There are several benefits to justify the implementation cost of implementing SAP HCM.  The primary benefit of any HCM system is the positive effect it has on employees by eliminating redundant work, automating manual processes and providing employees better access to information.   From a management viewpoint, it allows you to manage each employee in a more comprehensive and efficient manner.

Outside of increased employee satisfaction, there are substantial financial and technical benefits of rolling out HCM with your SAP implementation. From a financial standpoint, SAP HCM benefits your organization by allowing you to manage all of your HR processes with a single system which can reduce costs associated with licensing, labor, third party software fees and support fees.  Technically, the benefits include easy integration, one entry point, data accuracy and an integrated portal, not to mention constant developments and enhancements by the world’s number one ERP system.

The SME market continues to be the fastest growing segment in software sales across the board. When you implement SAP HCM you are receiving a complete package of the technology and knowledge that SAP has been gathering from some of the best run businesses in the world. By implementing SAP HCM, you can truly show your employees that they are your company’s most valuable asset.

Public Sector Consultants – This individual will be responsible for blueprint through go-live.  We are seeking consultants in various modules from PA through Payroll.  Over 5 years experience in SAP HCM is required along with a minimum of 3 full public sector implementations.  These individuals, in addition to skills in PA, OM, BN, Time or Payroll, MUST have experience with concurrent employment. 

Private Sector Consultants – This individual will be responsible for blueprint through go-live.  We are seeking consultants in various modules from PA to Payroll.  Over 5 years experience in SAP HCM is required along with a minimum 3 full implementations.   

Technical consultants – Symphony has a number of Workflow, ABAP, Securities positions specific to HCM.  We are seeking consultants who have 5 or more years experience and a minimum 3 full implementations.   

To submit your resume for consideration, please e-mail careers@symphony-consulting.com or click Submit Application below. Be sure to specify which position you are interested in.

Join us for this free webinar and find out how to prepare for year-end payroll

Date: Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Time: 2:00PM – 3:00 PM EDT

Common year-end payroll mistakes can quickly multiply your headaches during an already busy time. To ensure a smooth year-end transition, this webinar will guide you through the steps to preparing for year-end payroll. Let Symphony – the SAP HCM experts – teach you key strategies to put into action to streamline the year-end payroll process and prepare for the upcoming year. Kathy Morris, a Senior Consultant at Symphony Management Consulting and former SAP “Year-end Tax Angel” will discuss best practices for year-end payroll and provide tips on:

·         How to get your system ready and perform configuration updates

·         Ways to approach YE processing to ensure success

·         What tools are available to assist with YE closing

·         How to create an annual project plan and check list

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/784467408

How is integration in personnel management a critical function?

Answer

Integration within the HCM module (i.e. Personnel Administration to Organizational Management, Personnel Administration to Time, Time to Payroll) and within the SAP system (i.e. HCM to Finance, Payroll to Cost Accounting) is one of the key benefits of implementing SAP within an organization.  It provides for a single point of data entry into one module/sub-module which can be utilized in another module/sub-module.  For example, employee master data entered into the personnel administration sub-module of HCM can be used by other modules (i.e. Finance, EH&S, Project Systems) without having to rekey the data, thereby saving time, reducing keying errors and ensuring data consistency.

For HR people, this translates into the following:

- Standardizing and automating transaction processing to reduce the cost of delivering basic HR services
- Using freed-up resources to support an integrated talent-management process
- Integrating HR and relevant non-HR systems to eliminate information barriers and reduce time to market
- Providing every manager access to decision-support tools and people information
- Delivering relevant business metrics to front-line managers, linking people processes to operational performance
- Benchmarking HR’s performance against industry metrics and best practices

For those of you who have not heard of it, there is a dedicated ASUG/SAP benchmarking and best practices program providing an excellent forum for SAP customers to track trends, share best practices, and measure value based upon key performance drivers. To date, more than 200 companies have participated in the study, including more than 30 participants from the high-tech industry, with revenues of between less than $1 billion to more than $10 billion. The study covers the full scope of HR business process, segmented in sub-processes such as recruiting and staffing, learning and development, and payroll administration.
For more information about the program, visit www.asug.com/benchmarking or contact benchmarking@asug.com. Please also visit: https://www.benchmarking.sap.com/files/surveyExamples/HCM_Sample_Report.pdf.

