a Great Article by Imran Sajid on SAP HCM vs SAP SuccessFactors

 Article posted by Imran on LinkedIn for Clarifications - worth reading

As someone who has worked with both SAP ERP Human Capital Management (On-Premise) and SAP SuccessFactors (Cloud) I tend to compare the two and answer a lot of questions on this topic when I speak at conferences or events. SAP HCM is a powerful and mature on premise product, while SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is a next generation cloud HR product. In the years since the acquisition of SuccessFactors by SAP in 2012, Employee Central has grown tremendously which can be seen from the number of customers who are implementing it or productively using it (Almost 3500 to date).

I wanted to write this article to provide my perspective on both products and show how far SAP SuccessFactors and specifically Employee Central has come in the last few years and point out advantages compared to its older on premise sibling.

Many years ago (Where has the time gone??) I wrote an SAP Experts article and created a video demo comparing the two systems (Both require subscription). *Note: The SuccessFactors UI has been updated since I originally published this content although the processes are very similar.

Without further ado lets look at a dozen different ways that SAP SuccessFactors has improved on functionality from SAP HCM.

1.   User Experience, Navigation & Ease of Use

This is an obvious one and something you would expect from a newer software so I will go ahead and get it out of the way first.

With SAP On premise you have to log in to a software installed onto your computer using the SAP Logon Pad. Once logged on you must know transaction codes to be able to update an employee’s master data. You would also need to know an Infotype number so that you can update the appropriate information.

How do you look up an employee's data in SAP HCM?

Navigate to transaction code PA20/PA30, search for your employee, select the appropriate Infotype and then you can view/change the data

How do you look up an employee's data in Employee Central?

No matter where you are once logged, search for the employee in the search box (By name or ID) and then directly from there the employee's profile will contain all of their information.

SuccessFactors is built with native Mobile functionality which makes it easy to view and update data on the Mobile Application for both Apple & Android with an intuitive and slick user interface. The SuccessFactors app can be downloaded via the Apple/Google Play store and easily rolled out to an organization.

It is worth noting that the user experience can be enhanced for on premise by using Self-Service via the Fiori Launchpad or even HR Renewal, which will require additional setup and requires an additional license for ESS/MSS resulting in higher total cost of ownership (TCO). Here is what the user experience looks like with the Fiori Launchpad and the Employee Profile in SAP HCM which we can see makes it easier to update employee data.

 2.   Implementing New Functionality

This is another obvious one considering the architecture of Employee Central is multi-tenant with customers sharing a data center while all of their data and company specifics are separate. Employee Central gets updates quarterly rolled out to all customers at the same once (Universal). There are updates that need to be activated (Opt in) or updates that can be turned off (Opt Out). SAP SuccessFactors has a defined release strategy where Q1/Q4 are lighter releases and Q2/Q3 are larger releases based on customer feedback.

How do you get updates with SAP HCM?

• Apply a new enhancement pack and/or support pack at the time of your companies choosing which require a technical basis resource to go download the content and apply it to the system
• Upgrades can be time consuming if you have a lot of customization or if you are upgrading after a very long time since you are introducing a lot of change in your system (SPAU Objects & Code conflicts must be resolved and tested)
• Turn on any pre-requisite business functions using transaction code SFW5 (Shown below) and configure the new functionality as necessary

How do you get updates with Employee Central?

• You will automatically get it each quarter and will stay on the latest release of the software
• You need to activate certain opt in features in the Upgrade Center (Shown below) or in Provisioning (A certified partner is required to work in provisioning), permission it, and set it up as necessary. SAP SuccessFactors has made an effort to enable customers by putting more opt in features into Upgrade Center rather than Provisioning.

3.   Self-Service

A great advantage for cloud software is the built-in self-service. Employee Central is accessed via a web browser or via a native mobile application. An employee looking to view/update their own information accesses the system in the same place as the resource responsible for the administration of the system. With SAP HCM you will have some users who login via the SAP GUI and others who login via your self-service page once it is setup via HR Renewal/Fiori/An older version of self-service.

How does self-service work with SAP HCM?

