How to activate EC Workflows without Employee Central

[Latyshenko2]

In this article, we share the technique of the partial activation of functionalities ‘Workflow’ and ‘Document Generation’ without the respective activation of module Employee Central. Please note that the use of Workflows and Document Generation requires the licenses of Employee Central. You cannot follow these instructions if you do not have the Employee Central licences.

Introduction

Functionality 'Workflow ' of module Employee Central of system SuccessFactors is used to address many business requirements, including: notifications about birthdays and anniversaries, mass emails, approvals of changes in employee data, declaration of conflict of interests and compliance with corporate rules. We have added some examples of such solutions to the reference list of this this article. We have added some examples of such solutions to the reference list of this this article.

Functionality ‘Document Generation’ of module Employee Central can provide each workflow with its own set of notifications. If Employee Central stays inactive, then functionality ‘Document Generation’ have to be activated in Provisioning in the old way, as described by Rahul Lala, 2015.

Unlike Document Generation, the activation of Workflows does not require the access to Provisioning. In this article, we will show how to enable Workflows without the activation of Employee Central and describe the limitations of such Workflows.

Activation of Workflows

The sequence of actions required for the activation of Workflow is always the same and does not check whether Employee Central is enabled or not.

Functionality ‘Workflow’ is based on Foundation object wfConfig. It is an XML Foundation object configured in the Corporate Data Model of Employee Central.

Starting from H1 2020 Release, it is possible to import/export the Corporate Data Model via Admin Center (i.e. without Provisioning).

For the activation of the wfConfig object, it is sufficient to upload the Master Corporate Data Model:

1. Download the Master Corporate Data Model using the link https://help.sap.com/doc/180ae8b64b4e43c68e975ab9be597aa7/latest/en-US/Master_Data_Models.zip (namely, file EC-corporate-datamodel.xml)


2. Enable permission ‘Import/Export Corporate Data Model’ in the RBP (namely, Manage Foundation Objects → Import/Export Corporate Data Model)


3. Import file EC-corporate-datamodel.xml using tool ‘Import/Export Corporate Data Model’

Configuration of Workflows

Configuration of Workflows is performed in Admin Center in tool ‘Manage Organization, Pay and Job Structures,’ which, in turn, is enabled in the RBP; namely, Manage Foundation Objects Types → Workflow (View/Create/Insert/Correct/Delete).

The following settings of Workflows can be used without the activation of Employee Central:

• Remind In Days;


• Is Delegate Supported;


• Approver / Contributor / CC Types: Role and Dynamic Group;


• CC Type: External Email;


• Approver / Contributoe / CC Roles: Self, Manager, Manager Manager, Employee HR, Matrix Manager(s), Custom Manager(s), Second Manager;


• Edit Transaction;


• No Approver Behavior;


• Days until Auto Approval;


• Relationship to Approver: Employee / Initiator;


• Respect Permission: Yes / No;


• Workflow Email Configuration (for approvals);


• Email Template Group (for CC).

As you can see from the list, a lot of Workflow functions are available without Employee Central. Bad news is that approval type Dynamic Role is not available because it requires jobInfo.

Good news is that all standard BizX roles and Workflow Groups are available (the latter are enabled in RBP: Manage Workflows → Manage Workflow Groups).

Admin should have access to Manage Workflow Requests, which is enabled in RBP: Manage Workflows -> Manage Workflow Requests.

End users should have access to Pending Requests, which is enabled in RBP: Employee Views -> Pending Requests. Deep link for the Pending Requests is xi/ui/ect/pages/pendingWorkflows/pendingWorkflowV12.xhtml

Design of the Workflow itself depends on the particular business requirements. Below is an example that can be configured within the enabled functionality:

Below are other good examples that can be configured based on the enabled functionality:

• Birthday and Anniversary Alerts as demonstrated by Dharmin Thakkar (2019);


• Mass Emails as demonstrated by Jitendra Kumar (2018).

Conclusion

Limited functionality of Workflows and Document Generation can be activated without enabled Employee Central, which can be used if you have Employee Central licences.

Reference list

1. Dharmin Thakkar, 2019. Birthday and Anniversary alerts to the employees in SuccessFactors. SAP Community Blogs, [online]. Available at https://blogs.sap.com/2019/07/03/birthday-and-anniversary-alerts-to-the-employees-in-successfactors/ (Accessed: 16 June 2021).


2. Jitendra Kumar, 2018. MDF Alerts and Workflows for Mass Email Functionality. SAP Community Blogs, [online]. Available at https://blogs.sap.com/2018/06/21/mdf-alerts-and-workflows-for-mass-email-functionality/ (Accessed: 16 June 2021).


3. Rahul Lala, 2015. Employee Central Document Generation. SAP Community Blogs, [online]. Available at https://blogs.sap.com/2015/10/29/employee-central-document-generation/ (Accessed: 16 June 2021).


4. The Master Data Models. Available at https://help.sap.com/doc/180ae8b64b4e43c68e975ab9be597aa7/latest/en-US/Master_Data_Models.zip (Downloaded: 16 June 2021).


5. Employee Central Workflows: Implementation and Administration. Document Version: 1H 2021 – 2021-06-11. Available at https://help.sap.com/doc/047cf17e14e34ff4bd57f1c0c6fd8894/latest/en-US/SF_EC_Workflows.pdf (Accessed: 16 June 2021).

 

Author: Vladimir Latyshenko