In HR’s ever-evolving landscape, staying ahead by using technology is imperative in facilitating change. During our recent OpenText customer roundtable on 31st October 2023, a dozen HR technology professionals delved into the achievements and hurdles of integrating OpenText™ Extended ECM for SAP® SuccessFactors® with their SAP SuccessFactors® suite and other supporting HR applications. The result? Many success stories were shared, balanced with a few challenges that other HR business users should be aware of.
Celebrating Achievements
A Paperless Revolution: Complete digitization emerged as a game-changer: reducing risks, eliminating paperwork, and providing universal access to employee documents. When prioritized, a paperless employee eFile creates efficiency and accessibility around document related HR processes.
Data Retention: Integration and automated application of data retention rules was hailed as a major win for many organizations, helping to achieve compliance, reduce risks, and enhance document management efficiency.
One-Stop HR Shop: Creating a one-stop-shop for HR with Extended ECM for SAP SuccessFactors at the center was the goal for many of the multinationals and services customers. True integration proved pivotal, creating a seamless experience for employees and HR professionals to easily access required documents.
The Illusion of Singularity: The seamless transfer of information, such as resumes, directly from SAP SuccessFactors into the OpenText solution, emerged as a benefit theme discussed by participants. This not only creates the illusion of a single solution but also simplifies the flow of work for HR professionals. By seamlessly integrating two critical platforms, they were able to empower their employees and management with a holistic view of their HR landscape.
Empowering Employees: The document generation process, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, was a significant highlight. Allowing employees to generate their own verification of employment documents provided significant value and time savings. The automatic generation of offer letters and other crucial documents helped HR to streamline people movement processes.
Electronic Signature Integration: Success with DocuSign integration resulted in streamlined workflows and added security and traceability to remote workers scenarios.
Challenges Explored
Partner Paradox: Embarking on the journey of digitizing HR processes comes with its complexities. Partnering with experienced experts is essential. This point was emphasized with warnings that an inexperienced partner could slow down configuration, increase costs and eventually impact the overall project. To make certain of a successful project, both a certified SAP SuccessFactors Partner and a certified Extended ECM for SAP SuccessFactors Partner must be aligned to your transformation program.
Crucial Role for Testing: Thorough testing was identified by participants as a critical aspect of any project. During implementation, extended testing of complex workflows could prevent bottlenecks and ensure processes flow smoothly. All new customers have an Onboarding Manager close at hand to help. The best solution for user acceptance testing is to align resources and complete the Test Checklist. The OpenText Customer Success Portal offers additional information and support.
Global Record Retention: Aligning record retention policies globally posed challenges if those policies are lacking or overly complicated. This reinforced the significance of clear retention policies for each country and the need for flexibility in diverse geographical locations to ensure operational compliance.
HR AI on the Horizon: We also received positive feedback on the upcoming release of integrated AI HR processes, expected in early 2024. This would empower users to find information faster in a conversational way. It will also support audit compliance and data security to elevate the employee experience, and drive greater efficiency for HR. Visit OpenText Content Aviator for more details on how AI can help free up free up 60 -70% of employees’ time.
Conclusion
The roundtable collaboration showed some major triumphs of going paperless, and document management wins in employee self-service and process automation. We explored AI technologies that offer enhanced insights and personalized HR experiences, and highlighted opportunities for improvements on the development and customer side.
We would like to thank all those that attended for their contribution. It will help us all to learn, adapt, and expand possibilities of the solution. We would also like to thank OpenText, who based on an attendee poll, donated $726.86 to UNICEF Children’s Fund to express our gratitude.
Join the Conversation in May 2024: All ‘Live’ Extended ECM for SAP SuccessFactors customers are welcome to attend our next roundtable in May 2024. The session will allow you to engage in peer-to-peer discussions, ask questions, discover new product features, and gain new use case insights.
