These setup instructions will allow the BOB application to synchronize content and course completions with the SuccessFactors platform.
Table of Contents
What are the advantages of setting up the SuccessFactors integration?
How does the SuccessFactors adapter sync content from Blue Ocean Brain to SuccessFactors?
How will the Blue Ocean Brain content display and function within SuccessFactors?
What needs to be enabled prior to setting up the SuccessFactors adapter?
What are the steps to set up my SuccessFactors adapter?
Step 1: Configure the SuccessFactors integration.
Step 2: Set up an Admin for Blue Ocean Brain in SuccessFactors.
Step 3: Contact Blue Ocean Brain with the details of your SuccessFactors integration.
Step 4: Confirm the test Lesson in SuccessFactors.
Step 5: Confirm that the Library of content is available.
Step 6: Import the historic completions CSV file into SuccessFactors (if needed).
What are the advantages of setting up the SuccessFactors integration?
Your company may already have access to the Blue Ocean Brain platform. With the addition of a BOB integration with SuccessFactors, you can enhance your BOB experience to meet your learning goals for your employees:
- Create a one-stop-shop. With the addition of the content integration, your learners can access BOB content directly within SuccessFactors so that employees find the lessons and articles where they are already completing learning. Your learners will still be able to access the BOB platform to take advantage of the brain exercises, leaderboard, and Library, but this provides an additional method for employees to find BOB content for their just-in-time learning needs.
- Incorporate BOB data into your SuccessFactors reporting. BOB does have downloadable CSV reports available within the BOB Reports Admin portal that can be leveraged for reporting. By enabling the BOB integration with SuccessFactors, the completion data will automatically appear on the lessons/articles in SuccessFactors for your learners, and you as a leader can see your employees' BOB metrics available within the reporting area for the completion of all the content within your learning system.
How does the SuccessFactors adapter sync content from Blue Ocean Brain to SuccessFactors?
The Blue Ocean Brain app maintains and controls the SuccessFactors integration through a one-way sync, with BOB writing to SuccessFactors's public API. Your team can choose to send completions over daily, weekly, or in real-time.
New/Current Content
As content is added to your company's Blue Ocean Brain Library of content, the Lessons are automatically added to SuccessFactors.
Inactive Content
When Lessons are retired from Blue Ocean Brain, your team will receive a list of inactive Lessons each month prior to removal so your team can remove them from SuccessFactors.
How will the Blue Ocean Brain content display and function within SuccessFactors?
Once the SuccessFactors integration is set up, the Blue Ocean Brain content will display within SuccessFactors. How you configure your content in SuccessFactors (i.e. whether to send in Lessons, Articles, or both) will determine what content may appear in the search results and in which format.
The Learner experience will be as follows:
- The Learner may search for Blue Ocean Brain content within the Search bar.
- When Blue Ocean Brain content appears within the search results, the Learner will select a Lesson or Article.
- The Learner, after selecting the BOB link, will be directed to a new tab that opens to the BOB Lesson.
- Once the Learner reads all three Articles and answers the Show What You Know Questions, the Learner's completions will be sent over to SuccessFactors at the cadence of your team's choosing (i.e. in real-time, daily, or weekly).
- The Learner may then view their completion of the Lesson on the SuccessFactors page.
What needs to be enabled prior to setting up the SuccessFactors adapter?
SSO authentication needs to be set up with BOB. Your BOB IT contact will reach out to you to set up the BOB SSO profile. Here is more information regarding the SSO setup process with BOB.
What are the steps to set up my SuccessFactors adapter?
The following steps will need to be completed for each SuccessFactors tenant you set up with Blue Ocean Brain.
Step 1: Configure the SuccessFactors integration.
This first step will require you to set up the integration within your SuccessFactors app.
SAP SuccessFactors Setup resources:
- SAP SuccessFactors Implementing Open Content Network (OCN) PDF Guide
- SAP SuccessFactors Learning OData API Reference
- What are the available APIs for SuccessFactors?
Here is the required OCN code needed for setup (use the default for the other fields):
providers[BOB].enabled=true
providers[BOB].name=Blue Ocean Brain
providers[BOB].label=label.u.ProviderBOB
providers[BOB].baseLaunchUrl=https://www3.blueoceanbrain.com
Step 2: Set up an Admin for Blue Ocean Brain in SuccessFactors.
The SuccessFactors application requires that the Blue Ocean Brain contain an Admin in order for the remote API to function properly.
You will need to set up an Admin and send the UserID to your Blue Ocean Brain IT contact (see Step 3 for all items to send to BOB). It is important that API userType=admin.
Step 3: Contact Blue Ocean Brain with the details of your SuccessFactors integration.
Send the following to your Blue Ocean Brain Client Success Manager or Blue Ocean Brain IT contact:
- API URL
- Client ID
- Client Secret
- User ID (API userType=admin)
- Company ID
- Whether to send Articles, Lessons, or both
- Whether to send completions
- How often to send completions (Real-Time, Daily, Weekly; Daily is recommended)
- "Weekly" completions are sent on Sunday mornings.
Step 4: Confirm the test lesson in SuccessFactors.
Once the Blue Ocean Brain team has set up the integration on their end, they will push in a test Lesson, and they will provide you with the name of the Lesson.
Search in SuccessFactors to find the Lesson and make sure to complete the Lesson and check to see completions.
Let your Blue Ocean Brain Client Success Manager or Blue Ocean Brain IT contact know whether or not the test worked. They will troubleshoot with you if you experience any difficulty.
Step 5: Confirm that the Library of content is available.
Once you confirm you are able to successfully test the Lesson, the Blue Ocean Brain team will confirm with you if you are ready to receive the whole Library of content.
Once you confirm and the Library is pushed into SuccessFactors, the Blue Ocean Brain team will confirm when the Library content has finished syncing into SuccessFactors.
If your learners have NOT used BOB before (i.e. the integration was set up prior to launch), the integration setup is now completed.
If your learners have had access to BOB prior to the integration setup, continue to Step 6.
Step 6: Import the historic completions file into SuccessFactors (if needed).
If your organization has already launched with Blue Ocean Brain and Learners have been accessing the system without the SuccessFactors adapter, your BOB team will send you a CSV file containing the SuccessFactors historic completions so that all data completed in BOB is available in SuccessFactors. With the significant rate-limiting of the SuccessFactors API, mass pushes of data require your team to import historic completions manually.
After your team imports the CSV file of the historic completions, the integration setup is completed.