Integration Add-on 1.0 for SAP HCM and SuccessFactors: Support Package 2

The second support package for integrating SAP HCM and SuccessFactors – Integration Add-on for SAP ERP Human Capital Management and SuccessFactors Business Execution 1.0 Support Package 2 – was released onto SAP Service Marketplace on November 5^th (SAPK-60002INSFIHCM01). The integration package, released in May for Ramp Up and on General Availability since August 10^th, introduced one-way employee and organizational data transfer from SAP HCM to SuccessFactors to support Talent Management processes and also transfers analytics data to SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics to support customers using SuccessFactors for HCM reporting. In Support Package 1.0 for the integration package, delta-handling was introduced. A brief overview of all of the packages and the strategy for integration can be found in my blog SAP and SuccessFactors Talent Hybrid Packaged Integrations: an overview.

What’s new?

Support Package 2.0 is focused on extending the level of integration offered in the integration package and Support Package 1.0 in 2 ways:

1. Introduction of two-way data transfer of compensation data, so that compensation planning processes can be performed in SuccessFactors and the resultant data transferred back to SAP to be included in the Payroll process
2. Introduction of middleware integration so that customers can use SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (PI) – or any other Web Services-compatible middleware – to transfer data using Web Services

For the second point it is interesting to note that the integration scenarios are delivered so they can be used with other middleware that supports Web Services. This means that customers can benefit from either using the delivered integration content with PI or use it to build their own integration on their middleware of choice.

A new report (RH_SFI_SYNCH_COMP_DATA) is delivered to allow synchronization of the compensation data with SuccessFactors.

The following type of data is part of the scenarios provided in this support package:

• Salary
• Salary type (e.g. yearly, monthly, etc)
• Payment interval
• Currency
• Capacity Utilization Level
• Pay Grade
• Job Level
• Start Date

Capacity Utilization Level is sent to a custom field in SuccessFactors typically called Employment Percentage, although this may vary from client to client. In addition, another 39 fields are transferred that have their values defined by BAdI’s, so that customer-specific logic can be used. Some of these fields include:

• Bonus Eligibility and Target
• Compensation Eligibility
• Controller
• Lump Sum Eligibility and Target

Various implementations are provided for the extraction process of the salary.

The support package also introduces two Web Dynpro applications for monitoring the employee/organizational data (HRSFI_MONITORING_EMPL) and compensation data upload/import into SAP (HRSFI_MONITORING_COMP).

A report for the employee/organizational data is included to allow cancellation of data transfer for specific groups of employees (RH_SFI_WITHDRAW_VARIANT), alongside a composite security role for import of data (SAP_HR_SFI_COMP_DATA_IMPORT). A new field has been added to define the login method of the user (SSO or user/password). 44 fields were introduced in package 1.0 and 4 fields introduced in Support Package 1.0, taking the total to 50 fields (not including Workforce Analytics fields).

You can read more about this package in the blog Integration Q&A: managing employee compensation using SAP HCM and SuccessFactors where I interview Paul Hopkins, Solution Owner for Compensation in SAP Solution Management.

Practical and Technical Implementation Information

The support package has the same backend requirements as the integration package. To use SAP NetWeaver PI for compensation data transfer the following are (minimum) requirements:

• SAP NetWeaver PI version 7.0
• Enterprise Services Repository (ESR) content for the add-on

HTTPS communication is mandatory for transfer of data using PI Web Services.

What’s up next?

SAP’s continued focus is providing robust, standardized integration between SAP HCM and SuccessFactors available to customers, but they also want to ensure that right integration qualities are considered. SAP are going to continue with introducing process and data integration scenarios and the next package will deliver “attract-to-hire” process integration that allows integration of Hiring Actions from SAP and requisition requests in SuccessFactors Recruiting. A Rapid Deployment Solution (RDS) for all of the content released to date should be made available before the end of the year.

The release of SAP HANA Cloud Integration (previously known as SAP NetWeaver Cloud Integration) will accelerate the real-time integration that SAP is planning to offer and further integration packages will introduce additional content for both SAP NetWeaver PI and SAP HANA Cloud Integration.

Summary

Integration has improved since the first package and will continue to improve as SAP deliver on their integration roadmap. There are still questions around licensing and pricing for SAP HANA Cloud Integration, which SAP is finalizing right now, but these should be answered in the near future. In her recent blog announcing the release of support package 2, Heike Kolar confirmed that customers can use and license SAP NetWeaver PI free-of-charge for transfer of data between SAP systems, which includes SAP HCM and SuccessFactors.

SAP are certainly moving in the right direction with integration and are slowly but surely building towards a solid and robust integration between the two platforms. SAP’s initial offering was basic, but SAP was eager to get something out to begin the process of getting customers integration (although integration is a loose term for the first package). Having seen the roadmap and what SAP are planning to do, I am very confident that SAP will have a great offering once SAP HANA Cloud Integration is released next year.