Participate and help make LSO better.

SAP HCM Learning Solution Customer Connection is the primary communication to SAP Development to make incremental product improvements. Currently, customer connection is open to LSO customers to vote for improvements collected in 2013. The deadline for voting is December 6, 2013 and there are several improvements already listed.

SAP is Listening. Are you being heard? Go to Customer Connection and vote on your improvements NOW!
Follow the SAP Customer Connection link:
https://cw.sdn.sap.com/cw/community/influence/cc/hcm_learning_solution

In the years I’ve been involved with various training implementations associated with SAP, and now branching into SuccessFactors, one challenge I constantly see is how to take an organization’s training offerings and effectively assign them to their employees in order to ensure people are properly trained across the organization. From massive Excel matrices to post-its on manager’s desks, the process itself can be unbearably cumbersome. Learning Management Systems (like SAP LSO and SuccessFactors Learning) can ease the pain here, but you still need to have your learning strategy and organization setup to support a robust automated training assignment process if you want to realize the true benefits of this functionality.  In this blog I focus on the use of Assignment Profiles in SuccessFactors to facilitate automatic training assignments and compare this to similar functionality in SAP Learning Solution (LSO).

Assignment Profiles in SuccessFactors Learning

Within SuccessFactors, Assignment Profiles are available to allow you to automate the assignment of various learning objects to groups of users who share common learning needs. Assignment Profiles provide you with the ability to specify assignment rules that dictate the user population that should receive learning assignments.  In addition to the assignment rules, the profiles then allow you to specify what learning objects you want the profile to assign to users (i.e. – Items, Curricula, Catalogs, etc.).  The screen shot below shows an Assignment Profile in SuccessFactors.

In my opinion, the true power of the Assignment Profile in SuccessFactors Learning comes from the robust options you have in defining the desired Assignment Rules, plus the Related learning objects that can be assigned through the profile itself.  The Assignment Rules you define in an Assignment Profile consist of two main areas, one for defining Domains, the other for defining Rules to be applied for users in the defined Domains.  It is the combination of these two definitions that determine what users are identified for learning assignments by the Assignment Profile.

Domains are a security attribute in SuccessFactors Learning and can be thought of as a structured hierarchy similar to the org structure in SAP Org Management.  Domains can be assigned to numerous types of learning objects in the LMS, including Users.  This can allow you to assign users to a domain hierarchy specifically for administrative/security purposes, and these user domain assignments can then be leveraged within the Assignment Profiles.  The use of domains in SuccessFactors for user management is a very beneficial tool allowing you another way to group users in a hierarchy specifically for administration purposes.

Rules within an Assignment Profile can be utilized to further define the desired groups of users from the overall Domain definition.  This is where I believe SuccessFactors has definitely hit the mark, allowing for a very flexible variety of attributes that can be specified for the rules.  Multiple rules can be setup, having AND relationships in how they are evaluated. Rules can also be ‘grouped’ together to facilitate OR relationships in their overall evaluation, providing further flexibility.  The screen shot below shows an example of managing rules for Assignment Profiles, plus the table below details the rule attributes available to you in defining rules within your Assignment Profiles.

One very useful feature provided by SuccessFactors Learning while managing your rules for an Assignment Profile is the ability to preview the users in the profile based on your defined domains and rules.  You can click the ‘Preview Users in Assignment Profile’ button to verify how your profile will be applied to your user population.

After defining your desired Assignment Rules for your profile, you can then define the related learning objects that should be assigned to the users from the profile. This is the second aspect of Assignment Profiles that I feel SuccessFactors provides robust options.  Not only can you assign learning Items (i.e. – courses), but you can also assign Curricula, a default User Role for security purposes, Catalogs, Recommended Items, and Coupons.  The screen shot below shows the Related area of the Assignment Profile and illustrates basic learning Item assignments.

Completed Assignment Profiles must then be Propogated to users in order for the defined user population of the profile to be assigned the defined learning objects. Propogation can be done manually from the Assignment Profile itself by the administrator, however, SuccessFactors provides an automatic process to synchronize Assignment Profiles periodically.  For the SAP crowd, think scheduling a background job that would update these profile assignments accordingly as users move about in the organization.

How does SAP Learning Solution Compare?

SAP Learning Solution/Enterprise Learning provides for automatic assignment of learning similar to SuccessFactors, but admittedly it’s not nearly as robust as the Assignment Profile functionality in SuccessFactors Learning.  Within SAP, mandatory learning assignments in LSO are accomplished through integration with Org Management.  These assignments can be set for Organizational Unit (O), Job (C), and Position (S) objects within the org structure (as well as assigned directly to Persons/Employees).  A learner will inherit any assignments based on his/her position held, corresponding job, and/or org unit to which they belong.  I’ve seen organizations use this functionality well within LSO while others have struggled.  If an organization wishes to utilize these automatic assignments appropriately within LSO, the org structure must be setup efficiently and managed actively.

Using the org structure for automatic learning assignments only goes so far as well.  Comparing the LSO automatic assignment functionality through the org structure to the SuccessFactors Learning functionality via Assignment Profiles, it’s easy to see some glaring gaps between the two. Remember back to the Assignment Rules that can be managed within an Assignment Profile, and the attributes that can be used to set these rules.  SuccessFactors Learning allows for rules based on factors like Employee Type/Status, Address/Region, Previous Item Completion, and Hire Date/Month, in addition to defined custom fields particular to the client.  SAP LSO falls short here in the standard solution where outside of using the org structure (org units, jobs, and positions), your options for further assignment are limited without custom development.  With that said, I have been a part of implementations where the standard SAP LSO was enhanced in SAP, allowing for automatic assignments by other data fields in SAP HR for employees.

One slight advantage that can be given to SAP LSO here can be seen in regards to not needing to schedule any kind of background process to manage these assignments.  Once the mandatory learning relationships are modified against the appropriate objects in the org structure, any employees affected by the changes will see learning assignment changes in real time.  SuccessFactors requires a manual synchronization of the Assignment Profile or waiting for the automatic process that should be running daily to update the profile assignments accordingly.  Minor yes, but something to point out.

The Verdict – Power to the Assignment Profiles

While I have always liked the automatic/mandatory learning assignment functionality in SAP LSO via the org structure, SuccessFactors Learning takes this concept to another level via Assignment Profiles.  Both approaches require a mature business process though if you wish to really reap the benefits they can provide.  Within SAP LSO, you must have a mature, efficient, and actively managed org structure. In SuccessFactors Learning, while more options for setting rules provides much greater flexibility, keeping it all straight as an administrator and applying the profiles and rules effectively will require adequate planning and structure in creating and managing your Assignment Profiles in the system.  Regardless of either system, the use of automatic training assignments should be a top priority for any learning organization who wants to effectively manage required training for an organization while not burdening the training department with extra maintenance and administrative work in the process.

2013 has been a great year for SuccessFactors Mobile. We have launched a new iPad app , we have seen mobile usage multiply exponentially across our customer base, and, most importantly for us, our customers seem to love what we are building for them.

But hold on, the year is not over yet. There is more! For our last release of the year we have an exciting set of new features that we believe exemplify the vision we have for mobile HR.

Take the cloud with you even when offline

Nowadays connectivity is so pervasive that, if we choose to, we could be online all day long. In spite of this, cloud skeptics still like to point out that you need to be online in order to use cloud applications. Well, that's not true anymore for mobile HR apps. We are proud to launch our first set of offline mobile features: Learning, and Touchbase.

Offline mobile learning allows employees to complete learning courses from a mobile device anytime, anywhere and on any connection. Users can download, store and encrypt learning content on the mobile device to play offline. They can finish coursework while on the road and without a network connection. And once they are back online they can synchronize their learning progress with the Learning Management System (LMS).

Touchbase items are now always ready to be viewed offline without the need to download them. Users can create and modify Touchbase items anytime while disconnected and sync changes when device goes back online.

The benefits for our customers are multiple. Productivity goes up since users don’t depend on connectivity. Mobile costs go down because mobile data consumption also goes down. And overall SuccessFactors usage increases because employees have more occasions to use the app throughout the day and not just when they are online.

We are just scratching the surface of the possibilities that offline mobile scenarios provide and our plan for the next releases is to extend this capability to more and more modules. If you are a SuccessFactors customer and are passionate about mobile HR we encourage you to visit our SuccessFactors Mobile community site and share your thoughts about where you do you see offline mobile features playing a bigger role in the future of your company.

Safely share devices among employees

We often think about mobile devices as something very personal and private. We always have them close to us and very rarely do we share them with others. But it doesn’t always have to be like this.

In the enterprise, many forward-thinking companies have started thinking about tablets as lightweight and cheap computers that are ideal as shared devices.

Think about a day 1 session with new hires or a learning class with trainees. In both cases you can provide a better experience for everybody if you can distribute tablets with content and apps are already installed so people just need to log in and consume the content.

This is just one of the scenarios we are addressing with our new ‘Multiple profiles’ feature. Users can now create multiple profiles on the same device to securely share use. They can also quickly access separate SuccessFactors instances. And SuccessFactors admins can swiftly switch profiles on their mobile app when accessing test and production environments.

We have also made sure that an extra layer of security has been added when enabling multiple profiles. You can enforce secure PIN to all users, delete cache when logging out, and deactivate on-device push notifications to protect user privacy.

Give new hires a better first day experience

Of all the HR processes, onboarding is probably one that is most ideal for mobile scenarios.

Common situation: a new hire has already signed your offer and is excited about starting in her new position. She won’t have any corporate device connected to your systems until the day she officially starts but in the meantime she needs to exchange HR information with you.

Why use email back and forth? Why wait until day one for sharing? Why not offer to your new hire a great mobile experience that provides the necessary information to start her new job with confidence?

The new mobile Onboarding experience for iPhone alleviates new hires' anxiety and helps them feel prepared and confident on their first day. New hires can use SuccessFactors app to enjoy preday 1 access to manager and buddy contact info, look at their first week meetings, see a countdown to day 1 and even see a map with the exact office location where they need to appear.

