Category Archives: ESS

HR Renewal and SAP Fiori: What Should I Do?

ESS, HR Renewal, HR Tech, HR2016, SAP Fiori, Self Services, , , , , ,

Several years ago, SAP found themselves in a situation which happens to many large software companies. Two separate parts of the organization developed new HR functionality to solve for a common gap: usability.  On one side, HR Renewal came to fruition – a new landing page built off SAPUI5 with a new navigation and user experience. The other – SAP Fiori – was a cross-function solution (inspired with a Google design team) with a separate entry point (SAP Fiori Launchpad) and its own user interface using SAPUI5.

Many customers are now perplexed on how to move forward given both are viable solutions to solve SAP’s long-plagued usability problems, especially in the areas of Employee and Manager Self-Service.

It’s apparent that the bulk of innovation will go into SAP Fiori apps, since SAP Fiori is being leveraged across all platforms (On premise, SuccessFactors, Fieldglass, Ariba, etc.) It is SAP’s answer to a common UX, despite the disparate systems behind it.  Vishal Sikka (ex-CTO of SAP, now CEO and MD at Infosys) layed out his vision at the 2013 SAPPHIRE show.

VisionfromVishal

His “Fiori UX Paradigm” – drawn by hand and reminiscent of the days when the best solutions in software began on the back of a napkin – showed his vision, which SAP is trying to execute on.

So, with all this talk on SAP Fiori, does this mean that HR Renewal is dead? No. The functionalities are still more plentiful in HR Renewal (by a long shot), and are highly relevant for HR Professionals. It is unlikely that SAP will endeavor to re-write these apps in SAP Fiori. Although SAP Fiori is the better choice from a mobile perspective (since it’s responsive and device-agnostic), HR Renewal is still a good choice for companies who want to roll out services to their HR teams (admins, reporting) who don’t want to deal with the SAP GUI. The hard-core services performed in HR Renewal (i.e., Personnel Administration and Organizational Management updates such as employee movement scenarios and organizational updates) would almost certainly be done on desktop and not on device (e.g. I can’t see an HR admin performing a complex promotion/inter-company transfer on their Smartphone).  This should relieve some of the frustration from customers when they realize a majority of the transactions that are new with HR Renewal are using the Web Dynpro ABAP technology which is not mobile-optimized (as opposed to SAPUI5).

I will tackle more sound-bytes in future blogs. In particular, the question may not be HR Renewal versus SAP Fiori, but perhaps how could they work together for your organization.

Until then, please leave some questions or comments below…

HR2015 – What You Want to Know at This Year’s SAP HR Conference

ESS, HR Renewal, HR2015, Mobility, MSS, SAP Fiori, SAP HCM, SAPInsider, Self Services, , , , , ,

Hello friends,

The HR event from SAPInsider is almost upon us.  Please visit the website to see more details on what’s scheduled. Please visit me at one of my sessions, or at booth #410 in the Exhibit Hall during the show.

HR2015
The Bellagio will host this year’s SAPInsider conference, HR2015

I just recorded a podcast with Ken Murphy, Features Editor for SAPinsider & insiderPROFILES, about the conference and some hot topics.  It was a great discussion with him, as we exchanged thoughts on HR Renewal, SAP Fiori, SAPUI5, user adoption, change management, security, and other big league topics. I will update this post once that podcast is released so you can have a listen.

For those customers preparing for the conference, this is what I could be curious to listen for during the conference:

  1. What are the latest innovations within the SAP HR space around SAP Fiori?  Will there be another wave of HR apps released? If so, when? How will SAPUI5 apps be expanded in the HR space, or will they?
  2. How will HR Renewal continue to innovate, in areas like SAPUI5 replacement (of Web Dynpro ABAP services), as well as a more intuitive navigation scheme? In my opinion, the current lane approach looks fresher than previous homepage layouts, but also can cause more challenges for user adoption. This is something that I will discuss at the conference.
  3. Will HR Renewal and SAP Fiori “merge forces”, or will we they continue to be deployed in separate releases, style sets, etc? It’s important that we hear from SAP on these roadmap items, especially after Vishal Sikka’s (relatively) recent exit.
  4. What’s the “portal of choice” now for customers? Or, is there even a frontrunner? Currently, we have SAP NetWeaver Portal, NetWeaver Business Client (NWBC), SAP Fiori Launchpad, SAP Fiori within SAP Portal,  and other 3rd party portals (SharePoint, WebSphere are top).  How do we navigate these options, and which one’s best for customers?
  5. What’s new in the HR Professional role? For this, I would attend my co-author Brandon Toombs‘ session “Guidelines and requirements for adapting to the HR Professional role UI”. Brandon is a force to be reckoned with on this topic.

Hope to see you at the show!

