How do YOU prep for SAPPHIRENOW? Haircut? Mani? Drycleaning? Maybe you're putting final touches on your presentation.  (And if you were giving a session on SAP Visual Intelligence, um... that's a lot of cut-and-paste.)

MY homework includes reading everyone's SAPPHIRE "watch list". Yes, there are questions of cloud, HANA, pricing, BI and HR roadmaps (and look out for payroll,  says Jeremy Masters). SAPexperts asked questions around mobility, and we had a really entertaining conversation, as always, with Jon Reed. (Roadmap, shmoadmap, says Jon. He wants to talk integration.) 

But, time's up! Now I just want to know which sportstars will be joining Bill McDermott on Day 1.  And for those of us back in the office, we can still follow the action. (Jon Reed shared some great Twitter tips, and Scott Wallask says just follow Tammy Powlas - good advice).

SAPinsider and Insider Learning Network together are doing our part. We're live streaming the three SAP executive keynotes, plus a handful of 20-30 minute sessions: Steve Lucas on database solutions; a BI panel with Jason Rose hosting e-Bay and others; and Sherryanne Myer on HR Renewal, among others.

Here is the lineup, times, and links. Sit back for a keynote or session, and follow @sapinsider and @iln4sap for reminders, too...

TUESDAY, MAY 14

9-10:30am ET: KEYNOTE with Bill McDermoot & Bob Calderoni
Watch live on SAPinsider

Customers, Fans, and a Better-Run World -- Find out more
by Bill McDermott, Co-CEO SAP
Networked Innovation: How Business Networks Are Driving the Next Wave of Productivity and Insights
by Bob Calderoni, CEO, Ariba, Inc., and Member of Global Managing Board, SAP AG

11-11:30am ET: PANEL with SAP's Jason Rose
Watch live on the BI Network

Drive Business Value Using the Latest Business Intelligence Solutions
Speakers: Bob Russo, Maidenform Brands, Inc.
Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, e-Bay

1-1:20pm ET: SESSION with Steve Lucas
Watch live on SAPinsider

Transform Business with Database and Technology Solutions
by Steve Lucas, General Mgr, Global Database and Technology, SAP

4-4:20pm ET: SESSION with Sherryanne Meyer
Watch live in the HR forum

Deliver a Renewed HR Experience
by Sherryanne Meyer, Mgr, IT HR, Air Products and Chemicals Inc.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 15

9-10:30am ET: KEYNOTE with Jim Hagemann Snabe 
Watch live on SAPinsider

Innovation, the Unfair Advantage
by Jim Hagemann Snabe, Co-CEO SAP

3-3:20pm ET: SESSION with NuVasive's Quentin Hurst & SAP's James Naftel
Watch live on our IT Forum

Lay a Foundation for Success with Enterprise Mobility Management
by Quentin Hurst, Director, Business Systems Applications, NuVasive
and James Naftel, Sr Dir, Platform Solution Management, SAP

THURSDAY, MAY 16

8:30-10:30am ET: KEYNOTE with Hasso Plattner & Vishal Sikka
Watch live on SAPinsider

SAP HANA Changes Everything!

12-12:20pm ET: SESSION with Sealed Air Corp.'s Rajesh Mahajan
Watch live on the CRM Network

Sealed Air Corp. Adopts SAP CRM Strategy to Keep
Pace with Changing Market

All session descriptions are on the SAPPHIRE NOW Agenda page.

Enjoy! I'll be getting my cup of coffee soon.  Maybe I can fit in a manicure while catching up on SAP's procurement strategy...

-- Kristine Erickson, Managing Editor, Insider Learning Network

Who can preview SAPPHIRE better than Jon Reed?

In this podcast, SAP Mentor and independent analyst Jon Reed (JonERP.com) spoke with SAPinsider's Ken Murphy about what's top of mind for him heading into SAPPHIRE NOW in Orlando starting May 14.

Sure, Jon wants to see HANA customer stories, and more about cloud,  Ariba, and the new HANA-Sybase platform. He shares his opinion on the musial guests, and gives his take on the keynotes. Asked about how SAP can clear up customers' roadmap questions? "I'm not a huge roadmaps guy," he says, and tells us what he's really looking for instead from SAP. Great stuff from Jon Reed.

You can listen to the full discussion in the original podcast, or read the edited transcript here:

Ken Murphy: Hi everyone, this is Ken Murphy with SAPinsider and Insider Learning Network. With SAPPHIRE NOW and ASUG annual conference approaching, we are pleased to be joined by SAP Mentor and independent analyst Jon Reed of JonERP.com, who has agreed to give us a sneak preview of what he is expecting to see in Orlando.

Welcome to the podcast, Jon.

Jon Reed:  Ken, pleasure to be here.

Murphy:  Before we begin, I want to get to, I guess, the most important information first: Just how many times have you been to SAPPHIRE?

Reed: Ken, I don’t have a count ready for you offhand, but I can tell you I did lose count at 10. So, that gives you some idea.

Murphy: So, you know your way around.

Reed: I don’t want to date myself any further than that.

Murphy:  In addition to HANA, there are questions on HR – on-premise vs. cloud, for example – and some ongoing questions about BI and BusinessObjects tools selection. Are there any specific roadmap questions that you’re looking for SAP to address at SAPPHIRE NOW?