Such seemingly small features can have a considerable impact for your company. A great initial employee experience can increase employee engagement. New hires are connected with the right people and relevant content before they even start. And you can also improve process efficiency and compliance.

Looking ahead

As excited as we are about these new unique features and capabilities, this is just the beginning. We are already working towards next year’s releases and our plan is to continue pushing the boundaries of what mobile HR can be. Stay tuned for more.

Follow SuccessFactors on twitter: @successfactors

Availability:  All product updates are available to Enterprise Edition customers on November 15, 2013. Please note that for customers on the Premium release schedule, these features will be available December 13, 2013. For Professional Edition customers, some features may not be available or may become available at a later date.

I have recently completed positive time implementation for a client and one of the issues faced by me was during migration of employees from negative time solution to positive time solution. In this blog, I will explain the activities I did to ensure a successful migration of employees from negative time solution to positive time solution.

I had actually raised this issue in SCN and below is the link for the same. This link highlights the issue (with screenshots) that was faced by me.

http://scn.sap.com/thread/3427349

I spent sometime trying to find a way to get this issue resolved. And I realized that there can be two possible scenarios for migration of employees from negative time solution to positive time solution:

• Retro Migration of Employees from Negative to Positive Time Solution - This implies that we are migrating an employee from negative to positive time solution from a past date. This will be a scenario during realization phase where you would like to do testing of different scenarios of positive time solution and hence, you need to do retro migration or when an employee was not moved to positive time solution earlier and now needed to be in positive time solution from a past date.

• Advance Migration of Employee from Negative to Positive Time Solution - This implies that we are migrating an employee from negative to positive time solution in advance. This will be a real time scenario in case of Go Live of Positive Time Implementation. It will involve the list of cut over activities to be performed.

If you refer to the thread where I have described the issue, it was related to the first scenario - retro migration of employees from negative to positive time solution. And if you think about it, it makes sense too during the realization phase. Because during positive time implementation, if you are testing your solution, you can do it for past and current days. For future days, the system will take planned time for evaluation since you can't have actual times for future days.

Client Situation

Let me describe the client situation in detail. The client wanted to implement positive time solution and migrate its blue collar workers and interns from existing negative time solution to positive time solution. The time evaluation and payroll periods were monthly. Payroll had been outsourced to third party provider. A custom report ran to extract HR and Time data and this was sent to payroll provider for payroll processing. Every month, an attendance quota was required to be created in IT2007 to restrict the overtime quota an employee can avail in a month.

Migration Approach

Retro Migration of Employees from Negative to Positive Time Solution

I recommend that the migration from negative to positive time evaluation should commence from a fresh time evaluation period. If the time evaluation period is monthly starting from 01st of the month to the last day of the month, then the migration to positive time evaluation should be effective from the start of time evaluation period of the month.

Let us assume that the employees were in negative time solution till 30-Sep-2013 and were moved to positive time solution effective 01-Oct-13 on 05-Oct-13. Below were the cut over activities performed.

• Changed Time Management status from 9 to 1 in IT0007 effective 01-Oct-13.

• Created IT0050 record effective 01-Oct-13.

• Created Overtime Quota for the period 01-Oct-13 to 31-Oct-13 in IT2007.

The 1st and 3rd activities change the PDC recalculation date to 30-Sep-13. Hence, the system tried to run time evaluation effective 30-Sep-13 but the employee had been migrated to positive time management. This resulted in an error in time evaluation run. Time evaluations are run using scheduled background jobs. And the system couldn't run time evaluation for employee effective 30-Sep-13.

To overcome the above situation, I did the below steps for retro migration of employee from negative to positive time evaluation.

• Changed Time Management Status from 9 to 1 in IT0007 effective 01-Oct-13.

• Created IT0050 record effective 01-Oct-13.

• Created Overtime Quota for the period 01-Oct-13 to 31-Oct-13 in IT2007.

• Split absence records which span across Sep'13 and Oct'13 - first record ending as of 30-Sep-13 and second record commencing on 01-Oct-13. This was done because we would change IT0003 to prevent retro time master data changes before 01-Oct-13. The splitting ensured that changes to leave effective 01-Oct-13 would still be possible.

• Once the above changes were done, the fields "Ear.pers.rec.date." and "PDC recalculation" in IT0003 were set with date 01.10.2013.

The above steps ensured that the positive time evaluation commenced on 01-Oct-13 without any kind of error for retro migration of employee from negative to positive time evaluation.

Advance Migration of Employees from Negative to Positive Time Solution

This scenario is valid for migration of employees from negative to positive time solution in a real time implementation project since the go live date is known from before. Let us assume that the employee will be on negative time solution till 30-Nov-13 and he will be moved to positive time solution effective 01-Dec-13. Also assume that today is 29-Nov-13.

I would recommend that we have the Go Live of positive time solution in two parts:

• Technical Go Live on 25-Nov-13 (All transports related to solution will be moved to production. However, no master data changes are done).

• Business Go Live on 01-Dec-13

Between the technical go live and business go live, below are the list of activities that would need to be performed. Please communicate to business in advance that all master data maintenance for Nov'13 and prior to Nov'13 need to be completed by 30-Nov-13 before negative time evaluation run for 30-Nov-13. No master data changes will be allowed prior to 01-Dec-13 for employees after they have been migrated to positive time solution.

Let us assume that the below cutover activities are performed on 29-Nov-13.

• Changed Time Management Status of relevant employees from 9 to 1 in IT0007 effective 01-Dec-13.

• Created IT0050 record for relevant employees effective 01-Dec-13.

• Created Overtime Quota for relevant employees for the period 01-Dec-13 to 31-Dec-13 in IT2007.

• Split absence records which span across Nov'13 and Dec'13 - first record ending as of 30-Nov-13 and second record commencing on 01-Dec-13.

The above steps will ensure that the system will not put a past date in field "Ear.pers.rec.date." in IT0003 for the above cut over activities.

• It is recommended to login once on 30-Nov-13 before negative time evaluation run for 30-Nov-13 to check if there are any absence records which span Nov'13 and Dec'13. If there are any such records, then please split them into 2 records - with first record ending on 30-Nov-13 and second record commencing on 01-Dec-13

• Allow the negative time evaluation to run on 30-Nov-13 for all employees. In our client, it ran at 23:00 hours on 30-Nov-13.

• On 01-Dec-13, please do a verification of all master data changes done for employees who have been migrated to positive time evaluation.

• Once the master data changes are confirmed, the fields "Ear.pers.rec.date." and "PDC recalculation" in IT0003 are set with date 01.12.2013.

This will ensure that the positive time evaluation will run successfully effective 01.12.2013 for all employees who have been migrated to Positive Time Solution. It will also ensure that master data changes, which can cause system to start retro time evaluation from a date prior to 01-Dec-13, are not allowed prior to 01-Dec-13

Thanks for your patience to read through this. I hope this blog has been useful for you.

Thanks and regards,

Vivek Barnwal

I have recently received and read a lot of questions around getting trained in SuccessFactors and there has been some confusion with consultants who are expecting to be able to take traditional classroom training to make the transition to SuccessFactors. SuccessFactors training differs from traditional SAP training and certification and has many activities that are extremely different for SAP Consultants who have undertaken SAP HCM training. In this FAQ I will answer a number of questions that I commonly get from aspiring SuccessFactors consultants.

How do I get trained on SuccessFactors?

Only employees of official SuccessFactors partners are eligible for training. This is because there are a number of systems required to undertake SuccessFactors training and access to these are part of the Partner agreement between SuccessFactors and the partner. These systems include the SuccessFactors LMS, SAP Jam, SuccessFactors Partner Portal, and a SuccessFactors demo system.

What level of trainings are there?

SuccessFactors offers what they call a “Mastery” course for each of their solutions, such as Employee Central or Performance & Goals. Before you can take a Mastery course, you have to complete the Introduction to Mastery course. Once the Introduction to Mastery course is completed then Provisioning access is provided. However, taking a Mastery course is not optional for implementing a specific module.

What courses do SuccessFactors offer?

SuccessFactors offers the following courses:

• Introduction to Mastery
• Employee Central Mastery
• Compensation Mastery
• Learning Management System Mastery
• Performance and Goals: Core Topics Mastery
• Performance and Goals: Additional Topics Mastery
• Recruiting Management Mastery
• Recruiting Marketing Mastery
• Succession Mastery
• Variable Pay Mastery
• Workforce Analytics and Planning Mastery
• SAP Jam Mastery

It is worth noting that the Development module – often called Career Development Planning (CDP) – is not covered under any Mastery training, although there is a self-learning course available in the SuccessFactors LMS. Metadata Framework is covered in Employee Central Mastery.

How does the training work?

Training is delivered virtually and is focused around self-learning. There is also a strong emphasis on collaborative learning via SAP Jam and you will be expected to record one to three demonstration videos in the SAP Jam group. SuccessFactors holds regular check-in meetings via WebEx. For Introduction to Mastery these are every day, but for a Mastery course they are often two or three times weekly. In the Mastery course, there is an exercise that must be completed and passed at the end of the first week in order to progress to the second week which then often involves completing a final exercise in which you are provided a sample customer workbook and have to set up the system based on these requirements.

Are there any prerequisites to take the training?

As mentioned above, to undertake a Mastery course you must complete the Introduction to Mastery course. The prerequisites for taking any training course are access to:

• SuccessFactors Learning (LMS)
• SuccessFactors Partner Portal
• SAP Jam

What sort of experience do I need?

There is no particular experience required, but it does help to be familiar with the module you are taking and to have knowledge of XML. Business process experience is not required for the training, but it helps to understand the various functions of the application that you are training on.

Can I just take a course with SAP or a 3rd party instead?

