Strategy & Future of Time Management in SAP SuccessFactors (Including CATS)

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, hope you're doing well. Joining me today is Franz Mulders. Franz is one of our top experts in time or the workforce management area. He leads a product strategy for our native time

[00:00:14] solution which is SAP SuccessFactors Time Cracking. Hi, Franz how are you? Hey, Imran, happy to be here. Well, good. Thanks. Good. Good. So I think most people know this or at least most people that are listening to this, but we launched a new time product

[00:00:31] about two years ago and there's been a ton of stuff that have been delivered. So can you tell me a little bit about the strategy for those decisions that we've made over the last few years?

[00:00:43] How did you like gather the feedback and make decisions on like what were the important areas for us to focus on from a development standpoint? And then along the way, how did you incorporate the customer feedback?

[00:00:57] All right. Yeah. So we had a quite a large revision of the strategy around two and a half years ago. And the reason was that in a very loud voice for the customers that we serve is from the customers who come from our own

[00:01:14] program, SAP HR Time Management and, you know, we're plugged into to many user groups. For example, for feedback, we have a frequent product advisory exchanges with many of those global operating customers. And one area where we found that many of these customers struggle in was

[00:01:34] I'm on SAP HR Time Management and how do I get to to suggest that fully or how do I come to to living up to my business case and then decommissioning SAP HR. And we already have heard time off and

[00:01:49] time sheet as a part of Emperor Central at the time. So where we were, like in the end, or basically the customers had most most questions is in the in the in the areas pressing areas

[00:02:04] for them around, for example, deskless workers or blue color workers more of the complex scenarios. Right. Yeah. So around to an a few years ago, you know, we do the decision we're going to rebuild

[00:02:16] or we're going to build the successor for on premise time management in as part of success factors time management. To the use cases that we delivered in on-prem and now also the leading use cases for success factors time

[00:02:33] management. By the way, if I say success factors time management and the focus areas are building out time off as part of the central and then also focusing on building out time tracking which you call that the intro, which is kind of an add on to

[00:02:51] the time sheet capabilities in in a central. But that umbrella let's say we go success factors time management and then you know it has those components in it. Good clarification. Yeah. But yeah, so from a use case perspective those are the leading use cases, however obviously right now

[00:03:13] technologies much more modern we we we can achieve a lot more and cooler things now than then then we good in our own prime technology course.

[00:03:24] Yeah. And and from the from the very first release that we did with with time tracking I think it's now three or releases all and we included or able to include much

[00:03:37] of the data for features right so things like the ability to connect to clock terminals right for people who need to clock in and out. The ability to do time valuations for people who work on my shift, but also you know things like.

[00:03:57] The rest rule detection or fatigue management grace rule rounding many. Features or items that that are really common in the in the areas of the testless workers or blue color workers we've been putting into to time tracking and the last releases.

[00:04:17] And that also led to you know the the time tracking application now being adopted globally and we have more than 100 customers life. Meanwhile on it, yeah, we have a few million users that are to make one to some very big.

[00:04:34] Yeah, yeah so so far the suggest of time tracking is I think exceeding anyone's expectations and and it only. You know, express this the need for for offering it right so yeah.

[00:04:49] Yeah definitely I mean you know you talked a little bit about it in how you can use different technology nowadays right and so that's really focusing on those eight to six.

[00:04:59] And you know like I implemented on prem time for customers actually spent years doing that and so I saw the power of that technology, but the things we're doing here a little bit different right because you can do.

[00:05:11] As soon as I submit that time on my phone I can do an instant time evaluation evaluated and you know as opposed to having to do it overnight right I know.

[00:05:23] Another one of those deliverables that gets a lot of interest and questions now and it's related to kind of new technology especially with people using their own phones and devices rather than having to go necessarily to a terminal.

[00:05:37] But I know we get questions about like geo fencing right so can you tell me a little bit about that I know that's kind of on the road map. Yeah.

