Role Based Permission

The final step now is to give access to this newly created portlet. Do note that there
is no need to give “edit” access since this is displaying information from Employee
Central.
And now to test. Select any employee and go to their Profile record. Scroll to the
newly created portlet and Job Information record would be populated here.

The SuccessFactors Employee Central Organization Structure:

SuccessFactors Employee Central uses a simple but effective way to manage the
enterprise, which differs somewhat to how SAP ERP HCM manages the enterprise.
In this blog, we will discuss the organization structure as well as part of the job
structure. Please note that the standard-delivered configuration of Employee Central
will be discussed, although we will touch on the extensibility options to enhance this.
The organization structure in SuccessFactors has a different approach than SAP. In
addition to having a more granular and configurable structure, it also incorporates
the Company/Legal Entity into this structure. In SAP, the Company Code is part of
the Enterprise Structure and is assigned directly to employees in infotype 0001.
There are concepts of Employee Group, Pay Structure, Pay Scale Structure, and
Cost Center hierarchy in Employee Central, but no concept of a Personnel Structure.
We’ll explore pay structures in a later blog. The Employee Central system is
extremely flexible in allowing the standard configuration to be modified as such to
allow a customer to create an organization structure exactly as they require. This
could be hiding or changing existing objects or adding new objects. Personally I
believe that the organization structure in Employee Central makes more sense to
business users and I will expand on this further as we continue.

A little terminology
Before we start, it’s worth going through a little Employee Central terminology:
Employee SAP ERP HCM
Description
Central term equivalent
The primary objects and data that is
Object Type /
Foundation used in employee records (e.g.
Master Data /
Objects Company, Job Classification, Pay
Transparent table
Grade, etc.)
Assocations Relationships between objects Relationship
Generic Custom objects crated with
Object Type
Objects the Metadata Framework
Organization The organization structure used to Organization

Structure manage the enterprise Structure

Auto-population of field values on an
Default values set
Propagation employee’s Employment Information
by Features in PE03
from Foundation Objects
Organization Structure from SAP SF HCM
In the standard-delivered configuration the organization structure is composed of the
following Foundation Objects:
 Legal Entity
 Business Unit

 Division
 Department
 Location
  Cost Center

Additionally, these objects can either be removed if not required or re-purposed in

the structure (e.g. change a Department to a sub-Division). New objects can also be
added within the structure using the Metadata Framework. The diagram below
illustrates the “top” 4 objects in the structure, with the standard-delivered
Associations between objects:

A Legal Entity cannot have a parent of the same type. A Division can belong to
multiple Business Units and a Department can belong to multiple Divisions. In
addition, both a Division and Department can have a parent of the same type, thus
creating a hierarchy of these object types.
We can compare the objects in this structure to SAP object types or fields:

Foundation Object SAP ERP HCM equivalent

Legal Entity Company Code

Business Unit Business Area / Organizational Unit (Object type O)

Division Organizational Unit (Object type O)

Department Organizational Unit (Object type O)

 Foundation Object SAP ERP HCM equivalent

Location Personnel Area / Personnel Subarea

Cost Center Cost Center (Object type K)

The Organization Structure Objects

During the implementation of Employee Central, each Foundation Object can be

configured to store certain details about the object. This can be used for reference or
can be used to populate values into fields on an employee’s Employment Information
record (called propagation in Employee Central terminology). Of course, many of
these objects can be re-purposed as required and new objects can be added.

Legal Entity
The Legal Entity object – sometimes referred to as Company – contains the
definitions for all legal entities that are part of the customer’s enterprise. Every
employee must have a Legal Entity assigned when being hired or setup in the
system (just as they would in real life!). By default, a Legal Entity defines the country
and default Pay Group, Location, currency, and standard hours for employees within
that company. Country-specific information can be stored on a Legal Entity object. In
SAP ERP HCM, the Legal Entity is the Company Code that is selected on the
infotype 0001 screen during the hiring action.
The screenshot below shows the object record for the ACE USA Legal Entity.