At present only SuccessFactors offer trainings although some of the trainers are employed by SuccessFactors Partners. Trainings offered by any other providers are not official and will not mean that you will be given Provisioning access or have a customer instance linked to your Provisioning account so you will be unable to do many traditional consulting tasks/responsibilities. If a Partner has completed the “Train the Trainer” program then they can provide SuccessFactors training in-house and it will hold the same weight as the training offered by SuccessFactors.

Do I need training? Can't I just learn on the Job?

Although this practice does occur with SAP HCM, without taking the training it is not possible to get Provisioning access or to have the customer instance mapped to your Provisioning account. In addition, there are many nuances to each solution that would not be known without taking official training.

What does a course entail?

The length and content of each SuccessFactors course can vary. Each course assumes 8 hours of study per day and it is strongly advised to schedule no other work during the course time as this impedes the ability to learn the content and pass the course. The length of each course is listed below.

The following courses are 5-day, 40-hour courses:

• Introduction to Mastery
• Recruiting Marketing Mastery
• Performance & Goals: Additional Topics Mastery
• Workforce Analytics and Planning Mastery

The following courses are 9-day, 80-hour courses:

• Compensation Mastery

The following courses are 10-day, 80-hour courses:

• Learning Management System Mastery
• Performance and Goals: Core Topics Mastery
• Succession Mastery
• Variable Pay Mastery

The following course is a 12-day, 96-hour course:

• Recruiting Management Mastery

The following courses is a 15-day, 120-hour course:

• Employee Central Mastery

The following is a self-taught course in the SuccessFactors LMS:

• SAP Jam Mastery

Generally each 5-day course has a 2-hour check-in meeting each day. Each 10-day course generally has 5x 3-hour check-in meetings. There will be 3 meetings in the first week – which includes the introductory meeting on the first day of the course – and 2 meetings in the second week. The Employee Central Mastery course has an additional 2 check-in meetings in the third week. The check-in meetings enable the trainer to cover a number of topics, test the participants on their learning and request demonstrations, track progress, and answer any questions.

The course materials include: video packages with quizzes, workbooks of activities to complete, and other materials required to complete the activities (e.g. XML configuration files or implementation Workbooks). Some activities require posts within the course’s SAP Jam group. The demonstration videos are recorded in the course’s SAP Jam group.

The exception to all of this is the SAP Jam Mastery. The SAP Jam Mastery is a self-taught course the SuccessFactors LMS and can be done at your own pace. Although there is a final exam, to earn Mastery you need to schedule a SuccessFactors consultant to shadow you on an implementation.

Detailed information about each course can be found in the Mastery Course Catalog on the SuccessFactors Partner Portal.

Why are only employees of SuccessFactors partners allowed to take training?

As mentioned above, there are a number of different systems required to take training and it can be difficult to provide access to non-partners. I am hopeful that this will change over time once the sheer demand for training subsides but in the interim think it is smart to limit it to ensure that unauthorized training centers don’t open up as this has historically been a problem in the SAP ecosystem. At present, there is a huge demand for training from existing partners and courses fill up quickly.

How much does it cost?

The cost of courses vary, especially if your organization buys courses in bulk but in general they are between $1,500 and $4,500 depending on the course. Your company should contact their SuccessFactors Alliances manager to find out more. The current list prices can be found in the SuccessFactors Partner Portal.

What about certification?

In the past, a consultant had to complete the Introduction to Mastery, a Mastery course, and complete 2 full projects as the lead consultant to obtain official SuccessFactors certification.

It was announced at SuccessConnect 2013 that going forward SuccessFactors wants to better align their Certification Program with SAP, so they will be announcing some changes to their Consultant Certification Program. They are introducing 2 levels of certifications in different SuccessFactors product tracks:

• SuccessFactors Certified Associate
  • Requires successful completion of relevant product Mastery
• SuccessFactors Certified Professional
  • Requires successful completion of relevant product Mastery Training and requires successful completion of customer project implementations in relevant products

Is training all I need to implement SuccessFactors?

SuccessFactors training equips you with the fundamentals of each application, but much of the real learning happens on projects so it is advised to shadow an experienced consultant on your first few projects. Like with any software, there are many nuances and caveats that you cannot learn in a training course and there is no substitute for experience.

Customers need to understand that it is the Wild West out there right now and it is important to follow some of the tips in Jarret Pazahanick’s Seven Tips to ensure you hire the Right Consultant as well ensure that your SuccessFactors Consultant has the appropriate training, certifications, and experience as without it they are not going to be able to help you sufficiently.

Do Customers Need to Hire Certified Consultants

I have heard from several recruiters that their customers have said that they “don’t need their SuccessFactors Consultants to be certified”, but as you can see from above the basic Associate Certification for a solution (e.g. Employee Central) there is no value that an uncertified consultant can offer. As a bare minimum customers should be looking for experienced and trained consultants and once the new certification program is announced then Associate Certified consultants. Customers should ask consultants to provide a copy of their course certificate as it is provided once they have successfully passed a course.

Will SuccessFactors ever offer training via MOOC?

For those that don’t know MOOC is a new mode of training where training is delivered via online collaboration and the learner can complete the curriculum at their own pace. The great news is that SuccessFactors tentatively has plans to offer Introduction to Mastery for official SuccessFactors Partners via the massive online open course (MOOC) delivery method.  Some of the advantages for Partners are the following:

• Never sit on a waitlist again!
• Schedule training when it works best for you
• Self paced learning with instructor help when needed
• Increased access to deeper expertise
• Get credit for your expertise

Key resources

There are some key resources that you can use to help learn about SuccessFactors and SuccessFactors training:

• SuccessFactors Partner Portal – Training
• SuccessFactors - Useful Resources and Documents
• How to Transition from an SAP HCM to a SuccessFactors Consultant
• SAP HCM Cloud Applications Solutions Consultant training on SAP PartnerEdge

Summary

Much like SuccessFactors in general, SuccessFactors training and certification is not the same as what SAP HCM consultants will be used to. There are different methods and formats required and the outcomes are different. While training is only open to SuccessFactors partners, I expect this to change in future as the ecosystem stabilizes.

To stay current on this topic and SuccessFactors in general I would highly recommend joining the over 8,000 members in the SAP and SuccessFactors Linkedin Group.

By Dipesh Bhattacharya, Senior Product Manager and Nicole Saunders, Product Marketing Manager

"The 80s: The decade that made us” – this title from a recent television series from National Geographic Channel hits home.

What’s the significance of this title, you might ask? It’s significant to us for two reasons: (1) The 80s really made us - both Nicole and I were born in the 80s and, (2) the 80s also mark the beginning of Generation Y, or what has become known as the Millennials.  As a Millennial, we both are part of the first generation to grow up with a computer in our homes, Internet, a cell phone, cable TV, and social networking.  We have witnessed first-hand the impact the Millennials are having on the workplace as their work habits and workplace expectations are very different from those of the Baby Boomer generation who has dominated the workforce for years.

You have probably read or experienced first-hand that retaining Millennials requires more than just a high salary; they are focused on career growth, diverse work experience, flexible work environments, personal and professional development, and the use of technology in the workplace.  Competitive pay and benefits are just the price of admission, but retaining the best talent today requires effective employee development, promise of career growth, and robust bench strength planning – placing Succession & Development processes at the center of today’s talent management. 

As part of the SuccessFactors product team, we recognize the impact of the Millenials on your organization and are focused on delivering capabilities that enable organizations to implement new ways of identifying, developing, and retaining top talent. Our November 2013 release is no exception. We have released several enhancements to our Succession & Development capabilities that will help you identify, develop and retain key talent across your organization. A redesigned career worksheet and new talent pool capabilities increase employee engagement and make succession planning easier than ever.

Talent Pools (Beta)

The revamped Talent Pools are central to the November release. Our goals while developing the new Talent Pools were to provide an enhanced user experience, add new capabilities, leverage our latest technology architecture, and provide a tool that can be easily adopted. Not only have we made the pools easy to use, but we have also made them flexible. We recognize that pools are a complementary, lightweight approach to named succession planning - something that can be rolled out to managers allowing them to build bench strength. What we have witnessed in the market and heard from you is an emerging tiered strategy around Succession planning – leveraging named Succession planning capabilities for top positions while using more generic Pool based planning for a broader population. The new Pools are a great addition to the Succession & Development portfolio for implementing such strategies.

Figure 1: The Revamped Talent Pools home page demonstrates our focus on enhanced user experience.

The new Pool enhancements also introduce a simple user experience to create Talent Pools from the Pools’ home page and addnominees to the Pool by assigning readiness levels. Users can select an individual to view their nomination details including nominations to other Talent Pools. In addition, managers can take advantage of new features to
extend the Pool usage to development planning, managing high potentials in their teams, project staffing and other related tasks.

Figure 2: A Talent Pool with High Potential users, created by leveraging new Pool capabilities

Another key aspect of empowering managers is providing customers an increased level of permission granularity. Additional granularity helps HR leaders roll out talent programs to their teams without compromising data security and privacy. We have continued this trend in November by releasing several enhancements to our Talent Pools and Succession positions. These permission enhancements allow administrators to design permission models that limit manager permissions to their teams within the application as well as in the reporting framework.

Figure 3: Enhanced permission model limits access to Pools and Positions

The new and improved user experience, advanced permission controls, and support for additional talent managementtasks make the new Talent Pools a compelling tool for managing your bench strength.

Enhanced Career Worksheet UI

The November release also features a new career worksheet user experience. Based on the same design principles as the SuccessFactors home page, and as part of our continuing commitment to provide a consumer-grade user experience, the redesigned career worksheet features an easy to use UI that promotes self-development and helps improve employees’ sense of responsibility for their own careers.

Figure 4: The new and improved Career Worksheet

Stay tuned for what’s coming in 2014!

Planning is already underway for 2014, and we are excited to share with you new enhancements and capabilities in the coming year.

For more information on the SuccessFactors November release, please visit theSuccessFactors Customer Community.  (Registration required)

Availability: All product updates are available to Enterprise Edition customers on November 15, 2013. Please note that for customers on the Premium release schedule, these features will be available December 13, 2013. For Professional Edition customers, some features may not be available or may become available at a later date.

