Rename the label for instructions from the UI:

Before 2H 2023, there was no possibility to have different labels for instructions of different tabs, of worksheets, like salary, bonus, summary etc. in different locales. You can only have one label in one language across all tabs and it can only be modified using the manage languages tool using the following key. 

In 2H 2023, a new element comp-instruction-tab-name was introduced in XML to have different labels for instructions for different tabs. But it can only be done using XML in provisioning. 

Now this feature has been extended to UI where comp admin can modify the labels for Instructions of different tabs directly from compensation home. 

Before:

After:

Export & Import from Executive Review using XLSX format: 

Earlier we had only two formats either XLS or CSV for exporting and importing data from the executive review. 

Now along with these two, we can also use XLSX format which is more advanced and supports larger data sets, newer features and multiple tools to process the data. 

Exporting before:

Exporting after:

Importing before:

Importing after:

Ignore warnings while publishing data from comp to EC:

Earlier we can either enable or disable the business rules to be triggered while the data is being published back to employee central from comp. 

There was no midway where only error messages could be considered ignoring the warning messages. Now we can achieve this, by enabling this option under advanced settings of the concerned template. 

Before:

After:

Enhancements to comp statements: 

These are the changes which have been long awaited to be in standard statement templates. The lack of these options were the major reason for the customers to opt for either custom statements or using third party software like OpenText etc to generate statements out of SuccessFactors. 

Support for multi locale: 

Now we can translate the labels into multiple languages in the same statement instead of creating a separate statement for each language. 

Before:

After:

Support for images, links and tables:

Now you can add images, tables and hyperlinks using the rich text editor which offers multiple formatting options. 

Before:

After:

Preview option to visualise the changes: 

Earlier there was no preview option available to see changes how they reflect before saving them, you can only preview after saving the changes. But now you can visualize the changes using the preview option right inside the template. 

Before:

After:

Introduction of compensation into configuration transport centre:

Up until now, compensation is not part of the configuration transport centre which is the replacement of instance sync tool. As you might know, even in the instance sync tool, comp config is not widely covered apart from lookup tables. Now we can transport lookup tables across instances using the configuration transport centre. Hopefully, more areas will be covered in future releases. 

Before:

After:

Thanks for reading through, see you later!

Not a long time ago, somewhere in a not so remote area, there were two friends who used to be close, play together and share ideas. But one day, due to reasons unknown, a fight broke out between two and decided to go ahead on their separate paths. Before turning back on each other, they agreed on one thing, which is to meet someday to prove who has a better life. 

But that's not the reason stopping IC from being happy.  He started getting restless as the time was nearing to meet his friend who is doing way better than him. Eventually, he backpacks and went on to explore the solution for his misery and after traveling the length and breadth of Europe, he came across Baba Vanga’s predictions and accepted his fate with mixed emotions, counting the days for 2024. 

As IC is awaiting on prediction to be true with bated breath since the arrival of 2024, SAP has published its revamped certification program a few days ago. 

Though there is no change introduced with regards to certification hub as a part of transformation but considerable changes introduced for learning hub. 

As you know, we need certification hub access to give certification exams and learning hub access to clear delta exams to keep those certifications active. Until 2024, one of the major concerns for IC is the cost incurred to give the certification exams and keep them active as they are valid only for 90 days from the latest release. 

Learning hub cost before transformation:

Learning hub cost after transformation:

As you can see, there is more than 50% reduction in the procurement cost of LH subscription. Apart from this huge benefit, there are a couple of more benefits introduced as a part of the transformation program. 

• You can now avail 4 certification exams with LH subscription 

• The validity of certifications increased to one year from your assessment completion date. So the reference point has been changed, earlier validity used to be decided based on the release date but now it's based on your completion date. 

Though these changes are not specific to IC, it has created some level playing field which was lacking before. But still there is room for improvement if you compare with industry standards

• AWS certifications valid for three years and 50% off on renewal 

• Google cloud certifications valid for two years and 50% off on renewal 

• Microsoft Azure certifications valid one year but free for renewal 

   

Certification hub seems to be redundant after these changes and can be availed by the consultants who want to complete more than 4 certifications in one go which is a rare use case. SAP may decide its fate based on its future usage. 