Jeremy

(you can follow me on Twitter @jeremymasters)

Spring 2014 conference circuit – My Top 5 Takeaways

Cloud, ESS, HANA, HR2014, Hybrid, PaaS, SAP Fiori, , , , ,
Photo in action during one of my self-service sessions in Nice, France.
Photo in action during one of my self-service sessions in Nice, France during HR2014 Europe.

After my “spring conference tour” (HR2014 in Orlando, Mastering SAP & Payroll in Johannesburg, HR2014 in Nice, and SAPPHIRE/ASUG 2014), I have listed five key takeaways from my interactions with customers.

  1. Customers are still struggling with the basics. Topics such as security/authorizations, reporting, organizational updates, portals, authentication, mobile enablement continue to plague customers. Throughout this exciting time of HR systems innovation, we often overlook that ‘business keeps happening’ (i.e., organizations are dynamic, employees need to get paid – and paid correctly). As consultants, we need to remember that we can’t mess up the basics as we are looking at the “new and shiny”.
  2. There is significant interest from the SAP install base in HR Renewal and other ways to refresh the overall user experience for employees, managers, and HR Professionals. The update of the current portal interface using SAPUI5 (SAP’s take on HTML5) is a popular topic on the ground. Furthermore, and specific to HR Renewal (and other SAPUI5 services), knowing now that we can couple SAP Netweaver Gateway and SAP ECC provides customers with an even a lower TCO.
  3. Hybrid (core HR on premise, full/partial talent in the cloud) will be commonplace for companies in the next 5-7 years. After talking with many organizations, the reality of integrations and their complications are here to stay. Integration strategy and middleware choice is increasingly important for customers running SAP HCM.
  4. The “fury” over Fiori has been laid to rest. SAP Fiori is now included as part of the standard SAP maintenance fee for customers. It’s a pity that SAP customers had to fight for this like they did, but it does give some comfort in knowing that the user community is a force to be reckoned with when they believe something is unjust. The UI merging of HR Renewal, SAP Fiori, and SuccessFactors will seem to be a top priority. The vision of (since-departed) Vishal Sikka of a unified HTM5 UI may not be as farfetched as I originally thought.
  5. HANA is still a nebulous term for customers (no pun intended), but some are starting to understand that it’s not just a database anymore. More and more professionals are starting to understand the importance of PaaS (Platform as a Service), and the capabilities of the SAP HANA Cloud Platform. As partners, many in the SAP eco-system look forward to the day when the HANA Marketplace will be as robust as AppExchange.

Feel free to comment below if you would like to add.

Jeremy

@jeremymasters

 

HR Wrap-up from SAPPHIRE/ASUG 2013

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

Hi friends,

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

Quick Thoughts on the Keynotes

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

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

What’s in a Name, and Should We Care?

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

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

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

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

 

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

SAP Core HR and Employee Central

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

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

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

Yet Another UI Option: SAP Fiori

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

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

  • Time Sheet
  • Leave Request
  • Paystub
  • Benefits Overview

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

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

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

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

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

What are your thoughts?

SAP HANA and its application for SAP HCM?

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

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

Next Stop: Amsterdam!

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

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

Jeremy

You can follow me on Twitter: @jeremymasters

Mobile Desktop

Refreshing the UI: HR Renewal, HR Desktop and Mobility

ESS, HR Renewal, MSS, Self Services, , ,

During the HR2013 Conference in Las Vegas this year, I was honored to be the moderator of a panel “SAPexperts LIVE! Panel Discussion: Recent Enhancements to Employee Self-Service/Manager Self-Service”. You can also check out the video posted on Youtube video here.

During the session, there were several key themes resonating, but one of which was the new program from SAP called HR Renewal.

HR Renewal

HR Renewal is a program started a few years back from SAP that was meant to refresh the user experience for HR. It’s now also being extended to include ESS and MSS start screens, with shipments scheduled later in 2013.  The basic idea was to refresh the user experience for the HR functionalities within XSS (think self service for HR Professionals), as well as ESS and MSS. This is a response to some of SAP’s competitors (e.g. Workday) and the overall direction needed from SAP to provide functionality outside of the SAP GUI.

Some other useful blogs on the subject include those from Jarret Pazahanick (SCN | Twitter)  in SCN:

New SAP HCM Functionality – HR Renewal 1.0 – Initial primer (dated June 1, 2012)

SAP New HR Renewal Functionality and Roadmap – Additional information (dated Oct 10, 2012) from Jarret on HR Renewal.

SAP HCM Enhancement Package 6 and HR Renewal – Overview (from Dec 19, 2012)  of a key points of an HR Renewal Podcast

HR Renewal, ESS, MSS
Landing Page for HR for HR Renewal

Jarret also did a nice podcast not too long ago with the folks from Insider Learning Network. You can listen to that here.