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The 11th Annual SAP HR2014 Conferencewill be held in Orlando from March 10 to March 14 at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin and it is regularly considered the premier event for SAP and SuccessFactors professionals, consultants and customers. There are more than 120 sessions, 50 exhibitors, 20 case studies, 32 hours of educational sessions and 98 speakers. I will be attending this year and tentatively scheduled to take part in special panel discussion moderated by Steve Bogner called The Future of SAP HCM and SuccessFactors – Predictions from the expertsthat was very well received last year and will also be available in a few of the Ask-the-Experts sessions if you would like to meet and have a conversation. The HR Technology industry is changing rapidly before our eyes as I recently provided my thoughts on HR, HR Technology, Cloud vs OnPremise, Mobile, Big Data and How to Stay knowledgeable in a radio interview and one of which was attending major conferences such as this. I am also very happy to announce that the HR Insider team has given me a special one of a kind promotion code, which will provide a $450 early bird discountfor my customers, readers and followers. This discount will be good up to December 31, 2013, and changes to a $350 discount up to February 7th and $250 up until the show. If you are still on the fence I thought I would outline my top five reasons to go the HR2014 conference.

Sessions- There will be over 110 sessions that cover core areas such as SuccessFactors HCM suite (Employee Central, Talent, Workforce Analytics, etc.), SuccessFactors and SAP Integration (iFlows, HCI), SAP and HANA, HR Renewal, Fiori, SAP Payroll, Talent Management, ESS/MSS, Performance Management, Enterprise Compensation (ECM), Recruiting, Mobility, LSO, Time Management, Reporting, Benefits, Org Management, Personnel Administration and Project Management. I was a bit surprised there will not be any Nakisa sessions this year given the footprint they have in the SAP OnPremise customer base. At the end of the day, there is truly something for everyone and I always find it extremely challenging to figure out which of the sessions to attend although The great debate - On-premise vs. cloud which was the brainchild of Brandon Toombs and will include my friends and fellow SAP Mentors Steve Bogner and Sharon Newton, is one I don’t plan on missing.

SuccessFactors– Time is moving fast, as I still remember the HR Insider team scrambling to put some SuccessFactors sessions on the agenda for the HR2012 conference after SAP’s acquisition of SuccessFactors in December 2011 and fast forward two years later and there are 45 SuccessFactors sessions across all the tracks. All the major areas with the SuccessFactors HCM Suite (new marketing name) will be covered and I would expect these will be some of the more popular sessions so make sure you get there early. Two sessions that jumped out to me was SAP Mentor Luke MarsonAnswers to FAQs about SuccessFactors Employee Centraland The 2014 guide to SAP ERP HCM: Functionality, updates, and future roadmap

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Networking– One of the under rated parts of any conference and something I outlined in my Valuable Lessons to Make the Most of your SAP Careeris networking. The HR2014 event is a great opportunity to network with peers and meet new people. The who’s who of the SAP HCM and SuccessFactors industry will be at this event looking to swap war stories and business cards, connect on LinkedIn and Twitter and share information as well as discuss the sessions from each day. It is very easy to network withlike-minded peoplethat share a similar passion for SAP and SuccessFactors and would recommend the Speed Networking as I really enjoyed that last year. Please stop me to say hi if you see me walking around with my blue SAP Mentors shirt and if you can’t attend make sure to join twitter and follow hashtag #HR2014 and of course SAP_Jarretand joining the over 8,000 members in theSAP and SuccessFactors Linkedin Group.

Keynote Speeches– The keynote speech will be given by Shawn Price who is President of SuccessFactors and a very good public speaker as I heard him give the keynote at SuccessConnect. I am hoping he follows the model from that conference where the audience got to hear directly from a few large customers on their experiences with SAP HCM and SuccessFactors as that is something that has been missing in the last few HR Insider keynotes. There is a chance additional keynote speakers will be added and I will update this blog as that information becomes available.

Orlando – If you are still on the fence about HR2014 remember that this is being held in Orlando which is a great conference city to mix business and pleasure especially at the end of a long day of learning. On a side note, I stayed at this hotel last year on a Spring Break vacation with my family and it is in a great location if you plan to stay the weekend and visit the major theme parks such as Disney.

Hopefully I have outlined why you should attend the HR2014 conference and the conference producers have thought of everything as they even have a Convince your Bosstemplate (still HR2013 version) that you can use to help get budget approval. If you are an SAP HCM or SuccessFactors professional this is one event that you won’t want to miss and don’t forget to sign up via thislink to save an extra $450 up to December 31, 2013, $350 up to February 7th and $250 up until the show as it is the best deal that will be made available.

The ability to access information and services on the go becomes more and more ubiquitous. In this conversation with Paul Hopkins, product owner of SuccessFactors Onboarding, find out how this expectation applies to new hire onboarding and how SuccessFactors responds to new hire needs in our SuccessFactors Onboarding 1311 release.

Anke: For our newest addition to the SuccessFactors talent suite, SuccessFactors Onboarding, launched in May 2013, we did extensive research on the needs of new hires and hiring managers. In over 90 detailed interviews we gained a lot of insight on expectations, experiences, and challenges of new hires and the managers who hire them. In late October I did a Webcast called “Onboarding Success: Solving the Human Equation” where I talk about our findings, the new hire needs pyramid, and how we address these needs in our product. One of the things we found was that people today really want relevant information on their mobile devices. We heard statements like “My mobile is my command center” and “I have everything on my smart phone I need to manage my day.” And in addition, it seemed that new hires especially crave information in the time leading up to the first day on the job because that is when they have the most anxiety. How did the product team at SuccessFactors Onboarding respond to this need in the November release?

Paul: I think we did a very good job in striking the right balance between not enough information and too much information. Of course there is always more information that you can push to the mobile device, but you have to make sure the app remains usable and useful. Otherwise you might even end up addingto “day one anxiety,” which is exactly what we do not want to do.

So the November release, our first release of the app on iPhone, includes information that we think every new hire will be asking him- or herself in the run-up to starting with a new company: How do I get to the office? Who are some of the key people I will be interacting with during the first days and weeks? What kinds of activities are planned to help me get on board, whether that’s “official” corporate orientation meetings from HR, first-week recaps with the team, lunch with the hiring manager, or initial goal-setting discussions?

Anke: I can imagine that especially the “People to meet” feature is very well received by new hires.

Paul: Very much so – we know from the research you mentioned earlier that the hiring manager and the buddy or mentor of the new hire both play
key roles in helping a new hire get on board. Or to put it another way: the hiring manager is the hero of the onboarding process and the buddy is the
sidekick.

So the “People to meet” feature simply shows the profile photos of these two people and gives the new hire quick, easy, familiar ways of getting in touch: make a phone call, send a text message, send an e-mail. All of which can be done from the device itself.

Whether the new hire actually does get in touch with the hiring manager or the buddy before day one is of course another matter that depends on so many things, including the personality of the new hire, previous experiences, expectations, and so on. But if you can see a picture of your new hire buddy smiling at you on your iPhone, you’re more likely to give him a quick call or send him an e-mail to ask a “simple question” like “What’s the dress code?” Or “Where do people go for lunch?” Or even “Hey, I start next Monday and wonder if you’d have time to meet up for coffee and a chat over the weekend?”

Anke: Can you give us a little preview of what you are planning down the road in terms of mobile functionality for new hire onboarding?

Paul: Well, this topic of “making it easy for people to connect” is a theme that will continue to drive what we do, without overwhelming the new hire. For example, if the new hire gets a chance to look at the company org chart, with photos of her peers, she’s going to feel much more comfortable on day one: she can walk through the door and already see a few familiar faces. It’s amazing how much easier seeing a photo of someone makes the business of making first contact with that person: “Hi, I’m Alison, I start here today. Good to meet you, Richard.” Alison and Richard have made contact, the ice is broken. Much easier than having to wait until the new hire is formally introduced to his or her peers.

I think back to my own personal onboarding experiences. I started with SAP 14 years ago but still can remember suffering from “day one anxiety,” even though SAP was not the first company I worked for…why is that? Well, starting anywhere new is a very emotional experience and therefore one that just about everyone can remember for a very long time. I remember making notes of things I had learned from people, or capturing topics I wanted to talk
about with someone  and having tons and tons of pieces of paper and colored sticky notes to help me organize everything.
We plan to make use of the SuccessFactors mobile “Touchbase” feature to help the new hire with exactly that kind of thing. So connecting with someone is as easy as clicking on their photo, making a little note of something to ask that person, and having those notes at my fingertips (literally!) next time we meet.

Follow SuccessFactors on Twitter: @successfactors

     Over my years working with HCM P&F now, I have often been asked if it is possible to start a process from "something" outside of using the "Start Application" (ie. a user...employee, manager, admin,etc... actually kicking off a process). Now with the advent of Ehp6 and HR Renewal, that functionality got a lot easier (although I *gasp* have not got to "play with that functionality just yet....but I bet this solution will even find use in the EhP6+ world). Prior to this, there was nothing standard to allow you to start a process without a user actually manually executing the "Start Application" outside of starting a process from recruitment via PI integration (lots of config!). In the past, I had played with a few ideas I had. Tried to prototype some things. Looked at the standard workflow tasks for things like "check form" in the background to get some clues. But usually, the client changed requirements or something happened that turned the focus away from coming up with a "auto-initiate" solution and just got back to the work at hand....straight, out-of-the-box HCM P&F configuration and development.

     That all changed for me recently however....in two ways. First off, the one specific process I was given to complete hinges on the fact that the process can be kicked off from "elsewhere" (actually, from a workflow triggered by a whole other event outside of HCM itself). The fallback when/if the process does not get initiated is that the user can also start the process manually (as usual). Secondly, due to the clues given to me by the wise sage of a consultant (and friend), Rudy Blanco, who has been doing SAP development for about as long as anyone, I got pointed in the right direction. At last, I found THE solution for starting a process from anywhere.....and the solution was in technology that has been around for at least as long as the "good ol' days" of PCR's (the precursor to HCM P&F)....the ISR framework!!!

