Overview:
Let’s say, a customer has lot of other external applications to maintain for example, their share purchases, rewards, time and attendance, payroll etc. and they want their employees and managers to navigate to those external applications from within SuccessFactors. This can be achieved with something called “Process and Object Selector” built upon 2 models –
This blog specifies how these navigations can be setup within SF, the technical details of the process & object selector and how it works.
Side-by-Side Model:
This model is applicable only as Employee and Manager self-service with Employee Central module being implemented. In other words, this model can’t be deployed when only Employee Profile is in place.
Below diagram shows a couple of dummy URLs maintained for ESS and MSS where employees and managers (for their direct reports) can navigate to those external applications.
Now say, these external applications vary from country to country and the customer wants to show only relevant applications to their employees and managers based on their job country.
A sample business rule as below –
As an alternative, it is also possible to create a custom tile on Homepage to navigate directly to Take Action menu
If an employee x is located in UK and is performing an Employee Self Service action, he/she will see UK specific Employee Links (highlighted in yellow in below screenshot) under Take Action
If an employee y is located in UK and is performing a Manager Self Service action on one of his/her team members, he/she will see UK specific Manager Links (highlighted in yellow in below screenshot) under Take Action (different set of links than ESS)
NOTE: This is not possible with custom navigations.
Custom Navigations:
Now, there are customers who don’t have Employee Central implemented, but would like to navigate to external applications from within SuccessFactors tool. This is when we use our next model “Custom Navigations”. However, custom navigations can still be used with Employee Central as well.
You can configure how the links are displayed and in which locations it appears. Custom links can be added to several places within Employee Central and the Employee Profile, as well as to other locations in the user interface, such as the Top Navigation and action search.
You can control visibility of custom navigation links (which can also be localized/translated in different languages) using role-based permissions. Meaning this is not restricted to only Employee or Managers (like in Side-by-Side model), but extended to any group of employees like HR Admins, System Admins, HRBPs etc.
Note: Configure Custom Navigation admin tool requires use of v12 user interface
Internal Link: Used with SuccessFactors deep link
External Link – Same Browser: Used with an external URL. Opens in the same browser window.
External Link – New Browser: Used with an external URL. Opens in a new browser window
With the set-up in place now, let’s see how it looks like in SuccessFactors.
Billy Brown who is an HR Admin can see the custom link “Headcount planning” for an employee Martin under “Take Action > Jump To” as specified in the configuration
In a nut-shell -
FAQ:
Q1: Can we have global links instead of adding it per country. Example – Performance Management?
No, it is not possible to add hyperlinks globally. They are to be added separately for each country though it is a global link.
Q2: Can the links be made available for everyone and which ones are controlled by RBP/RBP Groups?
For Side by Side model, RBP is not applicable. It only supports for Employee (ESS) and Manager (MSS).
For Custom Navigations, any hyperlink with "none" selected under permissions is available to everyone, and the ones assigned to certain permission groups and permission roles are only available to the users belonging to these groups/roles.
Q3: Can the order of the links be controlled in ‘Take Action’ menu?
For side by side model, there are up and down arrows against each hyperlink in Admin Center --> Manage Data --> Navigation Group, wherein we can control the order of the links that appear in "Take Action" menu.
For Custom Navigation, there are no up and down arrows, it just follows the same order we configured/placed the hyperlinks in "Configure Custom Navigation" in Admin Center. Also, the custom Navigation hyperlinks appear only after the links configured using Side by Side model
Q4: Can we migrate navigation groups from one instance to other?
For Side by Side, we can utilize "Import and Export Data" under Admin Center and import all navigation groups. But for custom Navigation, there is no easy way to migrate from one instance to another but to do it manually.
Let’s say, a customer has lot of other external applications to maintain for example, their share purchases, rewards, time and attendance, payroll etc. and they want their employees and managers to navigate to those external applications from within SuccessFactors. This can be achieved with something called “Process and Object Selector” built upon 2 models –
- From “Take Action” menu of SuccessFactors Employee central as part of ESS and MSS via “Side-by-Side Model”
- From various other locations within SuccessFactors which can also be restricted to only certain group of employees like HR Admins, HRBPs etc. via Custom Navigations
This blog specifies how these navigations can be setup within SF, the technical details of the process & object selector and how it works.
Side-by-Side Model:
This model is applicable only as Employee and Manager self-service with Employee Central module being implemented. In other words, this model can’t be deployed when only Employee Profile is in place.