• Need to deploy a SAP Enterprise Portal or Netweaver Business Client (NWBC)
• Need to configure and customize the different services you want to activate
• Authorization needs to be setup for self-service roles (Which is discussed later)
• Additional licenses are applicable which can drive up an organizations cost and appetite for rolling this out

This will either look like the previous screenshot showing the Fiori Launchpad or could be different if you were using HR Renewal or a previous version of ESS.

How does self-service work with Employee Central?

No additional installation is required as it is built in and included in Employee Central and also does not have an additional license. As soon as a new user is created they are emailed login information that they can use to access SAP SuccessFactors. Role Based Permission for security needs to be setup to control what data employee's have access to, but this is pretty straightforward (Which I will also discuss)

4.   Storing Custom Employee Data

This one is surprising because a stereotypical perceived limitation of cloud software is the customization/extensibility or lack thereof. With Employee Central, this really could not be further from the truth. Working with Employee Central allows you to very easily and intuitively store custom data in the system along with additional abilities to make it easier for the end user.

How does extensibility work with SAP HCM?

• You need to add your custom data to an existing SAP delivered Infotype or create a custom Infotype where you would store the data. I have done both before and they are time consuming technical tasks that require understanding the data structures of Infotypes in SAP HCM
• How to do this is taught in the SAP class HR350 - Programming in SAP HCM which is taken by a technical programmer

How does extensibility work with Employee Central?

• Using the SuccessFactors Extension Center or Metadata Framework (MDF) via the Configure Object Definitions tool within the Admin Center allows easy updates to a delivered object to store a custom field or you can create your own object in no time (I have done it in less than an hour). There is an ability to includes API visibility to allow importing/exporting the data, the ability to add different types of custom fields easily, the ability to intuitively change field labels/translations, the ability to set attributes such as making fields required, and using standard framework for adding workflow or role based permissions for authorization control.
• These are taught in THR81 - SuccessFactors Employee Central Academy

It is also worth noting that for more complex customization including the ability to build your own application, there is the SAP Cloud Platform.

5.   Data Loads for Employee Data

You have a lot of options for loading data into SAP HCM with flexibility and different methods to do it, however the process takes time and typically requires a technical resource to do the work. The advantage of SuccessFactors comes with the simplicity and flexibility of how to do it and the ability for an admin to do it.

The biggest thing that I really like about loading data into Employee Central is the fact that you can download a template directly from the system which makes it very easy for the end user. If your system has a custom field the system will automatically include that custom field in the downloaded template.

How do you load data in SAP HCM?

• One way to do it is creating a custom interface program with ABAP programming
• Another way is to use standard tools such as LSMW (Legacy System Migration Workbench)

How do you load data in Employee Central?

• You access the Import Employee Data tool from the Admin Center, download a CSV template from the system, fill it out, and upload it back into the system

6.   Authorization/Security

I really liked the framework of how SAP SuccessFactors Authorizations are setup with Role Based Permissions (RBP) and how intuitive and easy it is to work with. This was not the case when I first had to look at authorization in SAP HCM and it was something I struggled with when I was first learning and took years to get comfortable with it.

How do you assign authorizations in SAP HCM?

• You create a role (Which is assigned to employees) using transaction code PFCG which contains an authorization profile which has authorization objects that control the authorization. You need to know the different authorization objects, roles, and Infotypes as well as the setup for your org structure (Employee Group, Employee Subgroup, Personnel Area, Personnel Subarea, Subtypes, Org Key) to effectively set this up
• There is an entire SAP class dedicated to this HR940 Authorizations in SAP HR

How do you assign authorizations in Employee Central?

SAP SuccessFactors permissions are called Role Based Permissions (RBP). In a simplistic explanation, there are two main activities (Manage Permission Groups & Manage Permission Roles) that you use to create groups (Including dynamic groups) and assign authorizations that this group will have access to perform in the system. The layout is intuitive with the groupings and names making sense the first time working with it. I was very pleasantly surprised when I started setting up permissions.

The setup also allows dynamic setup by position so employee's authorization can automatically be updated as they move around the organization.

7.   Approvals/Workflows

Approvals are a big part of any HR system that companies need to track in the system. Being someone who did not know workflows well in SAP HCM, the term scared me when I first started working with Employee Central. To my surprise the workflows were easy to work with and made a lot of sense as soon as I started working with them.

