Bersin Understanding Sap HCM Integration 2013

Research Bulletin | 2013
The Latest in Enterprise Learning & Talent Management
October 9, 2013
Understanding
Integration: SAP’s HCM
Integration Strategy with
SuccessFactors
About the Author Preface
Our members at Bersin by Deloitte ask us questions almost daily about

application integration—what it means, how it works, and how to
accomplish it. This research bulletin looks at integration in the light
of an on-premise solution, SAP ERP1, and a cloud integrated talent
management solution, SuccessFactors; this report discusses many facets
Katerine Jones, Ph.D. of integration in an effort to clarify how to achieve the benefits that
Lead Analyst
Bersin by Deloitte integration provides.
Deloitte Consulting LLP
Introduction
Application integration is essential. It is not just a technical issue, but a

business issue. Users require one source of the truth about their people
and their processes in order to manage, monitor, and measure progress
and success. Yet understanding how solutions that are used in business
actually can connect remains elusive. This research bulletin is an attempt
at clarifying the many questions our members ask on the “how-tos” of
application integration.
SAP ERP is the production basis for a great many of our customers;
likewise, many use SuccessFactors applications for varying areas of
talent management, including learning, performance and, increasingly,
BERSIN BY DELOITTE core HR in Employee Central. With the acquisition of SuccessFactors,

180 GRAND AVENUE the expectation for integration was exacerbated, leading to points of
SUITE 320 confusion as the on-premise and cloud worlds appeared on a potential
OAKLAND, CA 94612
(510) 251-4400 1
“Enterprise resource planning” (ERP) is a category of enterprise software that typically
INFO@BERSIN.COM integrates financials, HR, manufacturing, order processing and customer relationship
WWW.BERSIN.COM management in an integrated solution.
Copyright © 2013 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.

This material is licensed to SuccessFactors, Inc., for distribution only.
collision course. During the ensuing months since the acquisition, SAP
KEY POINT
has made great strides in clarifying the often difficult path to a smooth
Application product integration.
integration is not Prior to the acquisition, more than 500 customers had successfully
just a technical integrated SAP HCM2 and SuccessFactors themselves with the existing
issue, but a available APIs3. SAP’s goal was to provide a standard set of supported
business issue. integrations to relieve customers of having to define and build
these integrations themselves. For the past 18 months, SAP has been
productizing tools to enable customers to integrate the systems faster.
Why Integration Matters
There are many reasons why companies want their HR software

platforms to be integrated, including the following.
• Data and Analytics—In order to run meaningful reports, understand

the state of the business, and implement talent analytics4,
companies need the equivalent of a “single system of record.” Well-
architected systems integration helps to make sure that all data is
coordinated, easy to find, and accurate.
• User Experience—People will not log-in to multiple HR systems to

get their work done. If systems are not integrated, employees and
managers often have multiple systems with multiple user interfaces
to use, making HR systems difficult to learn and not well-adopted.
2
“Human capital management” (or HCM) represents the practices and processes for
managing people in an organization. In our research, we define HCM as the people processes
and systems which comprise an organization’s entire range of systems - a superset of talent
management, which refers to the organizational processes of recruiting, onboarding,
leadership development, succession, performance management, pay for performance,
career development, training, workforce planning, employee collaboration, and other
organizational design-related practices and systems. HCM, in contrast, includes other
additional practices, such as HR management systems, payroll, workforce management (hourly
scheduling), expense management, contingent workforce management, employee leave
management, and other more administrative or transactional parts of managing people.
3
“Application programming interfaces” or APIs offer the ability for one application or
tool to speak to or be embedded within other applications or tools.
4
For more information, Big Data in HR: Building a Competitive Talent Analytics Function –
The Four Stages of Maturity, Bersin & Associates / Josh Bersin, April 2012. Available to research
members at www.bersin.com.
Understanding Integration: SAP’s HCM Integration Strategy with SuccessFactors

Katherine Jones, Ph.D. | Page 2
• Accuracy and Compliance—Most HR programs have some legal

and regulatory requirements. Did a certain employee complete the
mandatory compliance training, for example? If systems are not
well-integrated, then these processes may not be easy to track, and
it may be impossible to verify or report on compliance issues.
• IT Cost—When systems are not integrated by vendors, IT has to pick

up the bill. IT organizations are not tolerant of multiple systems
(especially from a single vendor) that do not work well together.
IT often puts “integration projects” on the back burner, furthering
complicating HR’s ability to provider services to its stakeholders.
Application integration between unlike products is not trivial. Products

