Category Archives: SAP HCM

HR Wrap-up from SAPPHIRE/ASUG 2013

ESS, HANA, HR Renewal, HR2013, MSS, SAP Fiori, SAP HCM, SuccessFactors, , , , , , ,

Hi friends,

I attended SAPPHIRENOW/ASUG 2013 conference this past week.  I went in search of some answers to questions I discussed in my last blog.  I will touch on all those items and more in this blog.

Quick Thoughts on the Keynotes

I had overall mixed feedback for the keynotes. I thought Bill McDermott’s segment with sportscaster James Brown and guests was impactful, with a great customer endorsement from Under Armour. In the afternoon, Seth Godin was a great speaker and thought provoking. On Day 3, Professor Hasso Plattner also gave a nice summary of HANA within a Q&A format. This worked well for the most part, though it did get too technical at times for the audience, who were looking for more practical applications to how HANA will make their business/life better.  It was disappointing to not hear from Lars Delgaard (who was absent due to a personal matter), especially for the HCM folks in the audience.

Overall, the timing on the Keynotes was not managed well – starting late (approximately 10-15 minutes) and then ending a good 25-30 minutes late on certain days. The audience for those venues can be engaged for one and a half hour max. Any more, you will start to lose the audience and the crispness of the session looses its impact. Hope that gets adjusted next year.

What’s in a Name, and Should We Care?

During the keynotes, I exchanged several tweets on the product name and correct capitalization of SAP HANA, since I had been seeing it written in a variety of ways: hana, SAP Hana, HANA, and SAP HANA.  Thanks to Jonathan Becher, CMO of SAP, he set the record straight:

So, we all now know from the source: the official name is SAP HANA.

While on the subject, do we even know if HANA stands for something? Usually capitalization indicates an acronym, right? For example, SAP stands for Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing … Say that five times fast ;o)

SAP’s new UI offering, SAP Fiori, was also getting its name hacked in the Twitterverse during the conference. There were also folks confused whether Fiori was FIORI.  At least we didn’t hear Fury.  Again, Jonathon set the record straight:

 

That said… should we really care about all this grammar? I’ll let you decide, but I would think consistency will help with the marketing behind this important product from SAP.

SAP Core HR and Employee Central

I chose to leave this section SAP Core HR and Employee Central instead of SAP Core HR versus Employee Central. The reason being: it was clear from the sessions that SAP is investing in both. In his session on “The 2013 Guide to SAP HCM Improvements: On-Premise and Cloud”, Jean-Bernard Rolland made it clear that SAP will not be forcing any customers to migrate from SAP Core HR to Employee Central. In fact, SAP has been and will continue to make investments in the SAP Core through the HR Renewal program.  (Manager and Employee landing pages are planned to be released in July of 2013). This is good news for on premise customers who are not ready for the cloud. Vendors, like Worklogix, also offer an option for improved usability on premise of Core HR for HR professionals, Managers, and Employees. (You can check out that solution, HR Desktop, here).

Bottom line is this: as SAP consulting partners, we need to continue offering customers options since each customer’s roadmap is situational on a number of factors including their existing investments, and technology/organizational readiness.

Also kudo to the entire ASUG HCM team, as I heard most attendees say that the sessions were valuable and informative.

Yet Another UI Option: SAP Fiori

SAP’s latest UI offering (available version 1.0 as of May 2013) is SAP Fiori, which boasts a rapid deployment of 25 of the most used applications (some HR, some non-HR like Procurement and Sales).  It’s framework is based on SAPUI5 (i.e., SAP’s HTML5) but also needs the SAP Gateway (exact version: SAP NetWeaver Gateway 2.0 SPS 06) for consumption of these services. It is device-agnostic, meaning it will work on any device such as smart phone, tablet, or desktop.  Part of the appeal is that it can work on current investment, with an intuitive and “responsive design” (i.e., the screen will re-format based on device).

