Tag Archives: SuccessFactors

HR Innovations 2019 – My Conference Recap

Cloud, SAP HCM, SuccessFactors, Talent Management, , , ,
HR Innovations 2019, hosted by SAPInsider in Las Vegas on March 19-21, 2019

I was fortunate enough to attend and speak at HR Innovations 2019 last week in Las Vegas. I have attended and been a speaker at the SAPInsider shows since 2006 (gulp!). During the 2006 conference, I spoke on “Guidelines and Best Practices for Leveraging Standard SAP Functionality for Career and Succession Planning” and “Structural Authorizations 101: What You Need to Know”. Boy, that definitely seems like a lifetime ago.

One of my first sessions at SAPInsider, back in 2006

At this year’s event, I was able to participate in a panel (“The great debate – on premise vs cloud”), as well as five (5) sessions spread across only two (2) days. I spoke on building a cloud business case, managing change in a cloud environment (versus on premise), as well as Fiori and SAP SuccessFactors Performance Management. Yes, I definitely felt immersed in the event! A few reflections on the event in general:

SAP Insider looked and felt different than previous shows

SAPInsider made some nice updates to the event. I liked the shorter sessions (30-minute delivery with 10-minute Q&A) with more time for participants to go between sessions and network. The sessions were more consumable for the audience and the event just felt less rushed in general. There were also sessions in the exhibitor hall, and – although it was loud and distracting at times – overall, I think it added another nice twist to the sometimes-mundane breakout room. (Of course, this was an added bonus for the sponsors and exhibitors at the event as well due to extra traffic).

Selfie shot with a few of our industry’s finest: (L to R): Danielle Larocca, Rinky Karthik, Steve Bogner, Imran Sajid, and me

Customers are still worried about life in the cloud

HR Customers get it – the industry is pulling them (whether they like it or not) to the cloud. Most customers weren’t (at least) overtly pushing back but remain surprised at some of the harsh realities when entering a cloud environment (whether it be hybrid or full). In particular, the topic of upgrades came up at a few of my sessions. Customers who have SAP Payroll on premise, for example, were horrified to hear they would need to continue with their annual HRSP (HR Support Pack) upgrades, as well as the added quarterly releases from SuccessFactors. SuccessFactors recently (as of Q4 2018) added test scripts to their releases which put some at ease. Still others fretted it meant more work to spread across little to no available resources.

Yet, Customers understand the benefits of moving to the cloud

Customers understand the benefits of cloud software. The enhanced user experience and continuous innovation seem to be the two most obvious ones. Many of the 15,000+ on premise customers are stymied now since innovating on their current SAP HCM ERP offering may not be justified if a move to the cloud is imminent. The effect on the marketplace is a slow pace of change, and the industry has felt this the past few years. Regardless, customers still understand they need to get there- they’re just struggled how to do so.

On premise is on life support until at least 2030 now (until SAP changes it again).

Ralf Wagner (VP, Product Management) from SAP did a nice job explaining the new offering in 2023 for SAP customers not able to migrate to SAP SuccessFactors in the next few years. The offering is called “SAP Human Capital Management for SAP S/4 HANA on premise addition” (take a breath!). This offering basically means the customer has to “carve out” their existing SAP HR module and deploy on SAP HANA database. It will be based on an EhP8 and supplemented by some HANA-based capabilities. The will then be integrated with the S/4 HANA suite. SAP will develop migration tools to do this. Still TBD on what effort this would really look like.

One of my industry colleagues, Danielle Larocca, Senior Vice-President of HCM Solutions at EPI-USE Labs, created a post on this with additional details.

SAP’s latest approach on migration options for on premise customers

New podcast

Check out the podcast from Steve Bogner’s Insight Consulting Partners. I was a special guest and I had a fun time recording it with Steve and friends. Steve hasn’t posted yet, but I’ll update this post when he does.

Taking in some beauty at the Bellagio

Until next time…. I expect SAPInsider to continue having an HR show in 2020, and go back to simply calling it HR 2020. Here’s to hoping it will grow on the productive changes done this year.

Jeremy

Learnings from Copenhagen

Cloud, HR2017, Self Services, SuccessFactors, Talent Management, , ,

Today marked the end of an era of SAPInsider events. For the past 11 years, these events have been a great venue to reconnect with colleagues and customers.  All in the spirit of knowledge sharing, knowledge harvesting, growing the eco-system – without the sales pitch. Customers really appreciated these conferences for this reason. Maybe there will be more opportunities in the future with conferences like this.

