With SAP having delivered the standard integration add-on and following it up with subsequent SP’s, we had set a team out to explore these solutions and here is an account of our experience.

Scope:

1.      

         Integration Scenario for Employee Data

·         Using File Download (FTP/SFTP)

·         Using Middleware

2.     

          Integration Scenario for Compensation Data

·         Using Middleware

The team that was set out to accomplish this task had the following members in it:

·         Network Engineer (Network setup, Opening ports, Firewall rules...)

·         SAP HCM Functional Consultant (Backend configuration, Field mapping, Integration testing…)

·         SFSF consultant (SFSF setup – align data models, Comp Planning exercise…)

·         Basis Consultant (Add-on installation & SP upgrades, Role / User administration)

·         SAP NW PI consultant ( Set up the PI system to broker communications between SAP & SFSF)

·         Technical (ABAP) consultant ( BADI implementation for custom field mappings)

These are skills that one would need to get the integration add-on up and running.

Let me also run through the experience we had through different phases of this project.

·         Network Setup: This is a very important and critical activity where the corporate intranet is exposed to an application that runs on the cloud. It assumes paramount importance since highly critical and confidential business data will be sent out of your corporate network and also received back (through secured communication channels off course). We had no trouble here since our network expert had enough experience in setting up multiple such similar models and hence got things set up for us in quick time.

·         Add-on installation / Role & User administration: The admin & other guides published by SAP are detailed enough to have all the requisite components installed and upgraded. Details on standard roles are also made available by SAP. SAP ERP 6.0 SPS15 – SP 38 for EA-HR 600 is the lowest version on which the integration add-on can be installed.

·         Middleware Setup: SAP NW PI & ESR content are mandatory for the integration scenario on compensation data. SAP NW PI has to be at 7.0 or higher. This was a time consuming and challenging phase. . In addition to all the instructions on the admin guide, we had to get a Hot-Fix (delivered by SAP) installed to get it all working. 

·         Configurations on SAP HCM & SFSF: Again there is enough help documentation available on this topic. It is fairly simple and easy to follow. We connected to a demo instance of SFSF and hence all configurations were in place. Our SFSF expert did all the comp planning in the SuccessFactors compensation module which was then imported and activated in SAP.

·         Integration Testing:

1.       1. Integration Scenario for Employee Data using file download (OR) middleware (SAP NW PI in our case)

Quick Facts

• RH_SFI_TRIGGER_EMPL_DATA_REPL was the initial extraction report which was then enhanced with delta data handling, inactive logic and option to select the data transfer mechanism. SAP recommends using the latest enhanced version for all data extraction purposes - RH_SFI_SYNCHRONIZE_EMPL_DATA
• RH_SFI_SYNCHRONIZE_EMPL_DATA report provides for extracting data for 34 standard SFSF fields + 15 custom fields
• Each of these data fields are to be mapped to relevant fields in SAP
• Besides the standard SAP field options available in the dropdown for each SFSF data field, customers can also have their own field mappings via BADI’s.
• 9 SFSF fields have been defined as mandatory in the extraction report. Users have the option to either exclude or mark the other fields as required.

·        

• Provisions are available for users to select the data transfer mechanism – File download or Middleware
• A report variant is mandatory to execute the report.

Process Walkthrough

For readers who are interested in Performance or load test, this was not a part of our agenda here as we were working with demo systems which had limited capabilities – we once had 330+users’ data sent via the middleware and the response time and synchronization on the SFSF instance was almost immediate. However, this is a small data sample and we will soon test with a larger package.

1.      2. Integration Scenario for Compensation Data using a middleware (SAP NW PI in this case)

Quick Facts

Compensation Data Export

• SAP NW PI is mandatory for this standard integration to work. File download options are not available here.
• Field sets and field assignments for compensation data export is to be defined separately in IMG.
• SAP provides a set of standard data extraction elements (predefined logic) for exporting data to basic compensation fields in SFSF. Custom logic will have to be plugged in via BADI’s to export data to other data fields.
• Compensation templates have to be created and assigned to a group ID on SFSF before data can be exported from SAP.
• Field set from SAP & Comp Group ID from SFSF are prerequisites to run the compensation data extraction program (RH_SFI_SYNCH_COMP_DATA)

o   Field sets will define what data is extracted from SAP and how these values are determined

o   Group ID will define the set of compensation templates to which data is to be extracted to

Compensation Planning in SFSF

• Comp data from SAP is first imported into staging tab
• Compensation forms are to be created to import this data from staging tables.
• Complete the Compensation Planning exercise in SFSF – Comp forms should be found in the completed section
• Create an Ad-Hoc report to import the comp results back to SAP

Compensation Data Import

• Field sets and field assignments have to be defined separately for importing data from SFSF.

• Fields can either be imported from SFSF or entered during data activation or determined via BADI’s.·   
• Field set from SAP for data import & Ad-Hoc report ID from SFSF are prerequisites to run the compensation data import program (RH_SFI_IMPORT_COMP_DATA) 

o   Field sets will define what data is imported from SFSF and how these values are determined

o   Ad-Hoc report are used by the SFSF API’s for extracting data out of SFSF

Activate Compensation data in SAP

• Field set for data import and SFSF comp template ID are pre-requisites for running the data activation program (RH_SFI_ACTIVATE_COMP_DATA
• Fields which was earlier defined as “entered during activation” can be advised with values here.

Conclusion

We acknowledge that this integration add-on, when put to test AS-IS is flawless. Complications could kick in when we try to align custom data models on SAP with SFSF data models and try to have real-time integrations & synchronizations around these processes. We have started to work in this direction and will share our experiences on this forum soon.

With specific reference to Hybrid deployment models, everyone understands that it is imperative to have a very clear strategy in place – Purpose of both these instances (SAP HCM & SFSF) in a synchronized set up has to be clearly differentiated such that one compliments the other and does not contradict in any way and it’s important for SAP to facilitate this transformational journey. As we speak today, if I ask myself this question: Has SAP done enough to facilitate a smooth transition to a Hybrid model? the answer is an obvious NO. I am sure a lot of my fellow consultants will agree with me.

Let me explain why I think so – Let’s consider a hybrid setup advocated by SAP - SAP HCM On-Premise for the Core HR solution (with or without Time & Payroll) and SFSF Bizx suite for all Talent Management processes. One foremost mandate for most customers would be around having a centralized system for all master data and have applications, built around this centralized system, consume data from a common source, perform all employee processes and update the common source will all the latest changes.

For this to materialize, it is important to have a complete and a comprehensive suite of standard process integrations which links up every single component on SFSF Bizx talent management suite with On-Premise SAP HCM Ex:  if I use Performance Management in SFSF, there should be a provision to bring the appraisal data back to SAP so that I have one instance centralizing all the master data in it. This applies to every other component on SFSF like Learning or Succession or Goals Management. On this note, SAP & SFSF have started right with the Pay for Performance & Attract to hire (expected soon) process integrations but should look at increasing the pace at which these integrations are delivered. It will also be interesting to see how a fusions of mobile apps from SAP & SFSF work in a synchronized or hybrid setup.

At HR Insider last week, I ran into a Aki Yamakawa, a SuccessFactors expert who has implemented several SuccessFactors products including Employee Central. Aki works for Dolby, an SAP SuccessFactors Hybrid HCM customer. I asked Aki how he is planning for the future and he shared something very interesting with me.

He said that he is planning to share his deep knowledge of SuccessFactors with the SAP HCM Expert his organization hired recently and learn SAP HCM from that SAP expert. I thought it was wonderful that SuccessFactors and SAP Experts are helping each other to build their knowledge and Career.

I wondered if it might be a good idea to setup a Jam group called SAP SuccessFactors Mentor Exchange where SAP and SuccessFactors experts can find mentors. When I mentioned this idea on Twitter, several luminaries and renowned experts offered to join and share their knowledge.

The following people told me that they are willing to support. I am grateful for their help.