Let me know your thoughts until the IC friend comes back after meeting his PE friend to start his career with renewed energy!

If you are like Steven Soderbergh, you might have anticipated the pandemic to the nearest details way before 2019

You surely have heard several business leaders discussing the "new normal," proclaiming that all the changes happening, including remote work, are here to stay, replacing older ways.

When Elon conducted the poll "Is Twitter dying?", you might have expected that he would be in it for the long haul.

But what you can never anticipate, hear, or expect are the hidden agendas of world leaders, whether democratically elected or established through legacy or managed to continue through constitutional amendments. These hidden agendas have the potential to shatter all your opinions and expectations, forcing you to acknowledge that the "worst is yet to come."

Pernicious political polarization, spreading like a relentless plague, poses a grave threat to the unity and progress of nations. Polarization has been steadily increasing over the decades and spiked further after the Russian invasion

According to Pew Research, 72% of Republicans view Democrats as more immoral than other Americans, while 62% of Democrats say Republicans are more immoral than other Americans.

Status before the Russian Invasion

It's not something leaders would usually resort to, in closed autocracies where people don’t have a say by default. However, it's one of the favorite tricks up the sleeves of democratic leaders that can garner people’s support and eventually get them elected.

Polarization incentivizes the political parties/lawmakers, so why not

• Gather the people's support on identity or socio-cultural factors

• Easy to divert people’s attention from issues of concern

• Demonize the opposing stances

• Subtle formation of electoral autocracy

• Peddling political rhetoric

On the other hand, polarization punishes societies:

• Disinformation and polarization feed on each other

• People develop cognitive inflexibility; stick to their opinions no matter what

• It undermines the judiciary and legislative systems

• It overshadows moderation as we are forced to pick sides

• Policies become difficult to implement as they don't receive universal approval

In this already polarized world, AGI has made its way to deepen the age-old divisions

When most people have already been grappling to identify fake information that a considerable number find ridiculous at first glance itself, the advent of AGI, which generates content multi-fold authentic than Nigerian prince emails, YouTube like & earn WhatsApp texts or feeling lonely SMS messages, going to create a breeding ground across the platforms concealing landmines of disinformation that may explode leaving chaos in their wake.

As per the Princeton University study, most of us unknowingly fall into epistemic bubbles (knowledge areas) by being too reactive on social media to a particular school of thought content, which will eventually become your echo chambers making you experience only what you believe.

The other reason is the political pendulum, where power switches between two parties. Shifts can be longer sometimes, but it makes the lawmakers stick to their ideology, doubling down on their existing positions

For instance, since world war II the US presidency has been switched between 7 democrats and 7 Republicans and out of that, 3 Republicans served two terms, and 2 Democrats served two terms; based on these numbers, it gives no reason for the Republicans to condemn gun violence ignoring the enticing offers of the NRA lobby.

Though there are several industries and business leaders who are capitalizing on the current polarized world, there are also leaders who express genuine concern about this situation.

The more the people engaged with their purpose, the less likely they fall victim to polarization. Finding the purpose through enlightenment happens to a special few, through passion belongs to the fortunate few but most people find the purpose through work where they are adequately paid and respected.

According to Mckinsey, 70 per cent of people find their purpose through work and millennials are likely to see their work as their life calling.

AGI hits the world with a double whammy as it increases the spreading of disinformation on one hand and forces the people to be purposeless on the other hand, pushing us into a territory difficult to navigate

This territory is smokey with bleak future pathways where you get pushed with false narratives and bombarded with disinformation, the only way out is to show yourself out

You can find yourself out, by following what NAM countries followed during the cold war era; non-alignment, to make the world better for yourselves and generations to come.

It has been considered indecisive but now you can see the development of new world order where countries which take decisions based on their interests are the ones sustaining world peace and security

Being non-aligned doesn't imply being non-reactive; it means selectively reacting based on validations. Since nobody has our best interests at heart except ourselves, the next time you come across any news, tweet, or post, refrain from immediately aligning with either of the groups, even if it seems as obvious as Modi's hugging, Biden's tripping, or Putin's single arm swinging. After all, the word POLITICS finds its roots in POLarIzaTIon tactiCS, and nothing is obvious in the world of AGI.

