Some of the key features of SuccessFactors Cross Platform 2H 2022 release.

Here are some of the key features of SuccessFactors Cross Platform 2H 2022 release.

1.Bulk Activate and Deactivate Role Assignment

The latest Role-Based Permissions now allows you to bulk activate and deactivate role assignments of a permission role. Previously, you could only update the status of assignments one at a time.

You can update the status for role assignments of a permission role under Admin Center > Manage Permission Roles > [select a role] > Assignments.

SAP made the enhancement to help you manage the status of role assignments more easily.

How It Looks Now:

2. Copy Configuration and Non-User Transactional MDF Data

In Manage Data, you can now copy field values from one record to another for MDF objects under Configuration and Non-User Transactional categories.

The following types of data can be copied:

• Field values except external codes, business keys, auto number fields, system fields, and attachments.
• Associations, including both Valid When and Composite associations. For a Valid When association, the copied record references to the same target record. For a Composite association, a new record is created with the same field values.
• Order of composite children is retained in the copied record.
• Rules associated with the MDF object are also triggered for records created with the copy action.

Configuration Requirements:

To find out whether an MDF object supports the copy function, go to its object definition and check the Object Category field. If the object is under the Configuration or Non-User Transactional category, then the copy menu is available in Manage Data.

For example, in Time Management, the following objects have been recategorized to support the copy function. You can find them under the Non-User Transactional category in the object definition:

• Time Type
• Time Account Type
• Time Recording Profile
• Holiday Calendar
• Time Profile

Role-Based Permission Prerequisites:

You have the Administrator > Metadata Framework > Manage Data permission.

To copy the data of a secured MDF object, you also need the View and Create permissions if the object is effective-dated, and View and Edit permissions if it's non-effective dated.

How It Looks Now:

In the current version, the "Copy" menu is available for records of objects under the Configuration or Non-User Transactional category.

3. Email Notification for Permission Group Changes

As a Role-Based Permission (RBP) administrator, you can now enable email notification for changes to large-size permission groups. A new Role-Based Permission Notification – Group Change email template is now available under Admin Center > Email Notification Templates Settings.

If you've configured the Threshold for email notification and double-confirmation popup setting and enabled the Role-Based Permission Notification – Group Change email template, when an RBP administrator updates a permission role or group that impacts the number of employees you've set, email notifications are sent to RBP administrators who are selected in the Notify This User column of the Manage Role-Based Permission Access page.

We made the enhancement to help RBP administrators monitor changes that impact a large number of users and reduce security risks.

How It Looks Now:

4. Enhancements to the Manager Experience on the Latest Home Page

We made some enhancements to the manager experience on the latest home page.

With the My Team quick action, you can now:

• See direct reports and matrix reports in separate lists, instead of one list of all team members.
• See longer job titles wrapped over two lines, without truncation.

With the My Team card, reminding you of your team's pending tasks, you can now:

• See each team member's name and avatar image in the Pending Tasks dialog.
• Choose Dismiss to dismiss the reminder for 7 days or choose Remind Me Tomorrow to dismiss it for 24 hours.

How It Looks Now:

In the current version, dialogs opened with the My Team quick action and My Team card are enhanced.

Here's an example of the My Team quick action dialog listing direct reports and matrix reports separately and wrapping job titles over two lines.

Here's an example of the Pending Tasks dialog showing a team member's name and avatar image.

How It Looked Before:

In the previous version, dialogs opened with the My Team quick action and My Team card were different.

Here's an example of the My Team quick action dialog listing direct reports and matrix reports together and truncating job titles longer than one line.

Here's an example of the Pending Tasks dialog showing just pending tasks, without a name and avatar image.

5. Enhancements to the User Experience on the Latest Home Page

SAP made several enhancements to the user experience on the latest home page.

• SAP improved the grid layout of home page cards, so that spacing and alignment are more consistent. We also made it more responsive, so that cards resize to fit varying screen sizes.
• Two consecutive small-sized custom cards are now displayed on top of each other, instead of side by side, to better maintain the grid layout.
• SAP made the greeting text on the banner image responsive, so that it resizes to fit varying screen sizes.
• The Remind Me Tomorrow option is now available on all to-do tasks.
• We updated the names of the following quick actions, for consistency: Admin Alerts (was View Admin Alerts), Payroll Tasks (was Complete Payroll Tasks), My Time Sheet (was Record Time), Team Absences (was View Team Absences), and My Goals (was Manage Goals).