Current offerings within an HR context for ESS (employee self service) include the following:

  • Time Sheet
  • Leave Request
  • Paystub
  • Benefits Overview

Current offerings within an HR context for MSS (manager self service) include the following:

  • Approval of Time Sheets
  • Approval of Leave Requests
  • Generic Approve Requests

You can check out the Fact Sheet here, the pre-requisites here.

Remembering some recent innovations around SAP, we saw Eh5 UI Renovations in 2010, the MSS Add-on 1.0 and CORBU in 2011, HR Renewal in 2012, and now SAP Fiori. SAP Fiori is the first “mobile first”-developed technology from SAP which is a step in the right direction. That said, the app list for HR is basic and many SAP customers will balk at the price ($150 per user, one time setup).  It also lacks any role for HR (current roles: Employees, Managers, Sales reps, and purchasing agents).

It’s too early to know whether SAP Fiori will be an attractive option for customers using SAP HCM. SAP hopes that it’s not another flop like Duet, which got little to no traction, despite being a very cool concept. On the ground, I am still seeing customers wanting to leverage their existing portal investments, whether it be Netweaver, Sharepoint, or Websphere. And I don’t see that going away anytime soon.

What are your thoughts?

SAP HANA and its application for SAP HCM?

I attended an informative session “Leverage the power of SAP HANA in HCM” with Srikanth Gopalakrishnan and Michel Wulf from SAP on the developments and innovations around SAP HANA for Human Resources.  The discussion was mostly payroll-focused, as some of customer pain comes from longer-than-desired SAP Payroll processing times. The in-memory capabilities around SAP HANA will be able to power the business suite, as a platform, by greatly speeding up processing and analytic time. This innovation will be available for customers running SAP Payroll on premise, as well as for customers using the SAP Payroll cloud option (i.e., SAP R/3 instantiated payroll in the cloud).

Oh, and still no word about a full, native cloud payroll on Employee Central, but this could be in the making behind several closed doors.

Next Stop: Amsterdam!

It was great seeing customers, partners, and colleagues at the show. It was an enlightening week for me and my colleagues – thank you SAP and ASUG!

For my European friends, see you next month in Amsterdam for the SAPInsider HR2013 conference.

Jeremy

You can follow me on Twitter: @jeremymasters

My SAP HCM Preview to SAPPHIRE/ASUG 2013

HANA, HR Renewal, Hybrid, Mobility, SAP HCM, SAPInsider, SuccessFactors, , , , , , , , ,

Hi gang,

SAPPHIRENOW 2013 Conference
SAPPHIRENOW 2013 Conference

Like some of you, I will be attending SAP’s annual customer conference next week, SAPPHIRENOW, May 14-16 in sunny Orlando, FL.  It is also co-located with ASUG, the annual customer-focused conference for SAP’s largest user group. The event is an exciting conference since we get to hear directly from SAP, on hot topics and the overall roadmap. Specifically, within HCM there will be much focus on several topic areas which I will be listening for.

Here’s my top 5 list of SAP HCM topics I will be looking for during the conference:

1. What will HANA do (and be) for HCM?  Jarret Pazahanick wrote a nice piece on HANA for HCM on SCN here. With some of the topics on the roadmap  and under consideration (e.g. Compensation and Benefits modeling), it makes me wonder how (and when) on premise customers will consider using HANA. Of course, after yesterday’s announcement of SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud, SAP’s direction is clear for those companies ready for cloud.  For those on premise customers, there is still more information they need to understand what HANA can deliver for them. I will be looking next week at how HANA’s value can be realized for both customers on premise and those seeking cloud-based HR solutions.

