| 11-23-2009 | |
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SPOC Mapping for Business Processes Mapping, Provisioning, and Revoking |
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SPOC Mapping for Business Processes
How easily, how quickly and to what granularity one can identify accurately the SPOC for a Business Process, is one of the key challenges most Organizations face. Equally critical is availability and accessibility of this information for an employee. This article on SPOC Mapping for Business Processes helps you address these risks by leveraging the key attributes of Organizational Management (OM) and Personnel Administration (PA) and also to map, provision and revoke the mapping with ease.
Need for SPOC Mapping
SPOC for a Business Process could be mapped to an employee as well as the process on various parameters. These parameters define the granularity to which the mapping can be done and also the choice of the parameters determines the flexibility of the mapping. Let us examine the HR mapping for an Employee Separation Process for instance as the SPOC. Every employee who decides to separate or resign from an Organization needs to follow a set of guidelines and procedures for a clean exit and the HR along with the Supervisor are the key facilitators in the whole process. For this very same reason two things become very critical irrespective of the process and the SPOC:
- 1. Mapping and Identification of the correct the SPOC to the Employee/Process
- 2. Accessibility and Availability of this information to the concerned
Parameters for SPOC Mapping
Parameters for SPOC Mapping are function of the Business Process and the Organizational need. PA (Personnel Administration) and OM (Organizational Management) modules in SAP offer a wide range of Employee and Organizational Structure related attributes which can suitably be used for this mapping. It offers a wide range of attributes in a manner that the based on the needs of the Business Process, the right mix if attributes can be chosen. Continuing with the previous scenario of the HR mapping to be done for Employee Separation Process, let us explore some of the key attributes from OM and PA which can be employed for the SPOC mapping:
Listed below are some key attributes from Personnel Administration which could be used for SPOC Mapping:
- 1. Employee Group (PERSG) : It aids in identifying the nature of employment, like Probationer, Permanent, Trainee etc
- 2. Employee Sub Group (PERSK) - This points to the various career bands to which the employees are tagged
- 3. Personnel Area (WERKS) - This identifies the location
- 4. Personnel Sub Area (BTRTL)- This identifies location
- 5. Cost Center (KOSTL) - this identifies the Cost Center to which the employee's cost incurred gets booked
- 6. Company Code (BUKRS)- this identifies the legal entity to which the employee belongs
Listed below are some key attributes Organization Management which could be used for SPOC Mapping:
- 1. Position (S)
- 2. Organization Unit (O)
- 3. Job (C)
- 4. User (US)
Consider if from the above set of parameters as shown in Table 1.1 for the sake of mapping the SPOC for Employee Separation.
Sl. No. | Parameter |
1 | Org Unit (O) |
2 | Location (WERKS) |
3 | Employee Sub Group (PERSK) |
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Table 1.1
Implication of the Choice of Parameters
With the above choice of Parameters for SPOC for HR processes mapping, we will examine the implications of these Parameters more closely:
- 1. Org Unit - As this is the basic building unit of the OM, this attribute could mean or be interpreted in various ways across different organizations. Hence very powerful, when it comes to choosing the granularity at which you wish to peg the SPOC. When you choose it at the higher level you have an eagle's view of the Structure. However if you decide to choose the OU at a Team level, you have the view through the microscope of the scientist. Hence, the choice depends on some factors like:
- a) Number of SPOC vs. the OU distribution or it could be SPOC vs. Employee Ratio
- b) The degree of flexibility required
- 2. Personnel Area - This is the Location factor which can be used for mapping the SPOC. This would aid in identifying a SPOC on the basis of location, irrespective of the other parameters.
- 3. Employee Sub Group - This element would assist in mapping based on the Sub Group wise.
In all the above cases, it is recommended that you have the flexibility to selectively use the parameters, which in other words would mean that in case you have not selected a parameter, says Location, then the SPOC is mapped irrespective of the locations. In case you use ‘*' for the ESG while mapping, you are mapping the SPOC to all the Locations and OUs irrespective of the Employee Sub Group.
This approach is to ensure that it gives the Mapping the desired flexibility and coverage.
Alignment of the OM and PA Attributes to Business Parlance
The next predicament is to align the OM and PA Attributes from SAP to the Business Parlance. The needs and requirements of any process if it is neatly aligned to the SAP terminology and attributes, it's a delight for any Consultant. However, greater the variance from the terminology, attributes from SAP, aligning it to the Business Attributes is the tricky part and also where multiple stakeholder s' consent is required. There are some attributes which are driven by Finance Team, some by the HR and so on. And all of them contain the different versions and slices of truth. Each one satisfied with their interpretation and analysis. Hence, it becomes all the more paramount that the alignment to business attributes needs to be accurate and consistent.
Having said that, let us look at the parameters for SPOC mapping which were considered earlier in Table 1.1. ESG and Location have fairly a common interpretation across. However, OU does not share the same status. OU though it is the basic unit in OM, it has various levels of logical grouping and tagging along the hierarchy. OU could mean different as we progress along the hierarchy, say a Department, CEO's Office etc. Hence the task of aligning it to the right Business Parlance becomes difficult.
Ideally, the Business Owner should be independent of the underlying mapping attributes and should be able to do the mapping based on the Business attributes. How do we achieve this? I always visualize this as a Graffiti board, where a Business Owner can come express the need and make the changes to the board in a language of choice and with words felt best. Or it could be like a cube, you could rotate as many times to get the expected combination/colors.
Alignment of the OM and PA Attributes to Business Parlance - Via a Utility
In order to achieve a seamless integration and mapping, it is recommended to have a Utility which can give the Business Process Owner the cockpit for a smooth take off, flight and landing. The Business Process Owner chooses the right mix of Business terminology and attributes to uniquely express the new or enhanced SPOC mappings. Based on the choice of the Business Process Owners attributes, internally the utility to should identify accurately and consistently the relevant OM/PA attributes and make the changes. The limited the variation between, Business and SAP attributes the more accurate and consistent the utility would be.
Mapping, Provisioning and Revoking
Once the Parameters are identified, and it mapped to the Business Parlance, then we are ready to use the SPOC Mapping for Business Process. The Master switch to control the Mapping is ascertained. Now these are the steps which the Governance team for the SPOC Mapping needs to incorporate to use it effectively.
- 1. In case of new SPOC to be mapped to new entities, effectively use the combination of parameters to uniquely identify the coverage and span for the SPOC
- 2. In case of replacements, and assuming that the parameters for mapping continue to remain the same, then only SPOC needs to be replaced with the new SPOC
- 3. In case of selective replacements, the parameters need to be correctly chosen to identify the coverage and span.
In all the above scenarios, whenever there is a change, implementing the change is easy. You need not redesign the entire Mappings and Alignments, only the changes needs to be plugged. The entire machinery of the Provisioning, Management and Revoking Access continues to work seamlessly.
Conclusion
The SPOC Mapping for Business Processes allows the Organization to ensure minimal time and cost in terms of access, identification and accessibility. It also allows auto assignments, updates and de-provisioning without any manual interventions. Moreover the centralization and alignment of the entire Business Processes and Events to the right SPOC allows better Governance and Control.
