We’ve broken down the major SAP® SuccessFactors® H2 2021 updates into bite-sized pieces to help you easily digest the latest changes. In this post, we’ll look at what’s new in Learning.

More H2 2021 Analysis:

Employee Central | Recruiting | Onboarding | Learning | Analytics | Performance & Goals | Compensation and Variable Pay | Payroll

Update Video

If you prefer video, Rizing’s AMS Senior Consultant Carey Ross and AMS Senior Consultant Chris Fellabaum discuss the new features in the SuccessFactors Learning module:

The H2 2021 Learning release breaks ground in a few notable areas, particularly integration points with other modules or systems. Course Home Blended continues to evolve. PQE is going away. And customers with native Learning users, take note – action is needed soon.

Microsoft Teams VLS integration

This fulfills a long-standing request from customers. The MS Teams VLS integration offers the same capabilities as existing VLS integrations (i.e. WebEx, Adobe Connect, Zoom) – namely the ability to dynamically schedule a virtual class, allow learners and instructors to join the session directly from Learning, and set an automated completion threshold – e.g. if a learner attends 90% of the session, they automatically get credit for the Class in Learning.

Configuring the integration

The Teams integration is a bit unique, however, in that SuccessFactors Partners are not able to configure it from A to Z as with other supported VLS vendors. Customers will also need to work with a Microsoft Partner to register the MS Teams app and complete other required tasks within the Microsoft Azure Portal.

SAP SuccessFactors Opportunity Marketplace

What is SAP SuccessFactors Opportunity Marketplace?

It’s a new module from SuccessFactors, which (in SAP’s words), is “a central hub for all learning and development opportunities available to the user… Learning is a core source of development for employees. Opportunity Marketplace showcases a personalized view of this alongside all other available opportunities, providing clarity of options that are tied to the user’s own interests and passions.”

Opportunity Marketplace must be licensed separately from Learning.

Learning Recommendations and Assignments

In this release, users can view Learning Recommendations and Assignments available to them, within the Opportunity Marketplace framework.

It’ll be exciting to see how synergy grows between Learning and Opportunity Marketplace in future releases.

Migration of Learning Competencies to Center of Capabilities

In this release, for customers who migrate competencies from Job Description Manager to Center of Capabilities, the migration will also be triggered in Learning. Center of Capabilities requires Job Profile Builder as a prerequisite.

What is Center of Capabilities?

In SAPs words, it’s “a framework that helps you capture capabilities, such as competencies, skills, work styles, work values, and other organization-defined attributes that enable people achieve desired outcomes.”

Other features possible

According to SAP, there may be additional Learning features relative to Center of Capabilities in future releases, including use of Skills in Learning. This would represent a significant new paradigm for assignment of training.

New UI Integration Cards in SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone

This release also adds support for several “UI Integration Cards” (think Learning Portlets) to SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone.

SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone is the successor to SAP JAM.

New UI Integration Cards include:

  • My Learning Calendar
  • Required Learning
  • Curriculum Status
  • Learning Plan

Course Home – Blended

SuccessFactors continues to add features to Course Home – Blended for Learning. Building on customer feedback, Course Home – Blended can be viewed as a “version 2.0” of the original Course Home functionality, both offering a more elegant user interface when learners access items.

This release introduces support for instructor-led Item Classification, following its rollout with support for Blended Items in H1. According to SAP, support for remaining Item Classifications will be added in future releases. We assume that Course Home – Blended will supersede the original “Course Home 1.0” when that effort has been completed.

Content player

Other Course Home – Blended improvements included in this release are an enhanced Content Player – which automatically hides the content structure when Blended Items only have one Content Object.

Mobile App

Support for delivery of Assessments on the SuccessFactors Mobile App has also been added – but again, Course Home – Blended must be turned on to leverage these capabilities.

No sunsetting timeline

At this point, both Course Home and Course Home – Blended are opt-in features, and there has been no timeline provided by SAP for sunsetting the legacy course view.

PQE (Plateau Question Editor) Retirement

We knew it was coming, but with this release PQE is no longer available. It’s deprecated in favor of the newer (and nicer) Assessment tool in Learning.
Customers who haven’t migrated their legacy PQE exams to Assessments have a very short window in which to do so prior to the November 19th Production release.

Item Connector updated

In this release, the Item Connector has been updated to allow bulk removal of legacy PQE exams from Items, which could be helpful for customers with numerous affected Items. This builds on a feature in the last release which allowed association of Assessments with Items.

Identity Authentication Integration for Learning-Only Users

Customers with native Learning users (i.e. ones who exist in Learning only, are not in Platform, and who log in directly to Learning through a native URL or Site) need to take action soon.

SAP is replacing native user sign-in and sign-in for integrated external learners with Identity Authentication based login.

Have native users?

Customers with native users must implement IAS within Platform as a prerequisite and will then be able to migrate those native users to IAS authentication.

Per SAP, “This feature is going to be rolled out after availability of the Identity Provisioning Connector for SAP SuccessFactors Learning, currently targeted for early 2022.”

Deadline uncertain

There is currently some ambiguity regarding the deadline to complete this migration; some SAP sources indicate that it will be H1 2022, others reference H2 2022. We recommend subscribing to the official Customer Community Blog on this topic for the latest communication from SAP:

Learning Native Login Deprecation Begins Within First Half 2021 Release – Innovation Alert

Need Help?

If you need help with any of these SuccessFactors features please contact us.