SAP SuccessFactors Q2 2017 Release Highlights

Time is running fast – our second release of 2017 is already out and SAPPHIRE starts next week!

Before you travel to SAPPHIRE, I want to talk about my personal highlights of this release.

The first one is operational headcount planning as part of the SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Planning solution. Operational headcount planning is a major pain point for many HR organizations. It’s a huge effort, very manual and time consuming. And, in most companies it is done once a year using Excel spreadsheets. All this leads to frustration when headcount planning comes up. With the newly released operational headcount planning, the process is much easier as it is no longer an annual, static event. Now, it is an ongoing process; managers can continuously view and update workforce plans, including current and planned positions. Read more about operational headcount planning in this blog by Janne Wise

Image 1 to 3: Operational Headcount Planning as part of the SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Planning Solution

Another great highlight is the new integration from SAP Jam and the SAP SuccessFactors Succession & Development, mentoring and coaching capability. With this integration, mentors and mentees can be automatically invited to specially designed SAP Jam groups that support their mentoring program.  Additionally, the members of the mentoring program can see the related SAP Jam group feed directly within the Succession & Development module. Learn more in this blog: The Best Mentoring Programs Foster Ongoing Collaboration by Lara Albert.

Image 4: SAP SuccessFactors Succession & Development, mentoring and coaching capability

One more favorite of mine is the possibility to create custom landing pages on the fly with the career site builder feature within SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, which was launched and general available in November 2016 (SAP NEWSBYTE, Nov. 29, 2016). Customers can now easily create standalone, targeted landing pages for career events, ad buys or campaigns. With campaign-specific landing pages candidate engagement and conversion rates increase significantly. Learn more about this highlight in Jeff Mills’ blog.

 Image 5: Custom landing pages for career-site-builder functionality

Some other release highlights are:

• New country versions
• New time account process simulator
• New “learning accomplishments”
• Right-to-left (RTL) writing for the SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting solution

These are just a few of the great enhancements you will see in this release. Read our Q2 2017 Release Highlights document and listen to David Ludlow in our release video on YouTube.

Check back in to this blog as I will add more information from time to time.

And, more information on this release can be found on the product update pages in our SAP SuccessFactors customer community (registration required).

Our next release is planned for Q3 2017. We’ll send you a summary of release highlights shortly beforehand. However, you can review a detailed release summary, which is published in our customer community, four weeks prior to the release.

For SAP SuccessFactors Professional Edition, some features may not be available or may become available at a later date.

Enjoy SAPPHIRE!