The European conferences always offer huge opportunities for speakers, especially from the US. Imagine the irony with a Yankee like myself talking to an EU audience about GDPR and the EU-US Privacy Shield.  My joke that the “NSA is listening in now on this very session” draw laughs from the audience, but the room quickly sobers up when we realize what’s at stake when we talk about data privacy and our care with personal data.

Coming to the EU is also a wakeup call to understand struggles with new technology adoption, in particular, HR cloud.  It’s easy to make a case to migrate HR to the cloud in a sales presentation, but harder to do so in a context where organizations are not ready (for a multitude of reasons, some of which are more valid than others).  These are the conversations that are needed more often together – to understand a context for technology growth and to plan a realistic roadmap.

Reflecting back on over 10 years presenting in Europe at SAPInsider, it’s been a heck of a ride, and looking forward to the next 10 years+ in whatever form that shapes to be.  It’s essential to do for all the reasons above. The coffee and croissants are a plus too 🙂 .

Until the next trip across the pond…

Jeremy

SuccessFactors Compensation – Executive Review Export / Import Functionality

Cloud, Compensation, Executive Review, SAP Consulting, SuccessFactors, Talent Management, Variable Pay, , , , , , ,

In traditional annual compensation (focal) processes, performing work offline is typically frowned upon by compensation and HR professionals. Whether it be for merit, bonus, or equity recommendations, discretionary increases and awards should be carefully considered by planning managers based on (typically) performance and market factors (e.g. compa-ratio).  However, there are circumstances where an export and import of recommendations could come into handy during an annual (or periodic) compensation process:

  1. A group of employees (e.g. customer service reps, manufacturing workers, etc) who –  either unionized or non-unionized – need a common increase. This may or may not be driven off a bargaining agreement.
  2. A legal requirement for a country. For example, in France or Spain, where a general or mandatory increase may have been decided by the government
  3. A COLA (cost of living adjustment) that needs to be applied to a particular group of employees by geozone or location.

In the cases above, SuccessFactors Compensation does provide functionality for planners to export and then subsequently import recommendations.

Below are the technical details on how to turn it on and how to use it in a Production scenario.

Assuming you have the permissions to do so, you can turn on the import functionality in the Executive Review by going to Admin Center > Compensation Home > Actions for All Plans > Compensation Settings

Company Settings within Compensation Home
Company Settings within Compensation Home

Select the option “Enable Compensation Excel Offline Edit”.  As the help states, when this setting is checked, compensation planners may download worksheet values to excel, enter recommendations, and then import them back into the system.

Compensation worksheet with Import and Export buttons

When clicking on the Export button (with the Import functionality enabled), the following pop-up is available. You should select the checkbox to indicate that the recommendations will be imported back into the tool. You can download in either Excel or CSV format.

Worksheet Download in Excel – Ready for Input

 

The important thing to note here is that:

  1. the planner should NOT insert or change ANY columns on this Excel , except to update the recommendations (input) in Yellow.  These are the only fields that the system will use when it gets uploaded
  2. the downloaded document does not contain any formulas

The import process is straight-forward.  When the planner has completed their update of the recommendations/awards in yellow, use the Import button to upload the updated records.

Importing Compensation Recommendations

 

Please note the two options at the bottom of the pop-up box:

  1. Send email notification to original planner/manager of the affected compensation form
  2. Send email notification to current reviewer of the affected compensation form

The first email (as of b1705 release) has the first option automatically checked. Be careful to uncheck that if you don’t want emails to be sent.

A current limitation with the functionality is that this functionality only works within the Compensation module and not within the Variable Pay module.  Still TBD on whether or not this will be added to the roadmap.  Those familiar with SuccessFactors Variable Pay know that it is a very different animal.

The other big limitation is that currently (as of b1705 release), there is no way to provide this Import functionality via Role-Based Permissions (RBPs). It’s an all-or-nothing switch, meaning whoever has edit access to the Executive Review (whether it be planner manager, Executive, HR, etc.) will have the exact same privileges to export and import.  This could likely influence your decision to use this functionality or not in Production.

Some helpful SAP notes on the functionality include:

2084851 – Executive Review – Import Button Unavailable – Compensation

2172177 – Executive Review is not populating data after recent import – Compensation

2255189 – Unable to import the excel file in compensation executive review offline editing. – Compensation Management

2084853 – Executive Review – Offline Edit via Executive Review Export to Excel – Compensation

2084863 – Executive Review – Offline Edit Email Notification – Compensation

Any questions or comments, please leave me a comment below.

