SAP SuccessFactors Metadata Framework (Part 2)

This is part 2 of a 3-part blog series on the Metadata Framework.

In my last blog, I mentioned that SAP SuccessFactors has over 500 customers who have built extensions on the Metadata Framework. I also showed the applications extensions that SAP SuccessFactors has built on the Metadata Framework:

In this blog, we’ll take a deeper dive into how our customers are using the Metadata Framework to build extensions and applications – all without the need to code.

IT Asset Management Extension

Tracking and managing company assets such as laptops and mobile phones is a big problem for many organizations. Traditionally, IT was required to help purchase new assets, manage and track all of the assets using their own systems. However, today we’re seeing more of our customers’ HR departments who are being asked to manage the laptops and mobile devices that employees are using.

HR and IT systems have traditionally been separate, meaning that in order to provide HR with visibility into where certain assets were located – IT would be required to create an integration between the two systems, and HR would need to create a brand new business process for tracking and managing their employees mobile phones and devices.

However, using the Metadata Framework, our customers have been able to create Asset Management extensions to provide their HR department with a consolidated system of record in how to manage their existing IT assets, saving time and money by avoiding any unnecessary purchases and managing their systems more effectively.

With this new extension, employees are able to request new assets directly through SAP SuccessFactors that automatically get routed to their managers for approval. HR is able track company assets without the need of creating a complex integration to link disparate systems, and workflows are streamlined through SAP SuccessFactors rather than having to manually track and push through approvals.

Nutrition and Fitness Extension

Customers often setup nutrition and fitness programs to encourage better health decisions for employees. As a matter of fact, research has shown that better employee health not only decreases cost for employers, but also increases overall productivity. Several of SAP SuccessFactors customers have started to use the nutrition and fitness extension to encourage better health decisions for their employees.

The extension allows employees to:

1. register for different fitness and nutrition programs
2. order fitness equipment to meet their personal goals
3. get approvals from their managers on any equipment that they need to order

Tuition Reimbursement Extension

Many of our customers today provide tuition reimbursement programs to attract, develop and retain top talent in their organizations. However, it is very difficult to track tuition reimbursement programs for employees across multiple departments and levels in the organization. HR must manage and keep track of what courses were taken, who took the courses, how to calculate reimbursements, and which department incurred the expense.

By using a single Generic Object in the SAP SuccessFactors Metadata Framework, our customers have created a Tuition Reimbursement extension to manage this problem.

Within the Tuition Reimbursement extension, HR users can create fields to input tuition amounts, the courses an employee takes, and the grades an employee receives to calculate the total tuition that an employee is eligible for. Using the rules engine, HR can setup a configuration such as if an employee obtains a certain grade (like an A! or an F), the employees could be reimbursed for a certain amount of tuition! All of the fields in the extension can be tracked by department and are linked back to SAP SuccessFactors Foundation Objects. The tuition reimbursement extension is another example of how the Metadata Framework can simplify our customers’ business processes.

Conclusion:

At SAP SuccessFactors we believe that #SuccessIsSimplyHuman, and technology is an enabler of success. By providing our customers with tools such as the Metadata Framework, we strive to help our customers simplify their existing business processes and build new capabilities beyond what’s delivered out of the box with our solutions.

I’ve provided just a few extensions below that our customers have built using the Metadata Framework.

Stay tuned for the final blog in this series on the Metadata Framework. We have an exciting announcement coming up in our 1608 release.

Special thank you to Abhijit Salvi and Suvankar Bhaduri for their contributions to this blog.