Excellence

in HR solutions:

Combining the best of cloud and

on-premises capabilities
People management solutions that enable innovation without disruption
December 2012

WHITE PAPER

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Excellence in HR solutions: Combining the best of cloud and on-premises capabilities

Excellence in HR Solutions:
Combining the Best of Cloud
and on-premise
The information in this white paper is provided for reference purposes only. Any dates set forth herein or
statements regarding existing or future functionality are subject to change at SuccessFactors sole discretion.
Any reliance on the statements in this white paper will be the readers sole responsibility.

People management solutions that enable innovation

without disruption
Adding strategic value to your HR investments
with SuccessFactors
Thousands of organizations throughout the world leverage SAP ERP Human Capital Management
(HCM) core HR applicationssuch as employee recordkeeping (personnel administration),
organizational management, benefits, and time management deployed on their premises.
Hundreds among them also use the SuccessFactors BizX Suite delivered in the cloud for their
talent management needs.
Such organizations use SAP ERP HCM applications together with SuccessFactors applications in
a so-called hybrid environment, integrating talent management applications delivered in the cloud
with applications such as personnel administration and organizational management that reside on
their premises.

Cloud

Performance and Goals

Compensation
Succession and Development
Learning

Recruiting
Collaboration
Workforce Planning
Workforce Analytics

Integration

Core HR
Payroll

Time and Attendance

Workforce Analytics

On Premise
Figure: SAP and SuccessFactors Hybrid HCM solution

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Excellence in HR solutions: Combining the best of cloud and on-premises capabilities
TITLE

The hybrid delivery model enables organizations to keep their investments for the core HR applications
and, at the same time, take advantage of the rapid innovation provided by SuccessFactors BizX
Suite applications.
The goal is to make the integration provided by SAP FAST:
F - Functionally rich (prepackaged yet extensible integrations)
A - Affordable (lowering your total cost of ownership and cost to deliver integration)
S - Simple to implement, maintain, and support
T - Trusted, based on deep SAP domain know-how
The following sections discuss the integration that SAP provides today and the plan SAP has for
future integrations.

Areas for Functionally Rich Prepackaged Integration

SAP and SuccessFactors now enable easier and better integration between SAP ERP HCM and the
SuccessFactors BizX Suite, ensuring faster time to value at predictable costs. SAP and SuccessFactors
are focusing on three integration areas:
User data integration: A periodic, automated upload of employee and organizational data
(that is, user data) from SAP ERP HCM to SuccessFactors BizX Suite is the foundation for any
integration and eliminates the need for double data maintenance. In this integration model, SAP
ERP HCM is the system of record for employee master data.
Process integration: Process integration supports the execution of business processes that
span SAP and SuccessFactors systems and that require data to flow from SAP to SuccessFactors
and vice versa. For example, an organization might maintain salary data in the SAP system, plan
compensation in SuccessFactors, and then make payouts for employees in SAP.
User experience integration: User experience integration provides access to both SAP and
SuccessFactors systems from one place. Employees and managers using both SAP and
SuccessFactors systems will be able to access them via employee or manager self-service in
SAP ERP. They do not need to switch systems or log in to multiple systems.

SAP Integration Technology and Services

The SAP and SuccessFactors integration solution includes the right integration technologies,
preconfiguration and services. The integration technology supports bidirectional integration for
processes that span the two systems, and it also supports ongoing integration operations. The
integration solution makes use of SAPs integration technologies: SAP NetWeaver Process
Integration is available for on-premises installation, and SAP HANA Cloud Integration will be
available as a service.

Professional Services and Rapid Deployment Solutions (RDS)

Packaged consulting services complete the SAP and SuccessFactors integration solution.
They are available as engineered services or Rapid Deployment Solutions that combine extended
preconfiguration and consulting services. Integration can be set up quickly at predictable costs,
reducing the time for the SuccessFactors BizX solution to reach a productive state and generate
business value.

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Prepackaged Integrations
SAP and SuccessFactors deliver packages for master data integration and end-to-end business
process integration in the form of configuration guides as well, such as the single sign-on configuration
guide for user experience integration.

Integration add-on for batch-based Master Data Integration

Organizations that use SAP ERP HCM and SuccessFactors BizX Suite must transfer basic employee
and organizational information to the SuccessFactors suite from SAP during the initial implementation
and continuously while operating the systems. SAP and SuccessFactors offer standardized integration
from SAP ERP 6.0 onward.
The software for the integration between SAP ERP HCM and SuccessFactors BizX Suite is delivered
as an add-on to SAP ERP 6.0. So far, this add-on contains user data integration, the integration of
analytical data from SAP ERP HCM to SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics, and the bidirectional
integration between SuccessFactors Compensation and SAP ERP HCM.