- To start with, there is a switch “Enable UI Integration with SAP ERP Systems” which needs to be enabled in provisioning.
- A custom-string field needs to be enabled in “Employment Details” portlet of Succession Data model with field label as “Navigation Group”
- Create Navigation Groups in Manage Data and assign Navigation Targets to define the URLs for ESS and MSS.
Below diagram shows a couple of dummy URLs maintained for ESS and MSS where employees and managers (for their direct reports) can navigate to those external applications.
- Once these navigation groups are created, please ensure to assign them to employees in “Employment Details” portlet in the custom field which we created in previous step.
Now say, these external applications vary from country to country and the customer wants to show only relevant applications to their employees and managers based on their job country.
- Write a Business Rule to define which set of URLs are to be called for which country employees
A sample business rule as below –
- As a last step, assign the right permissions in the relevant permission roles (ESS and MSS roles) so that employees and managers can see these external applications in “Take Action” menu
As an alternative, it is also possible to create a custom tile on Homepage to navigate directly to Take Action menu
If an employee x is located in UK and is performing an Employee Self Service action, he/she will see UK specific Employee Links (highlighted in yellow in below screenshot) under Take Action
If an employee y is located in UK and is performing a Manager Self Service action on one of his/her team members, he/she will see UK specific Manager Links (highlighted in yellow in below screenshot) under Take Action (different set of links than ESS)
NOTE: This is not possible with custom navigations.
Custom Navigations:
Now, there are customers who don’t have Employee Central implemented, but would like to navigate to external applications from within SuccessFactors tool. This is when we use our next model “Custom Navigations”. However, custom navigations can still be used with Employee Central as well.
You can configure how the links are displayed and in which locations it appears. Custom links can be added to several places within Employee Central and the Employee Profile, as well as to other locations in the user interface, such as the Top Navigation and action search.
You can control visibility of custom navigation links (which can also be localized/translated in different languages) using role-based permissions. Meaning this is not restricted to only Employee or Managers (like in Side-by-Side model), but extended to any group of employees like HR Admins, System Admins, HRBPs etc.
Note: Configure Custom Navigation admin tool requires use of v12 user interface
- This requires enabling “Configure Custom Navigation” in provisioning
- Then create custom navigation links via “Admin Center” > “Configure Custom Navigations”:
- Menu Item Label: This field defines how the link appears in the user interface
- Localization: Here you can define translations
- ID: This field defines a unique ID for each custom navigation link.
- Link Type: There are three possible link types
Internal Link: Used with SuccessFactors deep link
External Link – Same Browser: Used with an external URL. Opens in the same browser window.
External Link – New Browser: Used with an external URL. Opens in a new browser window
- URL: This field defines the target URL that is accessed via the custom link.
- Menu Location:
- Permissions: Assign URL to Permission Group/Permission Role
With the set-up in place now, let’s see how it looks like in SuccessFactors.
Billy Brown who is an HR Admin can see the custom link “Headcount planning” for an employee Martin under “Take Action > Jump To” as specified in the configuration
In a nut-shell -
FAQ:
Q1: Can we have global links instead of adding it per country. Example – Performance Management?
No, it is not possible to add hyperlinks globally. They are to be added separately for each country though it is a global link.
Q2: Can the links be made available for everyone and which ones are controlled by RBP/RBP Groups?
For Side by Side model, RBP is not applicable. It only supports for Employee (ESS) and Manager (MSS).
For Custom Navigations, any hyperlink with "none" selected under permissions is available to everyone, and the ones assigned to certain permission groups and permission roles are only available to the users belonging to these groups/roles.
Q3: Can the order of the links be controlled in ‘Take Action’ menu?
For side by side model, there are up and down arrows against each hyperlink in Admin Center --> Manage Data --> Navigation Group, wherein we can control the order of the links that appear in "Take Action" menu.
For Custom Navigation, there are no up and down arrows, it just follows the same order we configured/placed the hyperlinks in "Configure Custom Navigation" in Admin Center. Also, the custom Navigation hyperlinks appear only after the links configured using Side by Side model
Q4: Can we migrate navigation groups from one instance to other?
For Side by Side, we can utilize "Import and Export Data" under Admin Center and import all navigation groups. But for custom Navigation, there is no easy way to migrate from one instance to another but to do it manually.
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