The extension centre makes it easier than ever to build new applications in SuccessFactors — and definitely easier than it was in on-premise SAP HCM. So, is it simple enough for your HR Director to run with it to build the transactions he asks for himself?
Well, to begin with, your HRD has probably other jobs to do and has too high a pay grade to busy himself with application building. But joking aside: does the extension center make the build of MDF (Meta Data Framework)-based transactions in so simple that key-users in HR can do it without involving the notoriously stubborn IT department or expensive consultants?
For SuccessFactors veterans there used to be a pretty good dividing line: if it was in the admin center (formerly admin tools) and didn’t involve XML, it was meant to be done by a tech savvy admin or key user (maybe with a few exceptions). If it was in provisioning, it was dangerous or difficult enough to only allow certified partner consultants to do it (to the dismay of many a customer’s IT team). That restriction still applies, but the admin center has become more and more powerful and at the same time feature growth and integration options have made the whole suite more powerful and end-user friendly, but also somewhat more complex to understand on an architecture level.
So, I’m sorry to say, not everything accessible through the admin centre can be considered part of a typical key user’s job description — nor of your HRD’s ;-)
This is not to play down the amazing value of the Extension centre, which allows you to build applications without any programming skills, when it would require the mastery of programming and several technologies in the SAP on-premise world.
One example: This video shows how to build a basic solution for recording anti-bribery compliance data in ca 20 minutes, which could easily have taken half a day to build on-premise:
However, as mentioned above, there are some skills / knowledge anybody using the extension centre needs to bring to the table:
- Understanding the business process in question
- Knowledge of standard SuccessFactors features as well as easier configuration options (such as custom fields) to avoid the extension if possible.
- Consultancy and change management skills to keep the process lean and simple and again, ideally avoid the extension.
- Big picture knowledge of the customer’s SuccessFactors architecture to see how it fits in.
- Very important: data modeling and application design.
- Generally IT savvy.
- Working with picklists, the object definition, workflow config, people profile config in SuccessFactors (technically quite simple).
- Good general knowledge in using SuccessFactors
It’s a long list, but looks scarier than it actually is. You will have realised my emphasis on ideally avoiding the extension in the first place. This is paramount not only because you might reach a licensing limit but also to avoid complexity creep over time: even, if building each individual application is simple, having too many of them makes the system difficult to understand.
So, make sure you know what you are doing and why, but then do enjoy the usability and amazingly short time-to-value you get with SuccessFactors extension centre.