The field below the Country field is country-specific fields for the country United
States. These fields differ by country. Other data from this page can be propagated
to the employee’s Job Information or Compensation Information, such as the Default
Pay Group or Default Location field values.
2. Business Unit
A Business Unit represents a segment of a Legal Entity that focuses on a specific
business function, such as manufacturing, sales, or marketing. There is no direct
equivalent object in SAP, although a Business Unit could be represented by the
Business Area in PA or by an Organizational Unit object in OM.
3. Division
A Division is simply a division of a Business Unit. However, it can be used directly as
a Division of a Legal Entity if required, such is the flexibility of Employee Central.
There is no direct equivalent object in SAP, although a Division could be represented
by an Organizational Unit object.
4. Department
Divisions are broken down into one or more Departments. This is more typically
represents an Organizational Unit object in SAP and is often the lowest denominator
of the organization structure.
5. Location
The Location, as the name suggests, represents a physical location. It is used to
identify the employee’s location. By default, the Location defines the time zone and
standard weekly hours of the employee. Locations can be grouped by Location
Groups for further organization and reporting. In SAP, the location is often the
Personnel Subarea.
6. Cost Center
A  Cost Center represents the units that account for business costs, just as in SAP
ERP and other HRIS’. Although it is part of the organization structure, it is more of a
designation for the costs of an employee than part of the organization in which they
reside. However, some organizations do use Cost Center as part of the organization
structure. Cost Centers can have parent Cost Centers so that a hierarchy can be
created.

Generic Objects
Generic Objects can be created in the Metadata Framework and associated to
Foundation Objects so that additional layers can be introduced to the organization
structure. Generic Objects are created with the Metadata Framework. Extensive
details on creating Generic Objects can be found in the Metadata Framework
Implementation Handbook on SAP Service Marketplace (S-user required) and in this
SAPexperts article Creating Metadata Framework Objects in SuccessFactors
Employee Central(subscription required).

Associations between Foundation Objects (including Generic Objects)

Associations are relationships between objects that define the hierarchical

relationship and filters for these objects. In essence, they define the parent-child
relationship and whether a child relationship must exist for a parent object.

In addition, they are used to filter object lists.

An Association must have a multiplicity defined, which is either One-to-One or One-

to-Many:
  One-to-One: Defines that the object can only be associated to one other
object
 One-to-Many: Defines that the object can be associated to multiple objects

In the diagram above we can see several associations. Departments are associated
to Divisions, while Divisions are associated to Business Units, and Business Units
are associated to Legal Entities. Business Units, Divisions, and Departments can
have parents of the same type.

Example:
A manufacturing Company has 3 Business Units called “Plastics”, “Woods”, and
“Metals”. The “Plastics” Business Unit has 3 Divisions associated to it, called “R&D”,
“Manufacturing”, and “Distribution”, while the “Metals” Business Unit has 2 Divisions
associated to it, called “Metalworks” and “Alloys”, and the “Woods” Business Unit
has 2 Division associated to it called “Carpentry” and “Timber”. This is demonstrated
below.

An administrator is hiring a new employee. On the Job Information screen of the

New Hire process an administrator selects the Legal Entity and then the “Plastics”
Business Unit. In the Divisions drop-down the administrator will only see the values
“R&D”, “Manufacturing”, and “Distribution”. Likewise, if they select the “Metals”
Business Unit then in the Divisions drop-down they will only see “Metalworks” and
“Alloys” and if they select the “Woods” Business Unit then in the Divisions drop-down
they will only see “Carpentry” and “Timber”.
How does this look in EC?
Details of an employee’s organizational assignment is defined when the employee is
hired. This information can of course be changed as required. The Job Information
portlet found on the Employment Information page of an employee shows details of
the position assignment, organizational assignment, and job information. The
screenshot below shows the position assignment and organizational assignment for
an employee can be seen below.
Here we can see the different elements of the organization structure that we have
discussed. In the screenshot below we can see a demonstration of the associations
example that we discussed above.

Jobs
A Job Classification object (also a Foundation Object) contains details of an
employee’s job role. Like in SAP, many employees can be assigned the same Job
Classification (although in SAP this is through the Position object). It defines a large
number of attributes about the job that an employee will hold, such as weekly hours,
employee class, pay grade, and whether the employee is full or part time. In the
standard-delivered configuration Job Classifications are associated to Business Unit
objects. Country-specific information can be stored on a Job Classification object.
When a Job Classification is assigned to an employee a number of values from the
Job Classification Foundation Object can be propagated. This is often common fields
like Job Title, Pay Grade, Standard Weekly Hours, etc. The screenshot below shows
the Job Information of an employee in the Job Information portlet. This information
appears below the Organization Information seen in the above screenshot.

What about Positions?