Jim Lundy, CEO of Aragon Research and former Gartner Vice President

Vijay Vijayasankar, Global Vice President of HANA Adoption at SAP

Parvathy Sankar, Director of Solution Management for Recruiting Execution at SAP and SuccessFactors

Praveen Kaushik, HCM Principal from Infosys

Jeremy Masters, Cofounder and Managing Partner of Worklogix

Brandon Toombs, HCM Forms Lead Architect at Comcast

On my part, I have created the Jam group and populated it with SAP SuccessFactors integration related documents that I normally share with customers and partners. The group is for people who have  of the Jam  completed at least one SAP or SuccessFactors product implementation.

If you are interested, please leave a comment here or send me an email from your work email address and tell me about your SAP or SuccessFactors implementation expertise. My email is my firstname dot lastname at sap dot com.

I have been engaged with SAP and non-SAP customers for the past year assisting them to assess the design that fits them best, On-Premise, Cloud or Hybrid. There is increased awareness amongst customers, thanks to our active community on LinkedIn and contributors like Jarret Pazahanick and Luke Marson. Some of the universal questions that are posed to us are as follows:

• Why should we go for SuccessFactors?
• Should we wait until the next 2 releases for the most advanced functionality?
• What is the best way to handle the transition and new functionality being released every quarter?
• Is it not possible to build the entire offering and do one big release?

As we meander through these questions - and many more – and we guide our clients to help them design a solution that will stand the test of a dynamic workplace and changing organizational processes and strategy - while keeping current with the new releases - there are a few factors that keep me going.

If you have been following blogs on SCN and SuccessFactors marketing materials you must instantly recognize the key phrases – “Intuitive UI”, “Easy to Use”, “Attractive” and “Toy like design” Every product release demonstrates staying honest with the promise made to the customers. The fact that all the functionality cannot be packaged in a big cardboard box and brought to your doorstep is because your needs are changing and SuccessFactors products are designed to fulfill those needs and providing a platform to accommodate your business needs in future. Throughout the blog we will see examples of the same.

I decided to cover Platform and Admin Tools alongside Employee Central as they are integral to implementing and using Employee Central. I have organized the blog into 2 sections.

1. Brand New Features in 1302 Release
2. Enhancements to 1210 Release

Brand New Features in 1302 Release

Platform and Admin Tools

1. Custom Home Page Tiles – Customers can create custom tiles to display on the V12 Homepage in addition to the standard home page tiles introduced in 1210 release. For more information on Release 1210 go to http://www.cloudave.com/21141/successfactors-and-employee-central-whats-new/

1. a.  The key features of custom tiles are as follows-
2. b. You can share any sort of information, photos, links, feeds, videos
3. c. You can control who has access to custom tiles
4. d. You can add an expiration date for when the tile is pulled off the Homepage

2. To Do List – The items in the To Do list are now grouped by Due Date first and then alphabetically, so items due on a particular date are stacked. Previously the items were sorted by due date which made it difficult for the user if a large number of items appeared on the To Do List.

3. Security Permission Reports – If you are using RBP (Role Based Permissions) you can report on users who have access to manage employee imports. In the absence of this report, for ease of tracking and preventing data inconsistencies customers were limited to granting this access only to the System Admin or create a Permission Group for Employee import and assign all users with Employee Import access to this group. Now it simple to go to Admin Tools and generate this report.

Follow the path, Admin Tools > Set User Permissions > Security Permission Reports > Manage Employee Import Permission report

Employee Central

The following features are only available if you are using Employee Central 2.0. Important to note Employee Central 2.0 does not support MS Internet Explorer 6.0.

1. Financials on Demand (FIN OD) and Travel on Demand (Travel OD) running on Employee Central Data – Employee Central can now be used as the master employee data behind your financial and travel on demand transactions.

Cost Center replication from FIN OD to EC enables usage of Fin cost centers in EC employee master data. This information can then be used for default account assignment in Travel OD

* Not part of Employee Central

The figure below shows a data replication hob running in background to extract employee data into Travel On Demand

2. Time Off – The new Time Off functionality makes it easier for employees to request time off and managers to approve time off. Employees can request or cancel time off requests and can flexibly manage many types of leave (sick, educational, extended and other). Time Off capability is available on mobile devices as well.

3. Configure Objects Tool (Metadata Framework) – In one of my EC implementations, one of the biggest constraints faced by the customer was being limited to the standard foundation objects (Organization, Pay and Job Structures) that prevented the true representation of organizational hierarchy. 

With this feature the MDF (Metadata Framework has been exposed such that you can create custom foundation objects and support more specialized business processes. Associations can be built between standard and custom foundation objects. The following figure shows that Employee Related information generally configured in the Succession Data Model and Country Specific Succession Data Model can now be configured on the Admin Tools through the Meta Data Framework.

Go To Admin Tools > Manage Business Configuration

In order to see Manage Business Configuration in the Admin Tools UI the following options must be activated in Provisioning.

Enhancements in 1302

Admin Alerts –You can now personalize your Admin Alerts through the Admin Alerts settings page. For example, you want to see workflows that have been stalled for more than 3 days.

2 new alerts have been introduced viz. Invalid User in Dynamic Role Assignment and Invalid User in Pending and Sent Back Workflows.

Help Text for Role Based Permissions – Folks who have implemented EC can truly acknowledge the value of this feature. You no longer have to make guesstimates of the impact of each permission setting on the UI. There is now rollover Help Text to see a brief description of each, and pretty usable one at that! This is my 2^nd favorite in 1302, the 1^st being Configure Objects tool (MDF).

Global Assignments – It is now possible to create multiple future dated assignments. Prior to this release the expatriate (global employee) could only have one global assignment maintained.

Dependents Management– A number of enhancements have been on the Dependents Portlet

• Dependent Info portlet has the Edit Link Permission
• Unnecessary customer specific fields have been removed from the Dependent UI. For customer specific fields only person Relationship HRIS element is used
• Dependent’s National ID is no longer used to match to a user record

Employee Central API Enhancements

The Compound Employee API has been extended by the following information:

• Custom Fields
• International and country specific personal information
• Payment Information
• User Characteristics
• Workforce and Benefit Focus Integration Requirements
• Log Items

Configuration Sources on Confluence

• New EC Implementation Handbook published on Confluence for the 1302 release
• New Employee Central and Financials on Demand Integration Handbook
• New SFAPI Data Integration Guide
• New EC Entity Type Guide

The above mentioned documents can be found in the SuccessFactors Confluence website (note that you need to be connected to the VPN to access Confluence).

You can hear more about my Employee Central musings on Twitter via @jyotisharma20.

I have recently returned from SAP Education, at Clockhouse Place, Feltham, Middlesex (near London Heathrow Airport) having undertaken the HR310 Time Evaluation with Clock Times course.

This is the fourth course I have completed at SAP headquarters and felt it was about time to commend SAP on its education programme. Please don’t get me wrong, the 5 day courses (in particular) can be hard going and if you are not ready to learn and get underneath the ‘bonnet’ (or ‘hood’ to my US and Canadian colleagues) you are going to find yourself falling short of understanding some very complicated information. It’s a two person dance where SAP Education lead, very well!

From experience, I have found that Time Management and Payroll are not only complicated to understand but in my case, I don’t think I have enough head space to balance all of the factors at any one time in order to understand the bigger picture. On previous courses, I have (on occasions) found myself lost, struggling to grasp the method (or madness) of the information being explained to me. These gaps in understanding and knowledge have done me no favors either and I still have to take a deep breath before tackling issues such as absence quotas! I always get there though… I would like to point that out!

But on this most recent course, something has appears to have clicked in the Will Jackson brain space. I’m not entirely sure what it was but if I was to guess, it was that I suddenly realized that when configuring SAP, in order to understand the bigger picture, there are things that are to be assumed… trusted.

I consider myself a bit of a control freak and I have always insisted on knowing everything about something, firmly believing that this ethos will make me a better and more informed employee or consultant. But this attitude (whilst wholly commendable) has been a detriment at times because all it has done is cause me to lose the bigger picture, obsessing about the little bits that ‘just are’.

