SAP
HR Management System (SAP)
As an important part of the University’s Digital Strategy, colleagues from DTS and HR have been working together since January 2023 to implement SAP, a new, more modern HR management system that offers better integration with other University systems and an improved user experience. SAP will fundamentally change systems and processes connected to payroll, employee records and recruitment and will also host UoRLearn, the platform used for learning and development activities.
At the outset, the focus of the implementation project has been to keep the impact on managers and employees to a minimum. The focus for the launch of SAP has been to ensure that vital services provided by iTrent, the current platform, such as running the payroll, online annual leave bookings, e-payslips and connections to other systems such as the Staff Directory, User Account Management and the Library are still in place when the switch to SAP takes place. But, once these vital services are embedded and the HR teams feel more confident using the new system, the next phase will be to use further functionality in SAP. It will give the HR Directorate the opportunity to respond to feedback from managers and employees to streamline key processes, make more information visible to managers and employees and make improvements by automating further and reducing complexity at the University.
This will bring a lot of changes for the HR team (encompassing colleagues in Payroll, HR Services, HR Systems, Recruitment, People Development and Pensions) and how they carry out their work. They have already been involved in testing the system and giving feedback to the project team managing the implementation of SAP. In the lead up to the launch, they will all be undergoing training to become more and more familiar with the system before the ‘go live’ date. When the system is live, for the first month the supplier of the system works closely with them all to ensure the system is working as it should and that their confidence using the system continues to grow.
We are very grateful to a range of colleagues across the University who have volunteered to act as Champions to support the transition to the new system. They have been looking at the new system and exploring any differences in how it works that has helped the implementation project to refine the system. These Champions will also receive training on the system and will help you to navigate any initial basic queries when it is launched. We will let you know who your local Champion is in due course.