     The first step is creating our own custom class in which we will create our custom method to trigger from workflow. Now because we are using this class in workflow, there are some things we have to do (using the IF_WORKFLOW interface and implementing the interface methods correctly) but that is outside the scope of this discussion not to mention there are plenty of online tutorials on how to set this all up if this is foreign to you.

Let us assume all those steps have been done and now our focus is on our new custom method....

     For this example, I know that my initial form in my process is very simple as it is not meant to actually be used except in case of an error where our workflow for some reason does not start it and we need to manually initiate the process. In my case, I need only the employee PERNR (the same as if our user were selecting it manually) and a record ID (to look up the record needed for the rest of my process), so those are my only form fields.

    Those fields will then be the only parameters I need for my custom method. We define them with the same types as our form fields.

     Inside our method, we need some very basic code. Let's walk through it.....

     First, you see that we need to set some basic information that you would expect if you were telling "something" what process you want to start.

     Next, we fill in some of the "special" fields (although you will see we do this again).

     Now we get to the real magic....

Yep! We call the good ol' ISR framework to do our bidding. (*note: oddly enough, I had used this in the past to allow mobile users to do approval steps in a process but had not thought to try to use it to start a process...doh!) You might wonder why we are looping twice here. The first loop, we send the "event" parameter as empty/blank. This is equivalent to telling our process to "initialize". The ISR call returns our structures full of our initialized fields and data. So then we set our form field values to what we want them to be (just as if we were keying them into the form), and we set our "event" to "send" at this point. When it goes into the second loop then, it has our fields with the data in them, and we are telling it to "send"...which is like our HCM P&F "send" step after "check and send". Therefore, our process will be started just as if someone had been sitting there running the "Start Application" as we are all quite use too by now. We could get "fancy" here and add some code to the end to write to the log on errors or some such (look at how the standard "check form" or "save form" background workflow tasks do this), but we do not need this for now.

    But now, where do we put this? How do we use it?

    First, we create a new custom workflow "standard task" (via transaction PFTC_INS). Within our task, we assign our custom class and method to be used.

    Now we have to use our task somewhere. Let's consider a simple workflow.....say we have the following existing workflow in place.....

....within our workflow, we add a new step and assign this our new custom task. We set up our bindings so that the workflow passes the information we need to our method.

....now, when the workflow gets executed and at some point hits our task, our process is initiated...just as if someone had run it manually from the "Start Application". The first step in our processes' workflow sends our manager an "edit" task to his UWL....so look what shows up "magically" in our UWL?

The initial workflow that triggered our process and its workflow may be still running or ended, but our process workflow is now off doing its thing just as usual.

     That is about all there is to it....write your own class, have a public method that can accept whatever parameters you need as input to set for your form fields In the form scenario "start step", call the ISR "process event" function module and viola....you have your very own process" trigger" that can be used in any number of ways. Imagine the following possible scenarios....

• Start process from report :

Imagine if some sales department administrator ran a "top sales people of the month" report and this report checked if certain sales people met their quota and such and if so, it could call your class method and would fire off a start "Monthly Bonus" process for each sales person that met the criteria. Auto-magically! (haha)

• Start process from WebDynpro :

Imagine that an employee is changing or adding an address using their ESS WebDynpro ABAP app. In that WDA, you have some checks in place that will see if the new/changed address has tax implications. If so, it calls your class method and initiates the "Employee Change of Address" process which allows other admins to check/change/correct any tax related settings for the address. Otherwise, the change happens immediately and the employee is none the wiser....nor does an HR Admin get notified every time someone changes their address.

• Start process from web service :

Imagine if we have some web service...maybe, say something we have written for integration to other products...like say SuccessFactors....maybe when a change of some sort occurs in SF, our web service gets called via PI integration and kicks off our own nice on-premise HCM process. Triggering HCM P&F from SF? Yep! BOO-YAH!!!!

• Start process from another process:

The examples for this almost write themselves. How many times have you want to trigger another HCM P&F process to start while in the workflow of another process? Yep...you can do <insert your scenario here> now.

...and I am sure you good HCM P&F folks can think up even more use cases!!!

So that's it. Now you know. You have the power in your capable hands. Go forth! Blaze a trail as you put this new found knowledge to use! Take HCM P&F into the farthest reaches in ways never imagined! Make me proud! (haha) In the meantime, as always, I will keep blogging as long as you keep reading. Till then...

     I know what you are thinking..."Could he have come up with a cheesier title?!?!" (haha)....but it did get your attention...and well, we are talking about trees here...in a manner of speaking. I think by now we are all quite familiar with "tree" controls (aka. "Tree View") in the world of user interface design. Things like....

....where a hierarchical relationship among elements lends itself easily to this visual display. Now, in the "new" world of FPM based forms for HCM P&F, making a nice tree view component and using it within your "form" is fairly simple (especially when I showed you how to do this in my other blog,  HCM Processes & Forms: Google Maps and how to step up your FPM forms game!, hahahaha) You can easily do this...

     But what about the people still in the Adobe forms world? You can't just plop a nice little "tree view" widget into your form. But you can "easily" build your own....in a manner of speaking.

     First off, since we are in the HCM P&F world, we have to think of how this relates to our "form fields" in config. For myself, I visualized my "tree" as actually a "table" of fields. My tree would be represented by...

...where:

•       TREE_SELFLG_LIN is the selection flag for the node (X = selected, blank = not selected)
•       TREE_NODE_LIN is our node's ID number (ie. key)
•       TREE_NODETXT_LIN is our node's displayed text
•       TREE_NODETYPE_LIN is our node type (we want to be able to "style" our nodes based on their "type", like "document, folder, image, etc" that might

                                                 tell us "what kind of node" we have

•       TREE_NODEPARENT_LIN is the parent node ID of our node (because of course, nodes can be a parent to child nodes which in turn can be parents to

                                                      other child nodes and on and on)

•       TREE_NODE_ISDIRTY_LIN is just a little extra field I use to tell if the user has changed the value of this "row" from what was selected before. It makes

                                                      it easier to tell later instead of looping through what the backend records are versus what my TREE_SELFLG_LIN value

                                                      shows for each and every row...especially in very large trees. Once I need to "merge" what the form  values are with what

                                                      was selected/stored before, I simply have to look at this "is dirty" row and use only those records. Make sense? haha

As you see, I have a habit of naming my form fields with "_LIN" at the end. This is simply to tell me (and others) that these form fields represent a table (since HCM P&F handles tables in and odd "columns of arrays" kind of way covered in yet another blog I did, HCM Processes & Forms: The Trouble with Tribbles...er, Tables ).

Now on the HCM P&F side, I will assume that just like I did, you have some generic service that you will use to not only "construct" your "tree" of data as our "table" of form fields, but that you will also check "where ever" to see which of those "nodes" have been selected by the user (if done before and we are displaying it) or you will have them set by whatever initialization you need. This discussion does not cover generic services and how to populate you "table" of form fields. It assumes your fields are now filled with the information to visualize the tree hierarchy on the form.

The next step is to lay out our Adobe Interactive Form and bind our fields as needed. We will use the menu option to insert a table element on our form and set it as ....

Notice that I made the first column a "checkbox" field with no caption (on the "layout" tab for the element, select "none" form the caption setting at the bottom). The rest of my cells are text fields set as display (read only) and some are hidden. We only want a checkbox and then our node text to show to the user.

We now will bind our backend HCM P&F form fields to each "cell" in our table on the form. This is as easy as dropping our data fields onto each cell as needed. This discussion does not cover the basic "how to" of binding your HCM P&F config form fields to your Adobe form elements as you can find this information easily elsewhere (or should already be well acquainted with it if you have been doing HCM P&F work).

Now that we have our backend form fields now bound with our table, we can check to see if this is working correctly. What we will get is a very basic "table" which looks nothing like our "tree" that we want.

This is because our REAL work is now ahead of us. Through the use of Javascript on specific events, we will turn this table into a "tree view" before all is said and done.

The first step is adding 2 empty columns between our "selected" radio box column and our node "text" that is shown to the user. I make these as wide as the "checkbox" cell (as we will be "shifting" our checkbox by that same amount of space as you will see later).

The number of these columns that you will need will largely depend on the "depth" of your tree (how many levels it goes) as you will see later. In my case, I know my tree goes down 3 levels....so I count the selection column plus my 2 empty columns....three....which is what I need to make it all work correctly.

Now it all comes down to some clever scripting. You will want to place this kind of script in your "form ready" event, and I like to place it in the subform that contains my "table".

I will not go into all the details of the script you will need because I want you to figure it out yourself. I will give you some hints though. What you are basically doing is looping through your rows. As you loop, you will "look" to see if a node has a parent. If not, it is "top level" node. If it has a parent, we look to see if any other rows have it as their parent (ie. 2nd level). Any other nodes are 3rd level children. Through the script, we will be "shifting" our columns (hide some and span others across multiple columns., ie. colspan) in order to duplicate a "tree view" kind of layout. Think of it like this....

My snippet of script, looks like this...

...and a little more...

And because I know the "type" of node I have as well, I am also applying some "style" to it (making row colors different depending on level). You could do the same to color cells, show/hide images, change fonts, etc. to fit your styling needs.

Now, if I load my form again, I now see what appears to be a "tree view" for all intents and purposes.

I added further scripting on the "click" event of my "select box" in order to show/hide child nodes as well as changing the selection flag. Just for kicks, I threw in some error handling that makes sure a user can not deselect a node if it has child nodes under it that are selected. But I will leave all that "fun" coding to you.

That's about all there is to growing your own tree...view....on an Adobe form. (haha) It just comes down to looking at what your "tree view" is in a different way. Now, using this same kind of "out of the box" thinking, you can mimic other fun UI elements using tables with scripting on your rows (like an "accordion" control for example). Go have some fun with this. Come up with your own use case. As always, in the meantime, I will keep blogging if you keep reading. Till then....