 

Some other links that you might like:

My ASUG Town Hall presentation on Executive Review (ASUG Webinar with Jeremy Masters)

Executive Review in SuccessFactors Compensation (SAP Blog by Jisha Jithosh)

Top Tips Integrating SAP HCM Core and SuccessFactors Compensation and Variable Pay

Compensation, SAP HCM, SuccessFactors, , , , , ,

This is what happens when you fly on a brand new Delta jet. So new that they haven’t even registered Wi-Fi. At least this blog has come out of it – hope you find it useful! I have jotted down a few of my top tips (so far) when integrating and implementing SuccessFactors Compensation and/or  SuccessFactors Variable Pay.

  • Data, data, data! OK, do we need to go through this again? Regardless of the systems being integrated, we are always attacking the same gremlins, aren’t we? As Compensation professions (or those IT Professionals supporting Compensation), there’s nothing like going through a compensation process to see how painfully obvious it is that the integrity of your core HR data is vital in your talent management processes – especially compensation.  Take, for example, an employee’s FTE % (sometimes referred to as employee percentage). If incorrect, this one data element can wreak havoc on your merit, merit budget, and incentive calculations.
  • If SAP HCM core is your system of record, be sure you are using the existing SAP provided integrations. With Integration Add-Ons 1.0 and 3.0 for SAP ERP HCM and SuccessFactors HCM Suite, both the SuccessFactors compensation and variable pay modules have pre-delivered content. You will need to time this integration with your current Foundation UDF “User Data File” file that you are using.
  • Be kind to your PI (Process Integration) middleware resources. Take them out to lunch and buy them a pizza since you will need their help. The integrations provided by SAP are SAP PI based and will need to be activated in your middleware environment. This is often a project plan task forgotten in the plan and will end up biting you if you don’t plan for it.
  • If you are migrating from ECM (Enterprise Compensation Management), don’t try to do too much with this. The new integration uses staging tables and is entirely decoupled from ECM. You may end of leveraging IT0759 or IT0761 so LTI handling, if you still intend to interface to your stock plan provider.  Also, you may need to do some incentive number-crunching for segments (e.g. “legs”, “assignments”, “rows”, etc.) in a custom infotype. You should consider keeping your existing bonus engine if your incentive plans have not been able to simplify / conform to the SuccessFactors variable pay model.
  • Don’t forgot that all of your compensation and variable pay templates need to have the <comp-group id=”xxxx”/> tag in the XML if you are sending your data from SAP HCM, where xxxx is a string with no capitalization. As the time of this writing, this can only added via the XML configuration. This tag is important since it tells the SuccessFactors system which forms (that use that template) to update during a refresh from SAP HCM. Like any tags of an XML template for compensation in SuccessFactors, the placement of this tag is very particular near the end of the XML. Read the SuccessFactors documentation carefully and be careful when you are downloading/uploading or editing the template in Provisioning.
  • Remember the power of the pay matrix (e.g. salary ranges) which drives everything from the compa-ratio and range penetration, as well as guidelines (if included as a dimension). Don’t try to interface this over ( not worth it) –  this would just be an upload every year.  If a range range/midpoint changes, the onus would be on your SuccessFactors compensation administrator to manually update that. This shouldn’t happen once the process has started unless there was an error or your compensation manager is trying to make your life more interesting…
  • Think carefully how you will leverage the Executive Review. Unlike the name implies, this functionality isn’t necessarily just for executives, but rather for calibration purposes in general. Based on Role-Based permissioning, you can define a group with display access and a group with edit access. I will be talking about this topic during the ASUG Compensation SIG (login required) later this month. If you are a SuccessFactors customer, please plan on joining me for this learning event!

That’s it for now.  Please send along any questions and comments in the area below.

Oh, and Worklogix is a Silver Sponsor at the upcoming SAP SuccessFactors conference, SuccessConnect.  If you are in Vegas, please visit us in booth #35.