6. General Display Name

You can now configure employee names that can be displayed consistently across SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite. A new admin option, Enable adoption of General Display Name, is added to control it. You can see this option under Admin Center > Company System and Logo Settings. The new capability provides both consistency and flexibility to managing display names.

• For customers who have enabled Employee Central, before adopting the General Display Name, configure a name format you prefer using either Legal Entity or People Profile. General Display Name can be configured per legal entity, which means, as an administrator, you can configure name formats that meet the business needs and keep with the best practices of each legal entity.
• For customers who haven't enabled Employee Central, after you enable the Enable adoption of General Display Name option, you can import General Display Name using Employee Import.

Configuration Requirements:

• Only the employee and the onboardee user types are supported.
• For Employee Central customers, we don’t prevent you from importing General Display Name, but any imported updates to the General Display Name will be overwritten by HRIS sync.
• For Employee Central customers, after you select the Enable adoption of General Display Name option, a Migrate General Display Name job will be triggered to initialize General Display Name. The Enable adoption of General Display Name option will be enabled when the migration job is done. You can check the status of the migration job under Admin Center > Scheduled Job Manager.

How It Looks Now:

7. Increased Access Granularity for RBP Administrators

Previously, RBP administrators had both view and edit access of role-based permission management by default. Now, you can grant view only access to RBP administrators.

You can manage RBP administrator access under Admin Center > Manage Role-Based Permission Access. Existing RBP administrators have both the Role-Based Permission Admin (View) and the Role-Based Permission Admin (Edit) access by default. You can review and update their access accordingly.

Some RBP administrators only need view access but not edit access. We now provide more granularity to RBP admin access management to meet your needs.

How It Looks Now:

How It Looked Before:

In the current version, you can see a Role-Based Permission Admin (View) column and a Role-Based Permission Admin (Edit) column on the Manage Role-Based Permission Access page.

Previously, there was only a Role-Based Permission Admin column.

8. Major Changes to the Check Tool

The user interface (UI) for the check tool has undergone a major change. In addition, SAP added migration checks.

The checks are now grouped on tabs according to the check type they belong to. Each check type follows a specific purpose:

• System Health: Checks that run periodically in the system and that require no input parameters.
• Validation: Checks that need one or more input parameters to run, for example, a specific template, user, or time frame.
• Migration: Checks that migrate features.

The Check Tool tile on the Admin Center page displays only system-health checks.

Role-Based Permission Prerequisites:

You have the following Administrator > Check Tool permissions:

• Access Check Tool
• Allow Configuration Export
• Allow Check Tool Quick Fix

How It Looks Now:

How It Looked Before:

In the current version, the user interface has undergone several changes:

• Checks are grouped by check type on tabs.
• Migration checks have been added on the tab Migration.
• Additional information on a check is displayed on the right side of the page when you click on a check.
• There's an initial run of the new checks at the beginning of a new release, and the checks run once a month or more often automatically. Predefined selection criteria provide you an overview of the issues you need to work on for checks on the System Health and Migration tab, to provide you a kind of worklist. This isn’t true for validation checks, as these require input parameters to be run and thus need to be triggered manually.
• You can access the legacy check tool UI from the new check tool UI.

In the previous version, all checks were grouped by application area. Additional information on a check was displayed in a dialog box. There were no migration checks.

9. Manage Jobs in Scheduled Job Manager

You can now manage scheduled jobs on the Job Scheduler tab in the Scheduled Job Manager tool, for supported job types.

You can use the Job Scheduler tab (previously called Scheduled Job Requests) to complete the following actions:

• Create a scheduled job request (to define which job type you want to run, on what schedule, and who receives email notifications about it).
• Submit a scheduled job request (so that the job runs at the next scheduled time).
• Run a job immediately (without waiting for the next scheduled time).
• Edit an existing scheduled job request (such as changing the recurrence or owner).
• Cancel a scheduled job request (so that the job is still set up but doesn't run anymore).
• Delete a scheduled job request (to remove it completely from the system).

For each supported job type, the available actions vary. For example, for some job types you can only schedule a job request, but you can't run the job immediately. For others, you can run it immediately, but only after it's first been set up in Provisioning. Check the Actions menu for a specific job request to see which actions are available.

These actions are supported only for the following job types. For other job types, you can view job requests on the Job Scheduler tab after they've been set up in Provisioning, but no other actions are available.

