Day: January 26, 2018

The concept of API management has been around for a decade now and is something that is now part of the fabric of the cloud with services like AWS API Gateway. API management is about requiring all consumers of any API resource to sign up for any API access, obtain a set of keys that identify who they are, and pass these keys in with each API call they make from any application. Since every API call is logged, and every API call possesses these keys, it opens up the ability to understand exactly how your APIs are being used through reporting and analytics packages which come with all modern API management available today. This is the fundamentals of API management, allowing us to understand who is accessing our digital resources, and how they are putting them to use–in real time.

The security of API management comes in with this balance of opening up access, being aware of who is accessing what, and being able to throttle or shut down the access of bad actors–more than ever it is about authentication and requiring keys for all API calls. If you want access to any digital resources from a company, organization, institution, or government agency in a machine-readable format, for use in any other web, mobile, or device application–you use the API. This allows ALL digital assets to be made available internally, to trusted partners, and even to the public, while still maintaining control over who has access to what, and what types of applications they are able to use them in. APIs introduce more control over our digital resources, not less–which is a persistent myth when it comes to web APIs. https://goo.gl/aitQ7S #DataIntegration #ML

Are you looking forward to everything 2018 will bring to your organization? Are you excited about making changes that will improve your company across the board? Are you hoping to adjust your HR strategy to bring more benefits to your workforce?

It goes without saying that there are many ways to improve an HR strategy. Even when everything appears to be in place, there’s always something you can do to ensure a higher level of success down the road.

The use of SuccessFactors, for example, can go a long way in changing the way you think about and approach human resources.  

Here are just a few of the many ways SuccessFactors can lead to a better HR strategy in 2018:

* More Success with Recruiting

According to Employment Background Investigations, the average job opening attracts approximately 250 resumes.

While it’s a good thing when you receive a large number of applications for an open position, it can also lead to trouble when making a final decision.

If you want to achieve more success with recruiting, SuccessFactors makes it easier to source and engage with the most talented professionals in your industry.

* Top Notch Technology

Are you struggling to better understand how to implement technology within your HR department? Is this something that has held your company back in the past?

With the use of SuccessFactors, it’s easier than ever to implement technology that has an impact on your organization as a whole.

In addition to traditional HR technology, it’s often up to workers in this department to decide on new ways of doing things.

For instance, a growing number of companies are learning more about 99 Bitcoins, as they’re considering the idea of paying employees in this manner.

One of the largest companies in Japan will begin to pay employees part of their salary in Bitcoin come February 2018. If you have any plans on taking this step – or a similar one – in the future, you need to have the right technology and systems in place.

* Time and Attendance Management

When it comes to time and attendance management, there is no room for error. You know employees will take time off every now and again, so it’s imperative to implement a system for tracking this.

According to Gusto, the average employee receives 10 days of paid vacation per year.

Without the right approach to time and attendance management, you could soon find the HR department in disarray.

As long as a worker has time off available, it doesn’t matter if they spend it watching People You May Know or shopping on JUUL online. What does matter, however, is that you have the right system in place for tracking everything.

* Training

It’s one thing to hire a new employee, but another thing entirely to train this person to do his or her job.

When it comes to learning and development, SuccessFactors can be the difference between success and failure.

If you don’t have a training system in place, you may soon find that your new hires aren’t in a position to succeed.

Get this: Forbes notes that it costs approximately $1,200 to train a new hire. This may not be money you want to spend, but it’s better than the alternative.

Pinpoint Problem Areas

Even if things are going smoothly in your HR department, it doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. As you take a closer look, you may come to find that there are a few areas that deserve your attention.

Once you pinpoint problem areas, you can then decide which solution is best. Some areas that may require your attention include:

* Recruiting top talent
* Training
* Benefits and compensation
* Technology
* Workplace planning and analytics
* Health and wellbeing

Maybe you need to focus on one of these areas. Or maybe you need to focus on all of them. As long as you know what deserves your attention, you can make the necessary changes.

Final Thoughts

It’s good to know that there are things you can do to improve your HR strategy in 2018. It’s not always easy to make changes, but once you take the first step forward everything will come together.

What are your thoughts on the current state of your HR department? Do you have reason to believe that a few changes could go a long way in making things better for your company? Share your personal approach to HR strategy in the comment section below. http://bit.ly/2EdkoYn #SAP #SAPCloud #AI

Abstract: The “SAP Cloud Platform Solution Diagram & Icon Guidelines” (MS PowerPoint slide deck) makes documenting viable SAP Cloud Platform solution implementations easier than ever before. It includes a comprehensive set of official SAP Cloud Platform service icons, capability icons, graphical design elements and a set of sample diagrams. All these tools can be used to design SAP Cloud Platform solution diagrams, schematics of different complexity, and to illustrate the work of SAP Cloud Platform, its services, solutions and SAP products, and the ways of their use. Learn how to build your own diagrams for SAP Cloud Platform end-2-end solution scenarios.

Why SAP Cloud Platform Solution Diagrams & Icons

SAP is dedicated to providing you the best approaches to realize solutions on SAP Cloud Platform. As Sudhanshu Srivastava describes in his blog Rethinking enablement assets for the SAP Cloud Platform! our new SAP Cloud Platform Solution Diagrams and Icons make an important contribution to visualize best practices and architectures of end-to-end SAP Cloud Platform solutions.

With the official set of icons, design guidelines and sample diagrams you can easily create your own SAP Cloud Platform solution diagrams by using MS PowerPoint. They are intended to reach a better and faster understanding of SAP Cloud Platform end-to-end solution scenarios as customer, partner, client, solution architect, project lead or developer by using graphical diagrams for visual learning.