Standard Integration: Integration Along Best Practices
The integration add-on has Advanced Business Application Programming (ABAP) language-based
programs to extract HR data out of the SAP ERP HCM system. The programs include field mapping
between SAP and SuccessFactors data fields, which uses best practices, and error checking. The
extracted data can be leveraged by either a file-based or middleware-based integration approach.
Authorization concepts ensure that only users with permission to execute the programs and to have
access to the generated files in configured file stores.

Extending the Standard Integration to Meet Specific Scenarios
You can add custom fields in the standard extractor reports to extend the data extraction and suit your
specific requirements. In addition, user exits can be used to influence the determination of data values.

Delta Data Extraction: Exchanging Only Relevant Data
The logic to extract data from the SAP ERP HCM system considers only the data that has changed
between two report runs. This delta data extract mechanism further increases data quality and
enables faster processing.

Engineered Service for the File-based Approach
If you implement the file-based approach as delivered in Q2 2012, you can purchase professional
services to get support for implementing the integration of employee master data and analytics data.

Pay-for-Performance Integration: Compensation Integration

In the hybrid deployment, companies normally have the personal data of employees and
organizational management data already maintained in SAP ERP HCM. This master data is moved
from SAP ERP HCM to SuccessFactors. This is the foundation for running the talent management
processes. For specific processes, such as compensation planning, additional employee data, such
as current salary, is needed to be transferred from SAP ERP HCM to SuccessFactors BizX to allow
line managers to allocate merit increases, bonus payments, for example, to their employees. In an
end-to-end scenario, after planning and approval of compensation allocations, sending these data
back to SAP ERP HCM is also required to finally payout the merit increases.

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The compensation process integration package covers exactly this bidirectional process: (1) the
transfer of compensation-relevant data from SAP ERP HCM to SuccessFactors Compensation for
compensation planning and (2) the transfer of compensation decisions (such as new salary) at the
end of the compensation planning cycle from SuccessFactors Compensation to SAP ERP HCM.

SAP
ERP HCM
Integration Add-On
Administration
and Payroll

Employee and
Organizational Data

Compensation
Allocation

SAP Integration
Technology
Salary
Data

SuccessFactors

Compensation Planning
and Approval

Business Execution Suite

Figure: Pay-for-performance process integration

Integration Data Flow From SAP to SuccessFactors

The compensation process will require certain data to be transferred from SAP ERP HCM to
SuccessFactors Compensation. In the scenario just described, the current salary is the primary
information. Other information that organizations wish to include, such as pay grade information, will
be extracted using predefined logic. In addition, you can use Business Add-In (BAdI) technology to
define your own extraction logic and supplement the data transferred. This customization capability is
necessary because the boundaries of the process are fluid. Some organizations choose to determine
eligibility for participation in compensation reviews in the SAP ERP HCM system, for example,
whereas the eligibility determination in other cases is handled in the SuccessFactors BizX Suite.
At a minimum, the data is transferred immediately before the compensation review cycle to ensure
that SuccessFactors Compensation has the up-to-date information needed for the compensation
process, such as current salary, job title, and grade.
Integration data flow from SuccessFactors to SAP
In addition to managing merit increases of annual salary, organizations use SuccessFactors
Compensation to manage bonus payments, or to make one-time lump-sum payments. This
information is transferred back to SAP ERP HCM when the compensation review cycle has closed
in SuccessFactors Compensation and all allocations have been approved. The information is then
used to update the employee-specific infotypes in the SAP ERP HCM back end, such as infotype
0008 for basic pay and infotype 0015 for additional payments (bonus, lump sum).
Rapid-deployment Solution for Web ServiceBased Integration and Compensation Integration
A Rapid Deployment Solution for compensation integration complements the compensation
integration package by offering further preconfiguration in the SAP system and professional services
for extended data transfers regarding salary data.
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Attract-to-hire Integration: Recruiting Integration

The attract-to-hire process integration, planned for release in 2013, will integrate the SAP ERP HCM
core with SuccessFactors Recruiting Management to ensure a seamless end-to-end recruiting
processfrom the planning for open positions until an employee becomes productive in the position.

