video at our disposal. (Can you imagine what the internet would be without YouTube, Vimeo, SlideShare, MOOCs, Khan Academy?). SAP has a huge asset with Sameer Patel who I think is doing a great job in this area. You should follow him on Twitter you are not already: @SameerPatel
Being clear with messaging around on premise and cloud innovation will be important for SAP/SuccessFactors. We need to be clear with customers that there is HCM innovation happening in both SAP’s on premise (e.g., SAP Fiori and HR Renewal) and cloud offerings (SuccessFactors, HCP, Jam). This is a good thing for customers, as they move to cloud at their own pace but are still looking for continuous improvement with their current HRIS investment. We know where massive innovation is happening, but we do need to remember that some customers will either never have an option to go to the cloud, or won’t have the opportunity to get there sooner than they wish.
I want to thank SAPInsider for supporting my idea back in February 2013 for this SuccessFactors seminar. It was a huge success and, as always, the events in all three cities were interactive, engaging, and educational for all involved.
Last week I spent a week in Las Vegas with some really smart people. HR and IT professionals came together at the beginning of the week for the 16th Annual HR Technology Conference and then at the end of the week for SuccessConnect 2013. It was so good, that by Thursday I had completely lost my voice. What a week!
A few thoughts, musings, reflections from the conferences:
At HR Tech, it was evident that customers are still searching for solutions, especially in the Talent Management space. A “talent hybrid” will become the norm for medium and large enterprises who already have a heavy investment in their on premise environment. On the Expo floor, there were a surprising number of recruiting vendors – obviously an area that is still innovating (and certainly being pushed by social recruiting companies like LinkedIn). The Worklogix team was there talking to our current and prospective customers:
Worklogix Team at HR Tech
Some of my favorite moments of HR Tech happened during the “TEDTalks”: Paul Sparta‘s session on debunking some myths of SaaS contracts was great. Paul did a nice job talking straight to the audience, as he was CEO of Plateau before being acquired by SuccessFactors. His point was simple and so true – treat your vendors right, and they will treat you right back. Ray Wang, from Constellation Research, took issue with some of the points made by Paul and asked Steve Boese (via Twitter) for an on stage debate next year. We’ll see if that happens ;o)
Ray also gave a great TED Talk on how the concepts of B2B and B2C are dead, and are being replaced by P2P (people to people) network. Ray is so passionate and smart, and I had the pleasure of (briefly) meeting him before he ran off to Europe for another conference. Check out his article on this topic in the Harvard Business Review.
I had the pleasure of spending more time with his Constellation Research colleague, Holger Mueller. Holger (@holgermu), Jarret (@SAP_Jarret), Pascal (@occean5) and several of my Worklogix colleagues enjoyed a nice dinner together where we actually talked about more interesting things like yacht racing. Check out Holger’s recaps of the conference here: HR Tech 2013 and SuccessConnect 2013. Good stuff.
I also thought it was neat to see Dave Duffield checking out a demo from around the periphery of the Workday booth. What a guy – hands behind his back, listening in humbly.
Dave Duffield listens in on a demo at the Workday booth
There were plenty of sessions on Employee Central, Employee Central Payroll, and even more on the talent modules, including SuccessFactors’ popular Goals and Performance Management application. There was a definite focus also on integration, as this remains the main concern for SAP customers after years of building out an integrated on premise ERP system. Integration will remain a key area for customers – even for those that end up going to full cloud HCM – since much of the meat and potatoes (Finance, Supply Chain, SRM, CRM) may still be (and remain) on premise for these companies. Veteran industry analyst, Jim Lundy, from Aragon Research posted a blog during the show after him and I had a Twitter exchange which gave some refreshing real-world perspective on what’s happening in the marketplace. That’s a recommended read.
There was more information on SAP HANA Cloud Integration, which will end up replacing Dell’s Boomi for the Employee Central middleware (still TBD for timing). Also, the formal announcement of SAP HANA Cloud Development Platform which will allow vendors to create custom apps in the cloud leverage the SuccessFactors API.