Role-Based Permission Prerequisites:

You have the following permissions:

• Administrator > Admin Center Permissions > Monitor Scheduled Jobs

How It Looks Now: 

Creating a Job Request in Job Scheduler

In the current version, the tab where you view scheduled jobs and create job requests is called Job Scheduler. You can choose the Create Job Request option to create and submit a job request.

Actions Menu for a Submitted Job

After a job request is created, you can use the Actions menu to complete other actions, like running it or cancelling it.

How It Looked Before:

In the previous version, the tab where you view scheduled jobs was called Scheduled Job Requests. You couldn't create job requests or complete any other actions after they're created.

10. MDF Data Volume Information Now Available

You can check the volumes of audit data, association data, and transactional data of a specified MDF object in your system.

The following new MDF objects are available in Manage Data. You can choose one of them and specify another MDF object to view the corresponding data volumes:

• MDF Audit Data Volume: Use this object to check the volumes of audit data available for a given MDF object.
• MDF Association Data Volume: Use this object to check the volumes of association data available for a given MDF object.
• MDF Transactional Data Volume: Use this object to check the volumes of transactional data available for a given MDF object. Transactional data refers to the day-to-day business data that's available in a system.

The data volume information is collected periodically for every company in the production environment and is available for viewing with proper permission. Alternatively, you can also export the data volume information with Import and Export Data.

SAP made the enhancement so that system administrators can better understand and manage the data volume consumption of MDF objects in the system. They can also rely on the statistics to decide whether and when to purge MDF data.

Role-Based Permission Prerequisites:

To check the data volumes of an MDF object, you need the following permissions:

• Administrator Permissions > Metadata Framework > Manage Data
• View permission of the following MDF objects under User Permissions > Miscellaneous Permissions:

1. MDF Audit Data Volume
2. MDF Association Data Volume
3. MDF Transactional Data Volume

To view exported data volume information, you also need the Administrator Permissions > Admin Center Permissions > Monitor Scheduled Jobs permission.

How It Looks Now:

In the current version, you can view the data volume of a specified MDF object using one of the three data volume objects.

11. New Actions Available in Action Search

A few new actions related to 360 Reviews, People Profile, Job Information, etc. are now available in the global header search box. Users can enter the exact text of an action or select from suggested actions to navigate to a desired product page.

The new actions are the following:

• Career Explorer
• View Activities
• View team absences
• 360 Executive Review
• View 360 Reviews Forms
• View my profile
• View my personal information
• View job Information for...
• View my job information
• View my organizational information
• View organizational information for...

These new actions take users directly to product pages that are otherwise accessible through multiple steps in the SAP SuccessFactors system, and also help Digital Assistant to consume new use cases.

In the current version, the actions listed above are available in Action Search. Now, you can search for these actions in the global header search box.

In the previous version, these actions were not available in Action Search.

12. Personal Pronouns

SAP added a new standard element, pronouns to the Succession Data Model. You can now configure pronouns so that employees can display their pronouns on user interfaces such as People Profile and quickcards.

You can configure pronouns using the Manage Business Configuration administrator tool. You can also import and export pronouns using employee data import.

It's increasingly common for people to list their personal pronouns, like "she/her/hers" and "they/them/theirs" in email signatures and profiles. We've introduced this new field so that customers can support this in the SAP SuccessFactors Suite.

Configuration Requirements:

• You can configure the picklist for pronouns under Admin Center > Picklist Center. Please note that the Code field of the picklist must be PersonPronouns.
• Use option ID instead of external code of the picklist when importing the user data file. When importing pronouns, the system validates the picklist values with the option IDs.
• Enable the option Allow employees to maintain their pronouns in Admin Center > Configure People Profile > Header Settings so that employees with relevant permissions can add their pronouns to the People Profile header and employee quickcard.

Role-Based Permission Prerequisites:

You have below permissions:

• Administrator Permissions > Manage System Properties > Manage Employee Files.
• Administrator Permissions > Metadata Framework > Configure Object Definitions.
• User Permissions > Employee Data > Pronouns. You also have permission to edit the Pronouns item so that you can add your own pronouns and view the pronouns of others on the People Profile header and employee quickcard.

How It Looks Now:

The pronouns standard element is now available in Manage Business Configuration.

13. Stable Transport and Import of Business Rules

Business rules are now stable for import or transport.

