In one of my earlier blogs on Payroll Reporting in SAP SuccessFactors, I shared what was then new in SAP SuccessFactors People Analytics. The blog highlighted the roadmap of what has been planned and not planned for in the future. See the summary in the table below:

The roadmap is what SAP SuccessFactors shares with customers. It shows the data available when People Analytics launched (column on left), data planned for inclusion in the next 24 months (middle column) and what was not planned for inclusion (column on the right). SAP SuccessFactors roadmaps are based on intentions and plans and can change at any point. Visit the SAP SuccessFactors Community or the Roadmap Explorer (appropriate credentials required) for the latest updates.

The first column is a good look at the types of data for which you can create reports or stories in the Reports Stories edition including key EC data, compensation, user management, job profiles, talent and so on. Essentially anyone using SuccessFactors EC should be using Report Stories for their operational reporting. The middle column was for data sources scheduled for release in the two years following the launch of People Analytics. SAP clients were excited to learn in April this year that learning data was added to People Analytics Report Stories edition. See my blog here.

Looking at the roadmap, there are two critical areas not available for reporting in People Analytics Report Stories Edition, and those are non-SuccessFactors data and Payroll data.

1) Non-SuccessFactors data is not included in the People Analytics Report Stories Edition

Let’s start with that first one, non-SuccessFactors data is not included in Report Stories. As People Analytics is a SuccessFactors reporting solution, it is fair that it is designed only to include SuccessFactors’ data. However, as we know many customers are still in the midst of their digital transformation and have some data still in SAP On-premise and some data in SAP SuccessFactors at the same time. For those customers who wish to do live, operational reporting on both SAP and SuccessFactors data at the same time, a third-party solution is required. The only SAP S/4HANA certified solution that is available for this today is Query Manager.

2) Payroll Data is not included in the People Analytics Report Stories Edition

Also, not available for live reporting in People Analytics Report Stories Edition is Payroll data. SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll leverages the world class on-premise ECC SAP solution so, similar to the point above, non-SuccessFactors data is not included in Report Stories Edition. Live operational payroll data is also not available.  There are some limited aggregated and replicated results scheduled to be made available. However, for those customers who wish to do live, operational reporting on SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll data, a third-party solution is required. The only SAP S/4HANA certified solution that is available for this today is Query Manager.

Why Query Manager?

In those scenarios where SAP or SuccessFactors do not intend to provide data directly, they work with partners to provide it. Above is a sample slide from SAP showing its various integrations and vendors for live data sources for SAP Analytics Cloud. You will see on the bottom right that the specific partner mentioned for this trusted integration for On-premise data and Payroll data is EPI-USE Labs, which is the partner that offers Query Manager.

As you know, being able to analyse, review and interact with your live Payroll data is a necessity for all organisations. As of today the only SAP S/4 HANA certified solution that makes this possible is Query Manager. The EPI-USE Labs Query Manager solution is also whitelisted to work on SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll.

The Query Manager solution delivers live Payroll and Time data for On-Premise SAP Payroll data and SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll as well as hybrid reporting from SAP and SuccessFactors at the same time.

Your complete reporting solution

Query Manager is the number one solution for Payroll reporting, but it also includes robust functionality that has evolved along with the needs of our clients including:

• Creating employee letters and contracts
• Payroll Control Center (PCC) Integration
• Dynamic integration with Microsoft Excel
• Live sharing of data with your analytics solution of choice and
• The ability to interact with your reports and documents outside of the SAPGUI via a web browser 

Find out more about Query Manager and how its addition to your arsenal will significantly improve your businesses efficacy by reaching out to me at danielle@labs.epiuse.com. You can also see its capability first-hand at the following links:

• Query Manager On-Premise
• Query Manager for SuccessFactors Hybrid Reporting
• Query Manager for Payroll Reporting
• Query Manager Analytics Connector

This article is sponsored by EPI-USE Labs

The post What are your Payroll Reporting options in 2021? appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

Deploy Tableau in Stages

Tableau Software, the world’s leading analytics platform, has announced that Woolworths Group will deploy Tableau’s data reporting and visual analytics. The agreement will enable employees across Australia’s leading retailer to analyse data for fast, real-time decision making.Woolworths will rollout Tableau in a staged deployment in the coming months across multiple group businesses covering functions including Merchandising, Finance, Supply Chain, Store Operations and People Operations.

Nigel Mendonca, Head of Tableau ANZ said, “Retailers worldwide are transforming themselves to thrive in the omni-channel marketplace. We’re delighted to partner with Woolworths to fuel their innovation agenda through modern business intelligence for the benefit of its customers.”

Partnership

Woolworths’ decision to partner with Tableau forms part of the Group’s ongoing focus on insight-driven decision making. Tableau was selected due to the solution’s connectivity with existing systems, agility and user-friendliness.