This attitude isn’t about giving up, I can reassure you, its more about having faith. I think that I have finally accepted that I will never actually know all here is to know about my particular field of expertise. I have accepted that this is the reality and I have stopped beating myself up about it and letting it hold me back.

My eyes are nothing but wide open and I have finally realized just how deep SAP actually goes. I have yet to find a resolution to a configuration scenario that has not, at some point, been addressed in SAP. From my experience of configuration, I find that there will usually be a solution available to resolve my conundrum. It may need a little tweaking or bending but there will be something there.

So if you are fortunate enough to embark on any training of this nature, my advice would be to take it easy. Don’t assume you will understand everything and walk out of there without any doubt. It’s all hypothetical until you apply it to your experience and your knowledge; relating it to your people in your place.

Throughout the training, make it clear in your notes where the gaps are and make sure you fill those gaps as soon as you can when you get back to reality. Otherwise they will remain there and each time you try and understand that particular method of configuration, they will slow you down and cause you to lose the bigger picture.

Invest in yourself. People can show you what they know but it’s up to you to apply it.

Finally, I have an analogy and it goes a bit like this…  SAP have provided all of the stepping stones needed for you to get across the river but you might occasionally need to use a couple of extra rocks to make the larger strides more manageable.

Thanks for reading,

Will Jackson

@SAP_Jackson

February saw the annual SAP Insider conference, now in its 10^th year. Held again in Las Vegas this year – this time swapping the MGM Grand Casino for the Bellagio – it was the first year that HR was on its own, having been split from GRC and Finance as it had been in previous years. As usual, Amy Thistle and her team did a fantastic job of organizing a conference full of excellent content, great networking opportunities, and many memorable moments. Customers, exhibitors and consultants also played their role in helping to make this a top class event.

There was plenty of tweeting from the attendees and the #HR2013 hashtag and SAP Mentor Martin Gillet did a fantastic job of documenting the event via his streams of top-class photos, which can be seen here.

SuccessFactors

It was clear from day one that having a SuccessFactors track was a good move. There was a lot of interest from customers who wanted to learn more about what the strategy and acquisition meant for them, as well as topics around integration and the products themselves. In the SAP sessions that I attended, there was a common message that SAP on-premise will continue to receive significant investment (although SAP were unable to confirm how much more investment there is), but they advised customers to use SuccessFactors for talent management processes.

Of course integration was a hot topic. There wasn’t much additional detail or outlook into the future roadmap, other than a high-level look at the next two integration packages on Recruiting. Interestingly this was anticipated as single delivery up until now. One thing that we did discover is that SAP has over 100 customers using their Hybrid integration packages. And despite the imminent release of SAP HANA Cloud Integration there were no details announced. Customers will have to wait until SAPPHIRE to see if there’s been any movement on the roadmap.

As seen in the demo session, Employee Central does look great but is still a bit lightweight in comparison to OM and PA. However, with the investment in Employee Central the solution will have over 50 country versions available by the end of the year.

Core HCM

SAP’s message was “Core HCM is here to stay!” JB Rolland and Robert Moeller both emphasized this and spent plenty of time showing the present and upcoming HR Renewal functionality and discussing the various enhancements coming to core HCM, including SAP on HANA for HCM. The new Portal-based Landing Page and various ESS and MSS screens are wonderful compliments to the existing on-premise system. HCM Processes and Forms are another added value for on-premise customers, especially those that don’t want the expense of using Adobe’s Interactive Forms technology. If you are looking to stay on-premise then things aren’t looking so bad for you.

Nakisa

Even without David Ludlow highlighting the Nakisa 4.0 OrgModeler writeback capabilities, demand for demos of the solution at the Nakisa booth had been high. There were many questions about the future of Nakisa and all the signs are that they are continuing along healthily like the on-premise business in general.

Nakisa were one of the few vendors that were actually able to talk about a successful HR mobile rollout in their session with Kiewit. Gary Pickering from T-Mobile also sat on the Nakisa panel with Olivier Occean and me to discuss best practices and various themes around implementing and using Nakisa solutions. Nakisa Cloud seemed to be of interest to the attendees.

Sessions

There were some memorable sessions for me, for various different reasons. In no particular order these were:

• “Live demo: SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics & Workforce Planning” – Kouros Behzad with Mick Collins– I’m not sure if Mick was an “official” speaker in this session, but his tag-team effort with Kouros providing a great balance of interesting customer demo and an engaging story.
• “Turning HR and Talent Management solutions into systems of engagement” – Prashanth Padmanabhan– Prashant is a passionate and engaging speaker and did a very fine job of showing the value and power of SAP Jam. I really enjoyed Prashanth’s presenting style throughout the session.
• “Panel discussion: The future of SAP ERP HCM — Predictions from the experts”: Steve Bogner (moderator), Mark Ingram, Martin Gillet, Luke Marson, Sharon Newton, Jarret Pazahanick, and Brandon Toombs– Anyone who has read my previous blogs will know that I am a big fan of panel sessions and this one didn’t disappoint. Steve Bogner did a very fine job moderating the session and threw in a few fine jokes along the way, including affectionately referring to SAP’s VP for Line of Business HR as “General Ludlow”. Sharon Newton was particularly added value to the discussion by many of the usual suspects from the Insights Podcast team.
• “Live demo: SuccessFactors Employee Central” – Tobias Dosch, SuccessFactors, and Joachim Foerderer, SAP– This one was most memorable for Joachim Foerderer’s combination of presenter and stand-up comedian. Not only that, but Joachim performed a “last man standing” act of defiance as he stayed to answer every single question before leaving the hall. Major kudos due there. Definitely one to see next time if you didn’t get a chance to attend this session.

And an honorary mention goes to Fred McCloud, who assisted me with my SAPexperts session on “SAP and SuccessFactors – an Overview”. SAPexperts are offering a free download of the In-Depth special report here.

Photo courtesy of Martin Gillet

Key Takeaways

The conference was full of important points, but there were a number of key takeaways from the conference:

• SuccessFactors is a very hot topic in HCM in North America
• SAP will continue to invest in on-premise past 2020
• For talent management, customers are advised to use SuccessFactors
• SAP have some great mobility options, but for HCM customers usage is almost at zero
• There is a lot coming in Employee Central and it is moving up notches fairly quickly
• Integration between SAP HCM and SuccessFactors is moving slowly
• SAP Jam is a great solution but is still not heavily adopted
• SAP doubled their Hybrid-only SuccessFactors subscriptions sales target of 60 (to 120) in 2012
• Nakisa 4.0 OrgModeler is a very popular solution among SAP HCM customers
• If you’ve not attended before, I urge you to attend next year’s event!

Next Year

HR2014 will take place in Orlando, Florida on March 11^th to 14^th. With the development of the SuccessFactors market I believe there will be a lot more SuccessFactors experiences being shared by SAP, customers, and consultants. I hope that we’ll finally see a customer who has implemented the SAP integration packages. I would also like to see some customers talk more about mobile.

All in all this was another great conference that will continue to grow.

Additional Reading

I recommend reading these viewpoints in addition to my own:

First impressions From HR2013 by Brandon Toombs

Thoughts from HR2013 by Jeremy Masters

HR 2013 and Working Through Hype by Steve Bogner

Dear SAP experts,

If an employee is a leaver & starter in the same pay period,how do we have to inform HMRC from RTI (Real Time Information).

Please see below some inputs for the quires.

If the employee have issued P45 then how.

If the employee have not been issued P45 then how ....?

Example 1

Assume Leaving 05 Aug and Rejoining 06 Aug i.e. 1 day gap

Example 2

Assume Leaving 05 Aug and Rejoining 08 Aug i.e. 3 day gap

Example 3

Assume Leaving 05 Aug and Rejoining 18 Aug i.e. 13 day gap

Example 4

Assume Leaving 30 Aug and Rejoining 1 Sep i.e. 13 day gap

what is the impact of FPS process in RTI and how it will work.

