Integrate SAP BI/BO into Successfactors

Scenario

Your company has begun using SuccessFactors and you would like to give the users easy access to your on-premise SAP BI or SAP BO reports.

Main alternative solutions to provide a seamless integration:

• SAP HANA Cloud Connector
• SAP Web Dispatcher
• SuccessFactors extension
• Tile development

SAP HANA Cloud Connector

• The SAP HANA Cloud Connector is the approach recommended by SAP to integrate cloud solutions with on-premise solutions.
• Requires an SAP HANA Cloud Platform license.
• Single Sign-On is possible.

Use in case of an existing need of an SAP HANA Cloud Platform license.

SAP Web Dispatcher

• SAP Web Dispatcher can be set up as a reverse proxy to allow external access to your SAP BI or SAP BO platform.
• No additional license required.
• Single Sign-On is possible.

Use when a simple integration with different styling is sufficient. A tile can be created with direct links to the SAP BI/BO reports and opened in a new tab using Single Sign-On.

SuccessFactors extension

• In order to present the report in the entire content frame of the browser and not just a tile, a SuccessFactors extension needs to be developed.
• Note that the reports will then be accessible from the navigation entry in the top left hand corner.
• Requires an SAP HANA Cloud Platform license.
• Single Sign-On is possible.

Use when harmonised styling and top user experience is a priority.

There are several resources on how to get started developing an extension, incl. this one:

http://scn.sap.com/community/developer-center/cloud-platform/blog/2016/01/13/creating-cloud-extensions-for-successfactors-part-1-why-should-we-do-it

Tile development

• In order to show data residing outside SuccessFactors in a tile, custom development is required.
• The integration can either be done using an SAP Web Dispatcher (no license) or the SAP HANA Cloud Connector (license fee) depending on the requirement.
• Single Sign-On is possible.

Use when a small dashboard or chart is needed on the Home Page to present aggregated, external data, and when harmonised styling and top user experience  are needed. Note the width limitation on tiles where the largest is 612 pixels wide.

As a final option, you could also consider to integrate a dashboard using a standard “custom tile”. A suitable dashboard solution to do this could be Design Studio and I will create a separate blog post on this in the near future.