SAP Info Success VS HCM
SAP Info Success VS HCM
Ralf Wagner
SAP has recently announced some changes to our 2018 announcement (here) of SAP Human
Capital Management for SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition (SAP HCM for SAP S/4HANA) where
we committed to mainstream maintenance support for our SAP ERP HCM customers beyond 2025.
Both changes are the result of working with customers extensively and taking their feedback.
However, our overall strategy for HR solutions remains unchanged. Our investment strategy follows
the market demand, with the majority of the planned innovations for our portfolio focussing on SAP
SuccessFactors solutions as our go-forward offering.
The 2018 announcement indicated a planned delivery date of the solution in early 2023 with a
commercial requirement to carve out to run HCM in a separate instance, connected with SAP
S/4HANA. Over the last 18 month my colleagues and I had numerous conversations with SAP ERP
HCM customers and often got the feedback that this carve out would be a larger project than we
initially anticipated, and would increase their costs.
What changed?
We took this feedback and discussed several options to serve the needs of our customers. This has
resulted in a decision to allow customers to technically co-deploy (SAP HCM for SAP S/4HANA) in
an SAP S/4HANA environment (single instance). This will allow customers to move to the new
solution in an upgrade-like conversion. We are convinced that this will reduce time and effort for all
customers who wish to keep their HCM implementations on-premise and/or not able to transition to
our SAP SuccessFactors solutions entirely. Additionally, in order to provide customers with more
time to do the conversion, we also plan to make SAP HCM for SAP S/4HANA available sooner, in
third quarter 2022.
Let me also give you some insights into our plans for SAP HCM for SAP S/4HANA on-premise. As
previously communicated, the solution scope matches the SAP S/4HANA compatibility pack and the
key functionality of SAP ERP HCM (EhP 8). Please note that SAP Travel Management (FI-TV) will
be also available in SAP S/4HANA going forward. There are no changes to our overall investment
strategy. SAP SuccessFactors remains the primary focus of our HCM innovation at SAP and we
have no plans for major additional functional additions or re-architectures in SAP HCM for SAP
S/4HANA. So, for example, RPTime will stay and the Infotypes will still be around. Please see a
detailed view below. The solution will be successively optimized for operation with SAP S/4HANA.
In multiple customer meetings I get questions about a comparison between SAP ERP HCM and
SAP SuccessFactors. My colleague Imran Sajid recently wrote a great blog in which he describes “A
Dozen Improvements in SAP SuccessFactors from SAP HCM.“ If you are interested in those
innovations you can find them here:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dozen-improvements-sap-successfactors-from-hcm-imran-sajid/
Investments/Enhancement
All new enhancements for SAP ERP HCM will also be available in SAP HCM for S/4HANA on-
premise and SAP S/4HANA, Compatibility Pack.
One note, the following four apps (My Reporting, My Team, My Overtime, My Forms) are planned to
be delivered for SAP ERP HCM in 2020 and 2021. Often, we got the concern that those will be only
coming with SAP HCM for S/4HANA on-premise, but this is not the case.
Technical migration
As mentioned above, customers will be able to run HCM embedded or on a separate SAP S/4HANA
on-premise instance based on their current deployment model and go-forward preference. We offer
migration tools and services to facilitate a non-disruptive migration from SAP ERP HCM or SAP
S/4HANA compatibility pack. One common question I got is “what can we do to prepare? Do we
need to upgrade to EhP8 upfront.” The answer is no, there is no need to upgrade before you convert
to SAP Human Capital Management for SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition. But please keep in mind
that after 2025, SAP will provide support for the latest three Enhancement Packages only. Please
find more details here.
Details on pricing and commercialization are being worked on and will be communicated soon, but
not yet available. We plan to offer license conversion consistent with the existing SAP S/4HANA
conversion policy. I will come back to you with more details on this and technical topics in the next
few months once they are available.
Let me close with a quote from Thomas Saueressig, President, SAP Product Engineering, SAP SE:
“We see the future of HR solutions in the cloud. With SAP Human Capital Management (HCM) for
SAP S/4HANA, we offer those customers who cannot switch to SAP SuccessFactors by 2025 a
reliable transitional solution. The embedded operation of this interim solution in SAP S/4HANA
should make migration easy for our customers.”
Recent changes
On February 4th we announced an ‘Innovation Commitment for SAP S/4HANA – Clarity and Choice
for SAP Business Suite 7’ (see full press release). The extension of the maintenance for SAP
Business Suite 7 core applications until the end of 2027 (with extended maintenance till 2030, see
more details here) does not change any strategic direction for our HR offering. SAP SuccessFactors
remains our only go-forward medium to long-term solution, this just gives those organizations, who
are as yet not ready to transition, some more time.
The availability and planned scope for SAP Human Capital Management for SAP S/4HANA, on-
premise edition stays the same. Customers should know that we have listened to them and that as a
result, they have a longer transition window to move to SAP SuccessFactors.
Customers and partners might be interested in the milestones and timelines. At the moment we are
collecting feedback from customers. If you want to get involved please have a look into our SAP
Customer Influence private space here.
We will take the initial input after July 31th, evaluate and prioritize all requests and come up with an
initial road map draft in Q4. Details will be posted here as well.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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.
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 ?
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.
PCL2 HR Cluster 2
PA0268 HR Master Record Infortype view 0045 and 0268 (Loan JPN)
PA0310 Superannuation NZ
PA0314 I0314- Days for Vacation Bonus and Sal. Deducs (DK/N)
PA0322 HR Master Data Record Infotype 0322 (Pensions and Rel. Ben.)
PA0368 Rehabilitants
PA0426 Garnishment
PA0593 Rehabilitants
FAQ in PA
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Unable to copy wage types between countries without SAP wage type models
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SAP HCM Data Element - CMOD Change of text for standard Data element