Employee Central – as well as SuccessFactors – leverages the Job Classification as
the standard “job role” of an employee. However, it does also support full Position
Management if required. In SAP HCM, the Position object is mandatory for every
employee, while use of the Job varies from organization to organization. In
Employee Central Positions are not linked to the Organization Structure, which
provides customers a choice of whether or not to use Position Management.
Positions can have parent positions and thus a Position-based org chart is available
in SuccessFactors. Positions are Generic Objects and are managed through the
Metadata Framework.
How does this all compare to SAP ERP HCM?
I believe that the flexibility of the Employee Central organization structure enables
organizations to more accurately setup a structure that truly reflects how they are
organized. Although this is possible in SAP ERP HCM, it cannot be done with the
level of granularity and accuracy that is possible in Employee Central. It is a simple
yet effective way to accurately represent the organization within Employee Central
as it is structured outside of the system. Many of the organizations that I have
worked with have no problem with leveraging the Employee Central’s Foundation
Objects to represent their organization structure in Employee Central as it fits how
they operate and how they think organizationally.
Summary
The organization structure in Employee Central is extremely flexible and enables
organizations to design their organization structure in a way that reflects the real-life
structure of their business. SuccessFactors provides endless possibilities in how this
can be configured and managed in the system and provides customers with a
method to create an enterprise structure that suits their business. Customers should
ensure that they investigate the integration options available if they are going to
maintain an organization structure in SAP HCM. The standard integration provided
by SAP will integrate the standard organization structure from SuccessFactors, but
customizing this structure will mean additional mapping and integration work.

Part 1: SuccessFactors Employee Central – An introduction to how SAP and SuccessFactors

enable HR data to drive business processes:

SuccessFactors Employee Central, a modern, state-of-the art cloud solution for core
HR operations, has gained great momentum; more and more customers are moving
to a SaaS model in the core HR area and taking advantage of fast update cycles,
reduced IT infrastructure costs, and the like.
Changing the core HR offering implies that HR master data, such as employee
name, personnel identifier, user, and so on are now stored in SuccessFactors
Employee Central. Naturally, the next question that comes up is often:
How do other solutions (whether they are part of the SAP ERP solution portfolio or
are other SAP cloud solutions, SAP partner solutions, or are even non-SAP
solutions) integrate with SuccessFactors Employee Central?
Core HR data is at the center of every business process beyond HR and includes
relevant key data to ensure security and granting authorizations. For example,
reporting line information can drive workflow processes throughout the solutions in
use – i.e. approving travel expense requests or purchase orders. Another example is
the assignment information of cost centers to employees, which supports more
accurate financial costing and profitability analysis. Plants and factories are safer
and more efficient if employee skills information flows into the production as well as
health and safety systems. These are just a few ‘real world’ examples; the list could
go on and on.
SAP customers, who are leveraging SAP HCM are accustom to extensive integration
within the entire SAP ERP suite, are now asking whether integration to or from
SuccessFactors Employee Central is as robust as what they are already leveraging
today. The answer is yes – it’s even better! SAP benchmarking studies show 40%
higher revenue per employee when HR is integrated with the enterprise. It is clear
that SAP and SuccessFactors are investing in integrated business processes to
provide a higher quality HR solution. The intention is not just to rebuild what is
currently available for SAP HCM and integrate it with other solutions. We are
enhancing the experience with additional features such as increased cloud solution
portfolio, partner solutions, outsourcing functions and third party products as well as
better technical options. All of these enhancements will improve integration beyond
what is available today for SAP HCM.
An overall view on integration for SuccessFactors Employee Central:
Note: The graphic reflects status prior to the 1402 release delivery. Roadmap items
becomingpart of the 1402 delivery will be indicated as delivered soon.
What is available today for the integration of SuccessFactors Employee
Central and SAP ERP?
ERP processes rely on HR data and HR systems rely on other data. As a result, one
of the first integration scenarios that was made available is the option to integrate
cost centers from SAP Financials with SuccessFactors Employee Central.
The integration scenarios between SuccessFactors Employee Central and SAP ERP
are essential use cases SAP builds integration for.
Today, the following integration scenarios are available:
 SAP ERP to SuccessFactors Employee Central
 Cost center integration

Allows the HR system to allocate HR relevant costs against cost centers, maintain
employee-to-cost-center-assignments to control cost distribution and to gain
transparency about employee related costs.
 SuccessFactors to SAP ERP
 Employee data integration

A set of employee data is integrated with SAP ERP systems to support processes
such as, time reporting via the cross-application time sheet (CATS) or enables users
to create travel request as well travel expense reports. The employee data
integration builds the foundation together with the reporting line information
integration to support workflow processing in the connected ERP systems.
 Reporting line integration