2. What options do customers have for a refreshing User Experience? (i.e. what about HR Renewal and the other options that customers have for improved usability?). I wrote a blog on HR Renewal a few weeks back which you can read here, where I talk about “refreshing the UI”. Certainly, the new HR Renewal will be a welcome option for many customers (already on, or upgrading to ECC 6.0, Enhancement Package 6).  Robert Moeller, Solution Owner, Core HR at SAP, also just wrote a nice piece on this here on SCN, around Feature Pack 3 of HR Renewal which became available on March 13, 2013 to customers. Also, if you haven’t listened to the recent podcast from Insight Consulting Partners, please check it out here.  I was honored to join Insight Consulting Managing Partner Steve Bogner, and podcast members Brandon Toombs and Martin Gillet. Both Brandon and Martin will be at SAPPHIRE this year as well.

3. Any news about Payroll in the Cloud from SAP? If you haven’t already read this piece from Holger Mueller, do yourself a favor a read his blog “And suddenly…Payroll matters again!“.  SAP has been very light around this topic since the SuccessFactors acquisition.  The question on the table of course is whether SAP will build out a full cloud payroll solution, or keep with their instantiated hosted payroll offering (complimented with vendors like ADP). Next week, I will be keen on understanding if there is any buzz on the ground at SAPPHIRE regarding a payroll cloud initiative.

ASUG Annual Conference 201
ASUG Annual Conference 2013

4. Continue feeling the customer pulse around on premise v. hybrid v. full cloud On Tuesday, I will be co-presenting a session on a success story of how our organization, Worklogix, helped a leading pharmaceutical company with their global ECM (SAP Compensation) on premise solution. You can view the abstract of this session here if you would like to attend.  There is also a variety of SuccessFactors sessions as well, which you can see here. I will continue to meet with customers (existing and prospective) to get their perspective on this critical topic area – always one fiercely debated with lots of strong opinions.

Mobile Desktop
Menu screen for the Mobile Desktop by Worklogix

5. Understand the traction around mobile HCM. I wrote a blog on mobility and held an HR Forum Q&A for the Insider Learning Network which you can check out the transcript here.  Did you know SAP has a store like iTunes, and specifically for the HR Line of Business? Check out SAP’s apps, as well as those from software vendors who drive innovation in this great eco-system like Worklogix, EPI-USE, and hyperCision.  I will be looking to understand SAP’s direction with mobile applications, especially with regards to pricing and future innovation both using SAP HCM (Afaria as MDM and SUP as MEAP) as well as SuccessFactors offerings.

Whoever is going, please drop by booth (pod) #2027b to say hello to me and the rest of the Worklogix team who will be in the Exhibit Hall. Hope to see some of you soon!

Jeremy

Thoughts from HR2013

ESS, HR2013, SAP HCM, SAPInsider, Self Services, SuccessFactors, Talent Management, , , , , , , , ,

Hi gang,

Just back from a great conference held by the SAPInsider team from Wellesley Information Services. Like past years, this year was great. Here are some of my takeaways, impressions, and lasting thoughts while still fresh in the brain:

