18 Sep 2018
Back in the Workflow days, the iOS app allowed for the triggering of IFTTT actions via a special Workflow recipe action trigger. While it worked, I actually found it quite cumbersome to configure. As a result I switched to using the IFTTT web hook trigger for triggering IFTTT actions. It turns out that in the move to Shortcuts, the app that Workflow evolved into, support for IFTTT was dropped, so I figured I’d share how to do the web hook triggering as that’s still viable.
Read More02 Sep 2018
It’s that time again.
SAP have put another quarterly release of their HCM suite (SAP SuccessFactors) into preview environments. As always, my colleagues and I at Zalaris have been digging into the updates to figure out what’s important and what has the greatest potential. With GDPR now live, this quarter does not disappoint as it branches out in numerous ways, though you’ll still see some security and data related updates for some of the modules.
Read More01 Sep 2018
The Q3 2018 release certainly brings one of the more unusual updates around reporting and analytics in SuccessFactors. To begin with, SAP is releasing a set of updates around the report tool, known as BIRT (Business Intelligent and Reporting Tool), and considered by most SuccessFactors users as a legacy reporting tool. Alongside this, they are also applying some updates to Report Centre and setting up some important changes for the Q4 2018 release.
It is certainly quite unusual, so what’s going on?
Read More30 Aug 2018
We’re over halfway through 2018 and in this release, we see SAP pull back a little and work on stability and tweaks rather than lots of new features. But while there’s no game-changing functionality in this Employee Central Service Centre (ECSC) release, we do see some notable incremental changes and some important news for the future.
Let’s dive straight in with a look at what’s new for employees in Ask HR.
Read More27 Aug 2018
Whereas many of the specific modules in this release are receiving low volumes, small updates, or a combination of the two, the underlying platform functionality for SuccessFactors is receiving a wide array of updates including many significant ones. Normally we’d go deep on just the key ones, but this time around, it’s going to be a wider whirlwind tour.
Read More04 Aug 2018
Drafts is an iOS app that’s been around for quite some time. In it’s fifth iteration it has become a veritable power house of an app with advanced automation features and a pro subscription option to match; though there’s also now a free tier too. For many, Drafts is a bit of a conundrum. Not fitting neatly into categorisation as a text editor, an automation tool, or anything else. It is quite distinct, yet overlaps many traditional app areas. But today I thought I’d give you some reasons as to why you should use Drafts.
Read More30 Jul 2018
Occasionally, I have a need to know the precise version of the OS of the Mac I’m using. This is particularly true when I get involved with beta testing software for developers. Whilst I can get the information manually each time, this was something that was ripe for automation. To that end I put together a shell script-based TextExpander snippet to output the information for me.
Read More26 Jun 2018
A lot of my work revolves around documentation and in business, Microsoft Word documents still rule. Word of course comes with it’s own built-in version tracking feature, but by default this feature is enabled. It has to be purposefully enabled as it can make documents confusing and cumbersome for those who don’t fully understand how to use it. Unfortunately from time to time, people send me document revisions where they have neglected to enable track changes, and it is important to identify what has actually changed. In these scenarios, we can fall back to Word’s document compare feature to identify the changes.
Normally, you would open Word, navigate to each file in turn and trigger the compare. This is all fine and good, but as someone who is usually working with the files directly in XYplorer (my Windows file manager of choice), I figured it was more efficient to trigger it from within the app.
Read More15 Jun 2018
My colleagues and I at Zalaris have been hard at work once again analysing the information from SAP in relation to the SAP SuccessFactors update that dropped into production environments this last weekend (3 June 2018). We try to distil the wealth of information available into the core aspects that we feel customers and those with an interest in keeping up to date with SuccessFactors can really benefit from. We share our thoughts and insights alongside the news of what’s new and what’s changing in order to ensure you understand the benefits and impact each release brings.
Read More29 May 2018
With the second release of 2018, SAP SuccessFactors is releasing a handful of notable updates for Employee Central Service Centre (ECSC).