For those of you who have a license to SAPExperts, you can read here about the HR Renewal program from Jean-Bernard Rolland, Vice President, HR Solutions, SAP.  (SAPExperts Login Required)

The standard SAP Documentation is here for HR renewal 1.0 Support Package (SP) 10, which is also referred to as “HR renewal 1.0 Feature Pack 3”.

For additional information on the HR Renewal, you can check out the SAP Note 1701634 (HR renewal 1.0: Release Information Note). (SAP Marketplace Login Required). You’ll also want to check out SAP Note 1691232 (Installing SAP HR renewal 1.0 on ERP 6.0 EHP6). (SAP Marketplace Login Required).

If you are on Twitter, you can follow the Solution Owner, Robert Moeller. His handle is @Robert_SAP. In fact, he sat down with the SAP HCM Insights Podcast team to record a session which you can listen to here.

Below is the latest Product availability matrix from SAP, where you can clearly see:

  • HR Renewal is the successor to the MSS Add-On 1.0
  • SAP enhancement package 6 for SAP ERP 6.0 is a prerequisite
  • No current successor products/releases for this at this time
HR Renewal
Product availability matrix/version for HR Renewal

HR Desktop

For those companies not on ECC 6.0 Enhancement Package 6, or for those looking for alternatives to SAP’s HR Renewal functionality, Worklogix’s HR Desktop offers another compelling UI for SAP HCM. The HR Desktop offers a full suite HCM visualization, including quick access to employee information and organizational data. HR Desktop forms an important backbone for Worklogix’s eForms (HCM Processes & Forms). For more information about the HR Desktop, click here, or you can contact me directly.

HR Desktop Employee Profile
Employee Profile HR Desktop by Worklogix

 

HR Desktop Form Wizard
HR Desktop Form Wizard by Worklogix

Mobile Desktop

In addition to this, the HR Desktop has a mobile framework for customers. The mobile framework – call the Mobile Desktop – offers customers with a cost-attractive solution to manage HR processes end-to-end from a mobile device.

Mobile Desktop
Menu screen for the Mobile Desktop by Worklogix
Mobile Desktop
Approval screen for the Mobile Desktop by Worklogix

Regardless of technology choice above (or other options), it is clear that SAP customers are gaining more options on how to deploy their applications, and moreover – how to deploy applications using a user interface that will provide a consumer-grade experience to the end user.

Usability predicts user adoption. In today’s world, this is necessity and not a luxury.

Until next time,

Jeremy

 

Thoughts from HR2013

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

Hi gang,

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

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

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

Please follow me on Twitter at @jeremymasters

Top 5 Things I Plan to Do at HR2013 in Vegas

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

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

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

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

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

Good bye for now, and see you in Vegas!

Jeremy

SAP Insider Q&A: ESS, MSS, and Portal Talk – A Great Conversation with Customers

ESS, MSS, SAP Consulting, Self Services, , , ,

On November 27th, I hosted another SAPInsider Q&A forum with over 50 participants. The good turnout did not surprise me as I have talked with many customers asking about the new ESS and MSS functionality and also the deployment options available (NWBC, SAP Portal, 3rd party, vendor-provided, Cloud, etc.).  There were a ton of great questions. You can check out my the recorded session here.

A few takeaways from the event for me were as follows:

  1. Still a lot of interest for customers wanting to implement basic ESS and MSS (even for the first time).  Basic time entry and attendance is still much in demand for customers, as well as benefits, pay statement, and other more “basic” self services. This is especially true for many of the smaller or mid-size customers.
  2. There is lots of talk around the newer EhP5 and EhP6 services, including the new deployment options.  I have seen some customers looking at SharePoint and WebSphere for their portal (content management), but by far customers seem to be sticking to their SAP NetWeaver Portal investment.  Since becoming enterprise-grade years back, I feel confident the SAP Portal is here to stay for most customers already running it for their HR services (and/or as their enterprise portal). Ripping it out and going NWBC might not make much sense for them right now given their provisioning is already being handled via the portal.
  3. Confusion around prerequisites and sequencing of Enhancement Package upgrades. Whether the customer is going to EhP5 or EhP6, there seems to be a lack of good content. You can start here for MSS content, and here for ESS content. Also, check out SAP Note  1588625 (Release information for Manager Self-Services Add-On 1.0) as well as SAP Note 1450179  (ESS Based on Web Dynpro ABAP Available as of EHP5) . These two notes should provide some good high overview of the current ESS and MSS offerings. Customers are realizing the differences between the Enhancement Pack and the Business Functions – Enhancement Packs are a BASIS activity versus Business Functions are for Functional consultants (this is a generalization, but the point is that the business functions is where we actually switch on the functionality). For those who want a baseline, please check out my ESS/MSS SAP PRESS book  as well as Marin Gillet’s SAP PRESS book.

I am hosting another HR Forum on Talent Management, on January 23 at 12:30pm EST. Please join me then and let’s have another great conversation about Talent!

You can follow me on twitter at @jeremymasters

Best,

Jeremy