SAP
Integration Add-On

Employee
Administration

(Hires, Rehires, Transfers)

SuccessFactors

Employee and
Organizational Data

ERP HCM

Business Execution Suite

SAP
Integration
Technology

Candidate | Employee
Information

Vacancy
Information

Recruiting Execution
(Requisition Offer)

Figure: Planned SuccessFactors Recruiting Management integration

With the integration of information about positions and vacancies from SAP ERP HCM to SuccessFactors
Recruiting Execution, organizations will be able to use the same data to create requisitions. This
approach is well suited for organizations that start planning their vacant positions for recruiting in
SAP ERP HCM. For organizations that would like to start the process without planning, they could
begin with requisitions directly in SuccessFactors Recruiting Execution.
Upon completion of the recruiting process and the selection of the appropriate talent, SuccessFactors
Recruiting Management would be integrated to SAP ERP HCM by hiring the selected candidate into
SAP ERP HCM automatically. This integration will facilitate all the follow-on processes, helping to
ensure that the company is prepared for the first working day of its employee and to enable the
employee to become productive quickly.
After a candidate has been hired into SAP ERP HCM at the end of the process, the information
about the new employee (data such as personnel number) would then be synchronized from SAP
ERP HCM back into the candidate information in SuccessFactors Recruiting Execution.
The candidate will be hired, rehired, or transferred into a new position depending on whether the
candidate is new, an alumnus, or an internal candidate.
Integration data flow from SAP to SuccessFactors
On the valid date of vacancy for the positions, the vacant and approved positions are transferred to
SuccessFactors Recruiting from SAP ERP HCM. This transfer includes the attributes needed to
create the requisitions, such as position description and location.
After the hire or rehire action is completed, the information is sent back to SuccessFactors Recruiting
Execution to update the candidate information with the internal employee ID.

Integration data flow from SuccessFactors to SAP
After the successful conclusion of the candidates background check and the candidate has accepted
the offer, an action is triggered by the recruiter to hire, rehire, or transfer the candidate. The flow of this
data from SuccessFactors Recruitment to SAP ERP HCM is initiated automatically at this stage.

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Seamless User Experience

Another area of focus for SAP and SuccessFactors integration is a unified user experience. SAP has
put together a comprehensive plan and road map for user experience integration, enabled by single
sign-on, portal integration, and theming.

Single Sign-on
A unified user experience means that users have only one point of access to their applications,
regardless of the number of systems and applications they access. As previously mentioned, many
SAP and SuccessFactors customers who run SAP core HR applications also have employee and
manager self-service in SAP ERP. In the hybrid deployment model, managers and employees will be
able to access both SAP and SuccessFactors applications from a single portal.
The first enabling technology used for this capability is single sign-on. A configuration guide to
enable single sign-on is available, so you can configure your systems appropriately and eliminate
the need for employees and managers to log in multiple times. The configuration guide includes
the single sign-on configuration and a configuration to launch SuccessFactors applications in the
SAP NetWeaver Portal.

Portal Integration
The next step to enable unified access to SuccessFactors as well as SAP applications is menu
integration in the SAP NetWeaver Portal. An extension of the configuration guide is planned for
Q2 2013and will outline the process to integrate both SAP and SuccessFactors applications in
the SAP NetWeaver Portal. Integration configuration for other portals is currently under discussion.
Employee self-service with SAP ERP
Manager self-service with SAP ERP

Talent Processes

Employee
Administration
Processes
Figure: Unified access to SAP and SuccessFactors applications in the SAP NetWeaver Portal

Theming
Many SAP customers have customized the look and feel of the employee or manager self-service in
SAP ERP. You also can configure the look and feel of SuccessFactors applications using a pointand-click interface to achieve a uniform look and feel across SAP and SuccessFactors applications.

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SAP integration technology

Before SuccessFactors became an SAP company, customers running SAP core HR and
SuccessFactors BizX Suite were responsible for the technology used to interface the two systems.
To make customers lives easier and solutions more viable, SAP launched an integration initiative that
uses SAPs own integration technology. The initiative includes delivering file-based and middlewarebased integration today. A plan is in place to deliver a cloud-based integration as a service.

Integration Technology Options

Three integration technology options are available for organizations that use SAP for core HR and
SuccessFactors for talent management. The following diagram outlines all options. The first option
is a file-based integration using the SAP integration add-on. The second option is based on SAP
NetWeaver Process Integration (PI), and the third one is based on SAP HANA Cloud Integration.

SuccessFactors

Talent Management Apps

FTP | SFTP

SAP NW PI

SAP HANA
Cloud Integration

Option 3

Option 2

Option 1

Cloud

Integration Add-On

On Premise

SAP ERP HCM

Figure: Integration options for SAP ERP HCM and SuccessFactors talent management

File-Based Integration
Prior to the acquisition, SuccessFactors customers typically used file-based integration through the
comma separated values ( .csv) file technology. SAP continued the use of this technology for the
file-based integration option made available in May 2012. Customers who have SAP ERP 6.0 can
use this integration add-on; there is no dependency on enhancement packages. The first support
package enabling delta data extraction for the file-based approach was released in July 2012.