KEY POINT
created at different times use different data models—basically, they store
Getting the data information in vastly different ways. Consider naming conventions as an
easy example. One application may ask for first name, last name, while
between two or
another may do the reverse; but neither have consistency in dealing with
more points in the
hyphenated names. One application may refer to the technical company
way that the user
as IBM, while another as International Business Machines, Inc.; as the data
expects to see and is passed between applications, will it appear as two distinct companies?
use it is the reason Therein lays the difficulty with integration—getting the data between
why integration is the two or more points in the way the user expects to see and use it. It
so important. is for this reason that integration is so important and, without sound
practices, analysis of data is impossible across applications.
SAP and SuccessFactors Integration Overview
Here we look at what our members ask about integration between

these product sets.
Question 1: We are using SuccessFactors for performance

management and SAP HCM as our employee system of
record. How do we manage the employee profile and the
talent profile?
Let us consider any of the talent management areas5 (e.g., learning,

recruiting, compensation planning, or succession planning) in addition
5
The SuccessFactors talent management suite enables the integration of employee data,
organizational data, compensation data, application data, and data that is required for
evaluation purposes.

to performance management as we look at this common question.

KEY POINT
Here, the employee master data (including reporting relationships)
Users will likely resides in SAP ERP. The talent profile in SuccessFactors Talent Solutions
provides more talent information than that of the employee system of
keep employee
record in SAP HCM; SAP anticipates that it is indeed the SuccessFactors
master data in SAP
talent profile that is most often accessed by HR and the employees
HCM, while pulling
themselves. Users will likely keep employee master data in SAP HCM,
relevant data from
while pulling relevant data from SAP HCM into the talent profile.
SAP HCM into the
Today’s integration, provided by SAP, supports:
talent profile.
• The employee accessing employee self-service portals, whether in
SAP HCM or SuccessFactors, which have a very similar look and feel
regardless of actual application location, and which can be done
through single sign-on
• Consolidated access for the HR user data in both SAP HCM and
SuccessFactors—single sign-on, and a very similar look and feel
• To be clear, users retain two separate sources of employee

information—personal information (e.g., name, address, bank
account, contact information, I-9 information) in SAP HCM and the
richer employee talent record within SuccessFactors; details on the
integration between the two follows (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Integration between SuccessFactors Talent Management Modules and SAP HCM
Source: SAP, 2013.

How It Works: iFlows for SuccessFactors Talent Solutions—SAP

HCM Connectivity
Both SAP and SuccessFactors have long supplied standard,

documented APIs for practitioners to use in connecting to a variety
of third-party products. The key here is that these connectors (called
iFlows) are tested and certified for the use to which they will be put
in the user’s environment.
KEY POINT
iFlows are SAP-provided connectors that support the
iFlows deliver integration of SuccessFactors applications with an SAP or third-
the logic to party application. Some iFlows are dedicated (and certified) for
integrate disparate use between specific applications (these are discussed in more
detail later) and some are generic, enabling integration with
applications,
other solutions that may be used by the organization. iFlows
whether on-premise
are platform-specific, and provide the integration content,
or in the cloud.
mapping, and translation between the two systems. e
The following are descriptions of the four integration examples that

SAP has delivered under these scenarios.
1. Foundation
• Basic employee data and organizational data (including items

such as personal and position data, pay grades, and the like;
see Figure 8 for specific examples) are transferred from SAP
ERP HCM to SuccessFactors applications to support all of the
talent management processes. Specifically, employee master
data and reporting relationships derived from SAP Organization
Management are replicated in SuccessFactors.
2. Workforce Analytics
• Workforce data is transferred from SAP ERP HCM to

SuccessFactors Workforce Planning and Analytics to support
workforce planning and workforce analytics.