  1. The messaging was clearer, but the sales pitch needs to go. The good news from the conference was that SAP and SuccessFactors did a much better job at the positioning of the strategy/roadmap than last year. I thought David Ludlow did a nice job with the message delivery at the keynote. Outside of the keynote, the sessions largely had the same quality and diversity in previous years (great job to SAPInsider, Riz, and Amy Thistle). My session on mobility really resonated with the audience, as did many important subjects on integration and HANA. The only downer for me was that there was selling in some of the vendor-led presentations. This is a customer-driven event and it should focus on ‘how-tos’, case studies, and best practices. Let’s focus on describing the options for our customers and how we can help drive successful deployments.
  2. Impressed with access to SAP and SuccessFactors staff. This year more than any other we had more SAP/SuccessFactors representation at the conference. Also, some SAP folks were available on Twitter throughout the conference, such as @watchthewave and  @brianclendenin which enabled us to clarify some items right then during the conference. For example, I had a question around Plateau’s performance management offering that was clarified by a SuccessFactors VP in about 1 hour. I learned first hand how powerful social can be, especially in a conference setting.
  3. Innovation around HR Renewal and deployment challenges. Like others, I saw some cool things around HR Renewal, but am concerned around how quickly it can be adopted by the bulk of customers. First , it does require the customer to be at a certain version/patch: SAP ERP 6.0,  Enhancement Package 6 on with SP Stack 03. What’s difficult here is that we have alot of things being thrown in front of customers from an ESS/MSS perspective: there was the conversion to Web Dynpro ABAP (which is now complete, as of EhP6), then there was CORBU, then HR Renewal for the HR Business Partner, then an extension of this for ESS and MSS. Also, throw in the mix of SAP Portal versus NetWeaver Business Client (NWBC). For those customers who are a SharePoint shop, NWBC is a consideration (to be consumed in a web part), but the challenge now is that SAP Portal is pretty well entrenched in SAP customers and it’s hard to rip that out at this point. When surveyed at my ESS/MSS customer session, about 80-90% were using the SAP Portal. Net new clients might be a different story. So we need to guide our customers in this hazy area. [As a side note, I was disappointed with the demo during the keynote, as it appeared slow (due to connectivity issues). At one point, the screen went blank. Also, the Employee Central demo appeared a bit slow during the keynote, and it was given shorter airtime (not sure why?).
  4. Some thoughts around functionality offerings of SAP/SuccessFactors:
    1. Jobs2Web adds huge capability for the Recruiting solution from a social (SocialMatcher) and candidate User experience perspective. However, the recruiter functionality (original SuccessFactors Recruiting) needs improvement, which I hope is an area of innovation for SAP/SuccessFactors.
    2. Performance management (and goals) continues to be a strong and compelling offering. I’m not sold on the use case of the new goals app for my iPhone, but the offering in sum is functionality rich.
    3. Qualifications management is a key issue needing a solution. Since many customers maintain a qualifications catalog within their core HR system, and since the go forward solution is SuccessFactors, there needs to be a well-thought out plan to sync this within a hybrid environment.
    4. I believe the SAP on premise Enterprise Compensation Management (ECM) and SuccessFactors comp/variable pay are comparable in terms of functionality. I heard from several customers who will stay on premise with compensation since their variable pay calculations/business process need special attention.  Those that have SAP Payroll on premise, I also see value in coupling the comp with the payroll.
    5. We need more clarity in the Workforce Analytics and HANA areas. From the information I gathered, and from the customers I met with, there is still alot of confusion around the strategy on premise v. cloud, around these two items.  I suspect we will hear more about these items during SAPPHIRE in May.
    6. Employee Central needs to grapple with the concurrent/ global employment use case since it currently cannot handle multiple contracts. Again, an area SAP/SuccessFactors needs to invest in.
    7. Time management was largely absent during the sessions and throughout the conference.
    8. Cloud Payroll was mentioned at a very high level. When will we hear more about this?

Next stop is the 2013 SAPPHIRE/ASUG conference. Hope to see all my friends there, and learn more!

Please follow me on Twitter at @jeremymasters

Top 5 Things I Plan to Do at HR2013 in Vegas

Compensation, ESS, HR2013, SAP Consulting, SAP HCM, SAPInsider, , , , ,

Given that SAPInsider’s HR2013 conference is only a few days away, I wanted to give you my suggestions on what things you should not miss while you are there. I have been attending and presenting at the SAPInsider conferences since 2006. These conferences are the best forum out there for providing SAP HR information to customers (prospective and current) as well as consultants (old school and newbies), since there is so much variety in the sessions. There are sessions that are strategic in nature (e.g. SAP HCM’s roadmap), functional in nature (e.g. what are the selected innovations in SAP’s Compensation functionality?), as well as technical (e.g. step-by-step guide on how to configure/deploy a specific module, functional area in SAP).