[00:05:48] So on on the geo fence it's let me first talk a little bit about geo fencing and then I'll also want to talk about this real time aspect because it's really changing how you know customers work and please within customers and then but also admins and managers.

[00:06:04] Yeah so let me start with with the geo fencing right so. At the moment we already have the capability as part of us successful.

[00:06:12] Practice mobile app to allow people to clock in and out and we if extended that capability that punch clock as we call it with the option to. To capture location of the employee when they clock in or out right so.

[00:06:34] Now next logical question that we that we had from from customers was can we also. Only allow and please to clock in and out when they're near their work location right or work location right so. Thanks.

[00:06:51] Yeah and then there are also there are few flavors right so the the first flavor that we that we want to start with was. And then allowing that that that employee to only clock in or out when they're within the the radius of their work location.

[00:07:15] And then and next next logical thing would be to auto clock in and out people when they are you know entering entering sites right so I think you're the nice thing also about the cloud technology here is that it's that it's.

[00:07:29] That it you know continuously progresses and we could then usually listen to to our customers by a very as you know.

[00:07:38] And for us is an influence options and you know the technology evolves right it just helps to help to customers to take current but also helps us to. To cover the cool use cases. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you talked about it.

[00:07:57] You talked a little bit about it you said you know how we were listening to customers I saw the post you did on LinkedIn and you had a list I think it was 25 and was it for just the first half twenty twenty three release that we're from the customer influence tool.

[00:08:16] Yeah, yes, exactly. Yeah, so I mean sometimes we're asked. And. Well what what what what what is the what is the purpose or what is the use of the influence tool and. And I understand for customers it is an administrative effort.

[00:08:35] I mean to to to to to to to log in influence requests or an ID. But also to to stroll through to see if others have have recorded or I can assure it good good IDs.

[00:08:50] It's an effort so I get it right but for us it is a product management that is it's really really a variable valuable source of information. So we use it in two ways basically one is that we at the beginning of each release when we start our planning.

[00:09:08] And then we go through all the top voted for influence requests. And we always want to pick out a few of the the the highest voted once. But then there are also always a lot of other things that we need to.

[00:09:26] That we need to do in a release and then if we start on new on new features, then we are you know work on existing features. Then we always cross check it against existing influence requests so those are necessarily the most highest voted ones.

[00:09:45] But those oftentimes have kind of you know hit the gems in there.

[00:09:52] And so then yeah, so then we can also find you existing concepts or we can reach out to the authors of the of the influence requests or sometimes we reach out to the voters for the influence requests.

[00:10:05] To get more input on their reasoning and their use cases to help us to come to like a complete concept right before we start the the the development for it right so we use it in those those two.

[00:10:21] And for us yeah for each feature that we work on it's you know it's it's a valuable tool for us in the valuable source of good information.

[00:10:31] Yeah, it makes a lot of sense I mean I think there is quite a bit that came into it and you know I know that we actually have quite a lot of significant things for twenty twenty three for time coming to right so right now.

[00:10:46] You know at the time of this recording we're kind of in preview already for the first half release and you know like there's a lot in there can you tell me a little bit about you know what's coming in this release and then also what's coming.

[00:11:00] Later this year I know the roadmap is you got the disclaimer it's a possibility it changes although I will say kudos to you guys have been delivering on a lot of the stuff that you.

[00:11:14] And I've said you were working on it and doing so yeah yeah so I mean it this release in the age one release.

[00:11:23] There are a lot of a lot of cool things which we're which you're releasing so as part of time tracking we are releasing new configuration options to.

[00:11:36] You can configure rest rules so for example in in Europe here we have regulations which say that between every shift there needs to be an 11 hours of uninterrupted rest. And to monitor and to to to for example, racial alert in case that.

[00:11:55] I then interrupted rest period is not respected and was was something that that we needed some specific down valuation enhancements for so we've included that in the age one release. And I think that's also one that you know there's not necessarily always.

