In SAP SuccessFactors Learning, there are several connectors that help manage different entities in the system. These include:
- User Connector - SF
The User Connector - SF is responsible for bringing in user information such as job codes, organization, employee type, employee status, and hire date. This connector adds new users to the LMS, updates attributes for existing users, and handles terminated users by setting their status to Not Active.
User connectors are commonly used for two purposes: migration and data updates. Migration refers to transferring user data from one system to the LMS database. Data updates refers to transferring data on an ongoing basis for updates. For example, if a user's job code changes or they move to a different organization, the connector can update their entity in the database.
Most connectors require one or more mandatory fields. For this connector, the Not Active (or status field) and the User ID field are required. The User ID must match their User ID in HCM.
Hint
The Connectors Workbook is a good reference guide for which fields are required in each connector and how each field will behave.Note
The Assignment Profile Execute Updates APM should be run after this connector has finished, because changes to a user’s attributes might affect their learning assignments in the LMS.- Security Domain Connector
The Security Domain Connector helps maintain security domain relationships, which are hierarchical structures within our system. This is especially useful for large deployments. Customers with simple security structures can manually create security domains and their security sub-domains within the system. However, when dealing with a large deployment, it can be more efficient to use the Security Domain connector to import domains and establish their hierarchy automatically.
It's important to note that the Security Domain Connector should be scheduled to run before the User Connector - SF. When users are brought in through the connector, we need to assign them to a security domain, just like we do with other entities like items, curricula, and classes.
- Organization Connector
The Organization Connectors are used for some customers when we want to bring in organizations and maintain their hierarchical relationships. Organizations might represent business units or lines of business and include account codes and contact information which may be useful for commerce or reserved seats in classes.
While new Organization IDs and Descriptions may be added to the database as part of the User Connector process, this additional information and the new organization’s position in the hierarchy would only be added by this connector or manually.
Learning Activity Connectors: Several connectors are especially useful for bringing information into the LMS about learning activities. These include the Item Connector, Class Connector, Registration Connector, and the Learning History Connector.
- Item Connector
- The Item Connector is a tool used primarily for migration purposes, when a customer needs to transfer a large amount of existing course data from their former LMS to SAP SuccessFactors Learning.
The data must be in the specific format that the Item Connector can understand. This enables a smooth migration process without the need for manual recreation of each item.
Another common use case for the Item Connector is when a customer wants to integrate their LMS with a document management system, such as Documentum. In this scenario, the customer wants to keep track of user interactions with documents stored in the document management system. By using the Item Connector, each document can be treated as an item within the LMS, allowing the system to monitor when users have read, acknowledged, and understood the document's contents.
- Class Connector
A customer migrating from another system who has already created classes (or their equivalent) for the upcoming year would probably not want to recreate all of these manually. The Class Connector can import and schedule those classes on the calendar so long as the items are already in our system. We need to use the Item Connector first or make sure the items are already in the system manually.
- Registration
The registration connector will associate upcoming registrations of users into classes – so long as the users and classes already exist in the LMS.
- Learning History
Learning history refers to the history records of the training and educational activities that employees have completed. If a company is transitioning from their former system to ours, they may have a lot of existing learning history stored in their old system. Once the items, completion statuses, and the users are in the system, the Learning History Connector can be used to add historical learning events to the users’ learning histories (completed work).
Since items can be assigned either as free-floating or as part of curricula or programs, the dates of completion might affect whether items still appear on the learning plans of users. For example, if free floating items are assigned before they are completed, they will not appear on the learning plans. However, if the completion dates are earlier than the assignment dates, they will appear as outstanding.
The best practice recommendation is to use this connector when the assignments have been made as part of curricula or programs which can check the history and may not assign the item to the learning plan if the user has already successfully completed the item.
- Competency Connector - SF
This is the second of two connectors used to bring data into the LMS from SAP SuccessFactors HCM. In addition to the User Connector SF, which brings in user data, this connector will bring in competencies which were created or imported into HCM and then exported by the SF Competency Library Export process.
Once the competencies are in the LMS, you can link them to items (or programs) from the Attributes tab.
This association can help users identify and close competency gaps.