Dear SAP experts,

If an employee is a leaver & starter in the same pay period,how do we have to inform HMRC from RTI (Real Time Information).

Please see below some inputs for the quires.

If the employee have issued P45 then how.

If the employee have not been issued P45 then how ....?

Example 1

Assume Leaving 05 Aug and Rejoining 06 Aug i.e. 1 day gap

Example 2

Assume Leaving 05 Aug and Rejoining 08 Aug i.e. 3 day gap

Example 3

Assume Leaving 05 Aug and Rejoining 18 Aug i.e. 13 day gap

Example 4

Assume Leaving 30 Aug and Rejoining 1 Sep i.e. 13 day gap

what is the impact of FPS process in RTI and how it will work.

Quick Introduction -

FPM Forms are the new alternate User Interface (along with Adobe UI) provided by SAP in EHP6 for HCM Process and Forms.  A decent introduction about this new UI was already provided by Siddharth Rajorain his blog -

http://scn.sap.com/community/erp/hcm/employee-self-service/blog/2012/06/27/hcm-processes-and-forms-with-new-user-interface

Actual Story -

I would like to take a step ahead by demonstrating another way of creating and copying FPM Forms. I would like to split this blog into two pieces -

     1. Creation of FPM Form without using HCM Processes and forms Design Time

     2. Copy of FPM Forms

FPM Forms Creation (First half) -

As soon you hear this keyword - 'FPM Forms Creation', the very first thought that comes to our mind is HCM Process and Forms Design Time( Of course, the mighty transaction code - HRASR_DT ). Yes, we can create FPM Forms using this transaction code by launching the FLUID as shown below -

Usually the development happens in multi-client landscape where "Customization" is done in Customization client say C1, "Development" is done in Development client say C2 and "Testing" is done in Test client say C3. In this multi-client landscape, the Process related configuration(Creation of Process and Form Scenario) is always done in Customization client C1 . And forms needs to be developed in "Development" client C2. It's bit tricky to create these forms without editing the Design Time configuration in "Development" client. On understanding this restriction, I came up with the below approach/solution that handles this requirement -

1. Log into Development client C2 and run the WD Application – CONFIGURE_COMPONENT and key in the Component Name as “FPM_FORM_UIBB_GL2” and Configuration ID as form name. Click “Create” Button.

    b.  Select the appropriate package and save the changes into the Transport request ( Workbench request in Development Client )

    c.   Provide the Feeder Class name as - CL_HRASR00_FPM_FEEDER and click on "Edit Parameters" -

   d.  Provide the Feeder Class Parameters with the your Form Scenario details(Form Scenario and Form Scenario Version) and click on "Ok"  -

  e.  Go ahead with your form design and save the form.

f.  Log into "Customization" client C1 and add the newly created form to the form scenario configuration-

    You would be getting a Warning that the form already exists, ignore this warning by clicking "Ok".

    Test the Process to view the new form as a part of final form -

FPM Forms Copy (Second half)

If there is a requirement like Copying the Standard FPM Form and make few tweaks to it. To achieve such requirements, you can follow the below steps -

     A.  Log into Development client C2 and run the WD Application – CONFIGURE_COMPONENT and key in the Component Name as “FPM_FORM_UIBB_GL2” and

          Configuration ID as form name which you want to copy. Click “Copy” Button.

   B. Enter the new form details and save the form

   C. After successful copy, you would see the following confirmation screen -

   D.  Click and change mode and make your changes as per your requirement.

    E.    Log into "Customization" client  C1 and add the newly created form(i.e. copied form) to the form scenario configuration-

     Test the Process to view the new form as a part of final form -

   Thank You

     & I would like to take questions !

After getting inspired from one of Christopher Solomon's masterpiece -

http://scn.sap.com/community/erp/hcm/blog/2009/06/22/hcm-processes-forms-required-fields-arent-what-they-use-to-be , I decided to put down my simple thoughts  about one of the similar topic - "Field Attributes". Every field configured using HCM P& F Design Time(HRASR_DT) would have various field attributes as shown below -

In this blog shall walk through few of these field attributes. The attributes - "Invisible", "Output Only", "Can be Edited" are pretty straight forward. (So I don't have to explain in it detail about these attributes). Let me start with the remaining field attributes.

Automatic ( Step Relevance )

SAP Help(Fortunately I found some useful information by pressing F1) says -

The property of the field on the form is automatically set by assigning the field to scenario steps. You must use an appropriate UI control that dynamically controls the property of the field for the form. The following apply:

• If the field is assigned to the scenario step being processed, it receives the Editable attribute.

• If the field is not assigned to the scenario step being processed, but is relevant (because it was assigned to a previously processed scenario step), it receives the Display Only attribute.

• If the field is not assigned to the scenario step being processed, and is not relevant (because it was not assigned to a previously processed scenario step), it receives the Invisible attribute.

Scenario -

Let's say you have 10 fields in your form and two Scenario steps say Initiator and Approver. Requirement is - Display first 5 fields only when the Approver opens the form. And display all 10 fields when Approver opens the form.

Solution -

Add first five fields to the Scenario Step - INITIATOR and add all ten fields to the Scenario Step - APPROVER.

Interesting Observation -

After adding these 10 fields(first two fields under Group1, next 3 fields under Group2, next 3 fields under Group3 and last 2 fields under Group4) to the FPM Form, I saw an interesting observation i.e. When the Initiator opens with Scenario Step-INITIATOR, along with fields even the groups are hidden automatically(Along with Field6, Field7, Field8, Field9 and Field10; Group3 and Group4 are hidden).

Step Dependent

SAP help says -

The property of the field on the form is defined depending on scenario step. You must use an appropriate UI control that dynamically controls the property of the field for the form.

By making a field attribute as "Step Dependent", you get an ability to set the field attribute at each scenario step as shown below -

Scenario -

Let's say you have 10 fields in your form and two Scenario steps say Initiator and Approver. Requirement is - Display first 5 fields only when the Approver opens the form. And display all 10 fields when Approver opens the form.

Solution -

Add all ten fields to the Scenario Step - INITIATOR and add all ten fields to the Scenario Step - APPROVER. In the Scenario Step - INITIATOR set the "Step Attribute" for first five fields as "Editable" and set the "Step Attribute" for the next ten fields as "Invisible"; In the Scenario Step - APPROVER set the "Step Attribute" for the all ten fields as "Editable".

Interesting Observation -

After adding these 10 fields(first two fields under Group1, next 3 fields under Group2, next 3 fields under Group3 and last 2 fields under Group4) to the FPM Form, I saw an interesting observation. When the Initiator opens with Scenario Step-INITIATOR, along with fields even the groups are hidden automatically(Along with Field6, Field7, Field8, Field9 and Field10; Group3 and Group4 are hidden).

Service UI Attribute

SAP Help says

Apart from the above fixed attributes, new UI attributes related to any of the following services can also be displayed:

• Personnel Administration (PA)

• Personnel Development (PD)

• Personnel Time (PT)

• General Services (GS)

However, only one attribute can be assigned to a field. These service UI attributes are available only for the FPM fom type.

Of course the latest Field Attribute in the pack(Introduced in EHP6), this is my personal favorite in the list. Of course being a developer I would love to have the UI Attribute controlled using coding. When you set the field attribute as Generic Service, this property can be controlled using the Generic service class methods - INITIATLIZE and DO_OPERATIONS.

Scenario -

Let's say you have 10 fields in your form of which the 9 fields are always visible and the tenth field is visible based on value entered in Field9.

Solution -

Set the UI attribute for first 9 fields as "Can be Edited", and for the tenth field set the UI Attribute as "Generic Service". Control the UI Attribute for the tenth field using the Generic Service class  in DO_OPERATION method.

Thanks & shall take any questions if any !

Over the last couple of months I have received lots of questions from customers that want to integrate talent data from SuccessFactors talent modules into their SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse. In this blog I will inform you about the technical solution and the value add to your business.

SAP Data Services

In order to set up extraction from one data warehouse to another Data Integration software is required. Therefore, I will start with a brief explanation of the data integration solution SAP offers.