[00:12:13] Laws there but I also think that you know some companies might even want to adopt such a thing just for for their own.

[00:12:21] You know internal rules and policies and things like that so even though you know it might have been built for a specific region I think that would be applicable for companies who just want to put that in place too.

[00:12:32] Exactly, but so it's also here you know right of all people you know best that oftentimes in time management most things are impacted by collective labor agreements right and. And policies so there is always in every region of the world a lot of.

[00:12:54] Regulations and a lot of policies which are aimed to avoid people from you know working too much or that people need to take sufficient rest. And and you know and linking this to to the to the influence requests and to what I was just talking about.

[00:13:11] Also here when we define these teachers we then take into account that the the configuration of the rules are not only focused on you know doing these these.

[00:13:23] And so we have the rest rules for example or handling the rest rules but that can that it can also be used to. To and other use cases right so so in this yeah.

[00:13:36] To meet the rest rules and I don't want to go into too much technical detail but but I mean a little bit. I guess is needed here we have to we have to release another time another time valuation type right and when we were defining that time valuation.

[00:13:52] That time valuation type we also look through influence requests and to other sources of information and we thought in many cases there are also.

[00:14:04] situations where you need to add some sort of a variable into time valuation right so for example there are use cases where people get 10 minutes to at the end of the shift to hand over their work to others right or their.

[00:14:18] Markets is where people get 15 minutes to shower all their art cases where people get five minutes because they need to work from the entrance site entrance to the. To the punch block right so there are and many use cases where it's useful. To add a specific.

[00:14:41] To the time valuation which people you know get as a kind of an extra. If they were so you know when we were defining the rest rules we also took those things into account and we came up with the new valuation which now you know allows to.

[00:14:57] The other thing is that we are going to have a lot of time to cover that rest rule that I talked about with all the also those other use cases that I talked about right so in many.

[00:15:04] In many developments that we do there are these kind of incremental. Development which satisfy many use cases many many different use cases. So yeah so yeah so and if you other cool things which which we which we delivered one is as part of time tracking.

[00:15:24] The ability to to easily copy information from within the time sheet so we wanted to make it simpler for users to fill out the time sheet in a quick manner so that you can.

[00:15:37] You know just simply copy based within the time sheet from one day to the other or from one week to another week. So that's you know the.

[00:15:47] For sure helping the the employee experience in our time sheet because I mean we understand that filling out the time sheet is not not a fun exercise for no one right so we want to make it.

[00:15:59] As you see as possible here and I think that you know these usability features that we have delivered.

[00:16:04] Make a good you know make a good positive impact there and at least the customer response that we got first on the validation of the designs but now also now that the feature here out. This is really really good in that regard.

[00:16:19] Good then yeah one last thing maybe which I can call out because it's also an and our very impactful. Set of features is many improvements to our public holiday handling right so when we started with time off and also a time sheet.

[00:16:36] We we started with the assumption eight years ago. If there was a public holiday people are not supposed to work and obviously that assumption is not true anymore with with the with the user groups or the employee groups that we are now also.

[00:16:55] Dressing right with the blue colors and the deaths of the surrogors because there many industries if you take retail hospitality health care. Yeah, many more. There are situations where people just need to work. And so we have a lot of things that we have to do.

[00:17:19] So we have to build kind of equivalence to those in interchast factors right then we started that initiative in each two release last year and now we are.

[00:17:35] And so now it is possible for customers to define which employee groups are supposed to work on public holidays and which aren't and if you're a supposed to work on a public holiday.

[00:17:48] Then on that specific day what is then your specific work schedule because it can be a deviating work schedule from your normal schedules.

[00:17:55] It is then also possible that you take you know at the off on that public holiday as is because it's this normal working day for you so all that handling now.

[00:18:05] Is is in the application and it's really you know addressing those those those employee groups that are you know supposed to work during public holidays.

[00:18:16] So now I think we're growing into an into an application which is ready, you know, for customers to really convert in full from their own prime into the. And it's just like the time.

