Understanding release updates and the What's New Viewer

SAP cloud offerings support a large variety of business scenarios and lines of business solutions such as SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer, SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP Business ByDesign, SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite, Ariba Network, Concur solutions, and SAP Fieldglass solutions. Customers get a combined and integrated offering based on various cloud solutions and hybrid business scenarios combining cloud services with on-premise solutions. Overall, all cloud solutions follow similar quality and integration standards. However, there are minor differences, for example, in the frequency of new feature offerings or in the way customers are informed about new features.

Compared to on-premise software products, cloud solutions are not installed in the customer’s system landscape and operated by customers themselves. They are operated through a cloud infrastructure from an SAP location and made available to users over the Internet as a cloud service. This means that SAP takes care of the ongoing operations, maintenance, and installation of updates (corrections and new or enhanced business functionality), so customers can focus on their business and consume new features promptly and more frequently.

With cloud solutions, customers do not need to worry about installing updates and upgrades. All aspects of technical and functional infrastructure are part of the service provided and centrally managed. Cloud services are provided on a subscription basis, and customers receive the right for usage and support for the duration of the subscription period.

SAP shares detailed information about the planned timeline, envisioned new functionality and possible impact beforehand to all customers that have subscribed to our cloud solutions so they should be enabled to plan accordingly. In some cases, a test period may be provided beforehand to allow customers to evaluate what is coming. The number of customers that can participate in this approach at any time is usually limited. This phase takes place before the general availability of the new functionality for all customers. During a test period, customers can explore the new functionality in their individual configuration in a non-productive environment.

During a test period, customers can explore the new functionality in their individual configuration in a non-productive environment.

After the restricted-use phase, the unrestricted-use phase begins on the general availability date communicated to customers beforehand. The general availability date marks the point in time when the cloud solution is available for productive use for the first time.

In-between releases containing corrections for issues are continuously provided through fixes and patches.

SAP SuccessFactors Solutions releases follow the ‘One service for all customers’ approach which means that:

• All customers are on the same version

• Critical issues are resolved through emergency fixes

• Other important issues are fixed through weekly patches

In general, cloud services are available and maintained as long as customers are subscribed to them.

You can find detailed information about the SAP’s release, upgrade, and maintenance strategy on the SAP Maintenance Information portal.

To remain competitive, SAP SuccessFactors enhance the product with releases that occur twice per year. It is important to keep our product knowledge up-to-date and learn about the product enhancement to make sure that the usage of the tool is optimal.

The What’s New Viewer delivers all our release information, organized in a single, searchable, and mobile-responsive website. This is our way of delivering release information.

The SAP SuccessFactors What’s New Viewer is now publicly available on the SAP Help Portal.

It is also available to S-users, along with all release details and resources on the SAP SuccessFactors Community.

The What’s New Viewer includes the following:

1. Search: Search is a great option if you know what you are looking for and want to find it quickly. For example, you can search by keyword or reference number.

2. Filter: You can use one or more of the following filters to narrow the list.

   a. Module: This filter is used to limit the release items to specific products or modules.

   b. Feature: This filter is used to find the release items related to a set of features within or across solutions.

   c. Type: This filter is used to look at release items based on whether they are a change or something new.

   d. Lifecycle: This filter is used to limit the release items based on their availability status.

   • Release items with Full Availability are available to all customers, subject to their configuration type. Most release items are fully available.

   • Release items with Limited Availability are only available to a subset of customers, usually because they require an additional agreement.

   e. Major or Minor: This filter is used to identify items based on their impact on the business.

   f. Configuration Type: This filter is used to limit release items to those with a specific configuration type (universal, admin opt-in, and so on).

   g. Software Version: This filter is used to limit the release items to those in the release you’re adopting. By default, the viewer is pre-filtered to the current release. We keep older versions in the viewer so that you can go back and see all changes to a feature or module over time.

   h. Latest Document Revision: This filter refers to What’s New itself, not the corresponding guide. It tells you when that particular What’s New Viewer item was last updated.

   i. Valid From and Valid To: These filters show you items with a Valid as Of date within a specified date range. This date corresponds to when the features goes to production.

3. Table rows per page: It is possible to select how many rows to display in each page of the table. Options range from 25 and all rows per page. When you download the What’s New Viewer content, the system only includes the items displayed on the current page.

4. Download the content: You can download the content of the table as a .csv file and use your favorite spreadsheet tool to open and edit it. You can also download it as a .pdf file.

   There are two things to note about the download options.

   a. First, the download will only include the items displayed on the current page of the viewer. If you would like to download the complete set of release items in the viewer, choose to display all entries in the table first.

   b. Second, the download only includes the text displayed in each row. This means the actual links to topics and demos are not included in the download files.

5. Share: You can use the Share feature to e-mail a link to your colleagues. If you’ve applied filters to the table before sharing it, those filters will still be in place when the recipients follow the link. Should the recipients wish to view all the release items, they easily can by simply clearing the filters.

6. Show or Hide Columns: We can choose the columns to display in the What’s New Viewer. When you download the What’s New Viewer's content, the system includes all columns regardless of your column display settings.

7. Sort: We can sort items in ascending or descending order in any of the columns.
8. Links to full topics: Each row in the What’s New Viewer table represents a full release information topic. To view the full topic, choose the See More link. To get back to the table from the topic, use your browser’s back button.

The release information about a specific enhancement may include the following component:

• The title and short description of the release item, which both appear in the What’s New Viewer table. These tell you what this item is.

• Why we built this item.

• The before and after behavior. Sometimes, it’s easier with a picture.

• The technical details are all of the other fields from the viewer table.

• The technical details may include a link to a demo. Demos are typically short and have no audio.

• When there is more detailed information available in the product guides, the links to those topics are included.