Reed: That’s a funny question, because I think you hit on the ones that SAP is most likely to touch on. And to give SAP some credit, I think they have made some progress on all of those.  I think we also want to hear even a little more on the combined kind of HANA-Sybase real-time platform portfolio.

But, I’m not a huge roadmaps guy, for a couple reasons I can explain.

The one roadmap I’m particularly interested in -- and that I would think customers are particularly interested in -- is more about an integration roadmap overall.

I think one of the aspects of SAP’s hybrid cloud approach is this ability to plug in different pieces of software which may or may not be provided by SAP, or may be from different SAP business units. So integration’s becoming a really important piece of the puzzle.

SAP for quite some time now has, in the guise of NetWeaver and NetWeaver PI, offered some heavy-duty integration to some of its largest customers.  But I’m looking for a bolder, more aggressive integration strategy going forward that includes things like integration as a service. So I don’t expect some kind of full roadmap yet, but I really want to hear more about this.

It seems to me SAP’s in a great position to help its customers with integrating this diverse range of software that’s cropping up in enterprises, some of which is proliferating in business users and line of business decisions. At the same time, SAP could also drop the ball on that issue and provide a lot of openings for other vendor or customer dissatisfaction -- which nobody wants.

So I’ll be watching for that.

Murphy: With a new HANA book and a new HANA magazine that will be unveiled at the show, and plenty of sessions on the topic (HANA, that is), it looks like in-memory will continue to be a big focus for SAP, as it was last year.

Where do you see SAP taking those discussions around HANA, and do you think there’s anything specific  about HANA that folks should take notice of this year?

Reed:  I think it’s interesting. SAP’s obviously going to be pretty aggressive about Business Suite on HANA at SAPPHIRE and trying to make clear to customers what some of the options and use cases are. It was announced in January, but that’s going to be a big piece.

One of the challenges SAP has is that HANA is more than just a database, and customers want to understand the use cases for HANA.

This could actually include using HANA as a platform to build real-time applications, or maybe purchase such applications from partners, and so SAP’s got a little bit of a challenge trying to help customers understand the different possibilities with HANA.  I’d be disappointed if SAP only talked about database replacement, because I just don’t feel that a lot of SAP customers are going to be in the mood to do kind of a database rip-and-replace.  

But once you get into industry-specific use cases where you can really see customers using real-time information and real-time computation power from HANA in new ways to break into new markets, that kind of stuff gets really interesting.  

So, I would guess that we’re going to hear about both, but it will be interesting to see if SAP can get across dimensions that make sense to customers because every customer’s a little bit different.

One of my hopes is that SAP will not just be talking about futuristic stuff with the Business Suite, but will actually have some customers – they have a lot of BW on HANA customers that have gone live now. Hopefully we’ll hear from some of those, and start to hear from a customer perspective what the real perceived benefits are. So I’m going to really be looking for that.

Murphy:  SAPPHIRE is a huge event. With so much going on, what would you recommend for those back at the office looking to monitor what’s happening in Orlando? Any social channels that you’ll be following during the show or that you recommend?

And how do you see SAP using social and its online presence to expand its reach for this conference?

Reed: That’s a really good one. Obviously, SAP’s going to be broadcasting a lot of the conference virtually, so if you go to the SAPPHIRE NOW website, or the ASUG 2013 website, you’ll have links to the live broadcasts of keynotes, for example, that are going to be shared online.

One thing that’s happening, of course, is that we no longer consume live events just as events; we’re consuming a kind of running stream of commentary. So news and conversation are kind of getting mixed, and to some extent that makes it really hard; it’s an attention-span trial to track all these different feeds.

But the other thing is it kind of gives you a real-time gut-check on what’s happening, and so for me I like to follow Twitter conversations about what’s happening -- especially with keynotes. If you’re on the ground at events, it can be useful because you can find out late-breaking schedule changes and stuff like that.

If you’re not at the event, watching the Twitter stream in particular can really help you get a handle on what’s happening at the conference.

You start to feel a part of things because you can ask questions of people who are on the ground and not feel as isolated. So for example, if you ping me on Twitter during the show I’ll try to get your question answered -- I think a lot of people share that mentality -- so that part is pretty cool.

The only thing I would issue a bit of a caution about is that my experiences at these event hashtags on Twitter are getting pretty polluted. For example, if you go search twitter.com and type in the hashtag “ASUG 2013” you might get a more focused conversation, but the SAPPHIRE NOW hashtag especially (and to some extent the ASUG hashtag) gets kind of bogged down. It is sometimes a little difficult to really track the stuff you’re interested in.

So a couple ways of combating that is to follow some individuals, either in a HootSuite-type program where you can track them individually, or to trim them into a list.

Another really cool thing you can do, even just on search.twitter.com, is not only to type in a hashtag but also a keyword. Type in “ASUG 2013” but also “HANA”, and you might be able to get some of the chatter on HANA from more of a customer and ASUG perspective.

That’s just an example of how you can start to slice and dice things a little around areas you’re interested in. You can even do it for a topic that might not be as full of hype as HANA, something like Workflow, for example, if that’s a focus area for you.

By monitoring conversations around topics of interest, and that will help save you a bit from this barrage of noise that comes down the channel, when  and you start to wonder, “Am I getting good information, or is this for a place for people to market stuff that isn’t relevant?” So, you do have to plan ahead a little bit on how you’re going to filter and sort this information.

