Traditional Portal
The SAP NetWeaver Portal, commonly referred to as the Portal, is a way for employees, managers, and recruiters to interact with SAP and non-SAP resources in one place. Employees update their personal information and request time off with the Employee Self Service (ESS) application in the Portal. Managers plan and approve compensation adjustments with the Manager Self Service (MSS) application in the Portal. And, Recruiters submit requisitions and find qualified candidates with the E-Recruiting functionality in the Portal.
Stand-Alone Portal
SAP developed a stand-alone method for access to SAP called Netweaver Business Client (NWBC) that uses Web Dynpro for ABAP technology. For Enhancement Packs prior to EhP5, NWBC did not have access to Talent Management functions. In EhP5, SAP recoded ESS/MSS and E-Recruiting to WD4A technology and in EhP6, Benefits was recoded to WD4A technology. And now, the NWBC (or a third-party enterprise Portal, such as Microsoft’s SharePoint) has access to functionalities for employees, managers, and recruiters as a substitute to the SAP NetWeaver Portal.
ESS/MSS
SAP Employee and Manager Self Services give employees and managers the power of independence within the SAP Portal environment, freeing up HR’s valuable time for more strategic HR efforts. This reduction in administrative costs and overhead coupled with the enhanced time of response to user requests has made implementing ESS/MSS a “no-brainer” for most organizations today.
With Employee Self Service, your employees are able to:
Manage all aspects related to business travel and expenses, from planning trips to creating expense reports and making travel requests
View their compensation statements
Record their hours worked, display their work schedule, or submit a leave request, then receive approval from their manager
View classroom training schedules and sign up for training
Enroll in benefits online or offline and view an overview of their participation
View current job openings within the company, apply for a position, and check the status of their pending applications
Maintain personal information, such as their address, dependents, emergency contact, tax withholding, bank data, and any key life or work events
With Manager Self Service, managers can:
Approve their reports’ clocked time or leave requests
Manage an events calendar for business functions and their team members’ birthdays and anniversaries
Participate in the recruiting process by creating requisition requests and reviewing candidates for their existing requisitions
Plan compensation adjustments for their reports with a comparison view of team members and a competency matchup view
Create budgets from two different perspectives, top-down or bottom-up