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Author's profile photo Luke Marson

Integration Q&A: Managing employee compensation using SAP HCM and SuccessFactors

SAP released Support Package 2 for the SAP and SuccessFactors Integration Add-On earlier this month. In this Q&A I chat with Paul Hopkins, Solution Owner for Compensation in SAP Solution Management, about the Compensation aspects of the integration support package.

Paul, you’re new to the blogging world here on SAP, so maybe you’d like to say a few things about yourself before we start talking about compensation in the hybrid model?

Sure. I’ve been with SAP for almost exactly 13 years, and I’ve spent most of that time in the product development organization. My current role is that of Solution Owner for the topic of compensation management, which means I look after the on-premise compensation product as well as the SuccessFactors compensation product, which as you know is the “go forward” solution for compensation…and the product that hit the leader category in this year’s reports from IDC and Ventana. I’ve been living and working in Germany for about 20 years now (I’m originally from the UK), having joined SAP from one of its largest pharmaceutical customers.

SAP recently announced the availability of the second support package for the SAP HCM and SuccessFactors Integration add-on. At a high-level, what’s this all about?

Firstly, I think it’s important to recognize that this support package is a very important milestone on the journey that we (SAP and SuccessFactors) have started together following the acquisition at the start of 2012. We have committed to all existing and future joint customers of SAP ERP HCM and SuccessFactors’ BizX suite to further develop the whole topic of integration. That is to take things to the next level of excellence. And whereas previous versions of the integration add-on looked at one-directional transfer of foundational data (employee and organizational data from SAP to SuccessFactors), this support package takes things forward in 2 main ways:

  1. It offers integration not only at a data level, but also at a process level
  2. We are now talking about bi-directional integration

From a content point of view, this integration package enables customers to extract data relevant to compensation planning processes from the SAP world (think about infotype 0008, for instance, with the base pay information of an employee) and transfer that to SuccessFactors to enable line managers to do their compensation planning (how can I make the best use of the compensation budget I have available to reward my employees?). At the end of the compensation planning cycle, of course, the decisions taken (John gets a 2% raise, Jane gets 3.5%, etc.) need to be transferred back to SAP ERP HCM to be available for future payroll runs. In addition to base salary, by the way, the package also covers other compensation elements supported by SuccessFactors compensation planning, such as bonus payments (think of infotype 0015) and lump-sum payments.

And from a technology point of view, this package augments the integration previously available, by offering Web-service based integration with SAP NetWeaver PI (on-premise) Middleware with corresponding ESR (Enterprise Services Repository) content.

So, we have data in SAP on-premise that is needed to support compensation planning done in the SuccessFactors. What kind of data are we talking about here?

The most obvious example is salary information of course. What do John and Jane currently earn? But there are other pieces of information that need to be known and are typically held in the on-premise world, things like:

  • Frequency of payout (is John paid every month, i.e. 12 or 13 times a year? Is Jane an hourly-paid worker?)
  • Classification of an employee with regards to his/her salary to SuccessFactors where this is mapped against the pay grade  to determine things like compensation ratio and range penetration, which are typically used in the compensation planning application and displayed to the manager for information
  • The so-called “capacity utilization level” (maybe John decided to reduce to 80% working time this year) (note that this is currently a custom field on the SuccessFactors side)
  • Currency of the salary in question (maybe John is paid in US dollars, whereas Jane lives and works in France and hence is paid in Euros)

Is the set of data the same in every case?

No, not at all. There is a tremendous amount of variation in the compensation processes that our customers run. I think that’s one of the main things we learned when talking to customers who were already running hybrid compensation processes. That is, there is no single way of doing things. And in addition to the data needed, there are some pretty fundamental differences with regards to the process itself. For example, how and where do you determine which of your employees are eligible for participation in compensation programs? Some customers base this decision on lots of data held with SAP ERP HCM, so whereas it would be technically possible to transfer all of this data to SuccessFactors and allow the eligibility decision to be taken there, it probably makes more sense in such cases to determine eligibility in SAP and just transfer the “yes or no” information to SuccessFactors. In other cases, the determination of eligibility is done exclusively on the SuccessFactors side.

With regards to “process variability”, another example might be who qualifies for participation in stock options programs? Or, is a merit increase decision based solely on performance ratings? Finally, what about new hires? Is there a “waiting period”? For example, if John started on 1st  January then he is not eligible for participation in the 2013 compensation cycle, but will become eligible for adjustments in 2014.