SAP Data Services delivers a single solution for data integration, data quality, data profiling, and text data processing. This solution that allows to integrate, transform, improve, and deliver trusted data to critical business processes.

The Data Services platform provides one development workbench, metadata repository, data connectivity layer, run-time environment, and a management console.  With SAP Data Services, IT organizations can use one single solution to gain access to heterogeneous sources and applications in order to extract data and optimize their data quality.

Predefined SuccessFactors adapter

Within this SAP Data Services platform we offer predefined adapters that serve as a connection between data sources. One of these sources is SuccessFactors. With Data Services 4.1 Support Package 1 a standard SuccessFactors adapter is delivered. This adapter connects to the SuccessFactors API (SFAPI) entities that contain the data. To establish this connection a SFAPI is leveraged as a data source.

The following image shows the jobserver with the established adapter for SuccessFactors.

This adapter connects to the SFAPI entities and allows extraction via the Successfactors application layer into the SuccessFactors database layer to bring data into the SAP Data Services Designer. This data can be used as a source or a target in a Data Services dataflow. This means that data potentially can flow bi-directional.

The following image shows such a data flow that connects between the SFAPI entity and a database table.

When data should be extracted from the cloud modules into the on-premise data warehouse this adapter enables a direct connection to the SFAPI entities and allows data extraction. Data can be extracted into either SAP HANA tables or in the SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (BW). When extracting data into BW, please read the following wiki page: http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/EIM/Loading+BW

One of the features of Data Services is data extraction via job scheduling. This means that jobs can be set up that extract data from the cloud data warehouse. These jobs can be scheduled as often as required.

More information about SAP Data services and the SuccessFactors Adapter:

• The SFSF adapter is mentioned shortly in the What’s New guide: http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/sboDS41/en/sbo411_ds_whats_new_en.pdf
• The technical documentation is part of the Integrator’s Guide: http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/sboDS41/en/sbo411_ds_integrate_en.pdf

Use cases

As discussed I have talked to several customers about the desire to extract data. Based on these conversations we have formulated two main use cases.

1. Consolidated HR Analytics
2. Cross enterprise Analytics

Consolidated HR Analytics

Before I explain how consolidated HR Analytics in an on-premise data warehouse works I want to point out the capabilities of SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics. This solution comes with so much out-of-the-box content (much more as BW for HR offers), and standard integration from SAP HR into SuccessFactors. Therefore I advise all customers to first look into the powerful platform that SuccessFactors offers before building own integration on-premise. 

That said, for those customers that desire to extract data with the purpose to obtain one consolidated insight across all HR business processes, BW currently provides the most out-of-the-box business content. SAP offers BW content for all HR modules, like time management, payroll, personnel administration, and even talent modules.

However, when extracting talent data from SuccessFactors modules it should be considered if it makes sense to use the predefined talent management infocubes in BW, or to build new ones because table fields between SAP and SuccessFactors do not map 1:1. Therefore, it might make sense to use SAP standard talent management BW cubes as an example, and to create customer specific content in BW. Ultimately, the way the cubes are defined depends on what business questions should be answered with this data.

After data is brought to BW it can potentially be visualized in the recently delivered SAP Executive HR reporting rapid-deployment solution and SAP Advanced HR Analysis rapid-deployment solution. These solutions allow custom specific data models (like the ones that need to be created to integrate the Talent management data) to be included. This approach delivers a dedicated HR cockpit for executives and HR business partners. Directly from this cockpit HR business partners can deep-dive into the underlying data to explore data in greater detail and to support fact based HR decisions.

Cross enterprise Analytics

Most organizations still run finance, manufacturing and other business processes on-premise. Extracting data from the cloud Talent modules into the same on-premise Business Warehouse allows organizations to combine and use HR data with those other business processes. This provides great opportunities. One of the examples is the use of cross enterprise metrics in balanced score cards to provide one clear executive overview about the strategic direction of the organization. 
  
Customers that desire to go one level further, and need more advanced data exploration tools, can use SAP Predictive Analysis and SAP Visual Intelligence. Benefit of having data from cross enterprise processes present in one database is that these solutions will point out correlations and predictions that could not have been discovered with the bare eye.

Considerations

As discussed the established connection between SAP Data Services and SuccessFactors is set up via the SFAPI. When customers consider extracting data into on-premise data warehouses they should contact their SuccessFactors support representative to inquire support options and documentation. The support representative can inform about the different entities and provide information that will help to configure the extraction. 

I’m interested in your feedback on this functionality!

Best regards,

Frans 

Check out the SAP press release regarding the two awards that were recently won by SAP's HR Shared Services Center - SAP Receives Double Distinction From Shared Services And Outsourcing Network . 

SAP's Kirste Meyers-Davis and Phil Magnogna were on hand to receive the awards in Orlando.  What impressed me about this accomplishment was that it was it was about how culture and technology were jointly used to bring about positive change. Congratulations to Kirste, Phil and the entire team for this well-deserved recognition!

From the SSON announcement:

Judges Edward Martinez, Richard Rowan, Michael Garvey, and Ed Hansen were on hand to announce, to a packed hall, the winners and runner ups in each category.   SAP emerged as a real winner of the day, twice being honored for Excellence in Customer Service and in Culture Creation.

And here are the judges' comments for the two awards:

Excellence in Culture Creation
Winner: SAP Americas, Inc.

Runner Up: U.S. Department of the Interior

Judges’ comments: “When it comes to culture, SAP impressed through its dedication to getting the shared services team to interact with its customers more effectively. Of particular note was the fact that, due to the downturn in the economy, the SAP shared services team found itself with a significant number of MBAs in entry-level positions. To maximize this untapped potential, leadership and mentoring programs were made available which are supporting career evolutions.”

Excellence in Customer Service
Winner: SAP Americas, Inc.

Runner Up: U.S. Department of the Interior

Judges’ comments: “ SAP Americas HR Shared Services had a clear focus, in 2012, on improving key technology solutions, being transparent on customer issues, and persistence in resolving process gaps to ensure sustainable solutions. The expected, and realized result was improved efficiency in delivering service and support to their customers. To accomplish their objectives, they implemented a strategy around people, processes and IT in the areas of: 1) Building customer satisfaction, service quality, and accessibility; 2) Increasing process automation and standardization; 3) Achieving a net reduction of HR costs (HR Full time Employee per employee served) and enhancing delivery efficiencies and consistency, decreasing overall cost per service/transaction. Customers are key, and, again, the team from SAP impressed with the excellence of its processes, clearly laying out their goals and tactics to achieving customer satisfaction. In fact, not only did they want to improve their customer satisfaction metrics, but they set themselves the target of raising the number of these metrics to nine. They also managed to reduce the costs of meeting customers’ needs by a limiting any unnecessary resources.”

http://www.news-sap.com/sap-receives-double-distinction-from-shared-services-and-outsourcing-network/

In January, SAPannounceda major accomplishment of offering the Business Suite on HANA for Ramp Up customers and much was written on the topic. Unfortunately there were no details provided on what this would mean specific to SAP HCM so our podcast group got together shortly after to recordSAP Business Suite on HANA – An HR Focusto provide our initial reaction. Over the past month I have pulled together more insight around how HANA is going to impact HCM and I thought I would share with the community. At the core SAP plans to use the real time data access and speed of SAP HANA to set the foundation for reporting/analytics, embedded intelligence, forecasting, improved user experience, modeling, planning and simulation. SAP shared this planned roadmap around SAP HCM on HANA at HR2013 a few weeks back.

Here is some more detail around several of the HCM specific HANA solutions that SAP has already released or tentatively plans to deliver over the next 18 months, although it is obviously subject to change.