During my time there, these are some of the things that I plan to do, which I hope you take advantage of too:

  1. Check out great sessions with the HR speakers. This year we have more sessions than ever – it’s insane! For example, I will check out hyperCision‘s Brandon Webb in his session Guidelines and tips for mobilizing HR applications. Brandon has done some neat things in the mobile space which you should see. Also, I will be speaking about mobility in my session Guidelines and best practices for deploying ESS and MSS on mobile devices.
  2. Visit the SAP PRESS bookstore. The SAP PRESS bookstore is always well-located so I am sure you won’t miss it. Don’t forget to say hello to Sir Jon Kent (ok, I made up the Sir part, but I believe he should be knighted). Jon and the rest of the SAP PRESS team are a great group – they are now offering eBooks for their titles which customers are loving. I have worked with Jon for many years, as well as other awesome SAP PRESS folks, including acquisitions editor, Katy Spencer and Developmental Editor, Emily Nichols. The later two are helping me with my latest SAP PRESS book SAP HCM Infotypes. New this year there will be Q&A sessions with authors of some of the latest books. Venki Krishnamoorthy will be with me on Wednesday, Feb 27 at the SAPInsider Booth for the SAP PRESS Authors Q&A on SAP ERP HCM InfoTypes. If you haven’t met Venki, you should – he is a knowledgeable consultant, and all-around great person. Also, on Tuesday, Feb 26, Joe Lee and Luke Marson will be at the SAP Insider Booth for the  SAP PRESS Authors Q&A on Talent Management. Their informative book on SAP Talent Management came out last year.
  3. Hang out with some knowledgeable folks at the Ask-The-Experts sessions. This year we have an incredible batch of experts on both Tuesday night (from 6-6:45pm) and Wednesday night (5:45-6:30pm) during the Evening Reception. This is a nice forum where you can (literrally sit down) and grab some quality time with Karie Willyerd, Doug Whittle, Jeremy Masters, Luke Marson, Prashanth Padmanabhan, Brandon Toombs, Danielle Larocca, Jennifer Adams, Martin Gillet, Jacob Crane, Mark Ingram, Brigid Sternberg, Sylvia Chaudoir, Jarret Pazahanick, Steve Bogner, Sharon Newton, Eric Wood, and Paul Hopkins. Wow, that’s quite a group.
  4. Listen to the new SAPExperts panel discussions. New this year is a forum where you can spend some informal time with select authors from the HRExpert magazine (as part of SAPExperts). Check out Luke Marson‘s SAPexperts LIVE: A consultant’s view of how the SuccessFactors acquisition affects SAP customers; Jennifer Adams‘ SAPexperts LIVE: How to use standard configuration to automate declining negotiated leave balances, Venki Krishnamoorthy SAPexperts LIVE:  Talent groups in SAP E-Recruitment target the right candidate.  Also, I am also hosting a panel session, SAPexperts Panel Discussion: Recent Enhancements to Employee Self-Service/Manager Self-Service, Moderator: Jeremy Masters, Worklogix; Panelists: Gertrud Beisel, SAP Labs; Jacob Crane, EPI-USE America; and Michael White, Exaserv. These should be excellent sessions since you can actively dialog with the authors on your most burning questions.
  5. Meet Amy Thistle, the conference producer. Tell her your feedback directly. Amy is great because she listens. Our candid feedback enables her (and the entire SAPInsider team) to make the conference better and better each year.

In summary, I am excited about this year’s conference. Participation is way up, and I am sure there will be lots of energy. It will be great to meet up with my friends and meet new ones. Please stop by at one of my sessions, or you can also visit me at the Worklogix booth (#640) in the Exhibition Hall.  To see the full list of sessions, exhibitors, and all the other action, you can check out the SAPInsider website.  Also, follow tweets from the gang (and others) mentioned above during the conference, hashtag will be #HR2013

Good bye for now, and see you in Vegas!

Jeremy

My Impressions from the HR2012 Singapore Event

SAP HCM, Self Services, SuccessFactors, Talent Management, , ,

Hi there,

I just returned from Singapore this weekend, and I wanted to provide some impressions from the HR 2012 conference that I attended and presented at. I know that not all my colleagues had the opportunity to attend, so I thought I would write a few quick thoughts that I took away.

