Cross-System Workflow for SAP SuccessFactors Solut...

Sharath_T_N · ‎03-22-2023

Introduction:

In a core-hybrid landscape, an HR process starts in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central but ends with follow-up steps in applications like Payroll. HR admins find it difficult to track the end-to-end process. The cross-system workflow solution was envisioned to enable this transparency in the process visualization spanning multiple systems.

Cross-system workflow is a solution that is used to connect processes that span the cloud system(SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central) and SAP HCM on-premises systems or can even be extended to other systems. Some examples of such processes are hiring, promotion, change in the contract, termination, etc. cross-system workflow is the glue to streamline distributed processes, providing end-to-end visibility, and traceability.

Implementation Design Principle (SFIDP) document: (Cross-System Workflow for SAP SuccessFactors Solutions). Implementation Design Principle documents are owned and managed by SAP SuccessFactors Product Management who engage and collaborate with select, interested partners along with SAP Professional Service to tap the rich implementation experience distilled in the document after a formalized product review process before broader publication.

Link to the document

Solution Overview and Concepts

Below is a visual of how workflows from EC, and SAP ERP HCM are joined using the SAP BTP.

Cross-system workflow for SAP SuccessFactors solutions leverages SAP Process Automation to connect workflows from SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and SAP ERP HCM. The User Interface developed for the visualization of the cross-system workflow is called the “Worklist”. The worklist will be the central entry point for SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and SAP ERP admins. There is a process detail page that would show the additional context of the workflow.

The important concept here is that the UIs of the respective systems are called from the central workflow in SAP BTP. So, the data entry screens don’t have to be rebuilt. All the data validations remain on the source system.

Figure 1 Cross-system workflow Solution Visualization

Each step in the Worklist may be executed in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central or SAP HCM. The important concept here is that the UIs of the respective systems are called from the central workflow in SAP BTP. So, the data entry screens don’t have to be rebuilt. All the data validations will remain on the source system.

High-level Data flow

Figure 2: Data Flow Diagram

SAP Process Automation (Workflow) is used as a glue between the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central workflow and process and Forms. SAP BTP workflow will be initiated when a cross-system process starts with a workflow in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central which is triggered when an employee, manager, or HR makes relevant data changes.

SAP Cloud Integration(SCI) flow will serve as the mediator between SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and SAP BTP workflow.

SCI will be a listener to the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central workflow. Any changes in the approver list, status, or a move to a different step would trigger an update or initiate SAP BTP workflow. It will also fetch additional data to update the workflow context attributes which are required to build the cross-system Worklist. It will wait for the next notification event once the next processor takes an action in the EC workflow.

SAP BTP workflow will call an API to launch ERP Process & Form when all SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central workflow steps are processed and the data replication from EC to ERP is completed. ERP will send an immediate message to notify the BTP workflow instance once a process step is processed by an HR Admin User in Process & Forms. The interaction between SAP BTP workflow and ERP will be repeated until all the steps are completed in ERP.

Setup and Configuration

The setup and the configuration have been explained in the document with screenshots helping to setup the system.

The document covers the setup of the solution including

BTP Setup including subaccount with SAP Process Automation

Roes required in BTP

Importing/ Adding the cross-system workflow project to the SAP process automation

Creating Launchpad

Creating a site

It also explains the setup of the ERP setup

Integrating ABAP environment to SAP Process Automation

Process and Forms setup

The document then explains the simple configurations that are required in

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central

Business Rules/ Decisions in BTP

Restricting access to Admins on the worklist

Configuring Processes and forms

Roadmap forms

Solution status

The cross-system workflow is generally available with the 2H 2023 release.

Bianka Woelke provides an overview of the cross-system workflow capability: 2H 2023 Release Highlights - Cross-System Workflow

Refer to the What's New Viewer for details: SAP SuccessFactors What's New

Conclusion/Key Takeaways:

Cross-System Workflows solution supports extensibility which allows customers to easily configure an additional step in another SAP or non-SAP application.

The number of workflow steps in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central or SAP ERP can be configured to any number of steps. Each process can have different workflow steps. For example, Hire in EC can have 1 step and 1 step in ERP. Promotion can have 2 steps in EC and 1 step in ERP. Retirement can have one step in EC and 2 steps in ERP.

The Benefits of this solution include

Seamless process integration.

Flexible workflow solution, with the possibility of the same Admin working on multiple systems or different admins working on different systems.

End to End visibility/traceability of the process.

Ability to report on process bottlenecks/ process volume

Fully extensible solution with non-SAP systems.

We hope this blog post helped you get acquainted with the basic understanding of the concepts & use cases defined and discussed in the SFIDP. We recommend you to further explore the document for a full-fledged discussion that will aid you in better product implementation as well as help you align with the industry-leading practices. We look forward to your valuable comments/feedback/queries on this blog post.

For a complete list of published Implementation Design Principles for SAP SuccessFactors Solutions, visit SAP SuccessFactors Customer Community page.

pieterjanssens · ‎03-23-2023

Please adjust the solution to work with SAP Task Center instead of a separate worklist application.

Sharath_T_N · ‎03-23-2023

Typically, SAP Task Center is used for quick approvals and for data entry screens.

It shows only current open tasks. Once acted the task disappears, and tasks that had been already completed in the past won’t be visible in the Inbox.

In contrast, CSW is targeting HR/Payroll Professionals, who are responsible to maintain core HR/payroll data. CSW supports a different work style that is needed to efficiently deal with core HR processes. It is intended to provide all involved stakeholders visibility into all process steps/statuses. It is used as a guided activity that has links/screens to maintain data. Tasks are a subset of the overall process, so as the tasks get completed the Worklist UI is updated accordingly.

Regards,

Sharath

yvonne_petruzzella · ‎08-23-2023

Hi,

is there a reason why this IDP is restricted? All other IDPs were accessible for us.

thanks a lot,

best regards

Yvonne

Sharath_T_N · ‎08-23-2023

Hi ,

there is no restriction as such.

Many have already downloaded it

d.dam.sap.com/a/Wk4M7Zi/Cross-System Workflow for SAP SuccessFactors Solutions.pdf

You can also try this link

Regards,

Sharath

yvonne_petruzzella · ‎08-23-2023

Hi Sharath,

thanks a lot for adding the file in this post, I downloaded it now from here.

Have a good day,

best regards

Yvonne

mre · ‎01-08-2024

hello Sharath,

Thank you for this article, it s very helpful. I have a question regarding scope of EC Data that can be a source of CSW: Is it possible to create a CSW for custom MDF?

Thank you in advance,

Gosia

Sharath_T_N · ‎01-08-2024

Hi Malgorzata Renz,

Thanks for the nice words.

For MDF based on user as the key, it should work. you also need to have a workflow in EC for the MDF object.

Regards,

Sharath

T_Eva · ‎03-12-2024

Hi Sharath, hope you're doing great, and thank you for sharing this content!

Please, if possible, I'd like to receive your valuable help with the following scenario:

Customer is asking if it is currently possible to create a position automatically in SF/EC based on the approval of a specific WF step.

Searching for EC configuration only, I can't find any configuration available to trigger this process.

Thinking on this cross-system-workflow and the BTP layer, is it possible to think in a trigger on the BTP layer, which after a specific step triggers this Position creation, and then inform the necessary Person/Team? The idea is that the WF runs only on the EC side.

Really appreciate any input or recommendation.

Best Regards.

Thiago Eva

pboulicaut

where is documented in the IDP the configuration for non-SAP systems ? do we have to centralize the workflow on SAP HCM before going thru the non-SAP system ?