MURPHY: As we approach the show, are there any other predictions from you as far as surprises in store for attendees? Anything special that people should be on the lookout for?

REED: Well, you know there’s actually some pretty interesting stuff.  One is that Bob Calderoni, the CEO of Ariba, is participating in the keynote on the first day along with Bill McDermott. We haven’t heard from Calderoni on the keynote stage before yet, so that’s going to be really interesting. Ariba is going to play an important role, I think, in how SAP’s future unfolds with its business networks and such.

And then we have an ASUG keynote that night that includes a guest keynote by Seth Godin, who’s a best-selling author around marketing topics.  My opinion is that Seth can be kind of hit-or-miss; I’m not one of those people that worship him as a guru. But especially if he figures out how to tie his thinking around differentiation and brands into the kind of stuff that SAP and SAP customers are dealing with, that could end up being a really good keynote, so we’ll have to see.

And then finally on the second day, Wednesday, Lars Dalgaard, SuccessFactors CEO, is also going to be on the keynote. We actually haven’t heard from him for awhile for various reasons; he had some family matters to attend to and some other things. I’ve been told he’s very active behind-the-scenes, but this is really a chance to hear from him.

And between those keynotes, maybe we’ll get to really piece together more of where SAP is going with cloud. Although customers may not be as concerned about this today, if I’m an SAP customer I do want to feel confident in SAP’s cloud strategy going forward. We just really haven’t heard much about that this year --  it’s been “HANA, HANA, HANA, HANA.” And of course HANA does tie into cloud, but we want to understand that better. SAPPHIRE is going to be a really good opportunity to get a gut-check on that.

I don’t know if I can comment on the music event, because the lineup is a bit out of my -- how can I put this? --  my musical comfort zone. But Alan Jackson has sold 60 million records, so I guess I have something to learn from him. But I don’t know how that’s going to go, because I’m not familiar with that lineup.

Murphy: Well, Bonnie Raitt can play a pretty mean guitar herself, so…

REED: Yeah, Bonnie Raitt’s going to come through. So as long as Bonnie Raitt’s on-stage things should be okay, but I’m not sure what’s going to happen that night, to be honest with you.

Murphy:  I’ve been speaking with SAP Mentor and independent analyst Jon Reed about the upcoming SAPPHIRE NOW and ASUG conference in Orlando. Jon, thanks for joining us, and enjoy your time at SAPPHIRE, which we know will be at least your 11^th event.

REED: At least my 11^th! I look forward to seeing your WIS Pubs team down there, too.

Murphy:  Thanks again, Jon.

In this interview, we follow up with HR 2013 speaker Kellie Fitzpatrick of Symphony Management Consulting for her perspective on SAP's HR on-premise, hybrid and cloud solutions.

Kellie spoke to SAPinsider’s Dave Hannon about her clients’ perceptions of SuccessFactors, which HR solutions they are implementing now, the quick wins she has seen for HR mobility, and the big questions HR customers will have for SAP going forward.

Listen to the full podcast in our Podcast archives, or read the edited transcript here:

Dave Hannon, SAPinsider: Hello, this is Dave Hannon with SAPinsider. Joining me today is Kellie Fitzpatrick, CEO at Symphony Management Consulting. Welcome Kellie.

Kellie Fitzpatrick, Symphony Management Consulting: Thank you, Dave.

Dave: We’re going to be talking a little about SAP HCM and SuccessFactors today.

Kellie, first I wanted to get your perspective on the adoption curve for SuccessFactors among SAP customers. It’s now more than a year since the deal closed. What’s your perspective on the adoption and how it stacks up compared to what you were expecting?

Kellie: Thanks, Dave. I think it’s very interesting. A year ago, our business was primarily SAP. A lot of our clients were looking at the SuccessFactors product, but for our own business model, the only time we would really get involved with a client was when they were implementing SAP functionality or ERP.

So, over the last year, we have completely changed our business model;  we are now SAP and SuccessFactors. The interesting part of that is every single one of our clients who were doing SAP last year at the same time are now in the midst of a SuccessFactors implementation or thinking about a SuccessFactors implementation. I have a couple of stragglers, but that’s always good because they’re trying to wrap up what they were doing with SAP.

The part I get really excited about is that now we are talking to clients who really may not have been able to go into SAP HCM for one reason or another. Maybe it was the user interface. Maybe it was a pricing concern. But all of our clients are now able to look at SuccessFactors.

Whether it be a mid-market or an enterprise account, they’re looking and saying “Hey, you know what? I really can’t afford or don’t like the user interface in SAP. I can now afford SuccessFactors. Let’s get into Employee Central. Let’s get into Employee Central Payroll. Let’s talk about Talent Management.”

Another piece of this is that this time last year, we were losing deals to Workday because of user interface or different components. Today, we’re winning against Workday because SuccessFactors and SAP have put so much time and money into the user interface, the usability, the functionality. And it’s really assisted our clients in making that switch from SAP to SuccessFactors, or adding on SuccessFactors, or even just saying let’s forego SAP altogether. Let’s just go right into the cloud.

Dave: Regarding SuccessFactors specifically, I know you’ve taken a good look at the enhancements and the upcoming release of the BizX Suite.

Are there any of those that you think would be of particular interest to SAP and SuccessFactors users? Anything you want to highlight there?

