KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SAP HCM AND SAP SUCCESSFACTORS
SAP SuccessFactors is a cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) platform, while SAP HCM is SAP’s original on-premise HR solution. Essentially, both solutions solve the same Business problem: Human Resource Management. However, SuccessFactors and HCM are built on completely different technologies and have a lot of differences when compared on a granular level.
SAP Human Capital Management (SAP HCM) is one of the key modules in SAP and is also called SAP Human Resource (HR) or SAP Human Resource Management System (SAP HRMS). These terms essentially refer to the same on-premise Software/System(s)/Suite provided by SAP.
SuccessFactors is part of the newly branded SAP HXM (Human Experience Management) suite and operates in the cloud to provide a comprehensive solution for various HR processes
Both solutions are available from SAP, although they have announced that support for SAP HCM will stop in 2040, as the focus shifts to more HXM/Cloud-based solutions.
SAP HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
SAP HCM is one of the most flexible on-premise software platforms for HR processes widely used across industries. As the successor to SAP HR, it contains all functions that are relevant for personnel administration, payroll, applicant management, and personnel development. In addition, SAP HCM links personnel and personnel management with multi-level application and approval processes.
In addition, the system is closely linked to the organizational structure, whereby hierarchy-dependent processes can be automated. Adaptation to company-specific conditions is possible by integrating numerous submodules.
There are various modules in SAP HCM for different processes:
Organizational Management: Organizational Management is used to map the entire enterprise structure according to its organizational units. The module also supports the analysis of process organization and personnel analyses for personnel planning and forms the basis for functions such as career planning and applicant management.
Personnel Administration: This is the central point or personnel master record, which exists for each employee. This digital employee master data replaces paper-based procedures and ensures that all personnel data is always available in up-to-date form. In addition to general employee master data such as personnel number, name, and address, information such as organizational unit (department), pay scale and pay scale group is stored. Each of these entries is assigned a validity period, which creates a history over time.
Personnel Time Management: This module assists in the processes of planning, recording and evaluating employee performance according to recorded working times. SAP HCM supports classic workflows in personnel time management – for example, requests for flex days, supplements and corrections, as well as attendance management, calculation of wages, and log-in and log-out reports.
Payroll Accounting: Master data such as salary groups as well as working hours, various absence times, flexible salary components and special payments are included in this module. With regular updates, payroll accounting remains compliant with legal requirements. Additional security is provided by simulation runs, which can be carried out before the actual payroll run to ensure that errors can be corrected in advance.
Talent Management: The main task of talent management is to compare open positions with existing human resources. This is done on the basis of defined criteria such as qualifications and personal interests. At the same time, these functionalities allow individual career and development plans for employees to be mapped in the system together with the associated target agreements.
Recruitment: Numerous functions such as scheduling job interviews or application deadlines can be created automatically and tracked in a clear manner. The entire hiring process can be individually mapped.
ESS and MSS: Employee Self-Service (ESS) helps employees to individually track their data in an organization. Management Self-Service (MSS) allows managers to create and maintain the data of employees.
SAP HCM provides important support in two ways. It enables the optimisation and digitalisation of personnel processes, and it contains numerous tools that are important from a personnel strategic point of view.
The simplification and streamlining of administrative processes are achieved among other things by the following HCM features:
Digital vacation request (e.g. via web browser) incl. approval workflow
Central, system-supported maintenance of all relevant personnel master data
Consistent data records and traceable changes (history)
Complete data transparency
Partial automation of payroll accounting
Simplified time-recording (corrections also possible in self-service)
Integration with other SAP modules such as FI/CO
The introduction of SAP HCM is also supported by the strategic components of the system, including:
Tools for effective and individual employee development
Comprehensive talent management
Support of modern channels in recruiting
Support of onboarding processes (induction)
SAP HCM does not have to be introduced with its complete range of functions. Many companies only start with the most important main modules such as personnel administration, payroll accounting and organizational management. In the course of time, further modules that are particularly relevant for the company can be added.
SAP SUCCESSFACTORS HXM
As an example of the separation of processes between the on-premise landscape and the cloud, a company might want to run its recruitment processes using SAP SuccessFactors in the cloud, whereas core employee management functions are kept in the on-premise SAP ERP Human Capital Management (SAP ERP HCM) application. The following figure shows the involved components at a high level.
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Technical Landscape
Below shows a common setup of an SAP SuccessFactors and SAP ERP integration scenario.
An obvious option to connect the SAP ERP with SAP Cloud Platform Integration is using web services communication (through the SOAP adapter).
Technical Landscape
Below shows a common setup of an SAP SuccessFactors and SAP ERP integration scenario.
An obvious option to connect the SAP ERP with SAP Cloud Platform Integration is using web services communication (through the SOAP adapter).
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For the other side of the communication, SAP SuccessFactors offers various API options to technically integrate with and connect to other systems, including the following:
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SFAPI: This is a SOAP API designed to import or export data to and from SAP SuccessFactors. It allows you to perform create, read, update, delete (CRUD) operations on SAP SuccessFactors entities.
OData API: This API allows you to access SAP SuccessFactors content using OData.
SAP Cloud Platform Integration provides an option to use these APIs in an intuitiveand convenient way: the SAP SuccessFactors adapter, which is part of the SAP Cloud Platform Integration standard adapter offering.
SAP SuccessFactors Adapter
The SAP SuccessFactors adapter comes in several variants, depending on which API you want to connect to the SAP SuccessFactors system with (and the communication direction). Here is a list of these variants.
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Each SAP SuccessFactors adapter type provides a dedicated configuration UI to access SAP SuccessFactors entities intuitively. After you’ve specified an SAP SuccessFactors system to connect to, through the configuration UI of the adapter, you can easily select the entities and define certain operations on them without the need to write any line of code. When you add an SAP SuccessFactors adapter to an integration flow, you’ll choose the corresponding variant by selecting a Message Protocol, as shown below, for a SAP SuccessFactors receiver adapter.
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The detailed properties of the adapter’s configuration UI depend on the chosen message protocol. The following figure shows an example for a SAP SuccessFactors adapter configuration UI for a receiver adapter when you’ve selected SOAP as the Message Protocol. Some key properties are indicated and explained next.
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Note that the example shown is retrieved from the Integration Content Catalog and reflects the component version 1.1 of the SAP SuccessFactors adapter. In the meantime, updates to this adapter type have been provided so that, when you create a new SAP SuccessFactors receiver adapter (with the SOAP message protocol), you’ll get a slightly different UI (with the settings now spread on two different tabs Connection and Processing).
When you configure an SAP SuccessFactors sender adapter (to connect to an SAP SuccessFactors sender system), you can specify only query operations. This is because the SAP SuccessFactors adapter acts as a polling adapter, reading information at scheduled intervals from the SAP SuccessFactors system.
For receiver adapters, all standard CRUD operations of SFAPI (query, insert, upsert, update) are supported and can be configured, as shown above.
To configure a secure connection between SAP Cloud Platform Integration and an SAP SuccessFactors sender or receiver system, you’ll use the User Credentials artifact type, which comprises a username, password, and, specific to SAP SuccessFactors, a company ID (to indicate the SAP SuccessFactors system you’re connecting to).
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When configuring the connection, you first define a User Credentials artifact and deploy it on the tenant, and, second, refer to the alias of the artifact (in the Credential Name field) in the SAP SuccessFactors adapter.
Below shows the properties of the User Credentials artifact to be deployed on the tenant to configure a secure connection between the tenant and an SAP SuccessFactors system.
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