Sending you my best,

Jeremy  @jeremymasters

S/4 HANA: Your Deployment Options with SAP HCM / SF

Cloud, HR2015, S/4 HANA, SAP HCM, SAPInsider, SuccessFactors, , , , ,

Hey friends,

I was fortunate to attend SAPInsider’s 2015 conference in Nice where the weather was beautiful, the cuisine delicious, and the conference content bountiful.  One of the more interesting topics that I learned about was SAP’s support for S/4 HANA and SAP HCM platforms.  Based on customer feedback since the original plans were unveiled at SAPPHIRENOW, changes to the support of SAP’s productized integration was necessary. Here’s the skinny:

There are 5 basic scenarios. (I am sure there are others based on customers’ own deployments, but let’s stick with these for now):

If using SAP ERP HCM:

1) Keep SAP ERP HCM in its own instance on premise, and deploy S/4 HANA on premise

2) Deploy S/4 HANA and SAP ERP HCM in the same instance on premise

3) Keep SAP ERP HCM on premise, and deploy S/4 HANA in the cloud

If using Employee Central:

4) Deploy S/4 HANA on premise, and integrate with SuccessFactors Employee Central

5) Deploy S/4 HANA in the cloud, and integrate with SuccessFactors Employee Central

In all scenarios above, SAP has or will have productized integrations to support these scenarios to the year 20xx, where xx is something we need to hear from SAP on. I was able to grab some time with David Ludlow, Group Vice President at SAP, who really understands the customer landscape out there.  He presented this slide which captures the options pretty well.

S/4 HANA and SAP HR / SF integrations

So what does this all mean? Well, the answer is still to be determined, but for SAP HCM customers who are looking to use Simple Finance and other aspects of S/4 HANA, it simply means more options.   This has always been a bit of a double sword for SAP, but in my opinion, it’s something that SAP had to do in order to accommodate its vast customer base.

Getting Ready for HR2014… are you???

Cloud, HANA, HR Renewal, HR2014, Integration, Mobility, SAP Fiori, SAPInsider, Self Services, SuccessFactors, Talent Management, , , , , , ,

HR2014

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:

podcast

I recently did a podcast with Kristine Erickson (twitter handle: @SAPinsiderKE) from @SAPInsider to sum up my SuccessFactors Talent Management Fall 2013 Seminar as well as look at the year ahead including the conference: What’s next for SAP ERP HCM Jeremy Masters shares his advice on SAP HR on-premise & cloud and the trends to watch at HR 2014. We chatted on the overall SAP HCM roadmap, SuccessFactors integration, HR Renewal 2.0, SAP Fiori, and Employee Central among other topic areas.

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…

hot_button

Some of the hot topics from this year will surely include (in no particular order):

  1. HANA roadmap for HCM, specifically anything in addition to the payroll work that has been done so far…
  2. SAP Fiori and the roadmap for HR apps. Wave 2 brought no HCM apps, will we see what Wave 3 will bring for HR?
  3. 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.
  4. SuccessFactors Employee Central updates.  I am looking forward to hearing the 12 month roadmap especially around Time management.
  5. Updates related to the Customer Connection program in areas such as on premise Compensation, Learning (SAP LSO), and E-Recruiting.
  6. Further integration of SAP Jam into everything SAP HCM and SuccessFactors.
  7. 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.

See you all soon!

Jeremy (twitter handle: @jeremymasters)

(Twitter hashtag for the event is #HR2014)

SAP and SuccessFactors Compensation Management Q&A

Cloud, Compensation, HR2014, PaaS, SAP HCM, SAPInsider, SuccessFactors, Talent Management, Variable Pay, , , , , ,

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.

Compensation

Some takeaways from my chat were the following:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.”
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

And hope to see some of your this year HR 2014 in Orlando or Nice, France. I will be doing several sessions this year, including one on compensation: “A guided tour of compensation management functionality: On-premise vs. cloud”

Please remember to follow me on Twitter @jeremymasters

 

Until next time!

Jeremy

SuccessFactors Talent Management Seminar 2013 Wrap Up

Cloud, HANA, HR Renewal, HR2014, Hybrid, Integration, Mobility, PaaS, Proxy, SAP Fiori, SAP HCM, SAPInsider, SuccessFactors, Talent Management, Uncategorized, , ,
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.

SuccessFactors Seminar

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 for Las Vegas and Orlando
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
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.

Please follow me on Twitter @jeremymasters

Until next time!

Jeremy

Reflections from HR Tech and SuccessConnect 2013

Cloud, HR Tech, HR2013, ,

Hi friends,

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
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
Dave Duffield listens in on a demo at the Workday booth

At the SuccessConnect 2013 conference, Employee Central was a focus area.  Jarret Pazahanick did a nice recap in this SCN blog, “My Thoughts on SuccessFactors Employee Central“. Luke Marson (@lukemarson) also shared some key takeaways of the conference on SCN. Martin Gillet also had some nice photography as usual.  It was great to catch up with my colleagues.

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 Silver Sponsors SuccessConnect
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.

That’s all friends- catch you later!

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