Unless you have been working on the same product area throughout your career, there is high probability, for the ones who work on the different modules/areas across different projects, to lose track of the updates for a specific feature and over a period of time, it evolves into a new feature with a different name serving the same need or maybe beyond that. Then one day, you might get an opportunity to see that evolved feature and may not recognise it though it's grinning right at you.

The same thing happened to me, I worked with JDM long back and around that time it asked me if I want to try its better version of it i.e. JDM 2.0 aka JPB. I politely said “No” and moved on to meet new features. Then unexpectedly, a few months back I met CoC due to some project needs and worked together for a couple of months without realizing its roots though there were fleeting glimpses of the past. Later during the recent release party, I met TIH which introduced itself as a friend of JPB & others and mentioned it's going to replace CoC, seeing me not budging it took time to explain what all happened since I left JDM.

I felt bad as I couldn't recognise CoC and decided to publish its story right from its origin to future developments so it doesn't get unrecognized whenever it bumps into you either in the same or new form. Enough of the backstory, here are the supplemental details before jumping into the main discussion

Abbreviations:

• JDM : Job Description Manager

• JPB: Job Profile Builder

• CoC: Center of Capabilities

• TIH: Talent Intelligence Hub

• CEA: Closed Early Adoption

• OEA: Open Early Adoption

• GA: General Availability

Color Legend:

• Blue : Scope is confined to job families and roles

• Green: Scope is confined to competencies

• Purple: Covers complete skill management

JDM:

• It was a non-MDF based model where only competencies can be mapped to job roles.

• Competencies used to be handled using competency libraries and mapping them required job families & roles along with job codes

• It was more of a vanilla framework which is not being used by most of the companies currently

JDM 2.0: 

• It's an expanded version of JDM introduced around late 2015 with the name JDM2.0 aka JPB

• It supports skill management which consists of skill library, competency library, qualifications etc. along with job families and roles

• It's an MDF based framework with associated MDF objects including job Profile, skill Profile, skill, competency etc.

• As per this model, skills are job centric i.e. mapped to job code as per job profile needs, ignoring the skills acquired by a person

JPB & CoC: 

• In 1H 2021, Center of Capabilities (CoC) introduced with the intention of moving complete skill management out of JPB to make it from job to person centric to create a whole-self model which gives the complete insight into an individual's skills, competencies, qualifications, preferences, aspirations etc.

• The umbrella term capabilities was introduced to cover the breadth of whole-self model but later confined it to refer only skills and competencies

• It includes capability library which combines both skill and competency libraries coupled with a capability portfolio to show all the capabilities of a person in one place collecting across suite

• As per current status, only competencies migrated to capabilities library along with the option to include person’s competencies from PM form in read-only mode in capabilities portfolio but eventually it was decided to be deprecated due to some product planning preferences or issues. JPB will continue to serve the needs of job families and roles

JPB & TIH: 

• In 2H 2022, TIH was introduced in a CEA model and updated to OEA in 1H 2023 and planned to make GA from 2H 2023

• The purpose of TIH is same as CoC i.e. to make skill management from job to person centric to create a whole-self model

• TIH includes 3 components, Skill ontology, Attribute library and Growth portfolio, here is a single line explanation for each of the components

• The Umbrella term capabilities replaced with attributes to define whole-self model

• Skill Ontology: Its a large invisible centralized collection of skills/attributes, maintained by SuccessFactors curating from different sources, that acts a recommendation engine for attribute library and growth portfolio

• Attribute library: It's a renamed capability library which is company specific into which attributes can be updated manually or imported with the future possibility of adding through external APIs and even from skill ontology

• Growth Portfolio: It's a renamed capability portfolio which shows person’s attributes from different areas of SF suite along with the possibility to add them directly in portfolio

• As of now TIH only supports competencies and would be expanded further with other attributes in future releases and eventually limiting JPB to handle just job families & roles part of job profiles

Eventually, the attribute library will become the common source for both job & person use cases and the growth portfolio of a person would be integrated with all the concerned areas across the SF suite helping the managers and HRBPs to make informed decisions.

