Or as a question, does the SAP Community improve with the recently available Universal ID login,  degrade, or no impact?

I had a chance to test how well an alternate login process would behave compared to current response times, an opportunity presented to me under the SAP Champions program. We could kick around scenarios from single customer workers to serial job changers to floating consultants to being “between careers” as happens.

A basic ping test of background response time compared to start-to-finish login (not counting any time keying passwords or choosing from multiple identities.

Chart of ping times to the SAP application server 10 – 20 milliseconds

Others might use MS-DOS etc. command line windows; I used bash scripts to have text along with the graphics from smokeping/rrdtool.

Odd things may pop up when load balancing and other backend vortices take effect

$ fping account.sap.com
account.sap.com: error while sending ping: No route to host
account.sap.com: error while sending ping: No route to host
account.sap.com: error while sending ping: No route to host

At the conclusion of testing, response time was going to be unchanged; if all goes well your community site browser tabs will persist more than a few hours (depending on your security inclinations or requirements).

What would drive an individual to switch from the current connection method to the Universal ID now, since as I understand the rollout you won’t be forced to switch “anytime soon”? Anyone who wears multiple hats in relation to SAP (different legal entities under one corporate umbrella, or consults at many customers) and not a person who needs to access tech support and perhaps minimally interacts in this community space. Then there’s the “other” communities not yet, or may never be, in the UID system. Slack, Google, Github, and Microsoft come to mind as already hosting SAP related data or communications.

If You have not logged into Your 
SAP Universal ID account for 24 months,...

To me, I went back and forth having the Universal ID active during testing, to then not being active, then going live, since the beginning of 2021. I thought I was in already, though as it turned out I was only partway through the ingress.

(wrong) Login page

Several SAP accounts

The keeping of keys is problematic and a visual path or other improved user interaction getting to where you need to be.

SAP UID failure no valid session

SAP login error message

I probably would not click “get support” at this stage since I wasn’t sure if I went down the right menu path or not. Searching for “Universal ID” on SAP.com shows enough links to keep me busy with self serving read and retain.

I would wonder what different people think when they see “client”? Am I the client of a relationship with SAP? Is the browser tab I’m on running “client level scripts?” Or is this the wonderful MANDANT client in the R/3 enterprise?

Universal ID status screen

This screen says “Account Linking“. Which I know is not Profile Linking as that only has “soft” links not “hard.”

I misconstrued the check mark and phrase “Account Linked” as evidence that Universal ID was active for me. It wasn’t. Looking along the top of the screen are some pale (to me) icons; two are checks, one is a chain and the last one is a flag. Offscreen at the bottom (depending on window sizing) is the lightly white on blue “Continue” that I eventually pushed.

3 Checks, 1 Flag, on SAP UID

Last screenshot of the switch over:

Universal ID sign in page

Success. And I didn’t lose my stored password.

You have 2 other profiles linked to this account.

Good news? My historical/legacy SAP community accounts are locked from my use, as they predate the concepts/restrictions that led to the Universal ID being created. In hindsight (which is never 20/20), I could  possibly have documented my thoughts with a personal profile. That option came later in my community activities. Word to the wise–take ownership of your words. I know bloggers who left SCN in the past for various reasons.

Does this improve community involvement? Yes, if previously complex interactions such as using multiple browsers, or other split personality arrangements are simplified or simply now possible where previously impossible. The person who has their hands in many different experiences, landscapes, etc. is probably a veteran we want answering questions and posting viewpoints here.

References and related material:

• blogs.sap.com/2020/11/24/helpful-tips-from-the-customer-interaction-center-sap-universal-id/
• blogs.sap.com/2017/08/02/log-in-log-out-log-in-log-out…/
• universalid.sap.com/
• account.sap.com/
• people.sap.com/#profile_linking