[00:18:31] Yeah, that makes sense. I mean that's a lot and that's only a couple things I know we probably need to get into like a full hour thing to go through the full release but that's a lot in just the first release plus you you know we talked about the 25 influence request that are also covered me so there's quite a bit there what about later this year.

[00:18:53] There are a lot of a lot of cool things coming I mean geofencing we talked about another big big development topic is a tighter integration between. And the management and an payroll so I mean obviously in payroll everything is driven by the the pay calendar.

[00:19:14] Yep, and in the in time management we now need to come to a closer alignment to that right so that means that.

[00:19:22] In line with the payroll calendar or a few days before you wonder on payroll you need to make sure that all time sheets are submitted and especially for example in the in the US.

[00:19:33] You also need to make sure that everything is approved sort of that can mean that you want to order a proof all time sheets at a given point in time related to that big calendar. You then also if it's submitted and approved.

[00:19:48] In many cases want to avoid that that employees make any retro changes or you know change time sheets of already closed payroll periods so. And that all that handling will. You know we're working on now and it is planned to be part of the H2 release.

[00:20:15] So we're now also starting with a lot of development work for. For things which are crossing the year but are impactful so so kind of a sneak peek or an outlook.

[00:20:30] Working on a yeah on a monthly time sheet you why so at the moment our time sheet in success factors is is a weekly time sheet. And we know that we need to accommodate more flexible periods right so for example a month.

[00:20:43] So that's also a topic which we now have in customer validation and we want to. Over now developing it and we're focusing on. Delivering that or planning to deliver that in each one release next year another big one is. The mass approval cockpit for for many.

[00:21:06] That as a manager you can have you know like a good view across your team who has submitted the time sheet who hasn't submitted time sheet for the ones who have submitted.

[00:21:16] And what are specific and memories in there for example right so that the system does a pre validation and as a manager you can then easily. You know assess what what meets your attention and what what doesn't.

[00:21:29] So that's a big one and then to others where I'm really happy that we're now. Actively starting to work on our or is development work jointly with other parts of our as a business so cats across application time sheet was always a big.

[00:21:50] Like a big topic for especially the on-prem customer base again. And also there we're starting the development work now or do we develop a work. So that. Customers who use the the S4 time sheet and then.

[00:22:11] Stay using that that time sheet as a UI but then have all the success factors processes integrated right so that means that the first of all the time sheet in the as for application will then be filled with the success factors.

[00:22:25] That's a target hours right in the target hours are normally the work schedule or determined driven by the work schedule and success factors but is impacted by absences public holidays.

[00:22:38] So that those target hours of that availability of the employee will then be be filled out in the time sheet and then the the employee can fill out the time sheet.

[00:22:47] And then as soon as they as they are filling out the time sheet they can we can run a simulation in in in in the real.

[00:22:54] And then we will time time valuation that we have so that the user is also helped with you know proactive alerts so that they can fill out the time sheet according to. Both the that's the expectations on the operation side and ERD but also on the HR side.

[00:23:11] And as soon as they submit the time sheet and it gets approved then the information flows into a success factors so that we can run time valuation over it.

[00:23:20] And then they are on push that information into into payroll so also that those integrations scenarios we are now working on and we plan to. To deliver that let's say end to end the scenario in our 2024 releases with with the export time sheets.

[00:23:39] Yeah, that's super lasting yeah go ahead. And then the last thing yes. Sorry, there's just too much to talk about. And the thing is. Of all the shift planning we're now also starting to to come up with. As a be driven shift planning approaches so.

[00:24:02] Shift planning is not really an an HR scenario normally right because it's more driven and determined by by by operations usually.

[00:24:11] And as a be we have in quite a few areas also shift planning like processes for example in as for resource management to be have the ability to. To schedule consultants in digital manufacturing we have like a real shift planning.

[00:24:31] And we now start to define scenarios so that we can come to end to end shift planning scenarios with those with those applications right and especially with digital manufacturing.