— — — — — — 

This is the second part of the topic “Salary planning without Annualization”. In this blog, we are going to discuss the EC approach for performing salary review on monthly income. I would encourage you to go through the first part to get the context in more detail.

The annualization concept is not specific to the compensation module, it happens across the SF suite including EC. Our plan is not to stop annualization in EC unlike in the Comp approach, being the source to all talent modules, doing that can derail the processes. We’ll create a parallel setup in EC which would be in sync with EC but without hindering EC’s annualization.

It might sound confusing until you see the result. Just to confirm again, here we are not doing any changes that we have done in the Comp approach and the status of the solution is the same as in the background of the issue section of part 1 and now we are going to resolve that issue by doing required changes in EC.

Let’s divide the EC approach into two activities, creating a parallel pay component and creating parallel pay ranges and each activity is further divided into steps. Like in the comp approach, at the end of each activity, we’ll see the output to know the status. Without further due, let’s dive right into the design process

Creating Parallel pay component:

Step 1: Create a new frequency instance 

Go to “Manage organization, pay and job structures” to create the new frequency instance with annualization factor 1

Step 2: Update the existing pay component of the monthly pay

Use the same tool to update the “Used for Comp Planning” field to “None” for the existing monthly income pay component

Step 3: Create a new pay component for monthly pay

Then within the same tool, you can create the new pay component by using the newly created frequency along with updating the “Used for Comp Planning” field to “Comp”

Step 4: Create a business rule to default the new pay component

Go to “Configure business rules” to create the business rule which automatically creates the new pay component for the employees based on EC’s existing monthly pay by copying the amount and currency from existing pay competent but with the new frequency which we created earlier

Step 5: Assign the business rule to comp info portlet 

Go to “Manage business configuration” to assign the newly created business rule to the comp info portlet with event type OnSave which means it would be triggered while saving the comp info for an employee

Step 6: Grant view permission for the new pay component

Go to “Manage permission roles” to grant the view permission for the newly created pay component for the concerned roles

Step 7: Assign the new pay component to the employees

If you want to assign this new pay component for a few employees, you can go to their employee profile and re-save their comp info portlet to have this pay component automatically created which you can’t edit. If you want to do it for multiple employees you can use the “Import employee data” functionality

Output:

Except for the pay ranges, it seems everything is correct including merit and budget.

Creating parallel pay ranges:

As the system couldn’t find the pay ranges with the comp frequency instance “CM”, pay ranges are blank. Now we’ll create the parallel pay ranges for comp.

Step 1: Export the pay ranges from the system

As you can’t export the foundation object data directly from the system, create a table report to export the data as follows.

Step 2: Create a duplicate file from an exported file 

Once you have exported the file, you can just create a duplicate copy of the file using the save-as option and then update the columns “Pay Range ID” and “Frequency”

You can just add the prefix “Comp” to the existing ids to serve the purpose and replace the existing frequency values with the value “CM”

Step 3: Import the newly created file

Go to “Import foundation data” to import the newly created file. Rest assured that these pay ranges wouldn’t impact EC’s functionality as the frequency is specific to the comp

Output:

Now you can see the pay ranges in the worksheet.

It is recommended to delete and relaunch the worksheets after each activity to see the required output otherwise you can do all the changes in one go and launch them. You can prefer this approach if you want the templates to be purely EC integrated. If I can draw a parallel between both approaches, both are good to meet the end goal as long as you implement them correctly and one is not better than the other.

There are many variables including timelines, expertise, cross-functional cohesiveness across teams and project status which can be considered to decide the approach. For instance, if a company has an EC module gone live before the implementation of the compensation then the Comp approach can be better considering the workload of the EC approach as it needs to re-import all the pay ranges and comp info for all the affected employees whereas if both the modules are scheduled for go-live in one go then EC approach can be better as these changes can be included in the project scope without the need of re-work later.