Kellie: I grew up...I was an SAP brat, as I tell people.  I really started out on the HR side. And as SAP grew their product, I was excited to see things like concurrent employment come in and how to handle positions and different things.

So with SuccessFactors, and where SAP and SuccessFactors have gone over the last year or so, I’m really excited about the ability for clients to take into account their Position Management, allocating FTEs,  looking at the budgets against the FTEs -- I think that’s very important, and I have a lot of clients who were struggling with that whole concept prior to this release. I’m pretty excited about how SAP and SuccessFactors have enhanced that.

I think Employee Central Payroll is a huge win for SAP. A lot of clients were struggling because they really wanted to go Payroll, but they didn’t necessarily want to run it on-premise. Going along the payroll side, anything that you can do from a payroll perspective, where you can allocate costs differently from an employee -- we all know that an employee doesn’t always work on the same thing every single day. The fact that they can run this in the cloud and we can post the GLs properly, I think is going to be huge for SAP.

And certainly, anything around time off. A lot of clients are struggling with, “How do I track time?“ Maybe they don’t necessarily want to go to a third-party vendor. The fact that SAP and SuccessFactors have brought that in is really good as well.

Of course, anything they can do on interfaces and sending data back and forth from SAP to SuccessFactors and backwards is going to be a huge win for clients. When you’re running a hybrid solution, you do need to get data back and forth seamlessly. I think APIs and integrations are always a big thing for our clients.

Dave: In addition to cloud, I know mobility is always a big priority. Where would you put the SAP HCM on a mobility curve, and how much impact has the SuccessFactors deal had on the mobile trajectory for SAP HCM users?

Kellie: Well, for HR, it’s probably a little bit more important for our clients, because they have areas where they have managers continuously moving. And they don’t have access to a terminal or a computer at their desk every single solitary step of the way.

What I’m really excited about - I’ll use the example of one of my clients. In order to get to mobility in SAP, they had to purchase additional software. They had to potentially do a lot more configuration. There was so much more and so many more costs associated with getting into the mobile framework. With SuccessFactors, I had a recent client who went live on Performance and Goals, and they did not like the process with SAP. They weren’t getting what they needed out of it. So they moved over to SuccessFactors.

When they moved to SuccessFactors, they started using their iPads and iPhones from day one. It made them so much more productive. It was unbelievable, so much so that they actually took another step forward and decided to look at Recruiting, Compensation, and the entire technology within SuccessFactors. In order to get to the mobile framework, it was just a few clicks of configuration and it was all set up. It made them so much more productive and efficient, and streamlined so many more of their processes. I think it’s a game changer for SAP really.

Dave: Last, I want to ask you about roadmap. That’s always something folks want to hear more about.

We’ve got SAPPHIRE now coming up sandwiched right between the HR 2013 events in the US and Europe. Were there any interesting roadmap tidbits that you’ve heard already? Or that you’re hoping to hear or expecting to hear in the events coming up?

Kellie: The big thing is to hear not only about the hybrid and the integration with SAP and SuccessFactors -- that’s a given -- but the enhancements within Employee Central, the enhancements within Employee Central Payroll. How are their choices going to be whittled down within Benefits or Time? Are they always going to use Benefits focus?

I have a lot of clients who are concerned in thinking about the Benefits functionality and the Time functionality, and how do they pull that all into a cloud framework with multiple vendors.

What I’m hoping to hear more about - I know my clients are hoping to hear more about - is what developments SAP and SuccessFactors have done to allow them to utilize these third-party vendors. How have they created a seamless interface between them, so that they don’t have to do any duplicate keying or using the data multiple ways?

It goes back to “How has our business changed?” Well, how has SuccessFactors business changed? With Gartner and Forrester recognizing them as a leader in their space, it’s going to be a huge push for SAP and SuccessFactors clients to get more information at SAPPHIRE so they can utilize that to make better decisions.

Anything around vendors, the functionality itself, how they’ve enhanced it…when we look at our competitive landscape, SAP and SuccessFactors are stacking up against the competition and are giving people pause, and helping them to make better decisions.

Dave: Kellie Fitzpatrick, CEO of Symphony Management Consulting – thank you very much for joining us today.

Kellie: Thank you for having me, Dave. I really appreciate it.   

SAP mentor and HR 2013 speaker Jarret Pazahanick spoke recently about HR Renewal 1.0, how the new SAP ERP HCM look- and- feel is being received, and what questions customers are having about implementation. (And, perhaps, even Renewal for the portal soon?)

Read the interview here, or listen to the full exchange with Ken Murphy of SAPinsider here in our podcast archives.

Ken Murphy:  This is Ken Murphy with SAPinsider. I’m pleased to be joined by Jarret Pazahanick, an SAP mentor, HCM certified consulting, and managing partner of EIC Experts. Jarret has joined us to answer a few questions about the HR Renewal program. Welcome to the podcast, Jarret.

Jarret: Thanks for having me, Ken.

Ken: Let’s start off with some basic question, exactly what are the technical requirements to implement HR Renewal?

Jarret Pazahanick: The key technical requirements are that a customer is on Enhancement Package 6, and depending on what pieces of HR Renewal functionality they are interested in, that they have installed Feature Pack 1, 2 or 3.

For those that don’t know, feature packs are now the new method in which SAP is delivering software updates and these “In-advance” shipments come via Support Packages.