How do you create workflows in SAP HCM?

There is an module dedicated to setting up workflows in SAP that is not the most user friendly and an area I will openly admit I don’t know well and could not setup if I was asked to do so.

This complexity and technical nature of setup provides a lot of flexibility in workflows and allows fancy things, but it is very technical and requires a skilled resource.

How do you create workflows in Employee Central?

• You can go to the workflow configuration activity and create workflows within the Admin Center. This includes setting up dynamic workflows. After creating a workflow it needs to be triggered via a business rule where we define the logic for when the workflow is called. This does require knowledge of the SuccessFactors data structures and could be a technical resource depending upon the organization.
• You have the ability to create and use dynamic roles that are flexible based upon the employee data being updated (Different approver for someone being hired into Marketing than Sales). You can create and use custom groups (HR for example) where only one person from that group needs to approve. You can also call current/new manager as well as second level manager (manager’s manager) out of the box without additional work.
• You can easily add CC roles and notifications to workflow contributors to keep people in the loop of certain approvals and processes without them needing to explicitly approve.

SAP HCM gives you tremendous flexibility for your workflows, but I would argue that the framework of workflows in SuccessFactors as it currently stands is extremely flexible and should suit a nearly all customer requirements.

8.   Defaulting Values

The ability to take manual work out of the hands of employees by automating them in the system is very important and is a big deal for HR people. I was pleasantly surprised by the flexibility of Employee Central and the business rules framework in doing this.

How do you default values in SAP HCM?

You would use a feature to default values that are tied to those features. For example, you would use the SCHKZ feature to default an employee’s work schedule rule in Infotype 7 (Planned Working Time). The limitation with features is that they cannot be date specific and you are limited to query based upon the structure of the feature.

It is worth noting that dynamic actions and users exits are also available tools to default values. For example if you want to default data for a custom field then it will likely require custom code in a user exit which will need to be maintained and tested during future upgrades.

How do you default values in Employee Central?

You would use the “Configure Business Rules” activity to setup your rules. This is a very flexible activity that uses IF THEN logic to be able to do things such as defaulting values as well as triggering workflows or other items. This rule would then need to be assigned to an object and you have control over when and how it is triggered.

The standard framework supports custom fields in the system and you can use this framework to create logic for custom objects as well very easily and these are automatically supported in upgrades.

It is also worth noting you can propagate values from foundation objects in EC which is explained in this blog post

9.   Setting up Company Structure and Viewing Org Chart

Both systems give a lot of flexibility to setup a company’s structure, but in working with Employee Central I really liked the terminology. The terminology goes with how businesses are setup in real life (Business Units, Divisions, Departments, and Locations).

There is a terrific blog post by the one and only Luke Marson. If you take a look at the comparison that he shows in the chart, you can see that there are Objects in Employee Central that just don’t have an SAP HCM equivalent. This shows you how there is additional flexibility to group employees in the company structure.

How do you view an org chart in SAP HCM?

You would use transaction code PPOME using the back end system

Add on programs to support org charting such as the Nakisa org chart viewer/workforce viewer could be licensed at an additional cost for an improved user interface which you can see an example of below

How do you view an org chart in Employee Central?

You would navigate to the Company Info drop down in SuccessFactors and view the org chart including search functionality which is well built and allows you to search and navigate very intuitively.

In addition there is functionality for a position org chart which gives visibility into details beyond a traditional org chart such as being able to see empty positions. It is through the position org chart where you could create a requisition for Recruiting Management automatically to make it easy.

There is also functionality to be able to view your company structure overview which helps organizations visualize their org structure beyond the employee/manager/position level. Here is a terrific blog on the topic by SuccessFactors guru Erik Ebert and a screenshot.

SuccessFactors also has terrific org chart functionality on the mobile app for both Android and iOS

10.   Proxy and Delegations

Proxy & Delegations – These are two items that are useful for customers to approve items on behalf of others. We live in a connected age where people want to have items approved ASAP and an HR system needs to have functionality that allows people to delegate their tasks. With the proxy and delegation features in EC the system allows users to pass responsibilities off to others when they are offline and then keeps track of this when someone else approves something.