Doug Frank, Woolworths Group General Manager of Data & Analytics, said, “ Customer expectations are always rising in retail and we need to work smart to keep up with them.  The key advantage of Tableau is speed and ease for our team. It will allow team members across the business to analyse, understand and act on customer insights incredibly quickly.  We see this type of capability as key to delivering what our customers want and expect of us into the future.” 

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The new solution for finance provides support for key finance functions including profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow planning while simplifying both data collection with SAP S/4HANA Cloud and analytics with SAP Analytics Cloud.

The solution enables FP&A teams to align operational and financial plans and to bring financial and nonfinancial data together to establish a single source of truth, eliminating the typical gulf between financial software and stand-alone spreadsheets and planning products.

The SAP Analytics Cloud application includes planning, business intelligence, and predictive analytics capabilities that enable organisations to automate insights that deliver organisational agility. The machine learning incorporated into the application highlights the key drivers of variances, creates forecasts, and augments data.

“Prior to working with SAP Analytics Cloud, we had created enormous amounts of data, but lacked the tools necessary to plan upon and analyse it,” said Stephen Filreis, director, SAP Program Management, Pratt Industries, an Atlanta-area manufacturer of corrugated boxes.

“Now we understand where we should target our efforts to maximise our collections group’s effectiveness. SAP Analytics Cloud has allowed us to gain visibility into this critical information and get our business users closer to data with intelligent visualisations and meaningful reporting,” said Filreis.

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“Big data and analytics is no longer uncommon in Malaysia, and many organisations have started to accept this technology these days. By using analytic capabilities, organisations will be able to run their business operations, improve the overall customer experience, and expand its product and services offering, by increasing their competitive advantage over other existing competitors in the market,” said Ng Quan Xiong, market analyst for software, IDC Malaysia.

The analyst firm said that with an increasing amount of unstructured data gathered from various channels such as social media, company websites and contact centres, enterprises are seeking to use analytics to gain insights from this data. Visual analytics is particularly popular because it provides functionality to support the analytic workflow, provides a channel for consumption of analytics, and enables non-IT staff to analyse, visualise, share and review data.

According to IDC, software vendors and the channel ecosystem will play an important role in drive adoption of big data technology. There will also be an increase in the need for customisation, deployment options, and the incorporation of cognitive computing capabilities to guide enterprises as they adopt big data technologies.

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The new version of SAP Vora is delivered utilising containers, and leverages Kubernetes for deployment and cluster management on public cloud infrastructure offerings.

Also among the enhancements, SAP Data Network’s live customer cloud service will use the distributed computing capabilities of SAP Vora to process large data volumes to highlight business insights in near real-time. The service combines expertise in big data, machine learning and analytics to provide an end-to-end portfolio for data monetisation as a ready-to-consume cloud service.

“We are bringing together data transformation and business transformation on the same platform, uniting structured data and computed unstructured data to change the way businesses plan, scale and innovate,” said Greg McStravick, president, SAP Database and Data Management.

SAP has plans to support Azure Data Lake, hosted in Microsoft’s public cloud Azure, and can now load and distribute data files stored in Amazon S3. Other features of the latest release are an enhanced monitoring framework, support for Apache Spark2.x and connectivity optimisation with the SAP HANA platform.

“We use SAP Vora to realise our accelerator data services that quickly process and curate industry and line-of-business-specific data for reusability in many business scenarios – thus enabling faster time to market for our customers,” said Helen Arnold, president, SAP Data Network.

“SAP Vora 2.0 will play a role in further executing on our promise to create new business models and revenue streams for our customers by using one of the greatest assets of our time – data.”

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Together the two companies will harness the power of big data, machine learning, analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT) in this latest step of a process that began 18 months ago, when they began working together to accelerate and simplify their customers’ digital transformation journeys using SAP S/4HANA.

“Every CEO in the world is focused on digital innovation,” said Bill McDermott, chief executive officer, SAP. “With SAP HANA and SAP Leonardo, we are alone in delivering the power of in-memory computing together with a rich combination of modern digital technologies. We could not be more pleased to announce an expanded partnership with Accenture to create a new wave of industry-specific digital solutions for our customers.”

“Today, we’re at an incredible tipping point,” said Pierre Nanterme, chairman and CEO, Accenture. “We’re face to face with an era of tremendous business transformation where the fundamental rules of how we create value are being rewritten. What we’re announcing today is a bold step in defining the rules for the intelligent enterprise,” he said.

New offerings will enable customers to tailor predictive models to their specific businesses, providing improved results through real-time insights leading to better business decisions. Accenture plans to integrate more than 50 of its proven enterprise analytics applications to help customers reduce capital costs and optimise supply chains.

Accenture also plans to use its Industry X.0 approach and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) expertise to help organisations leverage SAP Leonardo to achieve new levels of efficiency, uncover new sources of growth and deliver hyper-personalised customer experiences.