At the core, I am really happy to see SAP starting to deliver quarterly updates for on-premise like many of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors. 

Ken: We saw at HR 2013 Las Vegas a lot of buzz about SAP HR Renewal look-and-feel, specifically around the new landing page and a redesign of the user experience in Feature Pack 2.0.

How does this new UX help HR administrators better perform their jobs?

Jarret: I think the SAP Team - and specifically Robert Moeller, who is the solution owner - did a great job at HR 2013, as well as over the lasts two years, they’ve done a great job of engaging with customers and thought leaders.

I have been lucky to be able to work with the SAP team over that time to provide input, and it is always nice when you see some of your suggestions end up in the final product.

At the core, for years, customers have complained about the user experience of the SAP HCM offering and it is great to see SAP finally make a sizable investment to offer them a more user friendly, harmonized and intuitive user experience.

I really believe the new landing pages will make it easier for HR administrators to use SAP and do their jobs, as it bring everything into one place, so I’m really excited about that.

Ken: What are some of the other features or modules that users and SAP customers are excited about? 

Jarret: Outside of the new landing pages, the area I am seeing the most interest is in HCM Processes and Forms, which are delivered via the Web Dynpro for ABAP technology.

The previous solution used Adobe technology, which came with a fairly expensive licensing  model and some technical limitations that hurt its overall adoption. I would recommend customers listening to this and interested in the new HCM Processes and Forms check out my buddy Brandon Toombs’ new SAP PRESS book, as it goes into depth on this new functionality.

(Editor’s note: Brandon took questions on HCM Processes and Forms in a recent Q&A – you can review all Brandon’s advice here.)

Ken: There has been some talk that a focus of HR Renewal in 2013 will be in building out content for a global audience. What is the state of this plan? 

Jarret: Currently there are infotypes and process samples for Brazil, China, India and the US, which covers some of the SAP’s largest markets and customers.

There are also country infotypes for Australia, Mexico, The Netherlands, Canada, Switzerland, Germany and UK.

I know internally, SAP wants to roll this out globally, but they are looking at the speed at which they’re able to do this. But they are looking to deliver additional content and country infotypes in Spain, Italy, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Austria, South Africa, New Zealand and Finland.   So if you take a look at that, there are 20-25 countries that should have some form of funcitonality by the end of the year. Obviously, that’s not the full global footprint, but for a new offering, that’s going to cover a pretty wide area.

Ken: Is there anything you’re hearing – any questions or confusion as you discuss SAP HR Renewal with customers and conference attendees -- that you’d like to address?

Jarret: The two pain points I have heard is the fact that you need to be on EHP6 – I think the last thing I heard is that 75% of customers were on one of the enhancement packages, and obviously you need to be on EHP6. So that’s one of the big ones.

The other one is that the landing pages -- which are one of pieces of new functionality that I’m most excited about – are only available for NetWeaver Business Client 4.0, which has limited adoption worldwide as well, although the SAP team is going to release this functionality on the portal pretty shortly.

That said, at the core I am hearing a lot of excitement from SAP customers around the HR Renewal. And  one of the things I like to reiterate is that there are no additional licenses required for this functionality. With a customer’s base user license, they get this technology.

So I really recommend that customers look to get to enhancement package 6, and leverage this new functionality. And if you’re doing a new implementation out there, you want to be sure you’re starting with the latest and greatest, because it is a fundamental change in the user experience.

Ken: Jarret, thank you again for joining us today and answer these uestions.

Jarret:  I appreciate you inviting me. Thank you.

Jarret Pazahanick is a SAP Mentor, HCM Certified Consultant and Managing Partner of EIC Experts who has specialized in SAP Human Capital Management (HCM) since 1998. He is a subject matter expert in US Payroll, Employee Interaction Center (EIC) and Enterprise Compensation Management (ECM). Over the past 14 years, Jarret has completed 20 high profile, full life cycle SAP HCM implementations for global Fortune 1000 companies. He is SAP HCM certified, ASAP certified, author for SAPexperts, CloudAve, ASUG News and a moderator, blogger and platinum level contributor on the SAP Community Network.

Ken Murphy is a senior writer with SAPinsider and insiderPROFILES magazines.  His latest pieces include “IT Compliance Unlocked at Siemens Industries” and “How Grupo Modelo Brews Up Process Change and Manages Risk”.

SAP HCM forms creation has changed dramatically with the release of SAP ERP 6.0 EHP6, HR Renewal 1.0, and the new Floor Plan Manager (FPM).

How can you prepare for the latest options for forms development and workflow with HCM Processes and Forms?

Brandon Toombs and Justin Morgalis, authors of the SAP PRESS book SAP ERP HCM Processes and Forms answered questions posted by our members on   March 20 in the HR Forum discussion thread. M.S. Hein, editor of SAPexperts’ HR Hub, moderated the discussion.

Review the full thread in the HR Forum, or read our edited transcript here:

M.S. Hein: Welcome to today’s HR Forum on HCM Processes & Forms.

I’m pleased to be joined today by Justin Morgalis and Brandon Toombs, authors of the SAP PRESS book SAP ERP HCM Processes and Forms – and Brandon is also recently back from our HR 2013 event in Las Vegas.

Today, they will review the discussion thread for the next hour and posting answers to your P&F questions. They will post their answers directly in the Forum thread.   

Welcome, Justin and Brandon, and congratulations on your latest book!