Choosing the right company to work for is just as important as for “The Bachelor” to choosing a life partner. And it can be as difficult as what we see on the popular show – when one supposedly well-deserving man has to pick from a field of 25 beautiful women who are showing their best sides and pulling some deceptive stunts to get his attention.

In my last blog, I discussed how employers can better market their job openings and build a pool of talent that they can reference later, when the need arrives.

But how do you get past the businesses that are not authentic and showing their true selves? How do you get past the deceit, lies, and tempting lures? And better yet, how do you know you are committing your time, talent, and career to the right company?

Find your match with these 7 short questions

Do yourself a favor and evaluate your next potential employer by asking yourself (or even the hiring manager) these questions:

1. Can I find you in places where I like to be? Even if it’s not very crowded, noisy, or trendy?
2. If I want to know more about you, is your website authentic? Can I see the difference between you and your top competitor?
3. Is your career site all about you or about me? Do you bother to find out about what I like and don’t like? Are your job pages tailored to me and my preferences?
4. If I find your job, is the application process less than three clicks?
5. If I’m just not that into you (yet), are there other actions I can take to get to know you better?
6. If I do apply, will you stay in contact with me without appearing as an inappropriate stalker?
7. If I share my friends with you, will you treat them with respect and reward me for sharing how wonderful they are with you?

Trust me, this is worth your time. The answers may surprise you, but at least you will be on your way in finding you “dream date” – or better yet, your lifelong partner.

Best wishes for a life full of (job) happiness and (career) fulfillment!

In a few short days, a certain man will be visiting our homes and leaving behind gifts for everyone all over the world. Are you ready? Are you prepared for his arrival? Have you insured that your Christmas Day will be spent enjoying your brand new toys, and not grousing over coal?

But here’s a bigger question: Is Santa Claus ready?

I’m not just talking about whether his sleigh passed 2013 inspection, the reindeer passed their rudimentary physical training tests, or Santa dropped those 30 pounds he gained last Christmas Eve.

Will his operations truly deliver another flawless year of bringing joy and happiness all over the world? Well, if he went #InMyCloud, he would have a better chance.

5 ways Santa Claus could use the cloud

Here are some ways Santa Claus could seamlessly manage his people, resources, customers, and suppliers in the cloud…

1. Track Santa letters and names on his “Naughty” and “Nice” lists. When you see a child write a letter to Santa and try to be on their best behavior 4 weeks before Christmas Eve, it’s endearing. But for Santa, it’s all about customer demand. Every letter gives Santa an idea on what his “customers” want. And every name on his “Naughty” and “Nice” lists is simply an order that needs to be fulfilled. If he compiled that information in the cloud, he can quickly see exactly how demand is fluctuating and which toys are popular among kids of all ages – even as early as June.
   
   
2. Make sure that his workshop elves are ready and available. By visualizing his demand data, Santa could easily explain to his front-office and plant-floor workforce (or, as we know them, “Santa’s Elves”) what they need to do to prepare. His elves can compare current inventory with letter requests and names that consistently shift from one list to another. From there, the elves can let Santa know exactly what needs to be produced, in what quantities, and how quickly it can be done. In addition, they can more intelligently procure materials using a lean, just-in-time approach; ensure that plant-floor workers have the latest tech skills they need; and augment their staff with the right number of new hires that have the right skills needed to deliver high-quality products on time. 
   
   
3. Prepare for delivery. And let’s not forget Santa’s green delivery vehicle – his sleigh that holds unspeakable loads and uses reindeer power as its engine. While the workshop elves are busy producing high-quality toys, his sleigh-shop elves are busy tuning up the sleigh and making sure that it complies with international and local transportation regulations. With the cloud, these elves can access the regulatory information and sleigh diagnostic results they need, when and where they need it. They can also gain clear visibility into the total weight of gift cargo, so they can make sure that the sleigh and the reindeer team can handle it. And oh yeah, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to notify the reindeer of the load. No one likes surprises before a big trip – and reindeer are no exception!
   
   
4. Plan for 2014.Even though Santa’s annual tour of the globe is usually complete within one evening, it does take 364 days to make this trip possible. In real time, his number-crunching elves can track how much time Santa spent at each house, the rate of toys that broke on the first day, and the number of orders that went unfulfilled. And since Santa is hip to the changing times, he can even gain insight from the social sentiment of his “customers” as they post their thoughts and pictures on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media channels.
   
   
5. Take a vacation with Mrs. Claus. And since the cloud is helping him share information to his elves in all areas of his operation, Santa no longer has to attend daily meetings – which is great news for Mrs. Claus. For her, Christmas Eve is the loneliest night of the year. But now, Mr. Claus can make good on his annual promise to take a vacation in Hawaii. Mele Kalikimaka!
   

As you’d expect, even Santa could make a positive impact on his toy-making and delivery operations (and his marriage) if he made the move to the cloud. Do you really think he would risk his reputation after centuries of delivering a superior customer experience? No – I don’t think so either.

So…how is the cloud helping you play Santa this year? Let us know!

It’s been a busy 4^th quarter for the Employee Cntral team.  We continue to enhance existing features of

Employee Central particularly  with our continued leadership in globalization, added employee self-service

and reporting capabilities.

Expanded globalization with Employee Central and Employee Central Payroll.

SuccessFactors Employee Central is the cloud leader in globalization and localization. You can expect
Employee Central to be translated locally, operate globally, and work
simultaneously. With the November release, we’ve added Turkey and Vietnam to
our localization offering, which brings our total country count to 58.

Expanding countries is great, but empowering employees to capitalize on these benefits

through self- service is even better! Building on the India tax deduction functionality released in

August, we’ve expanded the employee self-service to allow the declaration of investment proposals

and the uploading of supporting documents, reducing the need for administrative support and extra
paperwork.

Employee Central Payroll now supports payroll processing and localized requirements

in 25 countries with the addition of Chile and New Zealand.

New employee self-service. With the November release, you have new ways to empower
employees through employee self-service in Employee Central:

• Deductions:
  Through the employment profile screen, employees can view all deductions that
  are associated to them, including the amount currently deducted, as well as the
  frequency and duration of the deduction. Employee self-service enables employees
  to manage these deductions from Employee Central, where they can delete a
  deduction, change the amount, change the frequency or duration, and even add
  another deduction category.

• Advance  requests: Through the employment profile screen, employees can view all the
  advances that are available to them, including the type of advance, the maximum
  amount eligible, and the period end date. Employee self-service enables employees
  to request the advance, set the amount, set the time period for repayment, and
  upload any supporting documentation.

Newreporting capabilities. EmployeeCentral advanced reporting capabilities has expanded with the November release
to include out-of-the-box predefined lists and analytical reports—including 30 international reports and 26 country-specific reports.

Available in the United States, the new Affirmative Action Plan (AAP) country-specific report contains sub-reports covering

movement, turnover, and workforce distribution.

Stay tuned for what’s coming in 2014!

Planning is already underway for 2014, and we are excited to share with you new enhancements and capabilities in the coming year.

For more information on the SuccessFactors November release, please visit the SuccessFactors Customer Community. (Registration
required)

Availability: All product updates are available to Enterprise Edition customers on November 15, 2013. Please note
that for customers on the Premium release schedule, these features will be available December 13, 2013. For Professional Edition customers,

some features may not be available or may become available at a later date.

Newsflash: organisations with high levels of employee engagement do better than those that don’t. They typically exhibit higher performance, lower employee churn and greater customer advocacy.  You don’t have to be a neuroscientist to appreciate that a happy workforce is more likely to be a productive workforce.  But I was shocked to learn from Dr Linda Holbeche in SuccessFactors’ recent 20 Minute Master Class that in the UK, 62% of employees are not fully engaged.  That means almost two thirds of the workforce is not firing on all cylinders.

Of course, there are some macro factors contributing to the malaise.  We’re undergoing a period of prolonged economic uncertainty, with employers’ need for a flexible labour force making job security a thing of the past. Some roles have been effectively commoditised by technology, making them inherently less satisfying.  Workers in most sectors are under pressure to do more with less, with rewards being squeezed and change as the only constant.  The net result?  An unsettled and one-sided employment relationship that is stressing out the UK workforce.

Employee satisfaction surveys don’t tell the whole story. For a start, they’re a periodic rather than continuous measurement, so they only represent a snapshot in time.  But more importantly, satisfaction and engagement are not one and the same thing.  In fact, an employee who is “satisfied” may self-limit their output, reluctant to try harder or indeed try anything new. En masse, this culture of complacency stifles productivity and innovation.

Employee engagement is a more complex construct: it’s an active and animated state that encompasses intrinsic as well as extrinsic motivations. People need to feel an intellectual, social and emotional connection with their work and their organisation, which forms a significant part of their personal identity.  But this demands trust and fairness as part of the psychological contract between employee and employer.

To nurture an engaged workforce, organisations need to communicate clearly and regularly, while also giving employees a voice to express concerns or criticism. Management must avoid the trap of paying lip service to employee initiatives, by providing the support required to encourage their staff to invest greater effort – whether that’s training, mentoring or practical considerations.  And it means giving people sufficient autonomy to find meaning and flow in their work, while providing sufficient scope and incentive in their role to stretch themselves.

I went into HR because I’m a people-person.  But it’s not “soft” to say that we all seek a sense of belonging when it comes to the context in which we all typically spend eight or more hours a day.  There are tangible benefits to the bottom line for employers that recognise the value of engagement and promote the wellbeing of individuals and society as a whole.  

There is also an interesting debate currently taking place in the LinkedIn group that accompanies the series: http://linkd.in/ITH6WA

In 2012 SAP announced the so called declustering for time management and payroll data. In March 2014 the last country versions are planned to be delivered and then declustering is available to all SAP HCM Payroll customers world-wide.