3. Compensation Management
• The integration for compensation data is bi-directional—

Compensation data is transferred from SAP ERP HCM to
SuccessFactors to support compensation planning processes
there. When the planning has been completed in SuccessFactors,
the compensation planning results are returned to SAP ERP
HCM, so that this data can be included in payroll and other HR
processes. Compensation adjustments (such as bonuses) are
maintained in the SuccessFactors Compensation Management
solution, and are replicated back to SAP ERP HCM to update
core HR information and payroll payouts.
4. Recruiting
• The integration of SuccessFactors Recruiting into SAP ERP HCM

KEY POINT
allows selected candidates to be hired for positions in SAP HCM.
A point of The candidate will be either hired, rehired, or transferred to
integration a new position, depending on whether the candidate is new,

an alumnus, or an internal candidate. New-hire information
provides the
maintained in SuccessFactors Recruiting Management solution
creation of a job
is replicated back to SAP ERP HCM to update personnel
requisition in
administration data. Another point of integration provides
SuccessFactors the creation of a job requisition in SuccessFactors Recruiting
Recruiting Management from a vacancy created in SAP ERP HCM.
Management from
All delivered iFlows are built with on-premise NetWeaver PI
a vacancy created
middleware technology; the details are discussed below. The
in SAP ERP HCM.
“foundation” and analytics scenarios are also delivered as point-
to-point connections (think SAP HCM <-> SuccessFactors) using
flat-file data delivery between the two disparate environments.
This is a relatively unsophisticated way to address integration,
but it does move data items from one product to another. File-
based integration is supported by:
○ An extract tool in SAP HCM that feeds the SuccessFactors

employee data file with employee and organizational data
○ Extractors in SAP HCM to feed workforce data into

SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics

○ The inclusion of standard coding for data extraction, SAP

and SuccessFactors field mapping, generation of the.csv files,
and error handling
○ Delta data extraction support
This kind of data upload/download uses the file transfer protocol (FTP)
in the TCP/IP data communications technology stack.
Technical Implications
SAP HCM is either physically located in your own data center or perhaps
KEY POINT
hosted for you at a third-party data center. Offered as a Software-as-
Data is bi-directional, a-Service6 application (SaaS), SuccessFactors is “in the cloud,” meaning
that it is accessed over the Internet from SuccessFactors’ data centers. In
meaning it moves
this model, the two differing data or process locations are transparent
in both directions
to the user; amalgamated data is visible from users with appropriate
between the two
access logging on to either SAP HCM or SuccessFactors applications.
applications. Data is bi-directional, meaning it moves in both directions between the
two applications.
Encapsulated as “objects,” data is passed from one application to the

other. For example, in the recruiting process, employee, vacancy, and
organizational data may be pulled from SAP ERP HCM and passed to
the SuccessFactors recruiting module—in which the recruiter might
create the requisition, manage the recruiting and hiring process; then,
the data which creates the new employee in the system of record (in
the ERP HCM system) is passed back to the on-premise SAP system. The
important factor here is that this “pushing” and “pulling” of data is
transparent to the users and happens as automatic processes between
the applications.
To the end users in your organization, the result of such integration can
appear as is illustrated in Figure 2.
6
“Software as a Service” (or SaaS) refers to the business of selling software over the
Internet as a web service. In this business model, the software vendor charges an annual
“subscription” fee and can predict recurring revenues far more reliably than with the
licensed software model.

Figure 2: SAP HCM and SuccessFactors Data User Experience Integration
Unified Access HR Processes
Talent Management
HR Portal (ESS, MSS,…)

Cloud
Talent,
Analytics
Solutions
Integration
HR Core
On-Premise
Core HR
Source: SAP-SuccessFactors, 2013.
This diagram demonstrates a similar, albeit not identical, look and

feel to the HR data in the on-premise SAP ERP HCM and talent data
(in SAP SuccessFactors in the cloud), though differences should not
create difficulties in use. The key takeaway here is that, with a single
sign-on in either application, the end-user can see the HR or the talent
information on an employee.
Question 2: We are using SuccessFactors applications, and

want to integrate with other applications both in the cloud
and on-premise. How would we accomplish this?
Many users today integrate their SuccessFactors applications with third-

party products and services. There are multiple ways to accomplish this
integration, which may include:

• Integrating with a third-party application (perhaps another learning

management system or workforce planning application)
• Integrating with an HRIS system (other than SAP ERP HCM or