One of the more interesting and presumably popular models is the ‘Side-by-side’ scenario (which had previously been termed as ‘Two-tier’ where you have one or more instances of SAP HCM on premise running, as well as Employee Central for smaller countries/entities in the cloud. This is the case in the classic example of PepsiCo, who presented its story at both HR Tech and SuccessConnect.
At SuccessConnect, Worklogix was proud to be Silver Sponsors this year. It was a great conference for us as we got to connect with many customers and colleagues.
Worklogix as Silver Sponsors of SuccessConnect 2013
On a side note, I want to congratulate Sharon Netwon and Steve Bogner as new HCM SAP Mentors for 2013. Both are extremely knowledgeable professionals whom I have a lot of respect for.
Next week will be a fun one in Las Vegas, as I will attend and exhibit at both the 2013 HR Tech conference as well as SuccessConnect. If you are roaming the exhibit hall, please stop by to see me and my Worklogix colleagues at booth #119 at HR Tech and #304 at SuccesConnect.
Both events will bring their share of interesting information. At HR Tech, I am looking forward to perhaps one of the most exciting atmospheres yet at this conference, as all three major ERP vendors are fully entrenched in HCM cloud and selling its benefits. It will be interesting to again see the three ERP super powers with Workday, one of the conference darlings. There’s even a band called Wrokday. Perhaps we see an opening act by Ocarle? A few session have especially caught my attention:
The J&J story “More Than a Bandage for Johnson & Johnson’s HCM” will be an interesting one, as I have been a part of their HR transformation on the SAP side. The session title is definitely provocative. Of course, we also get to hear from a legend, Dave Duffield.
The “First Annual NextGen Influencers Panel: Getting Out From Behind the Baby Boomers” with my friend Jarret Pazahanick (Managing Partner, EIC Experts) will be a highlight. He is a knowledgeable dude and will be great to see him in action with some other great folks like Madeline Laurano (Research Director, Human Capital Management, Aberdeen Group), Trish McFarlane (Head of HR, Perficient; Blogger, HRRingleader.com) and Maksim Ovsyannikov (SVP Product, SmartRecruiters).
I am also looking forward the session ” Recognition Technology Gives JetBlue a Lift” with Michael Elliott (VP of Employee Relations, at JetBlue Airways) alongside Eric Mosley (CEO of Globoforce). JetBlue has been a longstanding client of ours, and is an overall kick-ass company.
Some veterans I hope to catch up with include Bill Kutik (his 16th and final year leading up this conference!), Naomi Bloom, Paul Sparta, Lexy Martin, Josh Bersin, Holger Mueller and Jason Averbook. Just a ton of great folks to see. There will be an HR Tech Meet / Tweet up which I will try to make, but it does conflict with some partner activities over at SuccessConnect, so not sure I will be able to, but this sounds like a fun event. Luke Marson is buying drinks for everyone….right, Luke? ;o)
At SuccessConnect, I am excited to be a part of the action where I believe SAP/SuccessFactors is in a position to share some more on their integration roadmap (i.e., hybrid deployment scenarios) as well as their additional plans for Employee Central. Employee Central is such a vital part of their cloud strategy – the sooner they build out the functionality, the sooner they compete head on with Workday for full HCM cloud. Of course, SAP’s got Workday beat from a Payroll perspective (by a mile), but it will be great to know about SuccessFactors’ plans with time management, benefits, and enhancing Employee Central Payroll.
Later this fall, I am lucky to be doing the SuccessFactors Talent Management seminars with colleagues Prashanth Padmanabhan (Senior Director with Solution Management at SAP), Kellie Fitzpatrick, CEO from Symphony Consulting, and Venki Krishnamoorthy (my co-author on 2 SAP PRESS books, who is a manager in the SAP / SuccessFactors practice of Deloitte Consulting). It’s great that we have Prashanth there, so he can articulate the SAP roadmap directly to attendees. Kellie and Venki come to the table with a ton of experience and knowledge. Check out Prashanth’s blog as well , as he has been posting some really neat stuff too. I love the drawings – all 100% his own sketching.
I hope to see you next week in Vegas. Please stop by the booth and say hello. If you can’t make it, I will be on Twitter so please follow me @jeremymasters and I am sure the Twitterverse will be on fire with hastags #hrtechconf and #sconnect.