[00:24:42] We now already have a working integration to supply that the employee availability so that the shift planner can then you know start their their shift plan.

[00:24:52] And we're now also discussing scenarios where at the end of the shift plan so when the plan becomes reality that we can then also feed or receive back within success factors the outcomes over the other.

[00:25:11] So when the plan becomes reality that we can then also feed or receive back within success factors the outcomes of a shift plan so that people can get paid according to the shifts that they that they work on right so overall really exciting stuff within.

[00:25:29] Yeah, so our success factors yeah within so within what we're doing in our time management but also with the surrounding. You know business oriented or ERP you know oriented processes. Yeah, so it's. We've got to understand our price too.

[00:25:45] I think that's definitely one that's going to be music to a lot of people's ears right especially with SAP and what we did on premise right that's one of the things that constantly came up right we every time we get into a conversation.

[00:25:58] People would ask about well what about cats right about my my cross application time sheet because I do all the different things already today.

[00:26:06] And from my standpoint, you know like the design actually makes a lot of sense where you can use the S4 time sheet and then like a lot of the work already happens kind of behind the scene right where that's automatically sent over to HR time evaluation happens and you know like the customer doesn't have to have multiple time sheets for that right so from an experienced standpoint that made us a lot of sense.

[00:26:28] Exactly and then and to to to to improve the experience for now also working on a new you. You are with our S4 time sheet.

[00:26:38] To not only have these integrated scenarios but then also have the integrated scenarios in an in a user experience which also looks seamless you know across across S4 and just factors so that's you know on top I think really.

[00:26:57] really nice and the well from an implementation standpoint what I think is also appreciated by customers is that they can have the same time valuation for users who use.

[00:27:09] The S4 time sheet as well as users who use potentially use the suggest vendor time sheet right because I mean. Right right. And companies you have to FM police who record time for when doing and more HR use case but also what they work on especially.

[00:27:26] Yeah indeed for for billing and for other. More of the you know the financial and the domain and use cases yeah. Okay yeah so you're definitely going to have some people that would natively just be able to you know like the only thing I really do is.

[00:27:42] Request time off or exception handling and then they would be able to use the success factors time sheet but if I'm in professional services and you know I have to build my customer but also maybe enter my own time then I can use that S4 time sheet.

[00:27:57] So the main goal here is that one entry has one time sheet right just one one time sheet and everything and if you use the S4 a fact sheet then everything under the hood then is then you know just. Driven by the integrations that we.

[00:28:15] Yeah makes a lot of sense I mean that's a huge one that you know exciting to hear about the development and also the time frame right you mentioned that you know like some of some of those aspects will be delivered later the share.

[00:28:26] And then you know we're aligning with the S4 release for for next year 2024 which is super cool I know.

[00:28:33] Yeah about a year and a half ago maybe a year ago you wrote a blog about like how success factors time management compares to on prem time right and I know we've started talking about that and a lot of the use cases were building are from that and the funny thing is you know back then you made a pretty solid argument about how a lot of these customers can move.

[00:28:54] From on prem time in sense then I mean clearly from just this conversation we've had we've delivered a lot more on top of that right both from a.

[00:29:03] Paradis stand point as well as a legitimate user experience and new technology stand point are you hearing from more on PREM customers and seeing more of them convert to success factors. Yes, I mean we have. Yeah daily in the category and well and what I would I.