KEY POINT
Employee Central)
SAP supports a
• Integrating with services, such as payroll, tax, or benefits providers
variety of partners
(such as Boomi, These applications or services may or may not also be in the cloud, that
Cast Iron, MuleSoft, is, accessible over the Internet via browser or mobile device, rather than
IBM, and others) running natively in your data center. Users have choices in the way they
to integrate its choose to integrate (see Figure 3).
SaaS applications Recognizing the heterogeneity of the technology requirements today,

to third-party on- SAP is supporting an integration partner ecosystem (e.g., Boomi, IBM,
premise and cloud Cast Iron, MuleSoft, and others) to provide a choice to application users
solutions. that need to integrate SuccessFactors applications to either third-party
on-premise or other cloud solutions.
Figure 3: Integrating SuccessFactors Modules with Third-Party Application or Services
Integration Choices
Dell Boomi
Third-Party
Software
IBM WebSphere
Cast Iron
SuccessFactor's Documented MuleSoft Legacy Systems

Talent Modules APIs
SAP Integration
Technologies
Business
Services
Third-Party (Benefits, Tax, etc.)
Integration Tools
Source: Bersin by Deloitte, 2013.

How SAP-SuccessFactors Integration Works
The APIs available from SAP-SuccessFactors are tools that specify how
KEY POINT
some software components should interact with each other. Generally,
an API is a library that includes specifications for routines, data
An API is a library
structures, object classes, and variables—all of which are used by an IT
that includes
staffer or a third-party technologist to create the integration between
specifications
two applications, processes, or services.
for routines,
data structures,
Coding, however, may not be necessary at all in that service providers
may have already made the process simple. Beyond the API itself, we
object classes, and
have integration solutions (seen in blue in the middle of Figure 3).
variables—all of
As only one example, Dell Boomi, in a product called AtomSphere®,
which are used
supports connectivity to combinations of SaaS or on-premise
by an IT staffer applications with no appliances, no software, and no coding—as
or a third-party AtomSphere lets users drag and drop icons to create the desired
technologist integrations. As another example, MuleSoft uses an integration
to create the platform called Anypoint™ (a hub and spokes architecture) and dozens
integration
of predefined connectors to widely used technologies.
between two SAP has its own version of integration middleware functionality. It
applications, provides two distinct integration technology platforms—SAP NetWeaver
processes, or Process Integration, which resides on-premise, and SAP HANA Cloud
services. Integration, which resides in the cloud and is delivered as a service. HANA
Cloud Integration will be discussed in more detail later in this bulletin.
Question 3: We want to deploy Employee Central as a

cloud-based HRIS system. How does that integrate with
all of the things an HRIS needs to integrate to, such as
benefits providers, payroll and tax management, time and
attendance—the list goes on! Where would we start?
Integration is clearly an essential consideration in deploying an HRIS

system. Beyond the compliance requirements of a core HR system, HR
professionals may want to integrate data from background checks;
competency, skill, or behavioral assessments; benefits administration;
payroll and tax services; or, workforce management functions, such
as clock-ins/clock-outs. SAP-SuccessFactors Employee Central is a SaaS
application, so these different applications and services need to be
connected to it over the cloud (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: HR Systems Must Share Information with Many Other Systems
Time Management Service Center/

(Time entry/clocks & allocations) Help Desk
Payroll Services
Identity Services (Check printing, Tax Services,
(Single sign-on) Leave of Absence,
Core HR Cloud Garnishments, etc.)
• Employee Central
• (May include SuccessFactors
Talent Management)
Third-Party Payroll
Third-Party Talent Management
Payroll Processing
Benefits Administration
(Enrollment, Medical, Dental & ERP Financials & Logistics
Vision, Life Insurance, Savings
Plans, etc.)
Source: SAP and Bersin by Deloitte, 2013.
As of this writing, there are 43 partners certified to implement

Employee Central. They may use iFlows or APIs to build standard
integrations in many areas crucial for HR, such as payroll, time and
attendance, and benefits administration. Implementers familiar and
trained on the two connected applications are necessary for installation
of the iFlows.
Every business and corresponding implementation is different. Users

may well want to integrate with solution and service providers that
are not among the 43 already provided. For this, there are generic
iFlows, enabling you to create connections between the solutions or
services required.