So, there is no single “best practice” for compensation, meaning that we have to give customers the flexibility to extend the data extracted and to change to the standard extraction logic.

So in essence what we are doing is offering a lot of pre-thinking and field-mapping  with the standard extraction mechanisms and at the same time enabling the customer to extend this with custom logic.

OK, so relevant data is extracted from the SAP on-premise tables and transferred to SuccessFactors. Are we talking about flat-files here?

No, this is where this version of the integration package evolves from previous versions from a technology point of view.We’re talking about middleware-based integration, based for example on SAP NW PI (on-premise), which many SAP ERP HCM customers already use, for example for procurement processes).

What happens after the data has been transferred to SuccessFactors?

First of all, the data is made available for use in compensation planning of course. That is, it is included in the compensation planning forms that line managers work with. This is the normal SuccessFactors compensation planning process, which will work as it has been configured, depending on the customer’s specific process. So there is no change to the process itself, only to the source of the data, and this is coming in a standard way using SAP standard integration technology. So the compensation planning process itself runs through to completion and at the end of the compensation planning cycle, the compensation decisions are approved, typically by next higher-level managers and HR.

And after approval, the data is transferred back to SAP?

Yes, or rather the transfer of data is triggered from the SAP side. That is, it is a “pull” mechanism and not a push mechanism. Customers were very, very clear about this point: NO fully automated, real-time transfer of data from outside the HCM system into the payroll infotypes. So it’s up to the customer to decide when to pull the data into the SAP system. They might want to do this on a country-by-country basis, or per business unit, or whatever. And they have complete control over this process, which is important. After all, we are talking about one of the most sensitive pieces of information in a customer’s HR system. So we’re not forcing real-time integration where it’s not needed.

But back to the process. Yes, after the compensation decisions have been approved, the relevant information (new salary, bonus payouts, lump-sum payments) are then imported into the SAP ERP HCM system and then (in a separate step) activated. This activation triggers the update of the infotypes and the information is then available for follow-on processes such as payroll, production of Total Compensation Statements (if this is done in the SAP system) and so on.

What sort of customers did you work with that are already running a hybrid compensation scenario?

We worked with about 10 customers in total, with a fairly good mix in terms of size, industry and complexity of process. And while I’m sure that we have seen *all* types of hybrid compensation process yet, given the variation I mentioned earlier, I think we’ve got a very robust first package. The input of these customers have been tremendously valuable to us: they’ve been running hybrid compensation processes using SAP ERP HCM and SuccessFactors compensation management for a while now.

What are your future plans? Are we done with compensation integration or are there plans to extend it further?

During 2012 we have focused on the compensation process that is relevant to the majority of customers at the moment. This is typically annual merit increases, simple bonus payments, lump-sum payments, etc. During 2013 we will be evaluating the topic of variable pay, where compensation payouts are tied more clearly to a set of goals that may have different weightings, and different levels of achievement, with typically more complex calculations of bonus payouts.

We took the decision in the summer of this year to tackle Variable Pay later, based on the fact that there are currently few customers who are currently using the SuccessFactors Variable Pay module, and even fewer using or needing to use that in conjunction with SAP on-premise. So, the market need is much lower than for other types of compensation programs. But customers using or thinking of using SuccessFactors Variable Pay in a hybrid scenario are very welcome to get in touch with me to find out more about our plans, and discuss options for co-innovation in this area.

Final question: what do customers need to do to get the package and start benefitting from the hybrid compensation approach?

The package can be downloaded from the SAP Service Marketplace now, and of course includes an updated admin guide, also given the PI prerequisites that we’ve discussed. As for the first integration package, when customers are clear on their compensation process from a data and process point of view, the extraction logic may need to be extended. There’s a little bit of work to be done on the SuccessFactors side too, but overall we’re typically talking about a fairly low level of effort to get things up and running. And customers may be interested to know that we will be making a Rapid Deployment Solution corresponding to this integration package available, with planned availability being late November. This means that customers can also choose to wait until the Rapid Deployment Solution becomes available to ensure a fixed, low-cost implementation approach.

Thinking about this, though, I do have another question for you – most companies do their compensation planning in the first quarter of a year, so is this package coming a little bit late for most of them? Do you think any customers will be using this package next year, or will most of them wait until their 2014 compensation cycle?