All existing rules are analyzed to see if they fulfill the technical requirements to be stable in case they're included in an import or transport (for example, the potential use of legacy picklist values). If technical issues are found, the rule is adapted accordingly. The procedure is as follows:

• During the upgrade to the new release, the migration is automatically initiated for all existing rules.
• After this has happened, we recommend you run the new migration check RuleTransportStabilization in the check tool at the beginning of the new release to check for any occurrences where automatic migration wasn't possible. You can use the quick fix feature of the Check Tool to fix these issues.
• If the automated quick fix for check RuleTransportStabilization can't solve the issue (for example, if the rule contains serious configuration issues), you need to fix the rule manually on the Configure Business Rules page.
• If you import or transport old rules after the upgrade, use the new migration check to trigger the automatic migration manually. However, we recommend you import or transport rules from a source system where the migration has already taken place, so that you don't have to perform the migration again.

Configuration Requirements:

You need access to the Check Tool.

Role-Based Permission Prerequisites:

You have the following Administrator > Check Tool permissions:

• Access Check Tool
• Allow Check Tool Quick Fix

How It Looks Now:

Message on Business Rules Admin Page

Check RuleTransportStabilization under Check Tool → Migration

In the current release, the Business Rules Admin page shows a message about how many rules haven't been migrated yet. The link in the message leads you to the check tool where you can perform the migration.

On the Configure Business Rules page, when you open a rule in view mode that hasn't been migrated yet, you get an information message that the rule was adjusted. You need to open the rule in edit mode and save it to make the changes permanent.

Message on Configure Business Rules Page:

The only change of the migration that you see on the UI is that business rules now refer to the unique external code of picklist values, which is system-independent. That means that you can now transport and import business rules without having to manually adjust the option IDs of the picklist values. The external code is shown in display mode next to the option ID in the format "label (external code, option ID)".

Rule with Legacy Picklist (Current Release):

How It Looked Before:

In the previous release, business rules referred to the option IDs of legacy picklist values used inside the rule. Option IDs are system-specific. After transporting or importing the corresponding rules from the source system to the target system, the picklist values would differ between both systems and could thus lead to different results after rule execution. To prevent this, you had to manually adjust the option IDs of the legacy picklist values in the target system.

The rule showed the label followed by the option ID in brackets in display mode.

Rule with Legacy Picklist (Previous Release):

14. Support More Values for Gender

Previously, only Male and Female gender values were supported throughout the entire HXM Suite, while Employee Central already allowed five gender values. Now, we also support the additional three values, Unknown, Undeclared, and Others, throughout the entire suite as appropriate and applicable in a specific business process.

The following functions support these additional gender values:

• You can see the three additional values for the Gender field when you add or update users using the Manage Users admin tool. Previously the default value of the Gender field in the quick add popup is Male, but now the default value was No Selection.
• You can import and export gender values of employees. Supported string values are M (male), F (female), U (unknown), D (undeclared), and O (others). Please note that previously there was no gender value validation check, but now only the supported five values can pass the validation check.

Configuration Requirements:

As a prerequisite, enable the option to include additional gender values along with male and female in the Upgrade Center under Optional Upgrades > Enhancement to Gender Values – Inclusion of Additional Gender Values > Learn more & Upgrade Now > Upgrade Now.

How It Looks Now:

The Gender field in the Detailed Add Users dialog shows a dropdown list for the new values.

15. The Latest Role-Based Permissions Supports Change History of Permission Roles

As an RBP administrator, you can now view the change history of a permission role using the latest Role-Based Permissions. You can also compare two versions of a permission role to check which permissions are added or removed.

You can view the change history of a permission role under Admin Center > Manage Permission Roles > [select a permission role] > View History. Or, you can go into the role details page and choose the View History button.

You can now have version control on permission roles.

Configuration Requirements:

A permission role change record is created when you add or remove permissions or role assignments of a permission role. But only permission changes are highlighted when you compare two versions. So, after you add a role assignment to a permission role, and compare the current version with the previous record, no change is highlighted.

How It Looks Now:

You can now view the change history of a permission role. The View History button displays on a role details page.

You can now compare two versions of a permission role. The strikethrough texts highlighted in red are removed permission. The underlined texts highlighted in green are newly added permissions.

16.     Updated Default Settings for Reset Password Messages

We've enhanced the popup messages that appear when you reset the password for login accounts. You can reset passwords of login accounts under Admin Center > Manage Login Accounts.

Behaviour Changes in Reset Password Messages for Login Accounts:

SAP made the enhancement to enable automatic email notifications for account users.

Role-Based Permission Prerequisites:

You have the Administrator Permissions > Manage User > Manage Login Accounts permission.

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