Figure 5: Integrating HR Solutions with Employee Central
Joint Go-to-market Generic Business

1 Partners
2 Connectors
Aon Hewitt
BenefitFocus Generic Business
Connector for
Benefits
Employee Generic Business

Time & Attendance Kronos
Central, Connector for
WorkForce
Payroll Time
Generic Business
Connector for
ADP Payroll
NorthgateArinso
Source: SAP, 2013.
Question 4: We have a global SAP ERP and are looking to

deploy Employee Central in geographies where we have
smaller employee counts. We also need multinational
payrolls. How would we begin?
In this instance, there are multiple connections about which users may
care—first, the connection between the HR data in Employee Central
and that in the employee system of record in SAP HR in the on-premise
ERP. While we discussed this connectivity above, in this instance, SAP
would leverage the existing Boomi partnership for Employee Central
and Payroll Integration to SAP HCM on-premise.

Figure 6: Distributed HR and Payroll via Employee Central and Boomi Integration
ARIBA
On-Premise SAP ERP, HCM/Payroll Cloud
Financials
Employee System of Record
Travel
Employee
Central, Analytics
Payroll
Employee
Central,
Payroll
Employee
Central,
Payroll
Employee
Central,
Payroll
Source: Bersin by Deloitte, 2013.
How It Works
Dell Boomi is the SAP-supported integration strategy to manage

distributed payroll and to integrate distributed HR environments (using
Employee Central) with one enterprisewide employee system of record
in SAP HCM back at corporate headquarters. In Figure 6, Boomi is
responsible for data movement between SAP HR and payroll, to and
from Employee Central, and between Employee Central and the SAP
cloud-based solutions for financials, travel management, analytics, and
Ariba eProcurement.
In addition, in this example, the disparate Employee Central application

may be required to transfer data within itself (i.e., perhaps country-
specific instances consolidate to a regionwide Employee Central system,
or cross-country data may be required as employees move across
borders frequently with differing regulations and currencies). This

Employee Central to Employee Central integration is accomplished

through cloud-to-cloud connectivity via one of the cloud connections
discussed above. The payroll component worldwide is addressed
through the Dell Boomi integration with on-premise payroll support,
available to the Employee Central users.
Question 5: We use SAP ERP HCM and NetWeaver on-

premise in our organization. How do we integrate
SuccessFactors talent suite with core HR in SAP HCM?
NetWeaver Process Integration (NetWeaver PI), designed to facilitate

the exchange of data between SAP ERP and third-party solutions, can
be used to integrate on-premise SAP HCM with SuccessFactors SaaS
talent applications (though, at this writing, not with Employee Central).
NetWeaver PI is an integration broker that mediates between entities
with different protocols or formats. The delivered iFlows are provided
at no extra cost to the customer. In this scenario, if Employee Central is
required at a site, Boomi would be required.
Question 6: We are running SAP HCM on-premise with

payroll. How might we move the HR parts to the cloud, but
keep payroll on premise?
With NetWeaver PI, users can integrate employee, salary, and

organizational data from SAP ERP HCM with SuccessFactor’s
compensation planning module, which returns compensation allocation
for merit increases, bonuses, and lump-sum payments back to SAP
Payroll (see Figure 7).
Figure 7: SAP HCM-SuccessFactors Compensation/Payroll Integration for NetWeaver Users
*On-premise or cloud integration.
Source: SAP, 2013.

How It Works—iFlows Support Payroll Execution
SAP has created integrations (iFlows) for Employee Central and releases
of SAP which are Employee Central 6.0 and above. The integrations work
with NetWeaver PI, HANA Cloud Integration (discussed below), and with
Dell Boomi. This integration provides an HR “mini-master” —important
in an ERP because the employee data is used in many applications
beyond HR (see Figure 7). This moves employee data from Employee
Central to SAP HCM Payroll and to SAP ERP Financials. Cost center data
is then replicated into Employee Central and payment information from
Employee Central Payroll is apparent in SAP ERP Financials. Through
integration at the user interface, local payroll data is accessible to those
authorized to see it within Employee Central.
Question 7: We have SAP HCM and are looking at Employee

Central. What data is integrated today and how is it
transferred between the two solutions?
Solely, a few data elements are transferred from Employee Central into
SAP HCM. Those elements are summarized in Figure 8.
Figure 8: Employee Central Employee Data Integrated into SAP HCM
Transferred Information
Person Information
Personal Information
Address Information
Email Address Information
Job Information
Pay Component Recurring
Pay Component Non-Recurring
Direct Deposit
National ID Card
Source: SAP, 2013.