You’re right: most companies do indeed do compensation planning early in the year, many of them in the first quarter. And so we scheduled release of the package to coincide with this: and there have already been a number of downloads of the package since we made it available on the SAP Service Marketplace on 5th November. And at least one of the customers who downloaded it has already started implementation and intends to use it as the basis for their compensation cycle in early 2013. So I look forward to being able to blog about the first successful implementation of the compensation integration package in a few months’ time.

OK, Paul, thanks for these insights into what SAP and SuccessFactors have delivered with the second support package for the integration add-on. Let’s look forward to reading about customer experiences with this package.

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      13 Comments
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      Author's profile photo J. Pazahanick
      J. Pazahanick

      Good job with the article Luke and enjoyed the insights from Paul as it is obvious the team has accomplished quite a bit over the past year with an aggressive roadmap into 2013.

      One point I take issue with is "SAP NW PI (on-premise), which many SAP ERP HCM customers already use" as the word "many" is not quite what I understand to be the case on the ground. You have said in previous comments that VERY few of your customers are using this technology and in talking with experts in that area they only believe 30-40% of all SAP HCM have the NW PI technology deployed which make the strategic decisions SAP makes around SAP HANA Cloud integration all the more important especially if customers want to take advantage of the functionality Paul and his team are working on (which I would recommend they do).  If customers do Not have NW PI installed right now I would recommend reading The Real Truth about SAP and SuccessFactors Integration as it will give you an idea of some of the options including deploying NW PI although obviously that will cost $ to do so even though the integration discussed above has no cost.

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Jarret,

      Thanks for your comments. Paul was a great interviewee so it helped my job no end 🙂

      I'm not going to get into the debate on integration here, since the focus is on the Compensation topic, but 40% of 16k SAP HCM customers is around 6k - a lot more customers than use SuccessFactors now. That's still a lot of potential, even if some of the other 10k want to implement SuccessFactors.

      Best regards,

      Luke

      Author's profile photo J. Pazahanick
      J. Pazahanick

      Which is a perfect example why for the 10K "other" SAP HCM customers how important the decisions around SAP HANA Cloud Integration will be. It could be a great option when it is released in Q1 dependent on the licensing model (hoping it is bundled with BizX)

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Luke:

      Thanks for writing this and thanks to Paul for giving the amount of information he did.  I really enjoyed reading it. 

      I did still have a couple of questions though yet:

      1) So if I understand the administrator guide right, the primary employee demographics file can now be sent from SAP to SuccessFactors via FTP or PI.  However, the compensation master data file can ONLY be transmitted from SAP to SuccessFactors (as well as vice versa) via PI.  Is that correct?

      2) When SuccessFactors sends data back to infotype 8 for merit increases, does it also write a corresponding record to infotype 0 to mark the merit increase action?  I'm interested in this from the perspective of both merit increases and promotion based increases.

      Thanks again for the great post.

      Author's profile photo Paul Hopkins
      Paul Hopkins

      Hi Chris,

      thanks for reading the article, for the positive feedback and for the questions.

      1. yes, that's correct. For compensation data, a csv-approach would be a customer-specific approach. SAP's web-service based integration offering comes with a standard offering and content for SAP NetWeaver PI on-premise.

      2. in the standard, there is no BAdI implementation updating IT 0. Of course, customers can use a custom-own BAdI to do this, if required.

      Hope this helps. Feel free to get in touch if you need any further information or have any questions, I'll do all I can to help.

      Best regards

      Paul

      Author's profile photo Gobinder Singh Sandhu
      Gobinder Singh Sandhu

      Indeed a good article,  Thanks !

      One question which clients will ask invariably will be of data security.  We are talking about pay data which is being interfaced out of SAP.  Not only infotype 0008 / 0014 / 0015 but  I am sure for compa-ratio calculations,  complete T710 pay grade structure will be required to be interfaced to SF which is sensitive information.   What will be convincing points for client that data security is ensured ?  I understand I might be touching a cord where NW PI experts may shed more light but still it is important to highlight it here to get some insight.

      Thanks again !

      Author's profile photo Luke Marson
      Luke Marson
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Gobi,

      SuccessFactors has undergone a number of intense security certifications and has impressive credentials in this area. Your client's data is probably more secure in the Cloud than it is in your on-premise SAP system! At a high level, security is handled within SuccessFactors and once data has been transferred the access to it is controlled by the roles within SuccessFactors.