HANA – Enabled BW Solutions

SAP BW for HR - At the core the biggest benefit is accelerating load times and query response times so there is “right time” availability of information for HR users. This will allow the ability to browse and correlate across a wide variety of HR data and piece together important information on the fly. I have several HR customers that are currently analyzing BW on HANA and have overall the reaction has been positive reaction

Executive HR Analytics - This Rapid Deployment Solution(RDS) will allow customers to discover trends across 40-key HCM metrics and drill down along the org structure/cost center hierarchy to zoom in on key trends. Some of the benefits include the ability to monitor workforce KPIs, assess performance against benchmarks and proactively manage the workforce based on “hard” data across the organization. 

Advanced HR Analysis – The Rapid Deployment Solution(RDS) will offer the ability to analyze workforce KPIs to fulfill ad hoc requests using real-time data as well as search workforce information by using natural words and simple visualizations. This will offer customers the ability to better support their business by delivering analytical answers to HR questions, reduce the workload of HR IT and analyze workforce data to arrive at root cause of problems.

Operational Headcount and Salary Planning– Will help align corporate workforce demand with operational planning by offering cascading headcount and salary throughout the organization. It will allow aggregated views with the ability to drill down to details and predefined reports delivering insight into workforce composition and cost.  Some of the business benefits include:

• Simplify the budgeting process.
• Improve business user satisfaction and visibility into the planning progress.
• Improve the quality and accuracy of the salary and headcount planning process.
• Assess the impact of new hires and promotions on workforce cost.
• Avoid hiring that is not aligned with the skills the company needs.

HR Core

Hierarchy Traversal– This will bring significant improvement to overall application performance of structural evaluation paths, which has long been a pain point for SAP customers. The performance improvements of existing functionality in structural authorization, structural search and data inheritance is pretty exciting for an older timer like me.

Operational Reporting - Will enable real time operational reporting for core HR, including headcount, org management, time management, skill and competencies, and talent management. Need to get more specific details on this one, but it seems promising.

Payroll Reporting

In order to fully utilize the benefits of HANA, SAP has built functionality to “de-cluster” the time and payroll results. This de-clustering functionality is currently available for China and Austria with the United States planned next.

Reconciliation Reporting - This will leverage SAP’s in memory platform to decrease processing time of reconciliation report, which is one of the most important and commonly used SAP payroll reports. 

Garnishment Order Fulfillment–Will analyze garnishment order fulfillment at the company level and drill down to employee/order level as well as review historical data for employee’s disposable income and analyze employee’s medical benefits. It is important that SAP US Payroll customers review their garnishment configuration along with enabling this report, as I know many customers are not following the updated 2013 American Payroll Association garnishment rules.

Compensation Reporting– Will provide historical trends in compensation based on master data, time data and actual payments stored in the payroll results. This will allow the payroll department to reduce the time needed to identify the errors and inconsistencies.

Overtime Payments– Will offer historical trends in overtime payments by pay period/earnings/taxes/deductions with drill-down functionality to employee level, which includes any master data and time management data stored in payroll results.

Payroll Analytics

Payroll Audit - Will compare and analyze payroll results by pay period/earnings/taxes/deductions with drill-down capability to the employee level.  This will be a very popular addition as many of my customers have built a custom report or used a 3^rd Party tool such as spinifexIT (they offer much more) to help with their balancing.

Retroactivity Analyzer– Will analyze retroactive calculations for pay period and compare across the pay periods as well as offer drill down capability to help identify the reason of retro calculation on any level from the tax company to the employee. The retroactive functionality is extremely powerful and valuable part of SAP payroll that is often misunderstood. Any report that helps provide more insights into those calculations will be very popular.

Simulation Analyzer– Will compare the payroll results of a simulation run to the previous pay period’s production runs and analyze the differences on a pay period/earnings/taxes/deductions perspective with drill-down functionality to employee level. There is no doubt this will help payroll department be proactive be more proactive, ensure payroll errors are caught early and reduce the number of claims and retroactive processing that occurs.

Flexible Analyzer - Will analyze and compare payroll results for selected group of employees based on certain master data criteria stored in payroll results.

Modeling

Benefits Modeling– Will focus on different employee groups by analyzing the benefits historically offered, and evaluate how the demographics and geographies are changing, evaluating how engagement and satisfaction of workers are impacted by the provided benefits, performing what-if and negotiating with providers to determine best options and price for short and long term. Some of the benefits include better insight to get the best rates, which provider(s) to choose, what benefits to provide to which group of employees, what 401K, retirement, or pension plan to offer and what’s the cost to the employee and employer.

Compensation Modeling - This will enable linking of compensation plans with detailed employee performance to get visibility into the impact on the financial plan. It will enable HR to perform simulation analyses as well as economic and reward scenarios to distribute a budget / hike across a company based on performance, compensation ratio and other factors. Some of the benefits include:

• Improved efficiency in compensation planning and budgeting.
• Edge in company competitiveness and attraction/retention of best people.
• Simulation and what-if enables recommendation of most effective scenario.
• Quickly identify unusual cases.
• Provides transparency of the process to the line of business manager.
• Better visibility into employee “true costs” and performance impact.

Organization Modeling– This will allow customers to model alternative organizational structures, taking into account impact of on related organizational and financial KPIs, and automate the implementation of the organizational changes. It will provide deeper insight into the composition and skills of the workforce in the new structure to ensure a balanced workforce.

Analysis

Social Media Analysis - Will integrate social media channels into company brand management, recruiting, and employee sentiment analysis. One of the benefits includes building a high performing and engaged organization.

Social Network Analysis– Will provide the ability to analyze social media and make recommendations for new connections (i.e.SAP_Jarret), filling a learning gap, finding expertise, identifying mentors to help build a high performing organization. Some of the benefits include improving the understanding and reach into talent and job candidates and Identifying issues in social media that could lead to negative employee sentiment.

At the core I think the SAP HCM team did a very good job in identifying key use cases for their initial investment, as it will address many pain points I have seen at my On-Premise customers over the years. I am a big believer in the benefits of in-memory technology and where I see the true potential for disruption is if SAP can unlock the 3^rd Party developer ecosystem to start building applications that most HR departments don’t realize they need until they became available.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that a majority of the applications listed above will be available for no additional cost for customers that have their Business Suite on HANA or Side by Side (ie BW on HANA, Industry Solution on HANA). While I think it will be challenging for SAP HCM customers to make a business case on their own to move to the Suite on HANA it is important that they are aware of the SAP HCM roadmap so they can partner with other groups within their organization as it is pretty obvious the Suite on HANA is the future for SAP On-Premise customers.

An issue I ran into the first time I worked with a hybrid SAP & SuccessFactors situation was that although the integration is mostly already defined, it wasn’t explicitly clear to me how the objects in each system’s data models lined up.  I thought that completing this activity was important so we would be making good design decisions for today as well as down the road if/when a customer is completely using SuccessFactors for HCM.

I decided to write this blog because I wish that something like this had been available to me when I first started working with hybrid model projects.  Hopefully this will help some other folks out there understand how their two data models could/should work together.  It should be noted though, that what I’m about to write assumes that while a customer is not immediately using Employee Central, they are considering it eventually.  Onwards!

SAP object: Person

SuccessFactors equivalent: Incumbent

Explanation: Starting easy.  This one is a no brainer.  If you struggled with this one, it’s probably best to just give up now, right?  The below screenshot illustrates the core SuccessFactors org chart which is based on Person/Incumbent.  Honestly I’m sure you know this, but I don’t think you can create any SuccessFactors document without including a picture of Carla Grant, so here’s where I take my shot…

SAP object: Position

SuccessFactors equivalent: N/A

Explanation: This is why I made the caveat about not using Employee Central (EC). If you’re not using EC, then, there’s no position management within SuccessFactors.  Succession, though, is an example of a module that is going to need positions in SuccessFactors.  If you’re a hybrid customer doing Succession, it’s very likely you’re going to need to build a daily position integration from SAP over to SuccessFactors.  SAP does not deliver this integration, so you’ll need to create it.  However, like most of the SuccessFactors imports there’s a pretty easy to follow template available.  Beyond that there’s a ‘title’ field on the employee interface (commonly referred to as the demographic file in SuccessFactors parlance) that’s a good spot for the position title for an employee.  The SAP delivered program does not populate that on its own, you’d have to use their provided BAdI to drop in the position title.  The overarching point is that if you’re not using EC or Succession; don’t expect to look things up by position in SuccessFactors.