The company will develop analytics and Industry X.0 solutions based on SAP Leonardo at its Industrial IoT Innovation Centre in Garching, Germany, at its Innovation Hub in Houston and at Accenture Liquid Studios around the world.

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Previously Hubble’s CPM suite capabilities covered only Oracle and JD Edwards ERP solutions.

Community Coffee Company, the largest family-owned and operated retail coffee brand in America, is one of the first to implement Hubble for SAP, citing the company’s commitment to customer satisfaction and ease of use as deciding factors.

“In searching for a solution for our financial reporting and planning needs, we have selected a tool that will increase efficiencies not only within our Accounting and Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) teams, but over time benefit our entire organisation,” said Annette Vaccaro, senior vice president, treasurer, and chief financial officer, Community Coffee Company. “Hubble’s reputation of being reliable and providing professional real-time analytics preceded them.”

The development of the SAP deployment will be conducted in a phase approach, with the first phase focused on efficiencies within the Finance and Accounting areas.

“With Hubble, our customers experience the industry’s fastest time to value,” said Paul Yarwood, CEO, Hubble.

“We saw SAP integration as an important next step to expand on our success and into adjacent markets. Most other BI and CPM offerings require data marts or data warehouses; Hubble is the only real-time integrated reporting, analytics and planning CPM suite purpose built for your ERP allowing businesses to focus on growth and not data management.”

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As data science continues to become a powerful differentiator for organisations in every industry, it is no coincidence that almost every data and analytics software platform vendor is now focused on simplification through automation to increase access to analytics at every level of the organisation.

Gartner predicts that the amount of advanced analysis produced by citizen data scientists – whose primary jobs are not data analytics – will surpass that produced by data scientists by 2019. Data produced by the citizen data scientists will help create a pervasive analytics-driven environment throughout organisations, while at the same time freeing skilled data scientists to concentrate on more complex analysis.

“Making data science products easier for citizen data scientists to use will increase vendors’ reach across the enterprise as well as help overcome the skills gap,” said Alexander Linden, research vice president, Gartner. “The key to simplicity is the automation of tasks that are repetitive, manual intensive and don’t require deep data science expertise.”

“Most organisations don’t have enough data scientists consistently available throughout the business, but they do have plenty of skilled information analysts that could become citizen data scientists,” said Joao Tapadinhas, research director, Gartner.

With the proper tools, Tapadinhas said the citizen data scientists will be able to exceed the analytics reach of business users, performing intricate diagnostic analysis and creating models that leverage predictive or prescriptive analytics.

The overall result, according to Gartner, will be to provide access to more data sources and more complex data types; a broader and more sophisticated range of analytics capabilities; and empowerment of a huge citizen data scientist workforce throughout the organisation.

Starting in February, Gartner analysts will deliver additional analysis of data and analytics trends at the Gartner Data & Analytics Summit 2017, taking place in Sydney; Grapevine, Texas; London; Tokyo and Sao Paulo.

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To combat this, Basis Technologies has now released DevAnalytics, a tool which provides metrics to identify waste, inefficiency and bottlenecks during development and delivery of SAP change.

It provides 35 delivery performance metrics across five key categories – velocity, cycle time, rework and waste, work in progress and approval time – enabling companies to understand where action needs to be taken to improve efficiency and optimise delivery. It also provides data to measure internal teams and external suppliers against benchmarks and performance metrics.

According to Basis, DevAnalytics supports the adoption of Agile and DevOps methodologies for SAP by providing a set of metrics that can be used to assess performance on an ongoing basis.

DevAnalytics is compatible with SAP instances running SAP Solution Manager, both cloud-based or on-premise. It is the latest addition to the company’s expanding DevOps Toolset for SAP, which also includes ShiftLeft for change analysis, Transport Expresso for automation, collaboration and auditing for change management, and DevMax, for the automation of conflict management.

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New capabilities have been added to the renamed offering, including new visualisations and storytelling, data wrangling and blending, geospatial, trend analysis, custom filters, linked stories, notifications and chat, as well as new planning features such as bidirectional integration with the SAP BPC application, new aggregation methods, enhanced allocations and distribution, and privacy controls. Online connection support for the SAP HANA platform allows users to perform analytics without having to move data into the cloud environment, while predictive analytics capabilities have also been added. The recently acquired Roambi mobile app is now available in the US as the SAP BusinessObjects Roambi mobile app, as part of the SAP BusinessObjects Cloud suite.

For on-premise customers, SAP has made its BusinessObjects Enterprise analytics offerings available in three new editions – premium, professional and standard – to provide scaled access to capabilities. Some of the new capabilities within this solution include support for over 200 data sources, including Hadoop, HANA and BusinessObjects Cloud, and access to big data enhancements to SAP BusinessObjects Lumira. Predictive analytics are also on the drawing board for this solution, as are automated predictive analysis of big data with native Spark modelling in Hadoop environments, enhancements for SAP HANA including in-database social network analysis, and a simplified UI and tools for predictive factory workflows.

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