  1. Same challenges, different time zone. No matter which time zone you’re in, country you live in, or language you speak, I am continuing to see the same challenges with HR and IT professionals. User adoption (usability), roadmap questions on SFSF and SAP, and the need for strong online form processing (eForms)-among others!- continue to plague SAP customers in all areas in the world. This year, I had the fortune to speak in Vegas, Milan, and now Singapore, so I got a decent sampling from customers in the North America, EMEA, and AsiaPac markets.
  2. User experience continues its dominating theme. User adoption of self service for employee, managers, and HR is still a huge part of successful implementations. My session on usability was well-received, with many heads shaking in the audience as we looked out for usability challenges with SAP portal applications as they are today. The audience was intrigued by the new HR Renewal functionality that I discussed. A good blog with some screenshots can be found here, authored by Jarret Pazahanick. SAP has hit a cord on this one, as I imagine most on premise customers will be interested in exploring how to exploit this innovation.
  3. SuccessFactors story re-introduced. Raj Sundarason, VP Human Capital Management Solutions from SAP, did a nice job at the HR Plenary address, especially re-introducing the SuccessFactors story and the benefits offered by a cloud solution. The options (full cloud, on premise, and hybrid) were again explained to the customers, and there was definitely some interested faces in the crowd.  There was also the same general concern on the roadmap and, especially questions on how talent management in the cloud would/could play into their existing framework since some of them were already implementing (or had recently implemented) some or all of SAP’s talent management modules.  This is a work in progress of course, but kudos to Raj for a job well done.
  4. Mobile. Interest in mobile, but not as pronounced as I was expecting considering how heavy SmartPhone usage is in this area of the world. However, I suspect folks (desperately) want this but know that they need to “walk before they can run” with respect to their existing situation (i.e., most customers I talked to were still trying to nail down a self-service strategy).
  5. Singapore is a fabulous city and country. This was my first time in Singapore and had a great time, meeting some really great people, and seeing some really amazing sites.

Looking forward to the opportunity of being back next year for the AsiaPac HR2012 conference.  Although the flight was a tough one (20 hrs in all: JFK-NRT-SIN), it was well worth the trip.

Thanks again to everyone at SAPInsider for this opportunity, and for the customers and friends I met while there.

@jeremymasters

Singapore Conference 2012

Compensation, SAP HCM, Self Services, SuccessFactors, Talent Management, , , ,

I am excited about my upcoming trip to Singapore for the first ever SAPInsider HR conference, October 16 through October 18.  For additional details on the conference, check out the website here: www.hr2012.com

A few weeks back, I was able to sit down with Dave Hannon, Senior Features Editor with SAPinsider & insiderPROFILES at Wellesley Information Services (twitter: @Daveatwispubs) and record a short podcast on the sessions I will be delivering in Singapore.

To read about my session on ESS and MSS, click here:

To read about my session on Usability and User Experience, click here:

I will be doing an “old school”, “back to basics” session on Org management. Click here for more info.

And, of course, one of my favorite topics (always), compensation management.

Obviously, one of the themes throughout my sessions will be around the recent acquisition of SuccessFactors, and what this will mean for SAP customers now and going forward.  I have had many conversations with my customers since SAPPHIRE around this topic, and it’s evident that many questions still exist out there.  I have previously listed some of the top integration challenges between SAP and SuccessFactors in a prior blog.

Thanks, and for those of you who will be in Singapore, I look forward to meeting up with you!

Jeremy

@jeremymasters

 

SAP and SuccessFactors: My Top 9 Integration Challenges

SAP HCM, Self Services, SuccessFactors, ,

I have had the fortune of gaining exposure to some of the latest information on the ongoing SuccessFactors and SAP integration. At the SAPPHIRE conference, and again at the recent HR2012 conferences, SAP has laid out their plan for integration with SuccessFactors (SFSF).  It is obvious that everyone at SFSF and SAP knows this topic is paramount in moving forward with its customers.  Clearly, SAP is pouring lots of R&D into these integration packages, and promising frequent minor releases (to combat poor reception to the slowness of earlier Enhancement Package releases). We are yet to understand what the rhythm will be, but certainly they will need to have frequent innovations around these process and data integrations so that customers can leverage a standard integration.

