Both these functionalities of SuccessFactors allows you to add a subscriber and endpoint to receive event notifications using SOAP OVER HTTPS, and the purpose is to notify the subscriber or endpoint, which in turn can then trigger additional queries to obtain more details.

But how are they different from one another?  Let us explore.

Event Notification Subscribers

Event notification subscription is the legacy feature to trigger events and it has limited alerts available.  While it is possible to restrict which events are published, no further granularity is possible, e.g., only Permanent Hires, or only terminations of managers and above.

Example notification received upon Termination:

<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"><soap:Body><ns3:ExternalEvent xmlns:ns6="com.successfactors.event.notification" xmlns:ns5="http://alert.successfactors.com" xmlns:ns7="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns2="http://www.boomi.com/connector/wss" xmlns:ns4="com.successfactors.alert" xmlns:ns3="http://notification.event.successfactors.com"> <ns3:externalEventMeta> <ns3:externalEventId>6767884f-e601-4e34-b984-a110ca977619</ns3:externalEventId> <ns3:type>com.successfactors.Employment.AssignmentInformation.Termination</ns3:type> <ns3:publishedAt>1629186025244</ns3:publishedAt> <ns3:publishedBy>82094</ns3:publishedBy> <ns3:effective>future</ns3:effective> <ns3:repost>false</ns3:repost> </ns3:externalEventMeta> <ns3:events> <ns3:event> <ns3:eventId>c143fd6b-a71b-4657-8158-a8e14946666a</ns3:eventId> <ns3:entityType>EmpJob</ns3:entityType> <ns3:effectiveStartDate>2021-09-01</ns3:effectiveStartDate> <ns3:publishedAt>1629186018145</ns3:publishedAt> <ns3:publishedBy>82094</ns3:publishedBy> <ns3:repost>false</ns3:repost> <ns3:entityKeys> <ns3:entityKey> <name>seqNumber</name> <value>1</value> </ns3:entityKey> <ns3:entityKey> <name>userId</name> <value>802986</value> </ns3:entityKey> <ns3:entityKey> <name>startDate</name> <value>2021-09-01</value> </ns3:entityKey> </ns3:entityKeys> <ns3:params> <ns3:param> <name>personIdExternal</name> <value>802986</value> </ns3:param> <ns3:param> <name>changedFields</name> <value/> </ns3:param> <ns3:param> <name>perPersonUuid</name> <value>1A6893FDE8BE4DB6B81AEFC6A42831C9</value> </ns3:param> </ns3:params> </ns3:event> </ns3:events> </ns3:ExternalEvent></soap:Body></soap:Envelope>

The notification primarily lists the Event (Termination), which entity (EmpJob), the User ID, the effective date, and who made the change.  If the event requires approval, the notification is only triggered once all workflows have been approved.

Intelligent Services Centre

ISC is the latest solution and has more events for several modules as a subscriber. You can trigger an interface in Integration Center too, assign business rules (if/then scenarios), and dictate the output.

Only Configuring the Event Connector, produces a SOAP Notification.  NOTE:  If the Position Create or Position Update events will be used, Position Management contains a setting to Raise Events, by default set to No.  This must be updated for events to be raised.

Example notification received on Creation of new Position:

<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"><soap:Body><ns3:ExternalEvent xmlns:ns6="com.successfactors.event.notification" xmlns:ns5="http://alert.successfactors.com" xmlns:ns7="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns2="http://www.boomi.com/connector/wss" xmlns:ns4="com.successfactors.alert" xmlns:ns3="http://notification.event.successfactors.com"> <ns3:externalEventMeta> <ns3:externalEventId>6d813437-de20-4b1f-8fe1-1b06e200ef6c</ns3:externalEventId> <ns3:type>com.successfactors.Employment.Position.PositionCreate</ns3:type> <ns3:publishedAt>1629188972908</ns3:publishedAt> <ns3:publishedBy>sfadmin</ns3:publishedBy> <ns3:effective>current</ns3:effective> <ns3:repost>false</ns3:repost> </ns3:externalEventMeta> <ns3:events> <ns3:event> <ns3:eventId>6196786d-782f-422a-8ac9-23fd1068025e</ns3:eventId> <ns3:entityType>Position</ns3:entityType> <ns3:effectiveStartDate>2021-08-17</ns3:effectiveStartDate> <ns3:publishedAt>1629188972883</ns3:publishedAt> <ns3:publishedBy>sfadmin</ns3:publishedBy> <ns3:repost>false</ns3:repost> <ns3:entityKeys> <ns3:entityKey> <name>code</name> <value>3001086</value> </ns3:entityKey> </ns3:entityKeys> <ns3:params/> </ns3:event> </ns3:events> </ns3:ExternalEvent></soap:Body></soap:Envelope>

The notification primarily lists the Event (Position Create), the entity (Position), the effective date, and who made the change.  If the event (new position) requires approval, the notification is only triggered once all workflows have been approved.

If a different output is desired, you can also choose the destination type and format that is appropriate after clicking on Integration instead of Event Connector.  Not only can you define the format, but also the CONTENT in the output.

Example of a JSON Output:

Example notification received on Update of existing Position:

<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"><soap:Body><ns3:ExternalEvent xmlns:ns6="com.successfactors.event.notification" xmlns:ns5="http://alert.successfactors.com" xmlns:ns7="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns2="http://www.boomi.com/connector/wss" xmlns:ns4="com.successfactors.alert" xmlns:ns3="http://notification.event.successfactors.com"> <ns3:externalEventMeta> <ns3:externalEventId>0208190b-a39f-4740-9351-e84e7b467f5d</ns3:externalEventId> <ns3:type>com.successfactors.Employment.Position.PositionChange</ns3:type> <ns3:publishedAt>1629190319251</ns3:publishedAt> <ns3:publishedBy>sfadmin</ns3:publishedBy> <ns3:effective>current</ns3:effective> <ns3:repost>false</ns3:repost> </ns3:externalEventMeta> <ns3:events> <ns3:event> <ns3:eventId>30993dcd-2fed-46e5-bb33-c061929193aa</ns3:eventId> <ns3:entityType>Position</ns3:entityType> <ns3:effectiveStartDate>2021-08-01</ns3:effectiveStartDate> <ns3:publishedAt>1629190319106</ns3:publishedAt> <ns3:publishedBy>sfadmin</ns3:publishedBy> <ns3:repost>false</ns3:repost> <ns3:entityKeys> <ns3:entityKey> <name>code</name> <value>3001103</value> </ns3:entityKey> </ns3:entityKeys> <ns3:params/> </ns3:event> </ns3:events> </ns3:ExternalEvent></soap:Body></soap:Envelope>

The notification primarily lists the Event (Position Change), the entity (Position), the effective date, and who made the change.  If the event (new position) requires approval, the notification is only triggered once all workflows have been approved.

So as you might see, the premise is essentially the same, but much more flexibility exists using ISC.

Hope this has helped some of you identify the distinction and that you have a prosperous configuration experience.