The new user experience is built around a set of user interface tiles that employees can drag, drop, and reconfigure to display the information that's most important to them. Employee Central also makes it easier to start conversations using the Jam enterprise social networking tool, which is included as a standard feature of the BizX suite. BizX includes SaaS-based apps for employee performance management, recruiting, variable pay, and compensation management, strategy management, goal execution, succession, and workforce planning.
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The SuccessFactors team cited Pinterest for inspiration, in terms of colorful tiled layout, and VP of product management Folia Grace also called it "an iPad experience, with the way you can drag and drop apps into the home page from all the tiles that represent different pieces of functionality." For example, a Jam group used for informal learning could occupy one of those tiles, providing a quick glimpse into discussions going on there, she said.
This is an approach to enterprise social networking "that's connected to the business processes you do every day," Grace said.
The new layout and styling are only the most visible examples of an update that also included "glocalization" (globalization and localization) improvements, including translation into the local languages of more than 149 countries and global operation with multi-language, currency, time zone, and date/calendar support. For the first time, SuccessFactors has also been localized for 10 countries, meaning that it accounts for local business practices, legal requirements, and statutory reporting.
SuccessFactors also announced single sign-on integrations with Benefitfocus for benefits administration and WorkForce Software for workforce management. In addition, SuccessFactors said it has tightened its integration with the SAP Cloud Payroll service, allowing all manager and employee-related payroll services and transactions to be handled from within Employee Central.
Since acquiring SuccessFactors, SAP has made it central to the company's cloud computing strategy.
Follow David F. Carr on Twitter @davidfcarr. The BrainYard is @thebyard and facebook.com/thebyard
Social media make the customer more powerful than ever. Here's how to listen and react. Also in the new, all-digital The Customer Really Comes First issue of The BrainYard: The right tools can help smooth over the rough edges in your social business architecture. (Free registration required.)