      Best regards,

      Luke

      Author's profile photo Paul Hopkins
      Paul Hopkins

      Hi Luke, hi Gobi,

      thanks for picking this up, Luke! And sorry, Gobi, for not having responded earlier, I am very busy with a couple of strategic customers at the moment.

      Just to add to Luke's statements re: security on the SuccessFactors side - the transfer of data is of course also managed via encryption and secure WebServices, managed by the middleware (for example: SAP NetWeaver Process Integration). So at the end of the day the weakest link in the chain here remains - as for all other processes, whether run in one system or across multiple systems) - the person sitting in front of the screen. Which is where the authorisation concepts put in place on the SAP and SFSF sides are absolutely critical.

      Best regards

      Paul

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Luke and Paul,

      Very informative article.

      I look forward to reading about customer experiences with this support package which offers integration not only at data and process level, but also bi-directional. Interesting!

      Thank you.

      Barbara

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Luke, well done on an excellent piece and thanks to Paul Hopkins for sharing this information with us. I have a couple of questions and would be glad if Paul or someone could answer them.

      Re the statement

      Yes, after the compensation decisions have been approved, the relevant information (new salary, bonus payouts, lump-sum payments) are then imported into the SAP ERP HCM system and then (in a separate step) activated. This activation triggers the update of the infotypes......

      My question is, does this activation take place using a combination of IT 0759 and the standard activation routine which is part of ECM ( on premise). IF yes this probably means that there will be elements of  ECM which will have to be configured including activation of the relevant Business function in order to deploy a hybrid model for compensation .

      My other question is specifically to Paul as the solution owner for compensation on premise and on SFSF

      a. Have you considered or received requests from customers to have standard functionality built to recognize a Budget owner in the compensation process, for e.g. standard roles, workflow path, etc. Similar to how a chief position is used in OM, Reason being not all organisations are comfortable allocating budgets at the line manager level. I have had this request not only in compensation but also in recruitment.

      b. A lot of organisations especially public sector organisations have fixed salary levels associated to their spinal points or the "Pay scale levels" in SAP however at least  the on-premise solution does not allow managers to recommend the movement of an employee from one level to another as part of the Merit process. Is this something you have considered as part of future product development?

      Vinay


      Author's profile photo Paul Hopkins
      Paul Hopkins

      Hi Vinay,

      thanks for taking the time to read the article and post your questions!

      On the activation question: no, the integration SF->SAP for payroll updates does not make use of IT0759, precisely because we wanted to avoid customers having to customize ECM. In general, we adopted an "all or nothing" approach when conceptualising the compensation integration, i.e. EITHER the customer is using SuccessFactors for compensation OR he is using on-premise compensation ECM, not a mixture of both.

      As far as the "feature" questions are concerned:

      (a) yes, this is already possible both in ECM and in the SF compensation solution

      (b) you're right about this not being possible in ECM (at least not in the standard solution: I know a couple of customers who have developed custom functionality here), but the SF solution already has the facility for a manager to promote an employee as part of the merit process.

      Hope that helps! Don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any further questions for me! And thanks again for reading the blog!

      Best regards

      Paul

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Paul,

      Thanks for the quick response and providing the clarification. It is truly appreciated.

      I am still not sure about the additional standard functionality  available for budget owners in terms of allocating budget or workflow approvals and how they are differentiated from line managers ( Chief position holders) where required during budget allocation using bottom up or top down approach. Any pointers in this direction will be much appreciated.

      Thanks again and look forward to hearing more from you.

      Regards,

      Vinay

      Author's profile photo Paul Hopkins
      Paul Hopkins

      Hi Vinay,

      I'm sorry for taking so long to get back to you on this one, I've only just now checked back here. Have you consulated the documentation on ECM available in the SAP Service Marketplace? Here is the link to the documentaiton itself: http://help.sap.com/erp2005_ehp_04/helpdata/en/01/6e083f56e4d861e10000000a114084/frameset.htm - I'm not sure whether that's the link to the chapter in question or to the top-level node, but you need the information in the chapter: Compensation Administration --> The Comp Admin Process --> Processes in Comp Admin --> The Multilevel Approval Process --> Organisational Elements in the Multilevel Approval Process.

      Best regards

      Paul