The manager portal in SAP ERP provides line managers, team leaders, and departmental heads in the enterprise with tools to help them accomplish various tasks efficiently and effectively.  SAP provides the Object and Data Provider (OADP) to customize and configure the manager portals to help managers view the reporting objects and their corresponding data. I’ll provide an overview of the OADP and describe the various options it provides. I’ll also give you best practices to follow and explain how to avoid pitfalls when using the OADP.

With the manager portal in SAP ERP, a manager can perform various core and talent management-related activities on an organizational object. Examples include timesheet approvals, compensation planning and approvals, employee performance management, requests and initiation of employee master data changes, and required organizational and position profile maintenance.

To perform these tasks, managers need to access various organizational objects and the data related to these objects. During the design phase of implementation, you need to address these questions:

• For which objects in the organizational hierarchy is the manager responsible (i.e., which objects can the manager view and act upon)?
• What object data is available for the manager to view?

Take the example of the object Employee. The manager may need to view data of various reporting employees. Figure 1 shows the various types of reporting employees the manager can view:

• All employees
• Directly reporting employees
• Employees of whom they are time supervisor
• Employees of whom they are the compensation planner

Figure 1

Manager view of employees and their corresponding information

The manager may also need to view different employee data depending on the type of reporting relationship. For example, the manager needs to view time data (work schedule, leave requests, timesheet data, and team calendar) of employees for whom they are time supervisors. Similarly they may be required to view the compensation data (annual salary, comp review data) of employees for whose compensation they are responsible.

Next, I’ll examine the two important questions I mentioned above. I’ll also explain what options come preconfigured in the manager portals in SAP ERP, best practices to configure them, and additional implementation requirements.

For Which Objects in the Organizational Hierarchy Is the Manager Responsible?

In the standard manager portal for SAP ERP, the manager is identified by the SAP relationship “chief supervisor of” an organizational unit. The manager is responsible for all the objects directly and indirectly reporting to this organizational unit. All the employees belonging to the organizational unit report directly to the manager, who has the ability to view employee information.  

For example, in Figure 2, organizational unit C reports to organizational unit B. Organizational unit B in turn reports to organizational unit A.

Figure 2

All employees report directly and indirectly to manager A

All employees reporting to organizational unit A directly report to manager A. Employees of  units B and C indirectly report to manager A while directly reporting to the managers of their respective organizational units. 

Based on the implementation of various core and talent management SAP ERP HCM sub modules and upon providing sufficient authorizations, the managers can view and perform various managerial activities on the objects under their purview.

Additional Requirements 

Different organizations follow different reporting structures for various processes. For example, a timesheet approver may be different from the line manager. The same can be the case with the compensation planning and approval process or the performance appraisal process.

For example, in Figure 3, the Cross-Application Timesheet (CATS) approving manager is different from the line manager. 

Figure 3

Some companies employ a time approving manager separate from the line manager

In this example, the time approving manger can view employee timesheets and perform approvals by using the timesheet approval applications. How do you configure the manager portals to allow the time approver to view and approve employee’s timesheets? What are the best practices to configure the objects that need to be made available to the managers? I’ll answer these questions next.

What Object Data Is Available For The Manager To View?

In the manager portal, having the correct and complete information available to the manager is the key to performing various tasks such as time approval and compensation planning, which I explained earlier.

By default, SAP provides different object data in the Team Viewer applications. Figure 4 shows the general information iView that is delivered with the Business Package for MSS in SAP ERP 6.0.

The general information iView displays the Name, Personnel Number, Position, Job, Organizational Unit, Cost Center, Personnel Area, and Personnel Subarea of the employee. This information is retrieved from infotype 0001 (organizational assignment).

Figure 4

Pre-configured MSS general information iView displays employee details

Object and Data Provider (OADP)

With the OADP framework, you can design your manager portal to work with the organizational and reporting structures configured for the enterprise and provide the necessary object data to help the manager perform daily tasks.

The OADP framework helps display various objects (including positions, employees, and cost centers) and their related information in the SAP portal iViews. Managers can also trigger processes for the displayed objects, such as manager portal reports, timesheet approvals, compensation planning, and compensation approval.

Before configuring the OADP, ensure you’ve met the following prerequisites:

• Organizational Management component of SAP ERP HCM has been implemented
• The Business Package for MSS in SAP ERP 6.0 has been implemented
• Portal iViews implementing Team Viewer applications are being used

As the name indicates, the OADP provides objects and data of those objects. Below, I will discuss the main components and configuration nodes of the OADP.

Object Provider

The main task of this configuration node is to determine and collect the objects that need to be displayed to the manager. To do this, you need to understand the definition of the root objects, navigation objects, and target objects: 

• Root objects are the starting objects where the navigation in the organizational hierarchy starts to determine the object results that are eventually displayed in the manager portal. These are generally the manager’s own employee number (PERNR), organizational unit, or position.
• Navigation objects define the organizational navigation path to follow to determine the target objects
• Target objects determine the final objects displayed in the manager portal
• MSS iViews start at the root object, follow through the navigation objects, and determine the target (result) objects that need to be displayed

Data Provider

The main element of the data provider is the data view. The data view consolidates the various columns of data and their order of display in MSS iViews. One or more data views are grouped together to define a group of data views. Using a group of data views, the manager can view different sets of data for an organizational object. The value of each column in the data view is determined using the assigned function module (e.g., function module HRWPC_GENERAL_COL_ORGNAME is used to get an employee’s organizational assignment).