For the SAP customers who decide that a hybrid orientation (SAP as Core/Payroll/Time/Benefits and SFSF for Talent) is their new platform, I have identified a few challenges that will need to be addressed for SAP and its customers as they move forward:

  1. An interface is still an interface. Customers understand that an interface is still an interface no matter how standardized it will be. The current download/upload via .CSV was a quick and dirty solution to get SAP customers on SFSF but we need to mature this integration – SAP and SFSF  know this and is actively working on further improvements in their integration packages.
  2. Workflow/approvals and notification management.  How will workflow and approval routing be handled? SAP arguably has one of the best workflow engines out there, so will this be leveraged, or perhaps workflow/notification management will be handled from SFSF.  When organizational structure changes and employee movement occur, we will be reliant on SAP Core master data to update SFSF in a timely and consistent manner. This is easier said than done as know from our past experiences connecting systems.
  3. Security and provisioning models. How will the security models be shared between the two systems?  How will the security and provisioning models be integrated/shared/leveraged across platforms? How will established GRC and identify management processes be incorporated into SFSF?  This could be an audit and controls field day.
  4. Global employee management. Most SAP customers are not using true concurrent employment (global employment) functionality, but almost all have their own way of identifying expatriates, inpatriates, and other global employees.  This is a pain point for a lot of customers since it’s already hard to manage this population in SAP.
  5. Portal navigation including ‘deep linking’. How will customers achieve “one, unified self service experience” if some services reside in both portals (Employee Central and NetWeaver)? Years ago, we were foaming at the mouth on the importance of having one portal with seamless look-and-feel, linking, and access to web content regardless of where it resides (intranet, internet, etc).
  6. Usability / user experience between the two systems needs to be addressed.  Right now, it makes sense that this is prioritized lower since there are ‘bigger fish to fry’ (i.e., data integration) but we know that we want a beautiful user experience, but we also want a beautiful, consistent user experience.
  7. Data model. How are the two data models being integrated, merged, or otherwise made seamless?  SAP’s Infotype framework is one way of organizing data; SFSF has another. When data is sent to SFSF (and/or back to SAP), will we need any transformation of data, or is the data models close enough to support tight integration?
  8. Terminology. Every system has its own set of terms (‘system vernacular’). How will we integrate these? Examples include (from the SAP side), Personnel Area, Personnel Subarea, Employee Group, and Employee Subgroup – how do map over to SFSF data, and what are they referred to as?  Additionally, we need to be sure translations are handled consistently as well. Internationalization needs to be seamless and consist across the two systems.
  9. Content management. Centralized content management will be difficult if not impossible.  For the interim, I suppose parallel content management strategies would exist until one system is used, as I don’t think Employee Central and SAP Netweaver could be managed from the same CMS.

These are the top considerations that have been swirling around in my head of late, and I am sure there are more considerations.  There are certainly specific ones depending on the type of business. For example, public sector versus private as well as within industry (e.g. Pharmaceutical vs non-Pharmaceutical).

The good news is that SAP and SFSF are committed to tackle these items, but our community must be diligent and honest on how we approach and solve for each of them.  Time will tell on how these are solved. Hopefully SAP and SFSF will use their large vendor network to help.