[00:29:31] sense in those meetings is that maybe a two years ago when we launched tank tracking, customers were asking themselves, you know, should I or or but now it is more a question like when can we start and what

[00:29:50] is the right way to start, right? Do we want to go edit big bang or do we want to go edit which which in most cases is not but what customers doing as many customers at the moment starting with pilots or or or going

[00:30:09] edit country by country or or use case by or employee group by employee group I mean there are various ways every every customer there is is unique and also in their in their own decision making but

[00:30:22] many of our customers also did not have all their countries or all their operations on as if he HR time management right and many cases they have as if he HR time management in their bigger countries

[00:30:36] where they also run their payroll but in some others they have outsourced yeah yeah what I you know what I now discuss with with many many customers is how can we come to do the best roadmap you know looking at

[00:30:55] what success like the time management offers meanwhile but also what what the customer can you know what fits in their agenda right where can they where they do do they have the most pressing need and and then how can we come to a

[00:31:11] rollout plan right so that's that's what what is you know on customers mind at the moment and and that's not only I think clear by just the the amount of time tracking customers we have meanwhile but I mean having time tracking customers is

[00:31:38] one but also having certified consultants is a is a big as a big aspect so we we want certification to make sure that those implementations which which get done also you know get done in the right in the right way right because I mean you know very well

[00:31:56] that time management is not in isn't a simple domain in that same right so there's a lot of country variations and there's a lot of things that you have to take into account

[00:32:09] time visibility in an org right like in terms of like rolling that out it touches a lot of people and you know like it's obviously feeding payroll so you know the importance of getting that right too.

[00:32:22] Exactly plus it's always the number one used self service right and of course very often if customers are starting with new technology they want to have you know cool new impactful things to share and impactful things to share especially or exactly and then time management is

[00:32:41] you know as a good you know good good good good use case to you know high impact because I don't move often I don't move often I don't change my bank account often but you know like

[00:32:52] even if I don't actively enter time to get paid I still request time off quite often but if I'm actually entering my time to get paid that means it's a weekly activity that I have to do and so

[00:33:04] huge impact especially if you can get to more of an automation standpoint like we've talked about so yeah that's definitely relevant. Yeah what I find cool in that in that regard we're also rolling

[00:33:16] this out the internally ourselves and you know we have a pretty you know like a vocal internal audience right because I want to have some expectations when it's about to technology so what I am you know pretty proud of is that the countries where we have rolled out

[00:33:39] time off and time tracking in meanwhile they're those two self services have the highest NBS the highest net promoter score of all HR processes that we that we offer and we offer a lot of

[00:33:54] services internally right we do yeah we do so it's a plus we know that no one likes to fill out the time sheet so you know it is with you know some degree of pride we can say you know that we're doing

[00:34:08] things in an fashion which is appreciated by by employees yeah definitely all right well I've taken up quite a bit of your time for us I really appreciate all of the details you've given one last

[00:34:21] question so and you started answering it a little bit but like if someone wants to learn more on this I know we have like Volker's blogs and then cats blogs and some of those things but what are some

[00:34:33] other recommendations you might have more people can learn more about this? So I think you you name the few there is there is a book in the works also but I mean one of the so it depends a little bit on

[00:34:53] on the level of of of information that you need right but for if you're a part of your consultant then I would highly recommend that the as it is a piece of stress texture time management course right

[00:35:06] so it's the code is this THR 9 4 and it is a four day course that you can take on understanding how to implement time off time sheet and tracking and even the integrations into a into payroll.

[00:35:24] Yep so that there's also a certification on that one as I mentioned then I think is the you know the best way to get detailed information right because you get hands-on experience on you know

[00:35:38] what you can what you can do and what you what it what can be achieved. And then there are also who have for example who offer a clock in clock out tooling or patch

[00:35:53] readers or such oh okay for those we have we have a certification process now so also that you can find on on our as a p.com website on how you can get a certification so we we have a few

[00:36:10] partners now being certified globally so that that is also an option so there's it's well documented yeah apart from that there is the the implementation and all the relevant and there's a real help

[00:36:25] on how to do so. Yeah yeah yeah all right good yeah I'm definitely looking forward to that that SAP press book I know Ben Cad has been working on that I think it's related for a junior lease so

[00:36:35] right around the corner. All right thanks a lot for joining me today for arms really appreciate all your advice though this was really really helpful and I think people will get a lot out of it I really appreciate it. Cool Dr. Shon all right thanks Roba