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From a content perspective, the integration add-on contains the foundational integration needed to
run SuccessFactors BizX Suite, providing basic employee and organizational data that are relevant
for the configuration of authorizations and that enable managers to perform activities for employees in
their areas of responsibility. The integration considers authorizations made in SAP to be conceptually
reused in SuccessFactors BizX Suite.
The integration add-on significantly improves the traditionally customer-managed integration approach
in various ways. Foremost, SAP delivers standard extraction coding and leverages best practices
from customers who have already set up and operated their integration for years. Prework such as
field mapping is complete; you can easily adjust the integration add-on to your specific needs. Error
monitoring is included to guarantee high quality for the data transfers. Additional security features,
such as an authorization role for file creation and secure file storage, have been made available as
well. With the new file-based integration approach, organizations have a ready-to-go package to
implement integrationfaster and at lower costs than before.

Web Services and SAP NetWeaver Process Integration

In November 2012, SAP and SuccessFactors delivered master data and process integration
using Web services and middleware to improve integration setups and operations. This path was
chosen to better support end-to-end process integration across multiple systems as well as
bidirectional integration.
The November 2012 delivery introduced the integration of master data using a Web services
interface and leveraging the on-premise SAP NetWeaver PI as middleware. In that scenario,
organizations deploy SAP NetWeaver PI on the premises.
The compensation integration, delivered in November 2012, also uses Web services and integration
content tailored to SAP NetWeaver PI. The foundation for the integration is the underlying extractor
reports in the SAP system.

SAP HANA Cloud Integration: A Cloud Tool for the Future

As an additional deployment scenario, SAP and SuccessFactors plan to make the integration
content available for SAP HANA Cloud Integration, the integration-as-a-service offering. SAP HANA
Cloud Integration will be hosted in SAP-SuccessFactors data centers with an on-premise gateway
in your environment.
The plan is to make the integration delivered in Q4 2012 available on this platform in Q1 2013. SAP
will provide prepackaged integration content that you can readily leverage or that you (or SAP
partners engaged by you) can modify. You also can build your own integration scenarios, which
could leverage SuccessFactors application programming interfaces (APIs).

How Secure is the Integration?

Data security has always been a top priority for SAP and SuccessFactors. The CSV file-based
integration available as part of integration packages 1 and 2 is secured via Secure File Transfer
Protocol (SFTP). Additionally, you may choose to encrypt the downloaded file from SAP using Pretty
Good Privacy (PGP).
Access to the export program in SAP ERP HCM is secured by role-based authorizations and
infotype-level security. Single sign-on access to SuccessFactors BizX Suite from within SAP
NetWeaver Portal is secured by the SAP NetWeaver Identity Management solution based on SAML
2.0 and X.509 standards.

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Major systems involved

Cloud: SuccessFactors BizX Suite
On-premise: SAP ERP 6.0 (HCM, Payroll)

Available now
Full and incremental SAP employee and organizational data integration with SuccessFactors
BizX Suite
35 analytical extractors from SAP core HR to SuccessFactors analytics
Configuration guide for single sign-on access to SuccessFactors BizX Suite content in SAP
NetWeaver Portal
Ability to access core HR applications and SuccessFactors BizX Suite applications from one
navigational environment (for example, SAP NetWeaver Portal) using the same login
Support for delta enablement in cases where employees left the company or transferred within
the organization
33 secured low-level data APIs for SuccessFactors BizX Suite
Bidirectional pay-for-performance process integration between SAP ERP HCM and
SuccessFactors Compensation
Rapid-deployment solution for SAP ERP HCM to SuccessFactors BizX Suite integration

Coming soon
Fully automated and incremental SAP employee and organizational management data upload
to SuccessFactors
Bidirectional attract-to-hire process integration between SAP ERP HCM and
SuccessFactors Recruiting

Summary
For current SAP customers, the SAP-SuccessFactors Hybrid HCM solution is a solid option. The
solution enables you to adopt rapid innovation in talent management while leveraging your existing
investment in SAP ERP HCM.
SAP has a clear strategy and road map for integration between SAP ERP HCM and SuccessFactors
BizX Suite. SAP is investing in data integration, process integration, and user experience integration.
These integrations are delivered via add-on programs in SAP ERP HCM, utilizing the on-premise
integration middleware SAP NetWeaver PI.
In 2012, SAP delivered prepackaged integration for employee data upload, an administration guide
to enable single sign-on, and a bidirectional integration of SuccessFactors Compensation with SAP
ERP HCM. SAP plans to integrate SuccessFactors Recruiting with SAP ERP HCM in 2013.

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