If you are still with me, thanks for taking the time to go through the post.

—————

There are many countries in the world including Nordic and Middle Eastern where salary disclosure at the JD level, salary negotiations, offer letters and annual salary review happen on monthly remuneration unlike in USA or India where it’s Annual. But the standard SuccessFactors system is designed with annualization across suite where amounts are projected to the complete year to get the annual income. We require to stop the annualization to perform salary review on monthly income

It requires customisation and workarounds to perform salary review on monthly pay in SuccessFactors. There are two approaches which we can follow for EC-integrated templates, the Compensation approach and the EC approach. For non-EC templates, it’s easy and straight forwarded, we are not going to discuss it.

Compensation Approach: As the name indicates, we perform all the changes in the compensation module without touching anything in EC

EC Approach: As you guess, all the customisations are done in EC

Considering the length and complexity of the topic, we’ll discuss this in two parts. In the current part, we’ll discuss the compensation approach, and the EC approach follows in the second part which will be concluded by discussing the points to consider while choosing the suitable approach for your organisation

Before going ahead with the compensation approach, let’s understand few compensation concepts to establish the background of the issue

Compensation Concepts:

For the sake of simplicity, we’ll consider a vanilla version of comp planning with just a set of standard fields. There are two groups of fields, “Impacted Fields” and “Salary Planning”. Impacted fields are the ones which are not used anywhere in the calculation of the final salary but are impacted by the customisation that we are planning to do, whereas salary planning fields are the ones which are used for the calculation of the final salary.

Let’s understand how the value for each field derived for the first employee to get the inner workings

There should be only one pay component which should have “Used for comp planning” field either with value “Both” or “Comp”, it can be a single pay component or sum of individual pay components

This pay component would be assigned to the employees through compensation information portlet with amount, currency and frequency

Local currency code: It shows the currency code of assigned pay component -> SEK

Pay type: It shows the frequency of the assigned pay component -> M

Units per year: It’s derived from the annualized factor field of concerned frequency record -> 12

Current pay Rate: It’s the amount that we used for the pay component -> 15000

Current Salary: It’s the product of current pay rate and units per year -> 15000*12 = 180000

Merit: It’s the percentage/amount, of current pay rate, as proposed by manager -> 6%*15000 = 900

Final Salary: It’s the sum of current salary and annualized merit -> 180000+(12*900) = 190800

Salary Range: It’s also called pay range which is selected by the system based on the attributes like frequency, pay grade which are assigned to employee in comp and job info -> 56098 – 70122 – 84147

Comp Ratio: it’s calculated using mid value of pay range and current salary rate -> (15000/70122)* 100 =21.39

Background of the issue:

As you have seen above, the values for current salary, merit and final salary got annualised. Merit’s annualization creates a negative impact on one more area which is budget. The budget is calculated as per the existing setup which is 1.8 % of the current pay rate i.e. 1.8% of 35000 = 630 (for both the employees)

The total utilised budget is calculated as 2100*12 = 25200 as the total merit 2100 got annualised, due to this remaining budget went negative disproportionately which should not happen

Compensation Approach:

Now time for the discussion of core topic, we’ll divide this into 3 steps and after each step we’ll see the output to understand where we are standing with regards to our goal.

Step 1: Do field mappings of mandatory fields

Local currency code, pay type and units per year are the mandatory fields to be included in any template. These fields can work without mapping as well but to get our intend result we need to do the explicit mapping. Please choose the pay component group to which your assigned pay component belongs. Field ids can be different from field names, salary type is pay type.

Output: We still have following three issues

1. Pay range is not visible anymore and so is comp ratio

2. Current pay rate got annualized and so is merit

3. Budget issue is still same as before

Step 2: Delete standard current salary and final salary fields

Delete the standard fields and create custom fields for both current and final salary with required mapping and formulas.

Create custom current salary field by mapping the amount of your assigned pay component

Similarly, create a custom field for final salary whose value will be calculated by formula

Output:

• Annualization and budget issues of step 1 got resolved, we need to fix salary range issue yet

Step 3: Delink EC salary pay matrix

Salary range for employees picked up by system by mapping the attributes like frequency and pay grade. As the pay type changed from monthly to annual, system couldn’t find any pay range with that frequency, that’s why N/A showing up, as pay range is null comp ratio also showing N/A.