SAP object: Job

SuccessFactors equivalent: Job
Explanation: There is a job in SuccessFactors and like position it’s more complete if you’re using EC.  Before EC introduced Position Management recently, the SuccessFactors job was really the first direct connection of OM to an employee.  The SuccessFactors job is used for a great many of the same purposes it is in SAP (ex: compensation pay ranges or security authorizations), but it also comingles with some functions SAP traditionally did at the position level.  Most of SuccessFactors Recruiting keys off of the Job object.  SAP passes the SAP job to the SuccessFactors job for an employee in the demographic file and in my opinion it’s important for hybrid customers to not tinker with that design concept as they potentially prepare themselves to move to EC one day.  You’d hate to repurpose the SuccessFactors job code to be SAP position or something and ultimately regret that move when you went to EC and wished you had just done job for job.

SAP object: Org Unit

SuccessFactors equivalent: Department

Explanation: This one isn’t really so much an object in a hybrid situation as it is just an attribute of a person.  You can’t assign any attributes to a department without EC, it’s essentially just to help filter employees within the tool and providing some options to limit authorizations by department within Role Based Permissions (RPBs).

SAP object: Job Family

SuccessFactors equivalent: Role

Explanation: So here we start getting a little bit nebulous. First – a disclaimer – when I say role, I’m not talking about security roles in SAP or Role Based Permissions (RBPs) in SuccessFactors.  In my opinion, the right match for the Role object in SuccessFactors is the Job Family, but I can certainly see the temptation to use the SAP job for SuccessFactors Role.  Role is used in a number of components; from Recruiting to identify competencies of the role you’re hiring, to creating Talent Pools (similar to Successor Pools in SAP) within Succession.  You may have noticed in the Recruiting screenshot you had to drill down a few levels to get the job code for a requisition.  In SuccessFactors jobs are subordinate objects to roles.  In the  screenshot below you can see the superior/subordinate relationship of Roles to Jobs.  Billing Coordinator is the Role, which is the parent of a Job (also named Billing Coordinator) and 2 other jobs which you could find within the ‘edit properties’ link.

So this is a good point to indicate to you that in SuccessFactors, competencies (quals/skills/whatever you want to call them) are constructed to be stored against the role in SuccessFactors.  This creates a bit of inflexibility in SuccessFactors that you may be used to enjoying in SAP.  In SAP you could apply competencies at a number of OM objects.  You could place them at Position, Job, Org Unit, Job Family and Functional Area .  This created nice flexibility for a customer to do things like apply certain competencies for entire segments of the business at the highest Functional Area and then let it inherit down through SAP’s OM job architecture.

While SuccessFactors doesn’t offer that ‘trickle down’ inheritance, it does offer an interesting alternative.  With a little bit of work on a client’s data model, you can apply competencies to any standard field in SuccessFactors.  For instance, if you were sending over each employee’s career band as one of the custom fields on the employee interface, you could theoretically assign competencies to those career bands.  Then that assignment could work in concert with the competency assignment pictured above to create a full skills profile for an employee.  You could theoretically have an officer who inherited a number of job related skills through the assignment of competencies to the Role that his or her Job is tied to.  Then you could additionally assign certain officer level organizational level skills to the officer career band.  Then that officer would have a complete profile that could be measured against in a tool like performance management.  How many SAP clients have struggled for an easy way to split up their competency models by career level without doing a whole lot of maintenance or fancy footwork with their job catalog?

Anyway, back to Role. Roles are the child object of the SuccessFactors Job Family (which we are getting to), but SuccessFactors also allows users to create additional filtering for their Families using a handy feature called Job Role Tags.  There you could group your roles by various picklists to allow for easier searching. This is a valuable tool for something like SuccessFactors Recruiting where you don’t want candidates to have to suffer to find the right Job.  So first a user would select (for example) a country, and then they could find all of the families and roles that had been mapped - via an import you've created and uploaded) – to that country.  That would alleviate job seekers from having to potentially sift through openings for locations that they weren't interested in. 

It’s my opinion that this SuccessFactors object translates most cleanly to SAP as the Job Family, but I could see a scenario where an SAP client converting did not have Job Family in SAP, and chose to duplicate the SAP job as the SuccessFactors Role, but that would require utilizing a separate import to import the SAP data over as the SuccessFactors Role data.  If you didn't do that, then your list of Roles would be out of date with SAP and your list of Jobs in your two systems as soon as you went live.

SAP object: Functional Area

SuccessFactors equivalent: Job Family

Explanation: This is another somewhat nebulous one because like Job Family, the SAP Functional Area is not used by a tremendous number of customers, so there may be nothing to move over.  But even if that’s the case, the purpose of the object is largely the same.  Both SAP Functional Area and SuccessFactors Job Family are about grouping their children objects.  You won’t see any real ‘functionality’ driven off of either of these objects, other than giving your object grouping a place to begin.  Here’s a very low-tech illustration of how all of these objects we've discussed relate to each other:

SuccessFactors: Job Family -> Role -> Job -> Incumbent

SAP: Functional Area -> Job Family -> Job -> Position -> Person

In SAP you can create Functional Areas, Job Families, Jobs or Positions without relating them to each other as parent & child.  In SuccessFactors, you cannot create Roles without first creating Job Families.  The screenshot below basically shows the SuccessFactors Job Family administration, and this is more or less all there is to the Job Family (which is why it so closely matches Functional Area in SAP).

Honestly there’s a lot more to type here, but I don’t want to drone on forever.  This is a pretty good starting point to offer one person’s take on how you’d line up your base OM objects within SAP to their corresponding destinations in SuccessFactors.

As you can see there’s nothing other than Person/Incumbent that really leaves you no choice in the matter – from a mapping perspective.  I would be interested to see if there are any other opinions out there about how to line these up , or if any customers have SAP data models that would lend themselves to aligning to SuccessFactors differently.  For instance, if a customer was never really planning on going to EC, would it be more beneficial to send SAP Position to SuccessFactors Job and then SAP Job to SuccessFactors Role?  I haven’t seen that scenario, but I would be interested in hearing if anyone else has ended up with that design, or any other design of integrating these two data models. 

Dear Experts,

My user is trying to create session without resources LSO_PSV2, while trying to create the course , getting the below error.

"Planning period is not in time interval of course type"

Do i need to change any settings,

Kindly help us on this issue.

Thanks and regards,

Chandra

Last fall when I was writing the chapter on the new FPM forms version for the book I co-authored with Justin Morgalis (@SAP_jmorgalis) on HCM Processes and Forms*, I was very happy with what I saw. SAP had finally delivered a smooth, clean, intuitive front-end to pair with the powerful back-end HCMPF toolset.

Based on what I saw then, I was already convinced that most customers evaluating the two approaches should go with the new FPM Forms since doing so meant eliminating the chief complaints I had heard from customers regarding the Adobe-fronted HCM Processes and Forms: additional per-form licensing costs for Adobe Interactive and the headaches that come with supporting the interactivity through Adobe Reader for end-users throughout the company.

However, there were three gaps that remained at that point between Adobe capabilities and FPM capabilities. This kept the competition from being a complete rout:

1. The lack of support for dynamic changes to the UI based on user input. For example, making the "Region" field visible based on the country being selected.
2. No support for formatted front-end printing for end-users
3. No support for digital personnel file storage for finalized processes

One Gap Eliminated...

Dynamic  fields was the first of the 3 issues to be resolved resolved.  In the informative blog  http://scn.sap.com/community/erp/hcm/blog/2013/02/12/fpm-forms-scripting, Raja Sekhar Kuncham highlighted this new functionality described how you can make FPM Forms dynamic using generic services. One down, two to go.