Many organizations will start with a basic structure comprised of qualification groups for three competency areas:

1.)    Core or foundational

Sets the tone and/or context and frequently aligns with key behaviors expected from everyone in the enterprise (Example: Customer Focus)

2.)    Functional and/or technical

Knowledge and skills/abilities that is required for a specific function that may range from programming skills to the ability to give effective presentations

3.)    Managerial or leadership

Capabilities that allow an individual to be an effective leader of people and/or processes

Beyond the initial three competency classifications, organizations may also define categories for licenses or certifications, education and experience. The key is to assess how your organization will use the qualifications catalog going forward and assure that the categories are meaningful to the organization’s needs and sustainability.

How we can upload large number of new joining data through Excel into SAP?

Answer

When there is a large amount of data that you need to upload to your HCM infotypes, the best way to do this is to use of LSMW (Legacy System Migration Workbench) options.  You may remember this functionality from back when you were in the “Cut-Over” phase of your original implementation.  This approach is favored due to its ease and pre-defined Excel spreadsheets that SAP has available for many of your standard infotypes. 

Many organizations are eager to add functionality that tracks and maintains employee data.  Often, the human resources department is tasked with this responsibility and can struggle to provide an effective business case to their executive team for approval.

Let Symphony provide an overview and critical advice on how to effectively identify strategic returns on investment (ROI) when communicating with executive leadership. We will point out some areas that executives look at in order to measure the need for an HCM solution for attracting, developing and retaining the right employees. Not only will we discuss some examples where Symphony has assisted clients to present a business case to their leadership, but you will also learn how to ask for and receive approval for the funding of a state of the art HCM environment.

What you’ll take away:

• How to properly assess SAP ERP HCM functionality in order to attract, develop, and retain the right employees.
• How to align functionality with corporate objectives to meet your organization’s unique needs.
• Proven advice to prevent common pitfalls that can drive up costs in SAP ERP HCM projects.
• Ways to measure the key personnel-related factors that can make or break the ROI for your SAP ERP HCM project.

Title:		Achieving a Higher ROI on SAP ERP HCM Investments
Date:		Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Time:		2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/985159681

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Many are familiar with implementing shift differentials using attendance codes, premium table T510P and work schedule. These three methods work for hourly and salary employees, though you may also need to use substitution and configure work schedules. These three common methods are relatively straight forward, easy to use and can be used mutually exclusive of each other or use in combination between them.

One method that is not widely known is the use of infotype 2012 for processing shift differentials where each employee is assigned IT2012 containing a time type indicating the shift. Time evaluation uses the time type as a flag to generate the relevant wage type.

By utilizing IT2012, there is no need to configure attendance types for shifts, additional work schedules or premium tables. However, there may be more short comings for users in terms of ease of use, master data maintenance, substitutions and overlapping shifts (working 4 hours on evening shift and 4 hours on night shift). IT2012 is more of a conversion tool and accumulator within Time Evaluation than a user friendly tool for day to day operation. With regards to master data, reporting and substitution, using IT2012 is not straight forward. Using IT2012 will reduce the need to configure additional attendance codes, work schedules, or the need for setting up the Premium table entries. However, from a user point of view, this may not be an easy task. The Time Administrator will understand the usage of attendance codes and work schedules, but may not understand the concept of IT2012 which requires selecting correct time types and delimiting IT2012, especially if the employee populations are active in doing substitutions.

IT2012 may work for salary, non-exempt employees who are entitled to shift pay, especially if the shift differential is a fixed monthly amount; however, for hourly employees this should not be an option.

After performing transfer action though LSMW, the new position assigned to the employee in Infotype 0001 is not reflecting in organization structure, only the position is reflecting without person.

Answer

There are a number of outstanding questions that would need to be answered before we are able to provide a comprehensive response, however, you can start by verifying that the PLOGI setting on table T77S0 is set for OM and PA to be integrated and if this is for data conversion there are programs that are to be run after data conversion programs are run: 

RHINTE00	If HR Master Data is available in the above form, you can use this report to transfer data to OM.
RHINTE10	This allows for objects created in Organizational Management to be “recognized” during transactions in Personnel Administration
RHINTE20	Checks whether all of the objects relevant for integration exist in both PA and OM.
RHINTE30	Allows you to transfer a person’s org. assignment, position, org. units, etc.) from OM to Infotype 0001 in PA

If you need further clarification, please provide us with the following information: Is this first time the LSMW was used for this action?  Was Infotype 0000 populated with the action or did the program only update Infotype 0001?  Were the other org. structure fields populated (org. unit, job) on Infotype 0001 or just the position?  Is LSMW being used to do data conversion to prepare for go live? 

Feel free to respond or ask additional questions in the comments section.