There have been many changes in SAP HR development over the past decade, from HR administration transactions PA30/PA40 (they will always be loved), to the beautiful Dynamic Actions and how Self Service went from ITS to Java to ABAP to UI5 – but we all knew how everything hung together. But dramatic changes in recent years has sent shockwaves through the SAP HR consultant community with the inclusion of one word – cloud.
The playing field has changed. It’s a bit like the day your first baby is born – nothing will ever be the same, and you have to re-learn everything again – and quick! But just like a newborn, the more you learn about it, the more you grow to love it – even the frustrating bits.
One of the biggest challenges in a HR project is Change Management. It can be very testing to start a project by asking the client to modify complex processes, which may have taken years to build. For companies who have been using SAP HR on-premise for years, which provides the ability to customise what they want, when they want to – making adjustments can be an uphill task.
Faith in the future
However, when I did my first SuccessFactors training course I wasn’t convinced with what was on offer, but now I’m enjoying the SuccessFactors journey – not just the customer journey but also what it’s giving HR consultants all over the world.
I’ve faced many challenges presented by SAP HR Recruitment Modules, but I now relish the delight in implementing SuccessFactors Recruitment Management Module and Recruitment Marketing, which have been one of my proudest achievements in a twenty-year SAP HR career.
As with all technology, there are some frustrating restrictions, but these only apply if we are unable to embrace change. I have no doubt the speed at which SAP releases updates and improvements, four releases per year, will address and eradicate any minor frustrations during implementations in the SuccessFactors Recruitment Modules.
SAP SuccessFactors in action
During a 15-week implementation journey, which started with the client taking us through their existing processes, through three iterations of build, to go-live – less than one month later, almost 30,000 applicants clicked that magic apply button, giving every company what they want – people who want to be part of it’s brand.
The implementation included ‘Multi-post’, which allows for the quick posting of vacancies to job boards, integration with the existing non-SAP HR database and mobile approvals. The project included the complete rebranding of the SuccessFactors homepage, to ensure internal users had a consistent User Experience when using the already implemented SuccessFactors LMS and the new Careers and Recruitment Management modules. It was possibly the smallest project team I have worked with on any HR implementation but with a client who embraced change and was happy to adapt or amend existing processes to fit the cloud solution.