...Which Brings Us To Printing

This left two gaps: support for front-end printing and support for digital personnel files (DPF) storage.  As of HCM_ASR_CI_5, these were addressed as well with one solution.  A new section was added to the design-time repository where companies can add a print version of their form as the picture below illustrates

This read-only form is then accessible when users are accessing on the front end.  Below is a screenshot of how you get to the front-end printing:

For DPF support, the anchoring is the same as takes place as for Adobe.  (Note: I didn't have time to fully test this functionality.)

The Implication of the Printing Approach
To reiterate, SAP has plugged the major gaps with FPM forms, so we're happy.  For the glass-half-empty crowd though, there's something here for you as well.  The downside of the way that SAP has built the print support is that if you require print support you'll still need to develop an Adobe Form using Adobe Designer in addition to configuring the FPM form.  Therefore for those customers requiring DPF or printing it's no longer a true statement that Adobe Designer is no longer required.  However, the design effort for this form should be less than an interactive form since you will now only need to create a static version.  Also, because we are just talking about a static form,  we still avoid the per-license costs and support issues we would have have with the Interactive Forms.

Bottom Line

This is another example of the HR Renewal team listening to customer feedback and rapidly incorporating into the product. I look forward to seeing which other wish list items make it into future releases (Dynamic actions, combination org/pa forms, etc.).

* In case you missed it, yes, that was a shameless plug for our HCM Processes and Forms book: http://www.sap-press.com/products/SAP-ERP-HCM-Processes-and-Forms.html

Some of us already know it, some of us have forgotten it, some of us never knew about it, some of us do not know all about it. This blog is for 'some of us'.

This method is applicable not just on HCM transactions like PA20/PA30 it is applicable in all other SAP Modules wherever you see a popup window for search help. Like in Sales and Distribution transactions VA03 to locate a sales order etc.

Sometimes (well most of the times) when you have to look up an employee’s data in PA20, you don’t have the Personnel Number available for that employee and you have to click on the dropdown to fill the search criteria like last name, first name, SSN etc. Most people know that if they know the last name then they can enter =n.lastname in the PERNR field and find the employee from the short list of people with matching last name.  What if you have the SSN to lookup the employee or you have SAP User ID to look up the employee number?

I had to find an employee’s record in PA20 by his SSN, I forgot how to do that, I had to turn to internet to look for answers. I wanted to share my findings with the community because many people in SAP HR world do not like opening the dropdown window to search for the employee they want to search.

After the ‘=’ sign, we give the key of the tab from search help that we are interested in. Here is a snapshot of keys and their relative tabs:

That’s why we do =n.Rehman to pull employees with last name Rehman. If you know the employee’s first name (e.g. Shafiq) and want to type that in then you can type it as =n.Rehman.Shafiq

Syntax of Hotkeys

=<Tab Key>.<First Field Value>.<Second Field Value>….<Last Field Value>

If you want to skip any field then simply leave it blank but add a ‘.’, To skip it, like for example to search on first name the command will be =n..shafiq

Example: Search PERNR by SSN  =c..123456789

Example: Search PERNR by SAP User ID = u..SREHMAN

There are various options available that you can explore according to your needs:

Above screenshot still does not show all the options available. Type in a equal sign ‘=’ (without quotes) in the PERNR field and then click on the drop down and click on the list icon, you will see all options available:

What if you do not see the hotkeys on the tabs?

If you do not see the hotkeys on the tabs and your tab appears like one below:

Then probably you are missing a parameter in your profile named F4METHOD, to add it simple go to Menu System->User Profile->Own data:

And click on Parameters tab, and add the parameter F4METHOD with value NoActiveX, like in screenshot below:

User Events - My recent favorite topic in HCM Processes and Forms. I got a very good idea about the "User Events" from Christopher Solomon's blog - http://scn.sap.com/community/erp/hcm/blog/2008/06/30/hcm-processes-forms-gotchas-bugs-and-other-curiosities

After understanding the way "User Events" work, I slowly understood it's restriction too

My wish about User Events

The way I expected the User Events to work is when the user event is triggered, the appropriate event can be gracefully handled in the INITIALIZE and DO_OPERATIONS methods of the Generic Service class. Like instead of executing the entire source code in these methods for every User event and Standard events(CHECK and SUBMIT) triggered, I should have an option of executing part of the source code conditionally based on the triggered User event.

Reality

The User Events doesn't really work as I wish ! Both these generic service's methods(IF_HRASR00GEN_SERVICE~INITIALIZE and IF_HRASR00GEN_SERVICE~DO_OPERATIONS) doesn't really get the User Event that triggered the event

Workaround solution

The only way I could realize my above "wish" is with this workaround solution ! The solution is passing the "User Event" to these Generic Service methods magically from the HRASR framework. The BADI Implementation for the Generic Service is called in the method IF_HRASR00_MAPPER~DO_OPERATIONS in the class CL_HRASR00_GENSERV_MAPPER -

Create a pre-exit to this method to pass the parameter "EVENT" to Generic Service class(You can use multiple ways to pass this event i.e. enhancing the Interface IF_HRASR00GEN_SERVICE or using IMPORT/EXPORT PARAMETER or using static class method) -

In the Generic Service Class method you can now handle the events gracefully -

method IF_HRASR00GEN_SERVICE~DO_OPERATIONS.
...

* Extract the event

  IF GV_EVENT = 'EVENT1'.

      * Handle Event1 gracefully

      ...

  ELSEIF GV_EVENT = 'CHECK'.

      * Handle all custom validations using generic service

      ...

  ENDIF.

  ...
endmethod.

Ideal Expectation

Instead of this work around solution, Ideally I would expect SAP to add in one single line of code(along with enhancing the parameter interface for Generic service methods - INITIALIZE and DO_OPERATIONS to accept EVENT)  in the method IF_HRASR00_MAPPER~DO_OPERATIONS in the class CL_HRASR00_GENSERV_MAPPER -

TRY.
CALL BADI a_gs_badi_basic->do_operations
      EXPORTING
           special_fields     = special_fields
           service_operations = service_operations
           no_auth_check      = no_auth_check
           message_handler    = gs_message_handler

            event              = event
        CHANGING
           help_datasets      = help_datasets
           service_datasets   = service_datasets_do_operations
           ui_attributes      = loc_ui_attributes.
     CATCH
           cx_badi               "No BADI implementation exist
           cx_sy_dyn_call_error. "Catch dynamic call errors
ENDTRY.

HI ALL

Form 16 is working fine if we don't select Digital Signature Checkbox in the Report.

When  we process Form 16 with Digital signature, then we are facing below given problems.

Could you please suggest further process 

FORM NO 16

1.     Name and address of the employer not appearing

2.     TAN of the deductor not appearing

3.     Breakage of the allowance is not appearing

4.     Tutition Fee & Term Deposits under section 80c not appearing

5.     Original appearing on Form 16 not coming

6.     80D, 80DD AND 80CCF details are not appearing

7.     Name, Designation and amount is not appearing in the last paragraph of Form 16.

8.     Date is not completely appearing  instead of 25.05.2012  its appearing 25.05

9.     Designation is not appearing SR. MANAGER

10.   Full name is coming R instead of Ram Singh

ANNEXURE B

Annexure B is not coming.

FORM NO 12 BA

1.     Name and address of the employer not appearing

2.     TAN not appearing

3.     TDS Assesment Range of the employer not appearing

4.     Name, Designation and PAN of employee not appearing

5.     Point no. 6 -->Income under head  "Salaries" of the employee  ( other than from perquisites ) not appearing

6.     Financial year not coming

7.     Name, Designation and employer is not coming in the last paragraph

8.     Date is not coming completely instead 2 is coming instead of 2505.2012

ANNEXURE to Form No. 16

1.     Amount and text Exemption under Section 17(ii) is not appearing

2.     Interest free......         text is not appearing full ( Interest free or Concessional loans)

3.     Stock Options ( Non Qualified options) text and amount not appearing

4.     Exemptions HRA, LTA, CEA, CHA not appearing

5.     Date is not appearing

6.     Full name not appearing

7.     Designation not appearing

T