– Jeremy Masters

@jeremymasters

How SAP’s purchase of SuccessFactors will affect SAP HCM consulting

SAP HCM, SuccessFactors, Talent Management, , ,

I was recently asked to provide a few comments on the recent SuccessFactors purchase and what it means for SAP HCM consulting. Some other leading industry experts and I gave our slant on how the recent news may influence how we do our work differently within the HCM space.  Click here to be taken to the article posted in the SAP Community Network’s website.   The blog offers some nice perspectives, broken down by some of the major areas within the SAP HR module including:

  • Core HR (Payroll, Time, Benefits, PA, OM)
  • Enterprise Compensation (ECM)
  • eRecruiting
  • Learning Solution (LSO)
  • Talent Management
  • Performance Management
  • ESS/MSS
  • SAP HCM Technical

Live Q&A: Link pay to performance with Enterprise Compensation Management and SAP ERP HCM

SAP HCM, , , ,

On Tuesday, October 25, 2011 from 12:30pm – 1:30pm EDT, join me on the Insider Learning Network’s HR Forum, and learn about Enterprise Compensation Management (ECM). You will be able to ask me questions during this hour on any ECM topic. Bring your lunch, log in, and ask away! Looking forward to seeing you all online at that time.

You will need to register ahead of time. Here is the link to register for the Q&A. Also, if you do, you will also be able to access the free download (which is Chapter 4 of my SAP PRESS book on Enterprise Compensation Management with SAP ERP HCM): http://sapinsider.wispubs.com/ECM

Enjoy, and see you all online!

Best Practices for Designing a Delegation Management Process in SAP

SAP HCM, , ,

In my presentation “A comprehensive guide to delegation in SAP Manager Self-Service (SAP MSS)” at the HR 2008 event in Orlando, Florida, I shared best practices for designing a thorough delegation process in SAP HCM that satisfies key delegation business requirements. The solution also ensures audit requirements are met including Sarbanes-Oxley.

Why use delegation within your MSS platform?

In many organizations today, managers require a delegate (or proxy) to be authorized to act on their behalf. Managers may need a delegate when he or she:

  • Goes on vacation and needs coverage
  • Requires ongoing administrative assistance
  • Requests assistance from a peer

Most commonly, delegation is used when initiating and approving Personnel Change Requests (PCRs), and for approving leave requests, travel requests, and time and expenses. Performance Management and Compensation Management are sometimes subject to delegation but can be problematic due to the sensitivity of data available in those processes. Delegation is usually distinguished between transactional and approval authority. Some managers want the delegate to have the ability to:

  • View employee information only
  • View employee information and initiate transactions, but not approve workflow items
  • View employee information, initiate transactions, and approve workflow items

Depending on your policy, you can design a delegation process that grants delegation to managers only, to all employees, or to those employees who meet certain criteria, such as those with a certain salary grade and above. Regardless of how and to whom you choose to grant delegation, there are certain best practices you should keep in mind.

Four tips for designing a robust delegation process

    1. Ensure that delegation privileges have a set “life span”: You should specify beginning and end dates for your delegation relationships to ensure that your data does not become stale. Do not leave the delegation relationship open-ended by specifying an end date of 12/31/9999. Instead, institute and enforce a corporate policy of creating specific life spans. For example, you may want to set the maximum time period allowed for delegation to six months.
    2. Distinguish between transactional and approval authority: The difference between transactional and approval authority is an important distinction within a delegation context. Distinguishing between merely giving authority to initiate transactions (transactional authority) and actually giving authority to approve work items (approval authority) gives you greater flexibility and provides a more precise segregation of duties. Your auditors will love this.
    3. Review the delegation policy and functionality with your legal and IT security teams: Because delegation is not standard SAP functionality, make sure that the appropriate contacts in your company are aware of the new functionality you are planning to implement so that they can apprise you of any legal or security issues/policies that you need to adhere to.
    4. Create a custom audit program to report on delegation practices:An audit program that reports on your managers’ and delegates’ practices of delegation can help you detect whether there is some suspicious activity that you need to follow up on and whether any managerial activity exists that may be frowned upon. Understanding how managers and proxies are using the functionality will also shed light on how to improve the functionality in future releases.

Facing the challenges of implementing delegation in SAP

Implementing delegation in SAP can be challenging. However, by following these four recommended best practices, you will position yourself to properly address delegation and its impacts to the organization. A flexible and robust delegation solution will go a long way in broadening your SAP HCM footprint and increasing your ROI.