I see you have a number of questions waiting already, and more to come, I’m sure, so I’ll let you get started.

Justin Morgalis: Good afternoon, everyone.  I am here and slightly terrified.  But I am also excited, so let's do this!

Brandon Toombs: Thanks for having us! Justin and I really looking forward to the chat. Hope our typing keeps up!

KiranjotHoonjan: Question: How does SAP ERP HCM Processes and Forms compare to Adobe Interactive Forms and when would you use one over the other?

Brandon Toombs: I will state up front that I am biased toward the new FPM forms. 

I went over this in the book, but the short of it is that that using the web UI is a cleaner user experience, is more aligned with user expectations, eliminates support issues, and also removes licensing issues.

Unless your company is just in love with the Adobe Interactive front end, I'd say go with FPM. While SAP is stating they'll support the Adobe approach, it's clear that they're only investing in the FPM UI at this point (other than for printing, as we'll talk about later.)

Justin Morgalis: To add to what Brandon said, a lot depends on your level of investment in the Adobe Interactive technology.

Given that there is a licensing cost for each Adobe Interactive form, and the FPM forms are free, it is hard to justify that expenditure. However, that is not to say that the FPM forms are without flaw.

The Adobe forms have a much higher degree of client-side control via scripting. However, this is another language that needs to be learned. The FPM forms are all WDA, and your organizations skill level with that is likely a lot higher than with the Adobe scripting.

Monica Borden-Ooley: Can you recommend a best-business practice for how to deal with retroactively dated changes via forms? Thanks!

Justin: Monica, 

The best approach is typically to prevent all past-dated forms, by managing the effective date of the forms.

However, this is not always practical. I am dealing with this issue at my current client and it is often a big cultural issue, especially when turning over control to managers.

If you cannot prevent past-dated forms, it often helps to mitigate the impact of those retro changes to put in a check for any future dated changes that might be wiped out by the current process and, if there is such a change, stop the process, and/or forward it to HR to resolve. 

Monica Borden-Ooley: Makes sense. Thanks Justin!

sheaMatt: Hi Justin and Brandon,

How will the new options impact multilingual forms?

Brandon: Here's some good news with FPM. If you use the SAP standard data elements the multi lingual support is built right in: the labels and value helps will appear translated by default. Especially on the labels front, this did not happen in the Adobe approach.

This is not to say that everything will automatically translate.  If you create your own text views, there will be some work there either by logging in to the other environment or by using SE61. We do have a chapter on multilingual that touches on this in the book.

JohnHolland: Do these changes/enhancements impact the choice of Smartforms, especially as they are used in E-Recruiting?

Brandon Toombs: Thanks for the question John.  Hope all is well in upstate SC!

This is a good question because it allows us to talk about the distinction between smartforms, which render in PDF and adobe interactive forms which also render in PDF. 

Smartforms don't really require adobe interactive forms or the rendering engine the Adobe Document Services (ADS). So therefore smartforms are not impacted by either approach you take to SAP forms.

Monica Borden-Ooley: Can completed and approved forms be turned into a .pdf document? Also, are the documents and attachments treated the same with regard to security access?

What is the security around documents? It is possible to see the "approval" on a completed form?

Where are documents and attachments stored? Thank you!

Brandon Toombs: Good question!  I actually did an SCN blog on the subject which I posted yesterday. I won't go into the details too much here except to say that SAP has decided to use Adobe to handle the print support. 

I understand why as it's a way to meet a need that a lot of customers will have without a whole lot of extra development necessitated by the internal team. Still, would have preferred an automatic generation of this as I note in the comments.

Monica Borden-Ooley: Okay, I'll check out your blog. Thanks Brandon!

Sorin Caraiani: Hi,

1. Is there any equivalent of the Java/Adobe script in the FPM form?

2. I have HR Renewal 1.0 installed, but I see no example FPM forms. Do they come as an OSS note or is it something wrong with our installation?

Thanks,
Sorin

Justin Morgalis:

1. There is no client side scripting available with the FPM forms.

There is a nice blog out by Raja Sekhar Kuncham called FPM Forms Scripting that takes you through how to do some similar tasks in the FPM forms.  

2. I would recommend installing up to HR Renewal SP05, and then checking with the Reconcile Processes button in Design Time (HRASR_DT).

If they are not there in your client 000, there is a problem with your installation. 

KiranjotHoonjan: FPM form option is only available with HR Renewal and that is an Add-on for SAP - correct?

Justin Morgalis: Yes.  That is correct.

Jeremy Masters: Hi guys, 

Just wanted to say a quick hello and "Thank You" for the great book you authored together. For anyone that does not have it, you should buy it on the SAP PRESS website.

Also, for those that are on Twitter, I follow both Justin and Brandon.

I have no questions at this time 

Kir Chern: Hi Justin and Brandon,

My questions:

1. I intend to develop a custom HCM P&F with the FPM Form option. How do I then make the form accessible online (ESS/MSS)? Can I park or launch it from Report Launchpad (txn : LPD_CUST) ?

2. For service SAP_PA, the infotype must be in the decoupled infotype framework. That means the switch CCURE:PC_UI = X and the infotypes used have to be defined with the settings permitted in certain/all circumstances. Is this correct and are there any other settings that one should pay attention to?

3. For the services SAP_PD and SAP_PT, do I have to activate the new PD/PT infotype framework like the ones for SAP_PA -- and if yes, where is the IMG for it?