Recently I had many conversations with customers in the context of HCM on HANA and Payroll on HANA about the benefits of ‘declustering’. In this post I will try to explain what declustering is and how customers benefit.

What is a cluster?

Let me start with explaining what clustering is before talking about what declustering is. In SAP HCM modules for Payroll and Time Management employee data is stored within database tables known as cluster tables. These cluster tables (PCL1 and PCL2) store data in compressed binary (RAW format) strings. This type of data storage does not allow to access the data directly from the database layer for analytical and reporting purposes. And this is where the pain is for many customers: Running queries on large data sets of thousands of employees, with long history (and maybe even retro calculations) has not been very performing in the past. That changes now.

How does declustering work?

To use the data stored in the cluster tables, data needs to be converted from the nontransparent storage into simple transparent database table storage. This can be performed by declustering, which involves creation of new simple transparent table for each internal table in cluster table and copying the data from the cluster table to the transparent table. These tables are associated with each other through a common primary key for data retrieval or reporting purposes.

To enable declustering the HCM Declustering Tools business function must be activated. To learn more about the SAP delivered tools for declustering check this: link

How can the power be unleashed?

There are 2 ways to switch the declustering on: Generic and Customized declustering.

• Generic Declustering: The declustering mechanism creates new transparent tables for each internal table of the payroll result. This feature allows synchronous updating of new transparent tables during the payroll run. Data archiving and data destruction for new transparent tables are also supported.
• Customized Declustering: Select the payroll results to be declustered based on specific selection criteria. This will adjust the result tables to be declustered when certain data is not needed in the transparent tables. Country-specific lists of transparent tables/structures to be declustered are delivered as standard.

What are the advantages?

There are great advantages that come with declustering. To name a few:

• Process or retrieve bulk data using simple SQL queries
• Perform aggregations on the data directly at the database layer
• Improve performance of the standard reports
• Build highly efficient customized reports

How do customers benefit?

To explain a bit of customer benefit around these advantages I want to share what I recently encountered. Recently I talked to a customer with 3,5billion entries in their payroll results table (RT). This customer had 75k employees and 10 years of payroll history (including retro calculation). By declustering the total size of the payroll cluster was reduced from 1Terabyte (on their traditional database) to 600GB on SAP HANA.  This means that the total size of the result table was compressed to 60% of it's former size due to the compression that comes with SAP HANA. This alone makes the processing of data much faster. Add to this the immense reading power of SAP HANA and customers can build very powerful reports. Really unlike anything I had seen before.

On a side note: for now we need both the cluster and the tables in SAP HANA because we still store the initial payroll results in the cluster. However, the cluster does not need to be in the 'hot-memory' anymore. This can now also be on disks (which usually is less expensive).

Regarding the improvement of reporting on payroll results I talked to many customers with this requirement. Until now reporting was done either via the Wage Type Reporter or by loading data into SAP NetWeaver BW. This means that either the reporting was slow or it was on older data. With declustering that changes. Directly after the payroll has run the declustering is kicked off (this means real-time data). To utilize that data Virtual Data Models need to be created in the SAP HANA Modeler. If customers want high speed ad-hoc reporting they can take advantage of the SAP Analysis tools that run directly on these Virtual Data Models. This means slicing and dicing through decades of historical payroll data in a split second. Customers only need to plug-in their BI tool. It’s that simple.

Recently I talked to a customer who had created a report with an aggregation of certain wage types per company code, personnel area and some other dimensions. The report also tracked retro-calculation. This took around 35 minutes as a Wage Type Reporter report and now due to the declustered data and SAP HANA ran in 10 seconds in their BI report. This shows that reading and processing data in SAP HANA makes a huge difference.

In conclusion, with declustering and SAP HANA payroll and time management information is now available real-time and in seconds. This allows HR departments to spend more time on analyzing the data rather than shaping and modelling it.

This means for example that a gross to net reports can now look like this, and can be instantly available after the payroll ran:

Users can immediately zoom in to different time dimensions or any other kind of dimensions. Data exploration really becomes much easier.

An analysis on social security wage spending per payroll area can now look like this:

This allows visualizing trends and correlations in data that so far seemed impossible to analyze. Payroll administrators can now use ad-hoc reporting tools to provide immediate reasoning behind the numbers to their management. This can be done simpler and quicker based on declustered data and with appealing and easy to use BI tooling on top.

As one customer told me “Answers can now be provided to all those questions that were not asked anymore because it was such a pain to answer them”.

How can customers start the journey?

Declustering allows storing data in transparent tables with columnar storage only on the SAP HANA system from the clustered tables. This provides two scenarios to customers that want to make use of declustering:

• Side-by-Side: This is where a Business Suite system running on any database is connected with a separate SAP HANA box.

A precondition is that those transparent tables on the SAP HANA system are created based on the transparent tables in the Business Suite system by mechanism such as SAP Landscape Transformation (SLT).

• Suite on HANA: Declustering allows to store data in the transparent tables on the Business Suite system directly from the clustered tables.

Thus, declustering allows managing and supporting both the SAP HANA scenario as well as the Business Suite scenario running on any database connected with a separate SAP HANA box.

One word of advice: use this to speed up your analytics and (ad-hoc) reporting, and not to build reconciliation reports because there is cool functionality coming your way in 2014!

If you need more information or if you want to share your experiences please feel free to contact me!

Best regards,

Frans Smolders

Frans.smolders@sap.com

2013 has been another big year for SuccessFactors WorkforceAnalytics.   Notable enhancements and new features included cross domain reporting and new charts library with Online Report Designer, and of course Headlines. 

Our November release included numerous updates and enhancements for reporting and analytics.  I wanted to highlight just three of the many enhancements included in this release around Online Report Designer.

If you are not familiar with Online Report Designer, I encourage you check us out.  I think you will be very impressed with the capabilities and above all, with the user experience.   Online Report Designer provides a user-friendly and powerful set of tools, designed especially for the cloud, which enables anyone in your organization to build or customize reports and dashboards and share the results with others.

Online Report Designer is available across the SuccessFactors HCM suite with Employee Central for reporting of your core HR transactional data, with Platform for creating reports based on transactional data in your various  SuccessFactors Talent Management modules, and with Workforce Analytics.   The power and flexibility in Online Report Designer enables you to:

• Choose from a library of standard components and charts to create your page layouts
• Format with images, text and custom color palettes
• Drag and drop to edit joins between tables
• Create pivot tables and charts with subtotals
• Define date parameters, such as ‘as of date’ or date range
• Re-label fields and enhance column formatting
• Concatenate fields, and transpose rows to columns
• Include calculated and aggregated columns

Figure 1 - Example of building a report with Online Report Designer

Figure2 - Example of a dashboard built with Online Report Designer

Users of Employee Central, Talent Management with Platform, and Workforce Analytics can all equally benefit from these new enhancements to Online Report Designer:

Report Sharing Based on Dynamic Criteria

Online Report Designer has always had robust capabilities for scheduling and distribution of reports, including:

• Ability to distribute reports via email, FTP, or to run offline.
• Ability to output reports to PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel file formats. Excel format is certainly important for those that wish to make data available for offline analysis.

In this release the distribution capability is enhanced to allow further refinement in determining who will receive reports.  You will now have the ability to share reports with individual users or with groups of users according to user attribute criteria, such as department, division, location, RBP role, or Manager/Non-Manager/HR Manager role.

Figure3 - Report Sharing

New Charting Export Capability

In the August 2013 release, Workforce Analytics customers received access to enhanced reporting capabilities with an extended charts library.  Charts, graphs and dashboards come alive with the advent of HighCharts library. HighCharts provides animated, modern and beautiful look and feel to charts and dashboards presented in input measure and results pages for a visually pleasing user experience.

Figure4 - Ability to Export Reports and Dashboards

In the November release, output to PDF, Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint is supported for these new charting components.

Learning Data in Online Report Designer

The powers of Online Report Designer in SuccessFactors Platform have been extended for application in Learning. Now you can create Learning Management System (LMS) reports using the Online Report Designer, taking advantage of features such as aggregating results in pivot charts and tables, including calculated columns and using If/Then/Else logic, exporting results to PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, and using Report Distributor to share reports.

Figure 5 - Example of a report from cloud Learning Management Solution (LMS)

For more information on the SuccessFactors November release, please visit the SuccessFactors Customer Community. (Registration required)

Stay tuned for what’s coming in 2014!

We are already working towards next year’s releases and our plan is to continue pushing the boundaries of reporting and analytics in the cloud. Stay tuned for more information in the new year.

Follow SuccessFactors on twitter:@successfactors

YP: Hello everyone! Today I have the pleasure to talk with Deeksha Mittal about the latest enhancements in the Variable Pay module, part of the SuccessFactors Compensation Management Solution. Before we dive into the innovations from the November release, can you tell us a few words about yourself and your role at SuccessFactors?

DM:  Sure, thanks Yannick. I am part of the Product Management team for the SuccessFactors Compensation Management Solution, and I focus specifically on the Variable Pay module. My role as a product manager is to continuously think about how we can improve our customer experience and add more value for our customers through new product enhancements and features. The product management team works very closely with customers, solution consultants and partners to understand customer pain points and develop comprehensive solutions… always staying a step ahead of our competition!

YP: Thanks for the introduction Deeksha. The SuccessFactors November release is again bringing some great enhancements to customers and variable pay is NOT an exception to the rule. I’d like to discuss with you the major features in more details and how they add value to compensation processes. Let’s start with the first feature called “Variable Pay Multiple Business Goal Sections”. In a nutshell: business goals, targets and actual results for bonus plans may be sourced from multiple business goal sections. Can you give us the before/after 1311 view and tell us how this feature will help our customers in their projects?

DM: Sure, Yannick. The ‘multiple business goal section’ feature is extremely useful for our large enterprise customers.

