Make structures visible

When Dana Lautenschläger, Senior Expert HR Processes, Projects & Systems at Conrad, and her colleagues started looking for an organizational chart tool, the focus was on the following requirements: connection to the HR system SuccessFactors, comprehensive display options, responsive design and the implementation of business games.

In the future, these features should ensure more efficiency in the personnel management of 4,000 employees across Europe. Conrad found what he was looking for at Ingentis: In the spring of this year, the launch of Org.manager web for SF began in Germany.

The challenge

Conrad was founded in 1923 in Berlin as a family business and has been headquartered in Hirschau since 1946. Step by step, the owner-managed company has grown from a specialist mail order company for electronic components to one of the leading omnichannel providers for technology and electronics in Europe.

The company stocks around 750,000 items in its conrad.de online store. Customer requirements and needs are increasing, especially those of business customers. Conrad has responded to this: With the launch of the new Conrad Marketplace conrad.biz at the beginning of 2017, the product range has expanded at breakneck speed. Whereas previously there were 750,000 products, in July there were already over 900,000 products, and the number is constantly rising.

When it came to choosing an HR system, Conrad opted for SuccessFactors. The HCM system runs on the SAP Cloud Platform and combines various tools for HR work. The company expects greater efficiency, reliability, speed and a higher level of data quality.

However, when it came to visualizing the company hierarchy, SuccessFactors' native organizational chart solution soon reached its limits. For example, the display was limited to one type of structure, namely positions, and staff positions could not be depicted in an offset manner. Furthermore, it was not possible to run business games or to optimize the display of organizational charts for mobile devices.

The need for an additional add-on became clear. Dana Lautenschläger had already come into contact with the on-premise version Ingentis Org.manager in the past. During her subsequent search, she then received a hint about the cloud-based tool Org.manager web for SF - from SAP directly, among others - and decided to give it a try.

The solution

The add-on is an extension of the Org.manager organizational chart software, developed specifically for SuccessFactors. It can process data from the Employee Profile module as well as from Employee Central.

The application creates organizational charts fully automatically and in real time based on the data stored in the connected personnel system. This means that personnel changes never have to be transferred manually and the organizational charts are always up to date.

The design, presentation and content of the organizational charts can be easily and quickly adapted to the customer's wishes via an administration interface. For example, there are no limits to the visualization of structures.

For use in SAP SuccessFactors, the add-on represents the objects Business Unit, Division, Department, Position and Employee. In principle, however, the organizational chart software can also be used to define other object types outside the standard.

In addition to this variety of object types, Conrad also makes use of the option to display positions alternatively. For the company from Hirschau, it is important that staff positions are clearly recognizable in the organization chart. They are arranged offset for this purpose.

Another requirement that always accompanied Conrad in its search for a suitable application was the "Mobile & Cloud First" concept. Since HR managers and executives are often on the road, they do not always have a desktop computer with a large screen at their disposal, but the displays of smartphones and tablets have to suffice.

Of course, mobile access to the SuccessFactors cloud system is provided. However, the Ingentis Org.manager web for SF add-on additionally provides the responsive design of the organization chart. This enables unrestricted, user-friendly access to the organizational hierarchy and important personnel data, even on mobile devices.

Look into the future

Now that Conrad Electronic has basically familiarized itself with the add-on, the simulation function is to be used in a second phase. Thanks to a very flexible organizational structure, Conrad can react quickly to changes and thus always deploy its workforce wisely.

However, before strategic decisions of this kind are made, a good overview of the current distribution of resources is needed. On the basis of this, business games are then carried out.

Reorganization

In the past, Conrad used common drawing programs for this purpose. However, these applications proved to be unsuitable for the implementation of business games. Instead, time-consuming drawing processes were created that ultimately did not lead to the desired clarity.

With the help of the new tool, such restructurings are carried out directly in the organization chart. Existing objects can be edited, deleted or moved via drag-and-drop.

It is also possible to create new objects. The data in SuccessFactors initially remains unaffected by such simulated changes. In order to finally transfer the status quo obtained in the simulation to the HR system, a so-called difference list is sufficient.

This can be exported from Org.manager web within a few seconds and then imported into SAP SuccessFactors. In a further step, Conrad also wants to use the software internationally. Thus, the management levels of all companies will be equipped with it in order to achieve company-wide standardization.