How do you proxy in SAP HCM (Using ESS)

The common way whenever I was testing was to go to PA30 and change the Infotype 105 record to your ID to act as that specific person

How do you proxy in SuccessFactors?

Use the "Proxy Now" feature which I tend to use all the time while testing

When you acted on behalf of another user in SAP HCM there was not a simple way to track who was doing what, but in Employee Central everything is tracked and you can clearly see when someone approves something as a proxy as the system tells you that it was approved “on behalf of”.

You would want to limit proxy (Acting directly as someone without having their credentials) use in production due to security concerns, it is a terrific for testing different roles, authorizations, and workflow. That is where the ability to delegate tasks in SuccessFactors really comes in handy because in Production a user can delegate their authorizations when they are out of the office so that things are not held up while people are on vacation.

11.   Data Integration

A big part of any HR system is to get data from the HR system to a partner, vendor, or other third party system that is needed for business operation. 

How do you integrate data in SAP HCM?

You would likely write an ABAP report using transaction code SE80 that would be an inbound interface that loads data into the Infotype tables. This requires a programmer who would write the logic.

How do you integrate data in SAP SuccessFactors?

You would use the Integration center which gives you a nice user interface to build a file that can be sent out of the system or to have a file loaded into the system including native abilities for scheduling

12.   Module Integration

I worked with SAP HCM for many years and the integration in Core HCM (PA/OM/Benefits/Time/Payroll) was always good. You hired an employee (PA), assigned them to a position in org management (OM), allowed the employee to enroll in company benefits (Benefits), allowed the employee to request time off or enter their time (Time Management), and all of this was sent over to payroll and the employee was paid correctly.

The areas where I did not see as much integration was modules outside of Core HCM although I have a limited amount of expertise working outside of Core HCM in SAP HCM. Considering this is not my area of expertise I reached out to my colleague and friend Rinky Karthik. Rinky is well known in the SAP SuccessFactors space and has published a book, many blogs/articles and spoken at conferences worldwide on SAP to help answer this question.

How do you integrate data to other modules outside of SAP HCM?

• With SAP HCM talent modules such as: Learning, eRecruitment, Performance Management, Enterprise Compensation, each has its own series of HRP Infotypes, Tables and managed by separate security Authorization Objects.
• None of these Infotypes or Tables integrate with each other at any point. The only real connecting point between SAP HCM talent modules and Core HR is the Employee itself i.e. object ‘P’.
• There isn’t any one screen/UI where you could see the Employee’s HR Master Data together with Learning data, Performance data etc.
• SAP HCM does have standard integration with the SAP on premise talent modules (Enterprise Compensation Management for example) via delivered user interfaces and delivered integration between the Infotypes, but anything that was not delivered required technical customization and programming.

How do you integrate data to other modules outside of Employee Central?

There is native integration between many modules such as between SAP SuccessFactors Onboarding & Recruiting Management with Employee Central. This makes processes such as moving a candidate to an employee much easier and include the data sent over from Onboarding. This is done via standard user interfaces such as the Manage Pending Hire screen to move someone from Recruiting/Onboarding to an employee within EC.

In addition, SuccessFactors delivers many APIs out of the box along with many integrations including functionality called “intelligence services” that moves from isolated events to end to end services.

Jobs and Positions are the connecting point between various SuccessFactors modules and in People Profile, you can see all relevant information related to an employee in one screen/UI. Information such as:

• Basic Data
• Personal Data
• Organization Data
• Payroll data
• Compensation information
• Performance and Goal information
• Learning Activities (via custom portlet)

I had the chance to collaborate with friends and industry partners on a blog a few years ago which does a great job explaining SAP SuccessFactors Cross Module Integration which I would highly recommend

In response to customers asking for details on how to safeguard implementations for topics like solution architecture, rules engine, integration, and migration to SuccessFactors, SAP has created a series of highly valuable documents called Implementation Design Principles, which provide valuable guidance on how to best set up the system for smoothest ongoing operation as detailed in this blog post by my colleague Sharath TN. 

Feel free to leave your comments and provide feedback on the items that you agree/disagree with as well as other items you would add to this list