We’ll use pay ranges from compensation as frequency is not mandatory for that. Create salary range table under action for all plans. Then go to the settings of compensation template to update the created salary range table and uncheck the use EC salary pay matrix checkbox guiding system to get pay ranges from this table instead of EC

Output: Everything resolved including salary ranges to perform salary review on monthly pay

As you might have seen remaining budget is still negative, its because merit percentage is greater than budget (6>1.8) but its not as disproportionate as before.

That completes the compensation approach where we have made all the necessary changes within comp to achieve our goal of performing salary review on monthly income without hindering the annualization in EC

With that we came to the end of our discussion, please don’t hesitate to post your opinions, queries or issues by replying to this email, would love to know your perspectives and happy to help. We’ll discuss the EC approach in part 2 of this blog post until then stay tuned.

—————

In this blog post, we will delve into a specific scenario that highlights the challenge of granting users access to create records while simultaneously preventing them from editing those records. In this particular situation traditional role-based permissions (RBP) fall short in addressing this need.

Typically, when users are granted permission to create records, it inherently includes the ability to edit them as well. However, there are cases where organizations require a more granular level of control over record modifications, especially when the data serves as a crucial source for external systems.

To meet this need, a more controlled solution is necessary to avoid users with the creation privileges altering the data. This level of control is crucial to maintain the integrity and reliability of the data used across the system landscape.

Boolean Field in MDF Object:

Create a field with data type Boolean in the concerned MDF object which will be used to know if the record is already created or not. its default value is “No”.

Business Rule to Update Boolean Field:

Create a rule to set the Boolean field value to “Yes” when a record gets saved. Assign this to the concerned object in Save Rules.

Business Rule to Avoid Editing:

This rule checks the Boolean field value and triggers an error while editing the fields. This rule should be assigned as on change type to the concerned fields of the object

System would throw the following error when the concerned user tries to edit the data

Overall, it’s a simple and effective solution when you need more controlled permissions than being offered by RBP.

—————

The frequent occurrence of accidental data deletion is largely attributed to human error and can result in the loss of critical employee or system data which may cause dominoes effect across the system landscape, and other consequences. While there are remedial measures such as running audit reports and data retrieval to address such incidents, it is essential to acknowledge that prevention is preferable to cure.

Therefore, organizations should take a proactive approach to prevent such incidents from occurring. Both technical and non-technical measures can be employed, but this article focuses on a technical solution that can prevent accidental data deletion

In this blog post, we’ll discuss how to remove delete option for any MDF portlet to avoid accidental data deletion

Let’s delve into two scenarios under each of the options – RBP and Configuration UI – to help you find the best fit for your needs.

Role Based Permissions (RBP):

Let’s start with the RBP option. This option is perfect if you want to grant different permissions for different roles, allowing you to keep the delete option for a few roles and remove it for others. However, keep in mind that this option can be time-consuming as you’ll need to update all the concerned roles with the required permission for the concerned objects.

Scenario 1: Portlet with base object which has effective dating

Lets go through the steps to remove the “Delete” button of the portlet highlighted below

First, make sure to secure your MDF object, head to “Configure Object Definitions,” choose the required object, and update the security section’s fields as highlighted in the screenshot and save the object

Once you’ve secured the object, go to “Manager Permission Roles” to remove the delete option for the concerned role. Open the required role, click on the permission button to see permission settings, and uncheck the delete option in the selected permission category before saving the role.

You’ll no longer see the “Delete” button for the people who have that role.

Scenario 2: Portlet which has a base object with no effective dating

For the portlet which has composite association you can see “Trash” icon for each child record along with the “Delete” button at the bottom portlet as in scenario one

You’ll need to secure both the parent and child objects using “Configure Object Definitions” as in scenario 1

Following parent object has effective date as none and has composite association with child object

Child object has effective dating from parent

Update the security section of both objects as below

Once securing the object go to “Manager Permission Roles” to remove the delete option for concerned role as in scenario 1

As you can see there is no delete option for parent object as it has no effective dating ,its only available for child object. Uncheck delete option for child object and save the role

Unfortunately, the delete permission of the child object only works for the “Trash” icon and not for the “Delete” button of the portlet, as it’s one of the limitations under RBP option for objects without effective dating.