Employee-to-line-manager reporting information is kept in SuccessFactors Employee

Central as part of the employee job information and is essential information for other
SAP ERP systems. By integrating the manager information with SAP Organizational
Management especially workflow execution, such as approval processes, are
supported.
  Employee-to-cost-center-assignment integration

The integration of cost centers from SAP ERP to SuccessFactors Employee Central
allows assignments of cost centers to employees. Once this information is back in
the SAP ERP system by mapping cost information to the employee’s position, it can
be leveraged for cost evaluation and cost analysis.
 Employee-to-department-assignment integration

In addition to the reporting line integration, the recent integration investments offer
deeper organizational information integration, primarily to support SAP
organizational management and act as central view on organizational data that can
support variants of workflow or global reports against SAP ERP based on interpreted
organizational information. The employee department assignment integration is
interpreted within SAP Organizational Management as the relationship between the
employee’s position and the appropriate organizational unit.
 Department integration (beta version as of 1311)

From the existing integration scenarios, it is obvious that SAP and SuccessFactors
have invested in integration that is very essential, namely to allow users to access
any SAP ERP applications and run basic workflow processes. This together is built
on the employee data replication and the reporting line integration. Already these two
integration scenarios focus on extensibility that allows customers to extend
integration logic by adding more or custom-specific fields and logic without putting
the advantages of standard integration – maintenance by SAP, upgrade ability – at
any risk.
The other scenarios mentioned in the above list give a clear hint to SAP’s strong
investment into an end-to-end business process integration, driving value that is built
on deep organizational data integration, linking the SuccessFactors Employee
Central enterprise structure information with organizational data of SAP
Organizational Management.  The integration of the SuccessFactors enterprise
structure with SAP Organizational Management is a key to enabling end-to-end
integration scenarios that today rely on the strong “engine” SAP Organizational
Management.
Moving forward, the investment will continue. Two main areas of investment to come
are further organizational integration, adding business units, divisions, jobs and
positions as well employee assignment information to these entities and integration
with other solutions, such as SAP Governance, Risk and Compliance, SAP
Environmental Health and Safety to extend the standardization of integrated
processes.
Department integration is already available as a beta version. This scenario
integrates SuccessFactors Employee Central departments with organizational units
in SAP Organizational Management.
Recently, a had some friends ask me if it was possible to enable a sync to auto
populate Employee Central Job Information directly to Employee Profile’s Work
Experience Within Company or Job History Portlet. The answer is “YES” and I’m
pretty sure SuccessFactors have documented it somewhere. The big question or
challenge most of us face is “Where can I find it?”
In this blog, I’ll go through the configuration steps required to enable this function.
Corporate Data Model
In Provisioning, download the Corporate Data Model and look for the <hris-element
id=”eventReason”> section.

Make sure the visibility of the “include-in-work-experience” ID is set to “both”.  If the

HRIS field is not available, just add it in before the closing of the </hris-element>.
Now update the Corporate Data Model back in Provisioning.
Foundation Object
Go to Admin Tools > Employee Files > Manage Organization, Pay and Job
Structures.
Look for Event Reason “Transfer” (or any Event Reason driven Job Info record which
you would want to include in Employee Profile)
Do Take Action > Make Correction and change the Include in Work Experience Flag
to “Yes” and Save.

Repeat the steps for other event reasons.  This controls what type of history will
default into the new job history portlet. I would recommend the following event
reasons to include such as “New Hire”, “Rehire”, “Job Reclassification” and
“Promotion”.
Configure Business Rules
Next we need a business rule which we will attach on the Employee Profile portlet.
Go to Admin Tools > Company Settings > Configure Business Rules and Create A
New Rule
Make sure the Base Object is “Job Information” and the “if” statement Event
Reason.Include In Work Experience = Yes
Enabling Employee Profile Portlet
Now go to Admin Tools > Employee Files > Configure Employee Files
Select the view you would like to add the new portlet to. In my example below, I
would be adding it to the Profile.

Select “Insert Portlet” where you would like the portlet to show up and “Create and
Add” the Internal Job History portlet.  You may also want to delete the existing “Work
Experience Within Company” section since this is now a duplicate.

Proceed to configure the Internal Job History Portlet

In my example, I renamed the portlet to reflect Work Experience Within Company
replacing the former.
Please also ensure to define the business rule created previously as the Rule name and
include the fields you would like to display and save.