SuccessFactors Mobile, Social, and WebHooks Capability Updates
2016 was the final year with the regular SAP SuccessFactors release schedule. Starting in 2017, a new schedule has been released:
- Q1 and Q4 releases will have limited contents and will include only features that are improvements to existing functionality. Mostly opt-in by nature, thereby reducing the amount of integration and regression testing for customers.
- Q2 and Q3 releases will include most of the new functionalities, as well as architectural improvements to existing features. Q2 and Q3 will be larger in content packages.
With that in mind, Q4 2016 (Release 1611) was heavy with many new enhancements across all modules of SuccessFactors. Social and mobile capabilities were no exception. Let’s check out some of the new and enhanced key features of SAP SuccessFactors mobile and Jam at the end of 2016.
1. SAP Jam and Calendar Integration in Mobile App
Now it’s even easier to keep track of important events with these added enhancements to SAP Jam Mobile App:
- Add group events to your mobile device calendar
- Add a reminder for tasks with a due date assigned to you
- Automatically synchronize group events and tasks reminders
- Events are read-only in mobile device calendar and edits are not supported now
*Figures courtesy: SAP
2. Push Notifications for Private messages
With the new enhancements, real-time notifications for private messages through mobile platform push notifications are now available.
*Support iOS and Android through Google Cloud Messaging
3. Unified Feed and Forum experience for iOS
- SAP Jam mobile app for iOS now controls the full featured SAP Jam feed widget experience
- Feed item now supports muting, sharing, editing, and deleting
- Users can now respond to forum items using photos and videos
*Figure courtesy: SAP
4. Enhanced SuccessFactors Mobile App for Android
- SuccessFactors mobile app for Android now leverages the full featured SAP Jam feed widget experience adding key features such as feed item sharing, muting, and editing
- Enhanced forum experience adds support for viewing photo and video attachments
- New group list and group homepage that is more intuitive and better performing
*Figure courtesy: SAP
5. OS Platform comparison for Mobile App for SAP Jam
6. Additional WebHooks – Zapier Integration
This one is my favorite in this series. SAP now has the ability to have updates pushed to Jam instead of continually pulling new updates. Updates are always received in almost real-time.
A simple Wiki definition of WebHook:
“A WebHook is an HTTP callback: A web application implementing WebHooks will POST a message to a URL when certain things happen.”
WebHooks are part of SAP’s overall extensibility innovation and one example is Zapier (www.zapier.com).
“Zapier moves info between web apps automatically. Zaps Connect the Apps You Use Every Day”
According to Zapier.com:
- Jam and Zapier integration allows easy movement of content from third-party enterprise social networks (approx. 700) into Jam.
- Three new “Zaps” enable automated content imports from third party applications into Jam:
- Blogs
- Events
- Feeds
Learn more about SuccessFactors
For more information on upcoming release dates and to learn about SuccessFactors release best practices, please access the Product Updates page.
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