Configuration UI:

If you’re looking for an easier option, the Configuration UI option is the way to go. This option removes the delete option for all roles, saving you the time and effort of updating individual roles. Here we don’t need to perform any of the two steps which performed under RBP option

Scenario 1: Portlet with base object which has effective dating

Go to “Manage Configuration UI,” search for the UI ID created for the base object, click on edit properties and set the delete record field to “No” under control options section and save

This will remove the “Delete” button for all the roles as this change is at the UI level

Scenario 2: Portlet which has a base object with no effective dating

Go to “Manage Configuration UI” and search for Id the UI which you have created for the base object.

Click on edit properties and set the delete record field to “No” under control options section for both parent and child objects

You’ll no longer see both “Trash” icon and “Delete” button for the portlet.

In conclusion, by using one or both of these options, organizations can rest assured that their MDF portlets are safe from accidental deletions. This can help prevent data loss, reduce downtime and ensure that the applications run smoothly. It is important to assess the specific needs and requirements of the application to determine which option or combination of options will provide the best protection for the MDF portlets.

—————

As instance-sync for MDF objects is going to be deprecated in the upcoming release (1H 2023), there is no better time to explore and start using the configuration center that is the upgraded alternative to the instance-sync tool and most probably replace it completely sometime in future.

The primary difference between the two is instance sync works in full purge mode whereas CC works in incremental mode where config specific to target tenant doesn’t get impacted, considering that it would be more logical to have both the tools serving different purposes or either to include full-purge mode as well or config comparison option in CC

Configuration center was introduced during 1H2021 release and from then it enhanced with few additional functionalities but application areas where CC can be used is limited to EC, Succession and PMGM (introduced in 2H 2021)

Hierarchy wise in CC, there are configuration areas which further classified into configuration groups that contain the configurations which can fall into either one of these 3 types of configurations, 1) MDF object definitions 2) Feature configurations (provisioning settings) and 3)System configurations (application level settings)

There are two types of configuration groups

Classified: These are the configuration groups which can be accessed from CC

Miscellaneous: These are other standard and custom configurations that are not part of any classification groups and should be accessed out of CC. As of now, only MDF objects fall under this category which was introduced in the last release (2H 2022)

Functionalities of Configuration Center:

Download of configuration:

CC can be used to take the backup of configuration in download mode. As of now, backup of configuration can only be done for the configurations which are part of classified configuration groups

Choose the required configuration area and expand the configuration groups using expand icon to find the concerned configuration group or type, click on it to get the available configurations on right side window

Once you select the checkbox of configuration, you’ll be prompted to enter the download request name. Once that’s done you can add as many as configurations as needed before initiating the request (Caution: You need to complete right from creating download request to submitting the request in one go as download request is not stored anywhere to do it in chunks)

You can find your request under the download requests tab where you can download the configuration in zip folder and save somewhere as required.

Transport of configuration:

As you can guess, it should be done in transport mode but unlike in download mode, here you can consider both classified and miscellaneous configuration groups as shown later

Instead of selecting the configuration first, you need to create the bundle first to which you can add the required configurations.

You can add the configurations in chunks until it’s released for transport. You can edit it to take you to the configuration activities section to add further configurations

For adding non-classified MDF objects, go to configure object definitions to add the required object to the transport bundle

Once all the configurations are added to the bundle you can initiate the transport and give the target tenant details

You can see all the selected configurations under respective configuration groups and click on transport to submit the request

Once all the configurations are exported into the bundle, its would be updated to transported

Transport request will be ready for import which you need to perform in target instance

In target instance, go to import section of transport requests to find the bundle and select validate from the action

Once configurations are validated successfully, bundle would be ready for import

You can see the report after validation or import to check the status for each configuration, it would be more helpful when you encountered errors