Thank you.

Justin Morgalis: Great questions.  Almost too great .

The answer is the Launchpad for both ESS and MSS. You will add the application as a WDA app in your launchpad entries and provide it with a series of parameters, including initiator role and process name. 

As for the decoupled framework, I believe that is correct. I can't think of any more settings of the top of my head that you would need.

Jay Bangalore: How do the HR process forms fit into the mobile space from a usability perspective is it easy to use on mobile devices (iPad, Android, etc.)?

Brandon Toombs: This is a good question and one I think that a lot of people will be asking. 

My understanding from talking with the solutions team on this is that there are currently no plans for SAP to develop this in house.  Since this is a HUGE need that a lot of customers are starting to have, third-party applications are working to plug this gap. I know Worklogix, Roc, and Aragon are working on this -- just to name a few.

Having started some of these conversations with a customer of mine, I can tell you that if you want to head down the custom path I would recommend you consider not just the UI but other critical issues such as deployment, version management, connection pooling, and authentication. 

Jeremy Masters: Thanks for the shout-out Brandon. Yes, Worklogix is one of the certified vendors within the SAP eco-system to provide mobile solutions for the Forms solution. You can check out some information about that here.

Brandon Toombs: As a plug for Jeremy, Worklogix has a good track record with customers I've worked with.  They have worked with SAP technology for a while and are responsive to customers. Pretty sure someone other than Jeremy writes the software though as he's a full time author (6 books now)?

MarkMichel: Is there an easy way to migrate existing customers who currently use the Adobe form interface for HCM Processes and Forms to the web dynpro interface available in HR Renewal? 

Brandon Toombs: Mark-

There is no official migration tool for this but the good news is that all of the backend work should function in the new UI with only minor modifications.  Of course, any work that has gone into scripting your application logic into the front end will need to be evaluated.

To build your front end, Robert Moeller, the head of the HR Renewal Solutions team said in his session at HR2013 that they recommend this approach:

1. Copy your process that you're looking to port and change the scenario to FPM

2. Copy the component configuration for an example FPM form and assign it to your new form

It's also important to note that you can mix the forms--have some older ones on Adobe and new ones on FPM while you're making the transition.  Does not have to be all or nothing.

MarkMichel: Great. Thank you!

imbegin: Hi - question in regards to "user events" on the forms.

When defining a user event on the form (simple validation for example), upon refresh, it triggers the PA service and does a complete "check and send" which checks all fields, instead of the ones that are defined as part of the user event. Is there any way to prevent this from happening?

Justin Morgalis: User events have always been a pain. There is a great blog by Christopher Solomon breaking down how User Events work (and quite frankly, don't work). I would recommend reading his very thorough material on this topic.

The intention of SAP seems to be to use Field Groups within the User Events to limit what service operations are being called, but it does not always work intuitively. Read Chris' blogs on this, because it is a lengthy topic.

I will add this though; see if you can utilize a service's INITIALIZE method to your advantage if you are just trying to refresh certain data points.

Cyndi Garza: Can you update both OM and PA with FPM in one process (ex: Modify position and then place a person in that same position)? 

Does FPM utilize previously built dynamic actions?

Justin Morgalis: Cyndi, 

These are very common questions when starting any HCMP&F implementation.

At this point, HCMP&F does not utilize any dynamic actions. HCMP&F uses the decoupled infotype framework to access infotype logic. Also, at this point, a fair amount of custom coding would be needed in order to do a combined OM/PA process, due to each type of process using a fundamentally different delivered service (SAP_PA vs SAP_PD).

Under the current framework, you would have to choose a starting point, likely the OM side of it, and then add in a custom WF step calling a custom helper class called after the background save step to accomplish the PA part. 

There is the hope of good news around the bend though. According to Robert Moeller at HR2013, both of these items are on the SAP wish list and you may see dynamic action support sooner rather than later. 

avadh: Justin: I read before that SAP was working on 'dynamic actions' like functionality in Forms.

Is this functionality available in latest release?

Brandon Toombs: You are hearing correctly that SAP is working on adding dynamic action support into the HCMP&F framework, but that support is not yet available in the current release.

avadh: Thanks for confirmation!

Jay Bangalore: How easy/difficult is it to build workflow based processess using FPM Forms?

Brandon Toombs: Jay,

I'll answer this one from 2 perspectives:

1. If you've never worked with HCMPF workflow before: I would say that, compared to workfows in the rest of HR, HCMPF workflows are much easier and more modular. There are a lot of building blocks such as tasks, rules, etc. that you can often just plug in. 

I got to write this chapter in the book, and so I got to dive even deeper than I had with clients; I can say that I think it's underappreciated how powerful these are.

2. If you have HCMPF workflows already for Adobe: If you have already implemented in Adobe with workflows, then the effort is not automatic.  There are new tasks that are used to launch dialogue work items so plan on a little effort here.

Monica Borden-Ooley: Do existing user exits have to be re-written or re-done in HCM P&F? Thanks!

Justin Morgalis: Any logic built into the decoupled infotype framework will be called by HCMP&F. If these user exits exist outside that framework, they would need to be re-created. 

Where you might do this depends on the type of logic that you are talking about. Some might be handled via the decoupled infotype framework and some might belong as process configuration.

ManojGowravaram: We are using FPM forms from HR Renewal 1.0.