This data goes only one way—from Employee Central into SAP ERP.
It is referred to as a “mini-master” because it represents a subset of
employee master data. This data is used in other functions, such as
travel management or timesheets. These data elements are mapped to
matching SAP elements (see Figure 9).
Figure 9: Employee Data Mapping Between Employee Central and SAP ERP
Source: SAP, 2013.
Technical Details
Here, the ERP position hierarchy is derived out of the Employee Central
employee-manager relationship. Only changed or newly created
reporting lines are transferred from Employee Central into the ERP. This
supports HR activities, such as approval workflow scenarios, and helps
to manage position changes, such as new hires, change of manager,
termination, and leaves.

Figure 10: Boomi Process for Automated Data Replication
Source: SAP (Boomi), 2013.
Question 8: How does SuccessFactors Recruiting data

integrate with SAP Core HCM?
Similarly, as in the example above, NetWeaver PI users can integrate

employee, organizational, and vacancy data from SAP ERP HCM
with SuccessFactors’ recruiting module, which returns candidate
employment information back to the core HR (see Figure 11). New-hire
administration is then conducted in SAP HCM.

Figure 11: Integrating Hiring Management
*On-premise or cloud integration.
Source: SAP, 2013.
SAP NetWeaver PI provides integration tools deployed on-premise or in

the cloud.
Question 9: What will the impact of SAP HANA7 Cloud

Integration be on my SAP HCM/SuccessFactors HCM
environment?
SAP HANA Cloud Integration with SuccessFactors talent suite and with
Employee Central is strategic to SAP.
SAP HANA Cloud Integration is a cloud-based middleware technology

that is built on and runs within SAP HANA Cloud Platform (HANA
Cloud Platform is a broader Platform-as-a-Service8 offering from SAP).
Currently, SAP HANA Cloud Integration is embedded within the SAP
Sales & Operations Planning and SAP Financial Services Network. It
is available today with SuccessFactors talent suite integration with
SAP HCM, Business ByDesign, and Cloud for Travel. It is planned to be
available with Employee Central by end of the year.
7
SAP HANA Cloud Platform is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering that enables
developers to build, extend, and run applications in the cloud. It provides developers
with a set of application and database services. HANA Cloud Integration, an integration
middleware technology which could be used to connect SAP and SuccessFactors
applications, is part of the SAP HANA Cloud Platform. For additional information about SAP
HANA Cloud Platform, visit http://www.saphana.com/community/learn/cloud-platform.
8
A “platform-as-a-service” (PaaS) provides the tools and physical infrastructure on which
to build applications in the cloud.

HANA alleviates the need for a third-party database, a cost-savings for

consumers and, because of the in-memory nature of the architecture,
enhances the performance of most applications.
Later Stages of Integration
There are general trends that companies follow in integrating disparate

products and delivery technologies. Given this, Bersin anticipates that
the future integration may resemble that shown in Figure 12.
Figure 12: A Possible Future Integration Scenario
Employee Central and EC Payroll
Employee
Cost Center Manager GL Accounts
Relationship
Payroll Payroll
Employee Departments
Process Results
SAP ERP 6.0 (Finance)
Position General
Cost Center GL Accounts
Hierarchy Ledger
Employee
Minimaster Org Units
and
Hierarchy
Source: SAP, 2013.
At this juncture, users would experience:
• Unidirectional synchronization of employee “mini-master” (job and

personal information) from Employee Central to Employee Central
Payroll and/or SAP ERP
• Automated synchronization of financial data (cost centers) from SAP

ERP to Employee Central

• Replication of reporting line information (employee manager

relationship) from Employee Central to SAP ERP position hierarchy
• User-interface integration with Employee Central for payslips and

payroll data maintenance user interfaces.
Data model mapping will be ongoing and, over time, the need for an
external router, such as Dell Boomi, may be replaced by one-to-one
mapping of data elements.
Conclusion
The integration of two very different systems, not only with each other,
but with all of the related business applications and services on which
HR professionals rely, is complex—hence time-consuming—and has to
maintain the accuracy and integrity of employee data. SAP ERP HCM
and SuccessFactors data can be amalgamated via flat-file data transfer,
but that is generally insufficient in providing the degree of integration
which companies rely on today. Third-party transport and data-routing
tools exist, but often they too lack the deep integration that many
organizations seek today. Mind you, both of these measures do serve to
move data from one application to another.
Middleware, such as NetWeaver PI, presents another viable option for