Organizational Structure View  

This node encapsulates the objects selection (such as employees, organizational units, or cost centers) from the organizational hierarchy and the group of data views to be displayed (e.g., the configuration nodes defined above are assigned to the organizational view).

Group of Organizational Views

This element groups together various organizational structure views that are made available to the iView. For example, one or more organizational structure views are assigned to the Group of Organizational Views. Finally the group is assigned to the MSS iView. In Figure 5, the Group of Organizational Structure Views is assigned to the employee search iView. Employee search iViews use the OADP. They are embedded into various MSS iViews such as general information iView, team calendar, timesheet approval, and compensation planning and approval. The lead consultant should log on to the portal as content administrator to view and configure these iViews. Business Package for MSS in SAP ERP 6.0 delivers various MSS iViews. You can view the MSS iViews delivered by the business package via navigation path: Content administrator > Portal content > Content administrator >Manager Self-Service.  

Figure 5

Compensation information iView properties with a custom OADP

An OADP Example

Let’s look at an MSS iView and map the configuration elements to each visual element. In Figure 6, the MSS iView is assigned the Group of Organizational Structure Views ZMSS_TEAM_EE.

The Group of Organizational Structure views ZMSS_TEAM_EE is assigned four Organizational Structure Views:

• Directly reporting employees
• All reporting employees
• Time Supervisor of
• Compensation Planner of

When you select one of these organizational views, different sets of employees are displayed. In this case, when the manager selects Directly reporting employees, all directly reporting employees are displayed. When the manager selects Compensation Planner of, all employees for whom he or she is compensation planner of are displayed.

Figure 6

Example of a custom OADP assigned to the MSS general information iView

Each organizational view is assigned a group of data views. Figure 7 shows the organizational view for Directly reporting employees. This view is assigned the data views Employee data and Employee compensation data. The Employee data view shows attendance status and phone number, while the Employee compensation data view shows employee salary details.

Figure 7

MSS iView with different data views showing two sets of data

Steps for Creating Organizational Structures and Object and Data Selection

Figure 8 gives an overview of the OADP configuration hierarchy nodes.

Figure 8

The OADP configuration nodes

Follow these steps to identify and select the objects that need to be displayed in the MSS iView:

• Identify processes in the enterprise that need to be mapped and implemented in the manager portal for SAP ERP. These processes include time sheet approvals, change employees/organizational object information (HCM forms and processes), and maintain position profile.
• Identify other organizational objects and information for the managers to view (e.g., employee general information, employee compensation information, and organizational and position information)
• Identify the organizational and reporting hierarchy relevant to each of the processes and data display requirements indentified in the first two steps
• Analyze the standard SAP organizational and reporting structures to see if they fulfill the requirements. Try to stick to the standard structures, objects, and relationships as much as possible. When standard structures do not meet requirements, analyze the impact of creating custom objects or relationships. After thorough analysis and justification, create these custom objects as necessary.
• Create the object result set by creating (if applicable use standard) evaluation paths or function modules. Assign the object selection to the manager portal configuration node organizational view.

Perform these steps to identify and retrieve data you need to display in the MSS iView that uses the OADP:

• Identify data of the objects that need to be displayed
• Create function modules to retrieve data identified in step 1 
• Create columns for function modules. Column groups are assigned to the data view.
• Create multiple data views to group together similar information, e.g., a compensation data view containing employee compensation data or an organizational data view with an employee organizational assignment. Assign these data views to the data view group.
• Assign a “group of data views” to the manager portal configuration node organizational view

Finally, assign one or more organizational structure views to the group of organizational structure views. Assign the group of organizational view to an MSS iView.

Best Practices to Follow and Pitfalls to Avoid

When using a flexible framework such as the OADP, it is always important keep in mind the performance, scalability, and maintenance of manager portals. Below are some best practices to follow while configuring the OADP:

• The objects (e.g., employees) displayed in the manager portal can either be gathered from the evaluation paths or function modules. Function modules should only be used in cases where evaluation paths cannot be used.  
• During the object provider configuration step, evaluate whether you can use the two Business Add-Ins (BADIs), HRWPC_EXCL_MANAGERS and HRWPC_MOD_NAVOBJECTS to modify the result set or change the navigation path. In many cases, this eliminates the need to create custom evaluation paths or function modules for object selection. 
• Stick to a standard organizational hierarchy when possible. Minimize the custom relationships that are created in the system. Configuring manager portals to use custom relationships adds more complexity and effort to development.
• Each data column is retrieved using a function module. The number of columns displayed should be limited to avoid performance issues. Multiple data view should be used instead of cluttering the same view with a lot of information. The manager must use an additional click; however, this helps avoid potential performance issues as manager portal enhancements keep growing. Familiarize the managers with the refresh option if they are setting the cache parameters. 
• If you use your own function modules, you should always perform authorization checks. For example, before reading any personal data of an employee, the manager must call the associated authorization object (P_ORIGIN or P_ORIGINCON as the case may be) for the employee to check whether he or she has the required authorizations. Avoid direct select statements and use related function modules (e.g., HR_INFOTYPE_OPERATION for employee data) to retrieve employee data. 
• Familiarize managers with the customized layout options in the portals. This option helps save real estate when displaying too much information.  
• Portal iView cache parameters should be used for non-critical data that is rarely changed. This improves performance for the higher level manger. 

Refer to the following Notes for performance-related questions and tips on the manager portal and the OADP:

• Note 921859 - MSS: Team Viewer > deactivating session storage for performance related issues
• Note 922267 - MSS: Performance/data volume Team Viewer
• Note 919836 - MSS: Team Viewer - Views of employees sorted by last names