That’s the end of the blog. Though CC is at nascent stage, its UI is more user friendly than instance-sync and will be your tool of choice for transferring configurations as soon as you start. This was published before 1H 2023 changes, you can refer this post to know the latest updates in CC

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There are 3 major changes related to the configuration center in this release. If you want to make the most out of this blog, I would encourage you to refer this practical guide to get the complete know-how of the configuration center

Before delving into further discussion, would like to confirm that deprecation of MDF objects in Instance-sync postponed to next release 2H 2023

Expansion of Configuration Groups:

Career development and parts of calibration got included in configuration groups

Transport Option for MDF Object Instances:

• Now, its possible to include object instances in the transport bundle from Manage data

• As of now all the MDF foundational objects are supported, SAP would gradually expand the supported pre-delivered MDF objects

• For custom objects, only objects that belong to the object categories, Configuration and Non-user transactional are supported

• So basically, custom objects which have the UI configuration are not possible to be included as they fall into user transactional

Enhancements to Bundle Management:

• Now, configuration bundle can be created directly from the bundle management tab of CC

• You can directly initiate the transport request from bundle management unlike before where you need to go to ‘”Configuration Activities” tab

• The “Edit” option in the actions menu of the configuration bundle is replaced with “View” option

• So, you no longer can see “Save and Initiate Transport” and “Create New Bundle” buttons in configuration activities tab

• In the “View” view, you can select the configurations to delete them from the bundle, initiate a transport request or edit the request id and description.

  

• Once you select the configurations in the “Configuration Activities” tab, you can either add them to the existing bundle or to the new bundle. This is really helpful functionality as earlier you were forced to create the new bundle even if you have an existing one to be used

That’s the end of it. We’ll touch base on this topic in the next release when more features are included in CC.

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In this blog, I am going to consider 5 features which I found interesting and provide answers to a couple of questions for the concerned 5 features. We’ll explore how each feature adds value along with drawing parallel between similar features within the suite to understand how they are different from or similar to the existing ones, if there are any.

1.Export Template History

 Why it makes it better

• Each change you make to the template either from instance or provisioning creates a new version of a template. It allows you to keep track of each change and revert to the previous version if new changes don’t work for any reason.

• Earlier it was only possible for succession and corporate data models, the same has been expanded to the comp & VP templates. Lastly, it’s retroactive that allows you to see the changes which have already been made right from creation of template.

  How to enable this

 Enable the following admin permission for the concerned roles

2.Planner Audit Feature

 Why it makes it better

• There is already a compensation plan activity feature which is used by comp admins to audit the worksheet data updates.

• Apart from being admin specific, it takes around 72 hrs. for the changes to be updated in the audit report, so if you want to track who has updated the worksheet today, you need to wait for 2 to 3 days for that to be reflected in the report.

• It address both the issues, planner can access it right from his inbox and it captures updates in near “Real-time”

  How to enable this

 Enable the audit settings

Mark the required fields as auditable

Do remember, you can make 10 fields auditable at max. This limit should meet the requirement in most of the cases

3. Comp & VarPay Specific Rule Scenario:

 Why it makes it better

• You don’t need to choose the rule type any more

• Base objects and supported functions are restricted to the possible list

“Then” section of business rule became informative rather blank

How to enable this

Available by default if you have access to configure business rules

4. Filter on Route Steps for Comp & VarPay Worksheets:

Why it makes it better

• When you have hundreds of worksheets, the possibility of filtering out based on their current route step can save time.

• It’s the area where we might see considerable changes in future releases including the possibility to filter based on the fields of worksheets etc. 

How to enable this

Available by default if you have access to route form

5. User search for HR Reports & Matrix Reports:

Why it makes it better

• If you want to know the HR reports or matrix reports of the concerned individuals, there was no possibility of that in advanced executive review filters which was possible with legacy filters.

• Now, you can do that with advanced filters allowing you to troubleshoot line of sight issues more easily

How to enable this

Advanced executive review filters are the default filters from this release, so you don’t need to do anything for this

With that we came to the end, please feel free to share with your friends or colleagues who might find it helpful

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