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Pazahanick_Jarr
Active Contributor

SAP is planning to release some exciting new HCM functionality which they have called “HR Renewal 1.0” that encompasses several solutions including Learning, Employee and Manager Self-Service, Personnel Administration (PA), Organization Management (OM) and HCM Processes and Forms (P&F). This article will do a deeper dive into the PA/OM/P&F parts of HR Renewal 1.0 which initially will be delivered for the United States, Brazil, India and China. I have been fortune enough to work with SAP in a co-innovation capacity on this over the past 11 months and if you are unfamiliar with the program I would recommend reading SAP's Golden Opportunity to use Co-Innovation to Make better Software

For years customers have complained about the user experience (UX) of the SAP HCM offering and it is great to see SAP finally make a sizable investment to offer them a more user friendly, harmonized and intuitive experience. Check out this video recently released called SAP's Delightful New HCM User Experience to get an overall sense of the changes with SAP HCM with the HR Renewal being highlighted at the 58 second mark.


The SAP team worked with more than 15 customers and thought leaders to deliver this face lift and make fundamental improvements to the Personnel Administration (PA) and Organizational Management (OM) modules. This includes a new common landing page based on HTML5 where users can configure “swim lanes” with relevant items such as Organization, Employees, Inbox, Analytics etc, Quick access and simple maintenance of employee data, Integration with StreamWork for social networking and collaboration, and an additional interface for HCM processes and forms based on Web Dynpro ABAP which will offer a reduced cost and simpler technical infrastructure. Enclosed are some screen shots to give you a sense of the new offering.

Lab preview screen shot of the new Landing Page


Lab Preview Screen Shot of Position Maintenance

Lab Preview of HCM Processes and Forms for Web Dynpro ABAP


For the technical folks this will be delivered as an “In-advance” shipment to what is assumed will be EHP7 and will require Enhancement Package 6 (EHP6) as a pre-requisite. An “In-advance” shipment is actually a Support Package modeled as a new type of Add-on. The UI will run on the NetWeaver Business Client (NWBC) or the NetWeaver Enterprise Portal and the landing page is based on SAP UI5. It will also be the first SAP HCM product to offer optional SAP StreamWork integration which is great to see from a social and collaboration perspective as well. The single infotype maintenance is based on WD ABAP and has a look and feel similar to the latest Manager and Employee Self-Service utilizing the new SAP_CORBU theme. It is interesting to note that SAP_CORBU derives its name from Le Corbusier a Modern Swiss architect and designer.


The current plan is for this to be available in 3 waves in 2012 with Wave 1 planned for Ramp Up customers mid June and General Availability (GA) of Waves 1 & 2 planned for September with Wave 3 is tentatively planned for GA in November. SAP refers to Wave 1 as an “In-advance” shipment they intend to call HR Renewal 1.0 with the other 2 waves in 2012 being Feature Packages for HR Renewal. Wave 1 will introduce the new UI for HCM Processes and Forms, based on WD ABAP as an option to the current UI based on Adobe; Wave 2 is the main delivery where the new landing page and web based infotype maintenance is planned; Wave 3 will focus on rounding out the WD ABAP UI and content for HCM Processes and Forms. SAP has plans to continue enhancing this solution into 2013 – adding additional features, infotypes and countries.


Having been on the ground at multiple large Fortune 500 companies over the past 14 years there is no doubt that the HR Renewal 1.0 is going to be well received in the marketplace The best part is all this new functionality will be delivered at no additional charge as it is included in the base user license. SAP started this work effort prior to buying SuccessFactors but it shows they are still innovating and providing new functionality around core HCM which is great to see and some would say long overdue. Much of this functionality was recently demonstrated live, at ASUG 2012/SAPPHIRENOW by Product Owner Christian Hochwarth, and I mentioned it in my ASUG Interview SAP Under the Microscope: HCM and SuccessFactors starting at the 6:30 minute mark. Big thanks to Robert Moeller who is the Solution Owner of Core HR, David Ludlow, Group Vice President, Line of Business Solutions and everyone working hard to bring this functionality to market.

You can follow me on Twitter at SAP_Jarret

Update: Here is my follow up blog on this topic SAP New HR Renewal Functionality and Roadmap and a recent podcast I taped on the HR Renewal.



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