Extending SAP to
Manage University
Policies
Kathy Gates
The University of Mississippi
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Abstract
• Most universities have hundreds of policies
in place. What are they, who has the
authority to update and approve them, and
when were they last reviewed? This
presentation will demonstrate a new policy
administration system at the University of
Mississippi which is implemented using a
customer extension to the SAP HR object
model. Among the topics covered will be
the project objectives, the design blueprint,
routing and authorizations, the realization
in SAP, and “go live” lessons learned.
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Agenda
• Background
and Process
• Design Choices
• Demonstrations
• Future Work
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Policy Pop Quiz
• UM established “speech corners” to
allow the public an opportunity to
exercise their First Amendment
Rights. How was this
accomplished?
– A. A task force of students, law faculty,
and staff met to outline the policy.
– B. A vote was taken of the ASB Senate,
Faculty Senate, and Staff Council.
– C. MIT’s policy was copied.
– D. Two administrators decided it
needed to be done and rewrote the MBook.
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Policy Pop Quiz ~ continued
• What is UM’s policy regarding
reading employee’s e-mail
messages?
– A. It’s ok to read them, but don’t
open the attachments.
– B. E-mail is intellectual property
of the University of Mississippi.
– C. We go by “If it’s olemiss.edu,
it don’t belong to you.”
– D. We don’t have one.
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
The Problem
• Policies are difficult to find.
• The process for instituting new
policies is unclear.
• What constitutes official policies?
• Who “owns” a particular policy?
• How are policy questions and
suggestions addressed?
• Some policies are out of date.
• Policies overlap/conflict with one
another.
• There are gaps in coverage.
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Formation of Policy Task Force
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Task Force Activities
• Many Meetings!
• Review of Online Policy Presence by Other
Universities
– University of Virginia
• http://www.virginia.edu/uvapolicies/
– Arizona State University
• http://www.asu.edu/aad/manuals/
• Policy on Policy Management
• Brainstorming on System Functionality
• UM Policy Inventory
– About 500 policies identified.
– Helped determine who needed to be
trained.
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
System Goals
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Provide an automated tool for managing the
submission and approval of policies with
appropriate access control.
Provide a consolidated web repository of
approved policies with good navigation and
search capabilities.
Standardize the presentation of policies, e.g.,
with the use of common templates.
Should track policy revisions over time and
allow for historical notes about policies.
Should be easy to use.
Should not create substantial new work load for
any one department.
Should not interfere with existing protocols for
policy development.
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Design Choice #1
• The body of the policy will be
submitted and stored as a PDF
document.
• Advantages
– Some policies will be long and may
require specific lay-outs. This will allow
the one developing the policy more
control over the part of the policy that is
“narrative.”
– The policy can be developed using any
word processor and converted to PDF
as the last step.
– The policy will be presented on the web
as an unchangeable entity using a
widely available format.
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Design Choice #2
• Design will build on existing SAP
system, specifically metadata about
the policy will be stored in SAP.
• Advantages
– Can store policy information by adding
a few user-defined objects and
relationships.
– SAP already contains org and people
relationships.
– SAP allows us to time-delimit data to
track policy revisions.
– Should allow for easier integration with
future projects such as facility
reservation system.
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Design Choice #3
• Every policy will have an associated
“responsible office”.
• Related Details
– Each office will be responsible for
uploading the policies for which it is
responsible.
– Each office will have associated “policy
agents.”
– There will be two approval steps:
• Administrative Division
• Policy Manager
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
New Entities in SAP
• Customer-Defined “Policy”
Object
– Time-delimited
– Short (12 chars) and long (40
chars) names
– Additional attributes via
customer infotypes
– Use ISTAT = Planned for policies
in development
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
New Entities in SAP
• Customer-Defined
Relationships
– Person X is a policy agent for
Org Y
• A priority of 1 on a
relationship indicates
Administrative Division
approval privileges.
– Policy X is related to Policy Y
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Policy Attributes
• Effective Date*
• Status*
• Policy Code
– Free-form field
used for
indexing
purposes, e.g.,
ADM.IT.100.001
• People Affected
• Policy Summary /
Purpose
• Policy Notes
• Related
Resources
– Hyperlinks to
other web
addresses
• Policy Approve By
and Date*
• Next Review Date
• Keywords
• Other
* System generated
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
2.
1.
3.
5.
4.
Interfaces
• All - Policy Index
• Responsible Office Policy
Agent
• Administrative Division Policy
Agent
• Policy Manager
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Related Processes
• Reminder Service
– ABAP program that traverses all
policies looking for those that are within
three months of review due date or are
past due.
– Sends out e-mail alerts to org agents.
– Runs weekly.
– For policies that are more than one
month past due for review, also sends
e-mail alert to Administrative Division
agents.
– Allows for a report-only mode to view
list of past due policies, policies that will
be due for review in the next month,
etc.
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Technical Choices
• Web interfaces implemented using JSP
and JavaBeans.
– JavaBeans handle data retrieval from and
storage to SAP and PDF repository.
• Basic set of RFCs created to access,
create, and maintain policy data in SAP.
• Authorizations derived using people to org
to policy relationships in SAP.
• Infotype 1002 stores narrative data about
the policy, e.g., summary and notes
• Policies that have not been approved yet
are stored using the “Planned” status on
the object and infotypes.
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Examples of Other Issues
• How/whether to indicate that policies are
past due in the public interface?
– Task Force decision was to not indicate
them in any way.
• How are policies classified?
– An attribute called “Policy Code” is available
to allow for presentation/organization of
policies based on a UM-defined coding
scheme.
• Do we need a Policy Manager?
– Ideally, yes. This person is the last step in
the routing process before a policy is added
to the public repository. This person
validates data and assigns codes to policies
so that they can be presented/organized
using a UM-defined coding scheme.
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Online Demonstrations
• Policy Directory
• Responsible Office Policy
Agent Interface
• Administrative Division Policy
Agent Interface
• Policy Manager Interface
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Advantages
• Easily accessible
• Clarity & ease of use
– What are our policies and how are they
made?
• Takes personalities out of
enforcement
• Assures regular review
• Provides means to capture
innovative ideas
• No longer limited by the constraints
of paper delivery
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Future Work
• Integration with digital imaging
system for storage of PDF
documents
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Acknowledgements
• IT Project Team
–
–
–
–
Jie Tang
Linda Bailey
Stephen Phillips
Eric Aitala
• UM Policy Task Force
• KUL
– Concept influenced by KUL HERUG
2004 presentation on faculty research
projects
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
Questions and Answers
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005
For More Information
• Kathy Gates
– kfg@olemiss.edu
Extending SAP to Manage University Policies
HERUG 2005