integration. With the advent of SaaS and the rapid growth of cloud
computing, middleware has had to address both the on-premise to on-
premise data movement and consolidation, but also on-premise to the
cloud, and even further, cloud-to-cloud integration.
PaaS provides a common layer for integrating software, as well as for

building compatible solutions. The HANA architecture will very likely
support a major portion of the SAP product line in the future.
Today’s users of SuccessFactors talent applications or Employee Central,

whether or not they are also seeking integration with SAP ERP HCM,
have tools available to ease the task. Documented APIs exist, and third-
party applications and tools are available—many of which are certified
by SAP; SAP iFlows provide tested, packaged connectors to address
many integration requirements of users today.

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Bersin Understanding Sap HCM Integration 2013

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Research Bulletin | 2013

The Latest in Enterprise Learning & Talent Management

Our members at Bersin by Deloitte ask us questions almost daily about

Application integration is essential. It is not just a technical issue, but a

BERSIN BY DELOITTE core HR in Employee Central. With the acquisition of SuccessFactors,

Copyright © 2013 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.

Why Integration Matters

There are many reasons why companies want their HR software

• Data and Analytics—In order to run meaningful reports, understand

• User Experience—People will not log-in to multiple HR systems to

Understanding Integration: SAP’s HCM Integration Strategy with SuccessFactors

• Accuracy and Compliance—Most HR programs have some legal

• IT Cost—When systems are not integrated by vendors, IT has to pick

Application integration between unlike products is not trivial. Products

SAP and SuccessFactors Integration Overview

Here we look at what our members ask about integration between

Question 1: We are using SuccessFactors for performance

Let us consider any of the talent management areas5 (e.g., learning,

Understanding Integration: SAP’s HCM Integration Strategy with SuccessFactors

to performance management as we look at this common question.

• To be clear, users retain two separate sources of employee

Source: SAP, 2013.

Understanding Integration: SAP’s HCM Integration Strategy with SuccessFactors

How It Works: iFlows for SuccessFactors Talent Solutions—SAP

Both SAP and SuccessFactors have long supplied standard,

The following are descriptions of the four integration examples that

• Basic employee data and organizational data (including items

• Workforce data is transferred from SAP ERP HCM to

Understanding Integration: SAP’s HCM Integration Strategy with SuccessFactors

• The integration for compensation data is bi-directional—

• The integration of SuccessFactors Recruiting into SAP ERP HCM

integration a new position, depending on whether the candidate is new,

○ An extract tool in SAP HCM that feeds the SuccessFactors

○ Extractors in SAP HCM to feed workforce data into

Understanding Integration: SAP’s HCM Integration Strategy with SuccessFactors

○ The inclusion of standard coding for data extraction, SAP

○ Delta data extraction support

Encapsulated as “objects,” data is passed from one application to the

Understanding Integration: SAP’s HCM Integration Strategy with SuccessFactors

Figure 2: SAP HCM and SuccessFactors Data User Experience Integration

Unified Access HR Processes

HR Portal (ESS, MSS,…)

Source: SAP-SuccessFactors, 2013.

This diagram demonstrates a similar, albeit not identical, look and

Question 2: We are using SuccessFactors applications, and

Many users today integrate their SuccessFactors applications with third-

Understanding Integration: SAP’s HCM Integration Strategy with SuccessFactors

• Integrating with a third-party application (perhaps another learning

• Integrating with an HRIS system (other than SAP ERP HCM or

to integrate its choose to integrate (see Figure 3).

SaaS applications Recognizing the heterogeneity of the technology requirements today,

Figure 3: Integrating SuccessFactors Modules with Third-Party Application or Services

SuccessFactor's Documented MuleSoft Legacy Systems

Source: Bersin by Deloitte, 2013.

Understanding Integration: SAP’s HCM Integration Strategy with SuccessFactors

How SAP-SuccessFactors Integration Works

Question 3: We want to deploy Employee Central as a

Integration is clearly an essential consideration in deploying an HRIS

Understanding Integration: SAP’s HCM Integration Strategy with SuccessFactors

Figure 4: HR Systems Must Share Information with Many Other Systems

Time Management Service Center/

Source: SAP and Bersin by Deloitte, 2013.

As of this writing, there are 43 partners certified to implement