SAPexpets/HR
Learn how to create Service Level Agreements (SLAs) within the Employee Interaction Center so you can track the effectiveness of the service center.
Key Concept
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are predefined agreements between two parties (e.g., the HR Shared Service Group and the customer or employee) for the delivery of HR services. They are used within the Employee Interaction Center (EIC) to monitor and control key performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs can be used by management to evaluate the quality and performance of the shared service center.
The Employee Interaction Center (EIC) is a centralized call center application that is part of SAP’s shared services offering. It delivers employee information to contact center agents and empowers them to capture the details of an interaction with an employee. It is built on the Interaction Center WebClient (IC WebClient) platform.
By configuring Service Level Agreements (SLA) within EIC, companies are able to monitor EIC performance with key performance indicators (KPI) that you define in customizing. You can then report on the performance in SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW) analytics.
We’ll show you how to set up SLAs with the example of a company that uses EIC for its HR Shared Service’s departments that are based in two countries. For key terms see the sidebar “SLA Terminology.”
Note
The screenprints in this article are from an SAP ERP 6.0 system that has enhancement package 4. To use the SLA functionality you must be on enhancement package 1 or higher.
Create a Service Level Agreement
The following steps outline how to set up SLAs across two countries.
Step 1. Switch on the SLA functionality. Follow menu path Personnel Management > Employee Interaction Center (EIC) > Interaction Center Web-Client > Application Functions > Basic Settings > Define Application Constants to get to Figure 1. Set the Constant Value for SLASW to ON. You can do this by either selecting the On option from a drop down menu or by simply writing it in the field. This constant activates the SLA functionality for the specified start and end dates.
Figure 1
EIC constants
Step 2. Begin your definition of your SLA properties by going to the IMG node using menu path Personnel Management > Employee Interaction Center (EIC) > Interaction Center Web-Client > Application Functions > Activity > Service Level Agreement (SLA) > Define SLV Properties (Figure 2).
Figure 2
Define SLA properties
Step 3. Identify the business hours that you require to support your various SLA contracts. Click the Dialog Structure EIC Business Hours to access the Business Hours. (Figure 3). In this example, we created two entries: UK Business Hours and US Business Hours.
Figure 3
EIC Business Hours
To view the schedule, select each of the two business hours that were created (ZUK and ZUS) and click the Maintain Business Hours button (Figure 4).
Figure 4
Click the Maintain Business Hours button
Step 4. Define rules to indicate the working hours for the employees in your organization who will be using the EIC. You can define different working hours for each country or region where your employees are located. Once you click the Maintain Business Hours from the previous step you are able to set up daily, weekly, or monthly rules. The business hour configuration includes the flexibility to define weekdays, weekends, holidays, and time zones (Figure 5).
Figure 5
Set up EIC Business Hours rules
Step 5. Create the SLA by selecting the Dialog Structure SLA Contract. Click the new entries icon (Figure 6). Enter a detailed SLA Contract Description and enter the business hours and SLA contract owner (Figure 7).
Figure 6
Create an SLA contract
Figure 7
Enter the hours and contract owner
Step 6. Associate the SLA target along with the activity priority and the EIC category to an SLA contract. For example, activities with a priority of high and a category/subcategory of compliance should have an SLA target of 2 hours. Click the SLA Target under the SLA Contract (Figure 8). Enter in the SLA Target (PROC), Activity Priority (High), EIC Category (Compliance), SLA Target for Violation (2 Hours), and Reminder (1 Hour) Alerts. SAP delivers SLA Target PROC which is a calculation routine to determine the processing time of an activity for the purposes of SLA.
Figure 8
Enter SLA Target details
Step 7. Assign the employees to Service Level Contracts by going to the IMG node using menu path Personnel Management > Employee Interaction Center (EIC) > Interaction Center Web-Client > Application Functions > Activity > Service Level Agreement (SLA) > Assign Employee to SLV Contract (Figure 9). SAP provides fields from the Organizational Assignment infotype 0001 for assigning employees to an SLA agreement.
Figure 9
Assign employees to the contract
You have now successfully set up SLAs for your company. From this point forward, any new activities created within the EIC are assigned an SLA contract based on the activity priority, category/subcategory, and the affected employee. For activities that have an SLA contract assigned, when a due date for resolution of an activity approaches a reminder alert appears on the top of the screen of the responsible agent (depending on the SLA Target Hour’s configuration) (Figure 10). Violations are also noted when the due date has passed.
Figure 10
SLA alerts of due dates
Sidebar: SLA Terminology
Here are some commonly used SLA terms along with a brief explanation of their use within the EIC.
EIC agent: Person who is responsible for responding to incoming service requests from employees and documenting the interaction into activities.
Activity: Record of the interaction between the EIC agent and the employee, often referred to as a case or ticket in many legacy systems.
Category/subcategory: Used to classify an activity within the EIC based on business process requirements. The category and subcategory are fields within an EIC activity.
SLA contract: Predefined service level between a customer (typically the employee) and the service delivery owner for completion of the service in a mutually agreed upon time frame.
SLA target: Criterion that can be assigned to an SLA contract. The SLA target has a description and a quantity unit that is used to measure the target.
Activity priority: Used to categorize the importance or relevance of an activity. Some examples include High, Medium, and Low.
Chandan Gopalani
Chandan Gopalani is a senior SAP HCM technical consultant with over 18 years of experience working on SAP projects across various industries and clients since 1995. He is co-founder of EIC Experts and specializes in Organization Management, Employee Interaction Center (EIC), US Payroll, Enterprise Compensation Management, ESS/MSS, Personnel Administration, Benefits, CATS, Finance, and Sales & Distribution. He is ABAP certified and ASAP certified, as well the author of several HR Expert article. He is currently working as an ECM consultant for a Fortune 50 client.
You may contact the author at cgopalani@eicexperts.com.
If you have comments about this article or publication, or would like to submit an article idea, please contact the editor.
Jarret Pazahanick
Jarret Pazahanick is an SAP Mentor, Human Capital Management (HCM) Certified Consultant, and Managing Partner of EIC Experts who has specialized in SAP HCM since 1998. He is a subject matter expert in US Payroll, Employee Interaction Center (EIC), and Enterprise Compensation Management (ECM). Over the past 14 years, Jarret has completed 20 high profile, full life cycle SAP HCM implementations for global Fortune 1000 companies. He is SAP HCM certified and ASAP certified; author for HR Expert, CloudAve, and ASUG News; and a moderator, blogger, and gold-level contributor on the SAP Community Network.
If you have comments about this article or publication, or would like to submit an article idea, please contact the editor.
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