Extending SuccessFactors With MDF and HANA Cloud Paltform

A 3 minute video on extending SuccessFactors and building new apps that use Data from Employee Central. MDF stands for Meta Data Framework. MDF is used to make extensions to existing SuccessFactors apps.

HANA Cloud Platform is for building new apps. You can get an introduction to these concepts in an upcoming webinar.  by +Luke Marson +Chris Paine and +Yariv Zur

SAP SuccessFactors Single Sign On Supports SAML 2.0 Standard

Users of SAP and SuccessFactors can access both applications from a single portal. This single-sign-on supports a standard called SAML 2.0 Here is a nice video about SAML, which stands for Security Assertion Markup Language


There is a cook book available for SAP and SuccessFactors customers in SAP Service Market Place and the SuccessFactors Cloud Integration partner Jam group. Contact Bryan dot hart at SAP dot com if you are a partner and need access to the Jam group.

A Customer Who Loves SuccessFactors Learning and SAP Jam

Almost all customers who buy SuccessFactors Learning also buy SAP Jam with it for informal learning. Here is a customer talking about it. I have personally met many customers who use these products together and derive significant value from it. You will notice that the speaker is responsible for change and training.

SAP Jam As A Change Management Tool

Kellie , on the left, talked about the role of SAP Jam in change management

I always tell customers who consider SuccessFactors Learning that they should consider adding SAP Jam to the mix to serve the informal learning needs of their employees.

In the SuccessFactors seminar. where I spoke recently, I learned something new. Kellie Fitzpatrick, the CEO of Symphony consulting talked about the role SAP Jam is playing in enabling change in an organization implementing SuccessFactors products.  She talked about the experience of a project manager at a current customer who uses collaboration tools to talk about the project status, engage project team members and train future users. She said that the video creation features of Jam, the groups feature, the document collaboration features and the mobile access of Jam make it an excellent tool for change management.

Kellie's observation, based on real world experience is a very valid one. In fact it might help to implement SAP Jam first and use that as a collaboration, learning and change management tool while implementing other modules of SuccessFactors.

How Social Media Helped A Career Change

Recently at the SuccessFactors seminars in Las Vegas and Orlando, my fellow speaker, Venki Krishnamoorthy and I were discussing his days in the city of Doha, Qatar. Venki spent a couple of years in the Persian Gulf area and was talking about the culture and work environment there.

Venki at the SuccessFactors Seminar

He told me that, while away from his home base of US, where most of the SuccessFactors related events were happening, his main source of reliable information was social media channels such as SCN, LinkedIn Groups, personal blogs of SAP HCM Mentors and twitter commentary from SuccessFactors and SAP events by people he knew and trusted. He told me that while he took the standard press releases from SAP and SuccessFactors with a grain of salt, he trusted the experiences shared, opinions voiced and practical insights highlighted by his peers who were active in the social media channels.

He added that such reliable insight via social media channels nudged him to explore the opportunities provided by SuccessFactors seriously and eventually move back to the US, get trained in SuccessFactors and join Deloitte Consulting. He did this despite the numerous opportunities he has in the Persian Gulf area. Today, he is a well respected SuccessFactors expert with some implementations already under his belt.

I believe that every one who takes the time to share their knowledge, experience and insight on the SAP SuccessFactors topic, including Luke Marson, Jarret Pazahanick, Jeremy Masters, Yannick PeterSchmitt, Kouros Behzad, Paru Shankar, Franz Smolders, Heike Kolar and Martin Gillet will be pleased to hear Venki's career change story. For many of these colleagues, social media sharing is not their day job. They do it because they want to make a difference, influence the future and give back to the community that helped shape their career.

Venki did not stop utilizing social media once he made his career move. He continues to use such channels to take day to day decisions, make recommendations to his customers and even convince his customers about a project direction.