Design Principles

The SAP Cloud Platform solution diagram guidelines are based on a common iconography and graphical design that follow the SAP Cloud Platform UX principles (Fiori 2.0). In this way we reach a seamless User Experience in SAP Cloud Platform front-ends (e.g. SAP Cloud Platform Cockpit, SAP Web IDE) and content assets including slide decks, blueprints or blogs (e.g. recent blogs from Murali Shanmugham) with consistent and intuitive metaphors by using shared icons and colors.

Using the Solution Diagram Guidelines in MS PowerPoint

To build your own SAP Cloud Platform solution diagram follow these steps:

* Visit our wiki page SAP Cloud Platform Solution Diagrams & Icons
* Download the MS PowerPoint slide deck SAP-Cloud-Platform_official-solution-diagrams-and-icons_v03.pptx
* Find the icon, diagram design elements and sample diagrams that you need
* Create your own SAP Cloud Platform solution diagram for own purposes including twitter, sap.com blogs, project documentation, interactions with clients or workshops

As of today MS PowerPoint is the only supported diagram format. Let’s have a closer look at the content parts inside the SAP-Cloud-Platform_official-solution-diagrams-and-icons_v03.pptx slide deck:

Use SAP Icons & Logos

Behind the formal part with legal disclaimer, terms of use, readme and table of contents the first guidelines section contains various icons & logos as the main design elements

* SAP Cloud Platform Capability Icons that are also used on the https://cloudplatform.sap.com/capabilities.html web page
* SAP Cloud Platform Service Icons in two flavors, for diagrams with blue circle, for slides without circle
* SAP Icons for technical entities, devices, users etc. in neutral grey color. These icons are provided as image objects and are re-used from the SAP Icon font that is based on the SAP Fiori iconography.
* SAP Product Logos including the SAP Cloud Platform Logo
* White-listed Third-Party Logos

Use Design Elements for MS PowerPoint Slides

In guideline section “Elements for MS PowerPoint Slides” you can find the visual elements that characterize the SAP Cloud Platform solution diagram design:

* A Color Palette that is based on a subset of colors as defined by the SAP Fiori Design Guidelines
* Areas to depict various technical entities or parts of the end-to-end solution architecture and landscape
* Cardinality Markers to depict multiple occurrences of entities
* Text in Flex Grey
* Text in L0-blue, Emphasize & Semantic Colors
* Connectors, Arrows & Lines
* Numbers

Follow Author Guidelines

To make it easier for you to create own guideline compliant solution diagrams we added some helpful explanations:

* Do’s & Don’t
* Tips & Tricks
* Arrow Directions
* How to create Colored Icons in 5 Steps
* Comparison with SAP TAM Block Diagrams
* Community Support

Pick & Choose Sample Diagrams

In the next guideline section “Solution Diagram Examples” you can pick and choose from a set of 13 SAP Cloud Platform sample diagrams which can serve as good templates for your own solution diagrams.

* SAP Fiori Cloud
* Extend SAP cloud applications
* Extend SAP cloud applications including SAP S/4HANA Cloud
* Extend SAP SuccessFactors applications
* Internet Of Things innovation
* Develop and deploy innovation applications
* Leverage Cloud Foundry to create innovative applications
* DevOps in SAP Cloud Platform
* Gaining Consumer Insights: Reference Architecture Overview
* SAP Cloud Connector 2.10: What’s new in it?
* SAP‘s modular IoT platform in cloud
* Typical S/4HANA Extension Patterns: Hub applications
* Principal Propagation

These sample diagrams were also used to in the official SAP Cloud Platform Product Overview  slide deck (see Architecture Blueprints: slides 25 – 29) or in the SAP Cloud Platform Blueprints.

Sample diagram “6/ Develop and deploy innovation applications” is also contained in a black background style to demonstrate the big advantage, that the SAP Cloud Platform solution diagram design is suited for white and black background styles with minimum modification. You only need to replace the logo image objects (to get readable texts in white or black), all other diagram elements can be kept untouched.

Sample diagram “13/ Principal Propagation” shows how to design a more comprehensive solution architecture that is characterized by various technical details like certificates, certificate authorities or identities. Just note that this diagram also makes use of colored icons (in addition to the standard grey icons, see LEGEND) as described in guideline section “Author Guidelines: How to create Colored Icons in 5 Steps”.

Terms of Use

As customer, partner, solution architect, project lead or developer working with SAP Cloud Platform you are invited to create your own solution diagrams for individual purposes including twitter, blogs, project document or interactions with clients e.g. workshops. For legal safeguard just follow the SAP Terms of Use found in document Terms Of Use for the SAP Cloud Platform Solution Diagrams, Design Elements & Icons. These terms of use govern your use of these SAP Materials (as defined in the Terms of Use), and related Content and web pages.

Watch for Updates

The SAP Cloud Platform solution diagram & icons guideline slide deck you can download from wiki page SAP Cloud Platform Solution Diagrams & Icons will be regularly updated with new versions, e.g. to include new service icons, capability icons, sample diagrams or design changes. To follow these changes that are all tracked in the “version history” table just start watching this wiki page (see following screenshot …)

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Olga Werner for her excellent design work and creativity on the variety of service icons, capability icons and diagram elements. The realization of the new SAP Cloud Platform solution diagram guidelines would not have been possible without the constructive collaboration, inspiration or feedback of many distinguished SAP colleagues like Hamsa Buvaraghan, Thomas Bieser, Jeremy Good, Bernhard Groene, Claudia Pacheco, Matthieu Pelatan, Riley Rainey, Jason Saunders, Matthias Steiner and Michael van Cutsem.

And Now, Happy Diagramming!

  http://bit.ly/2EcWBHX #SAP #SAPCloud #AI