When an employee or manager asks the Applaud assistant for information or help that requires live SAP SuccessFactors data, the assistant can use an enabled SuccessFactors tool to complete the request.
The employee stays in the same conversation. They don't need to open SuccessFactors, choose a tool, or provide their credentials.
What happens when a tool runs?
A SuccessFactors tool run usually follows these steps:
- Ask - The employee asks a question or makes a request in the conversation.
- Choose - The assistant identifies an enabled SuccessFactors tool that can help.
- Work - The tool retrieves information from SuccessFactors or performs a supported action.
- Confirm - For requests that need additional information or change data, the assistant may ask follow-up questions or ask the employee to confirm the details.
- Respond - The assistant returns the result and continues the conversation.
Employees see a short activity message while the tool runs, such as “Looking up your profile.”
If the request doesn't require SuccessFactors, the assistant can answer using knowledge or another available capability instead.
Lookups and guided requests
SuccessFactors tools can support different types of requests.
Look up information
The assistant retrieves live information from SuccessFactors and returns it in the conversation.
For example:
“What's my job title and department?”
The assistant uses the appropriate tool to retrieve the current information and returns the result.
Other examples include:
- Looking up a person's details
- Finding a person's ID
- Checking who reports to a manager
- Retrieving team or organizational information
Complete a guided request
Some requests need more information before they can be completed.
The assistant can ask questions, collect the required details, show a summary, and ask for confirmation before completing the action.
For example:
“I'd like to update my profile.”
The assistant might ask which information to change, confirm the new value, and then submit the update to SuccessFactors when the required action is available.
This creates a short, structured conversation rather than requiring the employee to complete a form in another system.
What employees and managers see
The conversation remains the main experience.
Employees can see:
- The questions the assistant asks.
- A short activity message while SuccessFactors is being accessed.
- The information retrieved from SuccessFactors.
- A confirmation step for actions that require approval.
- The result of the request.
Who controls which tools can run?
The assistant can only use SuccessFactors tools that you configure and make available to it.
Administrators and Experience Designers control:
- Which SuccessFactors capabilities are turned into tools.
- What each tool can do.
- Which assistants, case sessions, or workflows can use the tools.
The assistant cannot create a new SuccessFactors action or access capabilities that you haven't enabled.
Where tools can run
The same SuccessFactors tool can be used in different Applaud experiences, including:
- Employee and manager chat
- Case conversations
- Workflows
The experience may vary slightly depending on where the assistant is being used, but the underlying SuccessFactors capability remains the same.
SuccessFactors remains the system of record. Applaud brings selected SuccessFactors capabilities into the conversation so people can get help without switching systems.