Six ways to get quality SuccessFactors support and why it is important
As you know, an enterprise HR Platform can be complex and requires advanced knowledge and skills to manage and maintain it. As one of the top platforms, SuccessFactors consist of various modules which serve different purposes for the HR function. To keep running everything smoothly every successful HR organization requires support to a certain extend.
Quality support is not only keeping the lights on, it’s making sure your system supports your business processes and provides your employees with the best experience. It’s about configuring it intelligently to make sure your HR staff has time to add value to your organization instead of wrestling through admin tasks and unnecessary clicks and steps.
So how about your SuccessFactors environment? Are you in good shape? And do you get the support you need? In this article we give six tips to make sure you select the right support partner.
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SuccessFactors skills and expertise
Not all partners have been created equal. It is important to make sure the partner you are working with has the correct experience. One way to check this is on the SAP partner finder. You can see if you’re partner has SAP Recognized Expertise in the area you need. There are 4 different accreditations partners can obtain: SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central & Employee Central Payroll, SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting and Onboarding Solutions, SAP SuccessFactors Talent Solutions, SAP SuccessFactors Learning solutions.
SAP Recognized Expertise is awarded by SAP to partners for their excellence in specific solution areas or industries that recognizes the skills and competencies of SAP partners, as well as their track record of customer success and satisfaction. The requirements include having trained and certified individuals with a successful project resume in their focus area or industry. This award helps partners to distinguish themselves in the market. Plus, the majority of our consultants are located in the North America (or Europe) and have excellent communications skills.
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24/7 and global capabilities
If you are a global company, having a partner that has capabilities to support multiple countries is important when using a system like SuccessFactors. The right expertise on localization issues in different countries and the ability to support you 24/7 for critical issues maybe crucial to you. HR Path’s “Follow the Sun” support is a proven methodology to deliver outstanding customer service to our client base. It means providing support 365, 24/7, by routing support to your offices in the appropriate time zone – following the sun. It means our customer’s call lands with the office most qualified to handle the query and in the right geography to respond to it quickly. With support offices around the world our “Follow the Sun” global service desk provide advantages such as:
- Reduced cost by consolidating all afterhours support
- Reduced employee turnover due to shift work
- Reduced ‘time to restore’ metrics
- Creates the best contingency plan for handling Support facility shutdowns such as country specific public holidays
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Provisioning access
SuccessFactors HRIS administrators know they can’t do everything in their system. Certain changes in the back-end can only be changed by SuccessFactors or a certified partner. Although SuccessFactors is making it more available in the Admin center which is accessible to administrators, certain functionalities may not be available.
Do you know what you can do yourself? To learn more about what you can and cannot do, download our provisioning guide here.
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Level and consistency
Are you getting the senior consultants, or the ones being trained? Are you getting the same consultant for a module or do you have to explain your situation over and over? Make sure your partner has a strategy in place for level of expertise and how the tickets are assigned. This will save you time and money and a lot of headaches. Having a system in place and expectations set on the ticketing and the consultants that pick them up makes for a successful support. Be sure to check the agreement and the action plan.
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Release update information
Releases come frequently and it takes time and effort to decide what to adopt and do a risk assessment. When a release is announced and activated it will provide you more functionality, but it can also end up breaking your configuration. The correct support partner can help advise on adopting changes and guide you through the testing process, avoiding costly errors. Ask for the release strategy support.
Note: Some partners will provide you with curated release notes. See an example here.
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Integration expertise
SuccessFactors as a system of record feeds all your other systems and the integrations can become complex. Having experienced technical resources allocated to assist with integration is important as failures have significant impact. Does your partner have expertise in HCI, CPI or BOOMI? There are many different software out there that integrates with SuccessFactors such as Workforce Software, BenfitFocus, DocuSign, Service Now, and more. Make sure your partner has third party software expertise. Check out our integration guide here.
HR Path provides different types of support services for all modules of SuccessFactors. Our services are performed by experienced, certified Consultants. From our classic support with a bucket of hours for break/fix to fully customized programs, we can assist your SuccessFactors environment catered to your needs.
