Integration Add-on 3.0 for SAP HCM and SuccessFactors

The third packaged integration for integrating SAP HCM and SuccessFactors – Integration Add-on for SAP ERP Human Capital Management and SuccessFactors Business Execution 3.0 – was released on SAP Service Marketplace on October 15^th 2014. The packaged integration introduced qualification integration between SuccessFactors HCM suite or SuccessFactors Learning and SAP ERP HCM. A brief overview of all of the packages and the strategy for integration can be found in my blog SAP HCM and SuccessFactors Integration Packages: a brief overview.

The Package

The packaged integration provides one-way integration of either competencies and employee competency assignments from SuccessFactors HCM suite or of curricula and employee curricula assignments from SuccessFactors Learning to SAP ERP HCM so that:

• Competency Libraries or Curricula Types are transferred as Qualification Group objects (object type QK)
• Competencies or curricula are transferred as Qualifications objects (object type Q)
• Competency assignments are transferred as Qualification assignments on the employee’s qualifications profile (seen in transaction OOQA)

Additionally, there is a report to perform a one-time extract of qualification data from SAP ERP HCM to upload to SuccessFactors HCM suite. This is not available for SuccessFactors Learning. The packaged integration only supports legacy competencies and not the MDF competencies that are part of Job Profile Builder. The figures below demonstrate the process and data flows for each scenario.

Figure 1: Integration between SuccessFactors HCM suite and SAP ERP HCM

Figure 2: Integration between SuccessFactors Learning and SAP ERP HCM

Interestingly, this is the first package that is designed to function with only one middleware platform: SAP HANA Cloud Integration (HCI). Functionality was released in Integration Add-on 3.0 for SAP HCM and SuccessFactors: Service Package 2 to enable SAP Process Integration (PI) to be used. The integration process for HCI is different from previous packages as this integration is triggered by the middleware as opposed to being triggered in SAP.

This integration means that in this scenario the system of record for competencies/qualifications is SuccessFactors HCM suite or SuccessFactors Learning and not SAP ERP HCM. SAP ERP HCM should be made read-only for both the qualification catalog and the employee qualification profiles.

The add-on includes a number of new features and functionality:

• Ability to perform a one-time extract of qualifications from SAP ERP with report RH_SFI_EXPORT_QUALI
• Middleware content (part of HCI)
• Authorization role SAP_HR_SFI_QUALIFICATION
• New IMG entries under the Integration Scenario for Qualification Data node in the Integration Add-On for SAP ERP HCM and SuccessFactors BizX node

The screenshot below show report RH_SFI_EXPORT_QUALI.

Important Notes

There are several important notes regarding the operation of the integration:

• The integration supports both PA and PD qualifications
• The integration supports using competencies in either SuccessFactors HCM suite or SuccessFactors Learning
• In addition to leveraging HCI, SAP Gateway 2.0 SP07 is also required
• Competency ratings in SuccessFactors may be rounded up or down when mapped to SAP ERP HCM qualification objects
• Qualifications must be manually delimited (or deleted) in SAP ERP HCM if the equivalent competency is deleted in SuccessFactors HCM suite or equivalent curricula is deleted SuccessFactors Learning
• Skills, behaviors, teasers, and tuners are not considered

For SuccessFactors Learning specifically there are some caveats to consider:

• Any changes to items attached to the curricula catalog will render the status of curriculum for related employees to be invalid and an administrator must perform a full forced synchronization
• Only curricula with status Completed are considered
• Items are not considered, only the parent Curricula are
• Curricula with multiple child Items will have the expiry date read from the Item with the earliest expiry date; if no expiry date exists 31.12.9999 is used as a default
• The start date is always the date of the integration

Configuration and Setup

This packaged integration requires setup in SAP HANA Cloud Integration and in the SAP Implementation Guide (IMG).

In HCI for SuccessFactors HCM suite there are two processes that must be enabled and, if required, configured. For the one-time extract of qualifications data from SAP ERP HCM the integration process com.sap.SFIHCM03.hcm2bizx.EmployeeQualificationRating should be enabled, although the one-time import can also be made in SuccessFactors Provisioning. The main process for the integration is com.sap.SFIHCM03.bizx2hcm.UserCompetencyRating. For Learning curricula there are two processes: com.sap.SFIHCM03.bizx2hcm.CurriculumCatalogue and com.sap.SFIHCM03.bizx2hcm.UserCurriculumStatus. If PD qualifications are used in SAP ERP HCM then a default Qualification Group must be defined for those Curricula that do not have a parent Curricula Type. This can be seen in the screenshot below.

Configuration in SAP is performed within the IMG under Personnel Management > Integration Add-On for SAP ERP HCM and SuccessFactors BizX > Integration Scenario For Qualification Data. The node can be seen in the screenshot below.

The following customizing activities need to be performed:

• Enable the OData APIs in customizing activity Gateway Configuration that is found in the Basic Settings node
• Configure the determination of Personnel Numbers in SAP ERP HCM from the User ID in SuccessFactors HCM suite in customizing activity BAdI: Determine SAP ERP Personnel Numbers and SuccessFactors User IDs in the Basic Settings node
• Map SAP ERP HCM qualification objects to competency objects in SuccessFactors HCM suite or curricula in SuccessFactors Learning in customizing activity Maintain Relationship Between Qualification ID and SuccessFactors ID in the Transfer of Qualifications Rating from SAP ERP to SuccessFactors HCM Suite node
• Mapping of Competency ratings in SuccessFactors HCM suite or SuccessFactors Learning to a rating scale of Qualification objects in SAP ERP HCM in customizing activity BAdI: Configure Value Mapping for Qualification Rating under Transfer of Qualifications Rating from SuccessFactors HCM Suite to SAP ERP node

Once this configuration has been completed then the add-on is ready to use. The one-time export of qualification data can now be performed and the output uploaded to SuccessFactors either via HCI or Provisioning.

Summary

This enables competency data to be managed in SuccessFactors talent management processes and for that data to be also used in SAP ERP HCM processes. This can be important for customers whom manage competencies in SuccessFactors but rely on that data to make decisions for activities such as workforce planning, staffing, and health & safety. It enables this integration to occur whether SuccessFactors HCM suite competencies or SuccessFactors Learning curricula are used to manage competencies. The integration relies on HCI, so might not be suitable for all customers at this time. It has some caveats that must be considered prior to implementation. Overall, this integration is extremely simple to setup and manage yet reliable and comprehensive.