SAP HCM reporting at Wales & West Utilities warms up

Before Query Manager

Wales & West’s SAP HCM reporting procedure was done with ABAP and was far from smooth. The process for obtaining the required report was protracted and drawn-out, which created challenges for the HR team who had to manage time usage, costs, wastage, use of individual skills, and more.

Project success: The Query Manager solution

Eight steps needed to be taken

1. Individuals/Teams submit a request for development to the Change Advisory Board (CAB).
2. Requests are reviewed at the monthly CAB meetings.
3. Approved requests are then sent to contractors, who supply a written Impact Assessment.
4. The Impact Assessments are reviewed at the next monthly CAB meeting, where the final go-ahead is given.
5. SAP ABAP development process – time-consuming, usually needing a number of days.
6. User roles are amended by the security team.
7. Conduct User Acceptance Tests of the report and test the assigned roles.
8. Changes are moved to the Production server in the monthly transportation process.

The business case for Query Manager

The Business Case for purchasing Query Manager™ was based on development costs for a report intended to validate P11D information in the Company Car Infotype. The car information was compared to that in Travel Privileges and any inconsistencies were highlighted.

The quoted development time for this report to be developed as an ABAP, including Unit Testing and Delivery, was 28 days.

Some of the team at Wales and West had seen a recent demonstration of Query Manager and had realized its capabilities. It was clear that Query Manager was able to build the same report with a fraction of the effort at a comparable cost to the ABAP development cost. However, Query Manager was able to build all SAP HCM reports required by the business, and not just the Vehicle Validation Report.

Query Manager was purchased and part of the service included two days of on-site training. This proved invaluable, the training was thorough and gave the team confidence to build and create their own reports.

As a result, the Vehicle Validation Report was up and running in under two days. Importantly, return on investment was immediate and the purchase was completely justified. That particular report is still used as part of the pre-P11D validation process.

Reasons for the success of Query Manager at Wales and West Utilities

• ROI recovered after finishing the very first report
• Comprehensive delivered report library
• Thorough induction and training
• Query Manager community forum is perfect for sharing ideas and tips to get help with problems
• Outstanding technical support system
• Data errors greatly reduced within weeks
• The right people receive the right data at the right time

About Wales & West Utilities

Wales & West Utilities operates the gas distribution network across Wales and the South West England regions of the United Kingdom.

It also provides the gas emergency service and delivers the iron mains risk reduction programme in those areas.