To give you some background first, as you know, using the Variable Pay module you can calculate bonus payouts based on three components: Business Performance, Individual Performance and in some cases even Team Performance. Business performance is tracked against pre-defined business goals for the organization. A large number of organizations define some business goals at the overall company or corporate level and some business goals at the division or business unit level. Prior to this enhancement, customers had to define all of their business goals (both corporate and division level) as part of one business goal section in Variable Pay. Hence, tracking of bonus payouts for corporate goals and division goals separately was difficult.

However, with this enhancement, customers can now define multiple business goal sections e.g. one business goal section for business goals at the corporate level and one business goal section for business goals at the division level. This provides a clean approach to defining business goals at different levels and tracking corresponding bonus payouts separately. Once multiple business sections have been defined in the Variable Pay Program, the corresponding data is available on the planner worksheet, the compensation profile and also the live analytics page.

View of multiple business case section in the Compensation Profile (click to enlarge)

View of multiple business case section on the Variable Pay Planner Worksheet

View of multiple business case section on the Variable Pay Live Analytics Page

YP: the second feature I’d like to discuss with you is called “Profile interoperability”. Using this interoperability feature, managers can view both variable pay and compensation data on the same screen. Getting the complete picture on one screen will support managers in making better planning decisions. I guess this is a feature that our customers have been requested for a while. How can they take advantage of it starting with the 1311 release?

DM: Absolutely. Profile interoperability makes it possible for managers to view both compensation and variable pay data on the same screen, which brings in enormous amounts efficiency into the bonus planning process. With this enhancement, planners can now have access to both standard Salary, Stock and Variable Pay data on the compensation profile by clicking on the respective tabs (as shown on the screenshot). With the ready availability of all compensation/bonus related data, managers can now make more objective decisions for complete compensation planning.We would like to highly encourage our customers to take advantage of this feature in their upcoming comp cycles. Customers need to turn on the ‘compensation/variable pay interoperability’ feature for their plan templates, they can contact their customer success representatives for more information and help in turning this feature on if they haven’t already done so. I would also like to mention that this enhancement is part of our continuous effort to bring both Variable Pay and standard compensation (salary, stock etc.) modules closer and seamless for our users. We will continue to invest further in this direction.

Profile Interoperability: all compensation including variable pay data available on the comp profile

YP: the third and last feature I’d like to bring up today is “Custom calculation for basis amount”. This adds great flexibility at a template level, as it is now possible to define a custom formula to calculate the basis amount for a variable pay program. This really eliminates the manual work/external calculation for basis amounts. Here again, can you give us some use cases for this feature, and maybe your recommendation on when to us the custom calculation option or not?

DM: You’re right Yannick, this enhancement eliminates the need to calculate the basis amounts outside of the Variable Pay module thereby increasing process efficiency and reducing potential errors in the system. Prior to this enhancement, Variable Pay expected the customers to feed a pre-calculated basis amount. Although flexible, this approach however resulted in customers having to perform the basis calculations in external systems. This enhancement provides a simple solution to the problem without compromising on flexibility. Administrators can now define a custom formula and just input the fields in the system. The basis amount will be automatically calculated by the system. As part of this release, we support simple arithmetic operators for formula definition and only numeric fields that are part of your data model can be used in the formula (Pls. contact your customer success representative for more information).

The most common use case we have received from our customers is that the basis amount is calculated as: Employee Salary * Target Percentage. This simple formula can now be easily defined on the Variable Pay Program Setup Screen (part of the admin tools). Instead of importing the pre-calculated basis amount, the administrator can now directly import the employee salary and target percentage into Variable Pay.We have also maintained complete backward compatibility and customers can choose whether they want to define custom formula or continue to import basis amounts (as-is system behavior).

Activation of customer calculation for basis amount

YP: thanks a lot Deeksha. I am sure our customers will appreciate your explanations and tips and tricks for those new features. Without going into the details, what is next for variable pay?

DM: Yannick, it is truly an exciting time for our Compensation Solution overall. We are now focused more than ever on making the Variable Pay module an even more robust bonus planning and calculation tool that can be easily adopted by both small and large global organizations.

Besides adding more and more bonus planning features, we are making the product more conducive for global organizations with de-centralized administration, increased control on access to data and administrative features.We are also continuing to invest heavily in a new state of the art UI design with a flatter look and improved navigation especially on the worksheet for planners. Also, as I mentioned in one of my previous comments, we are increasingly focused on making the Variable Pay module more and more seamless with the rest of the SuccessFactors Compensation solution, and you will definitely see more efforts on these lines.

In my opinion, it is time to tighten our seat belts because we along with our customers have an exciting journey ahead!

You can find more resources on SuccessFactors Compensation Management here:

·     http://www.successfactors.com/en_us/solutions/bizx-suite/performance-cloud/compensation.html

These resources are updated regularly so be sure to save them as favorites in your browser.

Follow me on Twitter: @ypeterschmitt

Follow SuccessFactors: @successfactors

Follow SAP ERP HCM:@SAPHCM

One of the definitions in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary for the word pride is “delight or elation arising from some act, possession, or relationship.” Pride aptly describes how I’m feeling right now about our SuccessFactors Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions and the related success of our customers.  

Thanks to the talented people across SuccessFactors, we have once again been named a leader in the HCM market – for the sixteenth time in a little over a year. We are the only company with this honor, and for me, it’s a reflection of our dedication to bringing our customers the best products and services possible.

Global technology trends continue to evolve very quickly, impacting the HCM solutions that support the ever changing needs and requirements of Human Resources departments across the globe.  Our consistent ranking at the top by these various industry analysts reflects and reinforces, I believe, our relentless focus on ways to improve the solutions we deliver to you.  So far this year, we’ve delivered significant new innovations including:

·       A new onboarding solution

·       Headlines which delivers natural language analytics to end users

·       Multiple integration packages to connect SAP on-premise solutions with SuccessFactors cloud solutions

We also made significant enhancements to our existing technology:

·       A re-designed user experience for our learning solution

·       A large number of innovations to Employee Central including time-off management

·       Payroll for over 20 countries and localization for over 50 countries

And we continually incorporate enhancements and improvements based on ideas and suggestions from our customers. 

Delivering excellence for the full HR lifecycle

The latest accolade in this significant run is from Nucleus Research. The company just released its Technology Value Matrix for HCM for the second half of 2013 and once again, we are one of the top leaders in this report. Nucleus recognizes that we provide a comprehensive, cloud-based HCM solution that supports the full end-to-end employee lifecycle – a trait that the hallmark of this year’s HCM leader positions.

The report also notes that we have deep capabilities across all talent management functions, from recruiting through succession planning. Other notable mentions are the depth of our employee management and administration offerings, and our support of hybrid and full cloud implementations. The report also states that we “continue to push the envelope of usability,” and it is expected we will “continue to advance both the functional capabilities and the user experience and remain a leader within this market.”

Drumroll…the magic number of 16!

As you can see from the list below, this report is just one of sixteen where analysts have placed SuccessFactors at the top of the HCM market. Here are the others that have mentioned us in a similar fashion in 2013 and 2012:

·       Nucleus Research: Technology Value Matrix for HCM – 2013 and 2012

·       Gartner: Magic Quadrant for Talent Management Suites, 2013

·       Bersin by Deloitte: The Definitive Buyer's Guide to The Global Market for Learning Management Solutions, 2013

·       Forrester Research: The Forrester Wave for Talent Management, Q1 2013

·       IDC: IDC Talent Management MarketScape Reports (five in 2013 and six in 2012)

·       Ventana Research - Total Compensation Management Value Index, 2012

As I mentioned above, we could not continually be recognized as a leader without the help of our customers and every SuccessFactors’ employee.  We are committed to providing you with the best in HCM solutions – from core HR and talent management (including learning, recruiting, performance and goals, compensation, and succession and development planning) to workforce planning.  We will continue to provide you with an elegant, yet powerful user experience, and at the same time, incorporate and leverage unique social and collaboration capabilities, unparalleled workforce analytics, and highly engaging mobile capabilities.

As Shawn Price, our CEO said earlier this year, “Being recognized by top-tier analysts that we offer the most global and comprehensive cloud HCM solutions is really an honor. With HR transformation among the top priorities of CEOs and business leaders today, this recognition helps validate the connection between talent management and business results.”

Thank you for your continued support – and we look forward to providing you with even greater excellence in 2014!

Some businesses are in the dark when it comes to the cloud. They have no idea how to approach and leverage public or private clouds – or a hybrid of both. And even worse yet, they don’t know what efficiencies and competitive advantages they are missing out on.

However, not every business is in this situation. And Sun Communities is clearly one of them.

For this fully integrated real estate investment trust with a portfolio of approximately 68,300 developed sites and 1,650 employees throughout the United States, the cloud is helping Sun Communities keep their employees engaged and succeed.

When customers walk into one of its manufactured housing or RV resort locations, Sun Communities wants to make sure they feel welcome and leave impressed. For that to happen, employees must be knowledgeable – but more importantly, they need to feel valued and motivated.

That is why the executive team of Sun Communities decided to invest in SuccessFactors cloud-based solutions. By managing all of its main talent management functions on a single, integrated platform, the company can offer new hires a seamless employee experience from day one and throughout their career at Sun Communities.

For example, employees on the go can stay productive by looking up information or updating quarterly goals through the SuccessFactors mobile app. Plus, they can share on-the-job videos that may help other employees. And through the SAP Jam social collaboration tool, employees can join conversations or collaborate on documents with their corporate peers. These capabilities enable customer-facing employees to stay abreast of the latest details on the company’s offerings and best practices for handling every kind of sales situation. And for customers, this translates into a top-notch experience convincing them to purchase an RV or manufactured home from Sun Communities.

Meanwhile, the HR organization is working more efficiently than ever. SuccessFactors Employee Central is helping the team automate routine administrative processes and free up bandwidth to identify and develop high-potential talent who will lead the company in the future.

Still not convinced that the cloud is the way to go? Get the full story on Sun Communities’ experience by watching the video below.

Now it’s your turn. What’s in your cloud? Tweet, comment, or blog about what’s in your cloud. Use the hashtag #InMyCloud to connect your comments with others.