Is there a way to have a Template for a process, instead of filling in all the details every time we invoke the process?
There seems to be a template feature in Adobe interactive forms but we could not find it for WDA forms.

Justin Morgalis: I have not seen anything like for the FPM forms. Saving a draft is still available, but I do not think that is what you are talking about. 

Sorin Caraiani: At a first glance, FPM provides a nice tool to do simple things but I don't see much flexibility.

I was imagining the capability to include standard component (same employee info in all forms) or call a WD app from the form, but I don't see any of that.

Did I no look in the right place or does this not exist?

Justin Morgalis: A sort of reusable header? I really like that idea, but have not seen support for it yet. Given how new this product is, though, it is quite possible that it is something that gets support moving forward. 

Good feature to request, though, from SAP.

uday: Can you please explain how the MSS in linked to HCM P&F? What essential objects should we concentrate on when designing a form which flows from E-recruitment to ERP HCM or any similar solution? Does this have any say in Success Factors at all! 

Brandon Toombs: Uday –

That's several questions!  And good ones too...

>> Can you please explain how the MSS in linked to HCM P&F.

...It depends!  Regardless, you need to add the config role 'HRASRB' as capable of launching the form. 

If you want to enable in MSS using the new MSS UI, you'll also need to add to the launchpad using LPD_CUST

>> What essential objects should we concentrate on when designing a form which flows from E-recruitment to ERP HCM or any similar solution? Does this have any say in SuccessFactors at all?

I'm going to answer this by putting my SAP/SFSF integration hat on for the moment. The inbound new hiring scenario does not utilize the HCMPF for new hiring. Instead the data goes to a PA48-like staging table to enable PA40 processing.

I'm complaining about this and I hope they change the approach for this in later releases of the Integration. 

>> EREC to HR uses HCM PF: This officially requires XI as well although there are ways around this.

KiranjotHoonjan: Can you use FPM forms without using HR Process configuration? e.g. to generate Applause letters etc.?

Brandon Toombs: Yes, you can use FPM forms without HCMPF.

FPM forms are a generic SAP new web development front end UI technology.

KiranjotHoonjan: Thank you, Brandon and Justin, for answering my questions.

imbegin: Does SAP have any future direction to incorporate the forms "start applicaiton" with the new HR Renewal screens?

We have a current enhancement that we're working on to allow for Mgrs and HR to kick off forms directly from the nice Org Structure view that is now offered.

Based on the object you select in the structure, you would see the forms that apply. Much like they would use the current HR Renewal to kick of direct infotype updates. 

Justin Morgalis: In MSS, as of EHP5 with the MSS Add On or EHP6, there is standard support for what you are talking about. 

For HR Administrators, the answer is not as obvious.  The future direction of SAP for the HR Administrator seems to be HR Professional, within the NWBC.

The new content for this is delivered via PFCG role. With NetWeaver 7.3, you can import PFCG roles into portal roles.

If you want to build your own role, you can access HRPAO_PAOM_MASTERDATA, a WDA app, intended to be used within HR Professional. It allows processes to be launched on employees or org units and positions and utilizes the launchpad menus similar to MSS.

Kir Chern: For the services SAP_PD and SAP_PT, do I have to activate the new PD/PT infotype framework like the ones for SAP_PA, and if yes, where is the IMG for it?

Thanks again…

Justin Morgalis: The new OM framework is a very new development so I do not know if you have to activate it.

I think what you are referring to though is found in the IMG under Personnel Management --> Personnel & Organization --> Infotypes.  This IMG node gets activated when you turn on business function HCM_PAO_CI_1.

KiranjotHoonjan: If you could list any limitations of FPM forms compare to Adobe interactive forms that will be great.

Brandon Toombs: The main limitation in the new UI is that you don't have javascript ability in FPM the way you have in Adobe.  For example, in FPM you can hide fields dynamically but you can't easily hide whole sections of data dynamically. 

My $.02 is that it's well worth this tradeoff given the improvements in maintainability, supportability and licensing.

Monica Borden-Ooley: How are existing user exits handled?

By the way, thank you for answering our questions and thanks for the great book on HCM P&F! It is very helpful and I am enjoying it. Best Regards!

Justin Morgalis: If you are referring to user exits on infotype logic, they will not be accessed as a part of the HCMP&F processing.  Only infotype logic built into the decoupled framework will get run.

If I am not answering your question, please keep at it. I want to make sure I answer this for you.

Brandon Toombs: Thanks all for attending! Great questions. Looking forward to see what great forums this group will be developing over time. 

A few plugs:

1. Check out our book on SAP-Press on HCM P&F

2. Follow us on twitter at @brandontoombs @sap_jmorgalis

3. Feel free to email us directly: btoombs@toombsconsulting.com and justin.morgalis@gmail.com

M.S. Hein: Thanks to all who posted questions and followed the discussion! And thanks again to Justin and Brandon for all of the great information and taking the time to answer these questions today.

A full summary of all the questions and answers will be available here in the HR Forum later this week. If there are any questions remaining that Brandon or Justin did not get a chance to answer during the hour, don’t fret. They will answer all the questions posted, so check back again to see their answers.

For more about Justin and Brandon’s new book, be sure to get all the details at the SAP PRESS Bookstore.

You can also check out these articles on SAPexperts on the same topic: SAP process and forms.