Understanding reporting solutions

SAP SuccessFactors People Analytics is the overall solution for all reporting in SAP SuccessFactors.

The reporting solutions in People Analytics offer both simple lists, and more advanced cross-tabs/pivots, which can be combined with charting and formatting into multi-page reports for distribution within the company. The report output formats include Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Excel. You can manage the access to build and run reports by granting the permissions only to authorized users.

Report templates are available for all core areas of the SAP SuccessFactors suite, including Performance, Goals, Succession, Recruiting, and Employee Central. Templates are being continually scoped and added.

The reporting capabilities in SAP SuccessFactors also allows users to build interactive dashboards and tiles, which enable managers to view a summary of information for their teams.

Note

Several SAP SuccessFactors solutions have their own reporting tools accessible outside of People Analytics. To know more about module-specific reporting tools, refer to the product specific guides in the SAP Help Portal.

Report Center consolidates report builder tools into a modern interface where you can build and run reports.

Report Center centralizes all the reporting components from different reporting options in SAP SuccessFactors. The report types are Tiles, Dashboards, Table, Canvas, and Story reports. Report Center allows you to edit and run reports from a central location.

The Story report type of report in Report Center is a central part of the People Analytics solution. It is based on the integration of SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite with SAP Analytics Cloud. When you create a story, you can add and edit pages, sections, and elements. You can share your story with others to enable them to use the report you have created. A story report is a presentation-style report that uses charts, visualizations, text, images, and pictograms to describe data. A story report mainly involves building a query and using the query to create the report. It is the newest type of report in the SAP SuccessFactors platform.

Characteristics of Story Reports are:

• Modern visualizations

• Live SAP SuccessFactors data

• Intelligent joins across modules

• Secure, role-based access

• People-centric data privacy and protection

• Data Sources: All but Recruiting Marketing, Recruiting Posting, and Onboarding 1.0. However you can report on data from product schemas that are not supported by other reporting types in SAP SuccessFactors, such as: Onboarding (2.0), Job Profile Builder, Spot Awards.

• Create and display ratios

• Format: CSV, PDF, or XLS

Table Reports are designed to be extremely simple to use and provide a flexible, intuitive platform for users to create custom list reports. They provide basic metrics for standard reporting requirements. The Table Reports are part of the platform and provide real-time reporting. Table reports can then be easily exported as required.

Characteristics of Table Reports are:

• List Reports

• Simple Data Extractions

• Format: Excel, CSV, PDF, or PPT

• Data Source: All modules excluding LMS, custom MDF, and some of the newest SuccessFactors features.

Canvas Reports allows you to visualize data in a formatted and presentation-ready report. Canvas reports are used to create printable and re-usable reports for all modules.

Canvas Reports utilize Page Designer, a self-service tool that can be used to easily drag-and-drop components onto a report page.

These components can include Tables, Charts, Images, and Text.

The reports can include Live Detailed Reporting data, LMS data, Advanced Reporting data, or Workforce Analytics measures and dimension data.

By using the Report Distributor or Report Scheduler, administrators can send the reports as attachments to emails or FTP.

Characteristics of Canvas Reports are:

• Printable

• Multi-pages

• Formatted

• List reports

• Charts and graphs

• Calculated Columns

• Aggregated calculated columns in Advanced Reporting

• Data Sources: EC, Talent, MDF and LMS

• Format: Excel, CSV, PDF, PPT, DOC, or E-mail

Dashboards and tiles are used to track key processes dynamically within the organization.

Tiles provide a simple chart output that can be embedded across the SAP SuccessFactors suite. Tiles can be built using a Tile Builder Wizard which guides the user through the process of building a visualization.

Tiles support Drill to Detail capabilities to further analyze the underlying data. Tiles can include both SAP SuccessFactors Live data and Workforce Analytics data. Once built, these tiles can be included in a Dashboard, assigned to the homepage, or displayed in the Insights Panel.

Dashboards provide a method to easily collect and visualize multiple Tiles in a single place. Using tile-based Dashboards, tiles can be shown on one page, easily comparing multiple Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Characteristics of Dashboards and Tiles are:

• Online Dashboards

• Track key processes

• Drill from chart to list

• Data Source: All modules excluding LMS, custom MDF, and some of the newest SuccessFactors features.

There are three main custom reporting solutions:

There are three main custom reporting tools:

• Printable chart / table / list pivot-table with custom SQL requirements

• Offline Template Builder

• Business Intelligence Reporting Tools (BIRT) reports can also be built by customers but require a highly technical skillset

The custom reports powered by BIRT are used for highly formatted or complex printable reports.

• Custom Printable Compensation Statement

• Report on compensation data / decision

The compensation statements are used to generate documents with the compensation decisions.

• Custom Printable Employee Profile

• Summary of experience, resume or succession plan

The PPTCs are used for external distribution of a customized profile or to provide a summary of experience with talent related data.

Note

Workforce Analytics is also considered as one of SAP SuccessFactors People Analytics solution. However, it is not in the scope of this document and has its dedicated trainings. THR89 is the training for SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics and Planning Functional Consultant Academy. THR96 is the training for SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics Technical Consultant Academy. Essentially, this is the solution used for time trended metrics, benchmarks, and drill through hierarchies.

SAP SuccessFactors has decided to deprecate the Usage Analytics feature. The feature is based on outdated technology that isn't compatible with our latest technology standards.

As a result, Usage Analytics reports can't be modified or enhanced. Deprecating this feature allows us to consider other types of usage analytics reports in the future.