Have you noticed many HR job advertisements requesting “SAP experience?”
This is frequently a requirement of HR positions, so the next question many people typically ask is, “what does that mean?”
Fortunately, this is something I can explain, having spent the last decade or so working with SAP Human Capital Management (SAP HCM). Recently, I have been working with four additional SuccessFactors modules as well.
Let me explain:
What is SAP?
SAP is a German software development and consulting company, which provides enterprise software applications and support to businesses of all sizes globally. SAP is the third largest software and programming company in the world.
In an HR context, you have SAP HR, which is also known as SAP HCM (Human Capital Management). This is a core module in ERP SAP systems and supports the various processes that HR undertake in the organisation.
For example, SAP HCM will record employee data at every stage, from the hiring process to any exit surveys. Key employee data such as their personal information, job role, salary and shift details are stored.
Sub-modules in SAP HRM include:
- Organisational Management
- Personnel Administration
- Personnel Development
- Payroll
- Time Management.
In terms of knowledge, SAP HRM is a huge package to learn. Most of the time, people specialise in certain areas, learning their part especially well. While it can be challenging to learn simply due to the many elements it involves, it is set up so that even those who don’t have high levels of technical knowledge can learn it.
As far as HR analytics goes, you can probably infer why SAP is a valuable tool. The high volumes of data stored provide great information for analysis.
My experience of SAP
My experience of SAP will help paint a picture of why SAP experience is valued. In January 2008 the senior management of my Agency decided to undertake an ambitious Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project based on one central database covering finance and HR aspects. The SAP platform was selected following positive recommendations from a KPMG study.
In November 2008 it was decided to add the SAP HR implementation project to the list of projects to be implemented. In October 2009 the project started. It was in May 2010 when I wrote the business case on how to cover our HR business needs.
SAP HCM was implemented with the help from highly specialised SAP consultants. SAP HR went live in several waves. The first was 1 October 2011 for a cost €4 million. This first release included a new system to record working hours for each staff member, an electronic absence requesting system, and a system to manage posts about the establishment plan.
Under the pressure of getting it right the first time, a tight schedule and a set budget, we went live with a system that somehow worked, and in most cases produced correct results. However, it took us a couple of years to get us back to business as usual among the changes.
SAP experience means you’ve handled a lot of employee data Click To TweetManaging change
We found that Change Management was harder than expected due to last-minute technical and project management decisions. It was challenging to go live with many users who didn’t read the instructions and who didn’t follow the e-learning material!
Staff members were given access to Employee Self Service and a new tool to record working time and an electronic system to request absences. Managers were given access to Manager Self Service. They had to approve or reject online absence requests and received access to new online reports.
SAP HCM brought some undeniable advantages. For example: improved quality of HR data, very tight electronic workflows, up-to-date managerial reports, much better compliance with procedures, and reduction of manual data entry. This was counterbalanced by more time spent on high value tasks like data cleaning and checks.
As with many other SAP implementations, ours survived thanks to continuous improvements. SAP HCM now supports a wide range of different HR related business processes. Seeing value in SAP HCM implementations is similar to the image below – you have different forks to explore!
Progressing with SAP
If managers start worrying about the costs of SAP, they may attempt to minimise costs and make little additional investments in the technology. This can create an IT/business divide and disengage users, especially if that investment is needed to progress.
On the other hand, if managers see SAP as an asset to the organisation, a tool that provides them with high-quality data, they will look to maximise value. This includes making continuous improvements, creating an IT/business integration and engaging users. This is the way to make good progress with SAP.
My experience in the last 9 years was tightrope walking between the two options. SAP HCM was perhaps not the best monster to link my professional career to, although support for SAP is extensive. SAP HCM supports its users in the best possible way to ensure the high quality of data, and provide procedures to support quality management for future changes. These include things like support packages, upgrades or new functional requirements.
My role with SAP
What about my role? I know that I spend a lot of time on answering queries, normally from users who are stuck doing something. I extract data, write specifications for small improvements, set up new reports, clean records and mask data.
My functional consultant helps me with setting up authorisations, creating new work schedule rules (for part timers), new wage types, creating new fields in the standard infotypes, importing data with LSMW’s, preparing release notes and investigating incidents.
The future of SAP
Like most organisations that have implemented SAP HCM, we are looking for ways to improve our SAP-supported HR processes in terms of usability and quality. The future is now all about SuccessFactors solutions. SuccessFactors is an American multinational company headquartered in South San Francisco, California, providing cloud-based software for human capital management. SAP acquired SuccessFactors in December 2011. SuccessFactors has more than 6,700 customers globally. Their slogan is: “Put people at the heart of your HR transformation and improve the employee experience.”
SuccessFactors is truly a global player in the digital transformation of HR. The software is comprised of a number of integrated modules. You can start with any one of them and build out according to the priority of your specific challenges.
Since each company has its own unique level of transformation readiness, SAP SuccessFactors has built its cloud architecture to enable organisations in selecting the required modules and implementing them at their own pace. A hybrid HR concept involves building onto existing legacy systems to provide enterprises with solutions that are cloud-based and are suitable for the technology of tomorrow.
At our Agency we started with “Learning Management Solutions”, recruitment, recruitment marketing and onboarding. Further modules that we can implement are “Performance and Goals”, “Succession and Development” and “Workforce Planning and Reporting”. SuccessFactors even has one module specific for “Workforce Analytics” to make decisions based on accurate workforce intelligence.
Moving completely away from SAP HCM can be a daunting task. There is no doubt that in HR Technology, the cloud offerings are the future. SAP sees this trend and they are investing accordingly. If you stay on SAP HCM you need to know that future enhancements coming from SAP are going to be minimal, as the majority of the investments are going to SuccessFactors products with the biggest chunk to Employee Central.
Globally there are still approximately 12,500 on-premise SAP HCM customers. Around a year ago, there was an SAP announcement, extending support for HCM on-premise until 2030.
On 19 February 2019 SAP announced that it surpassed 3,000 SuccessFactors Employee Central customers, taking just over a year to add 1,000 new clients worldwide. An estimated 800 out of the 3,000 SuccessFactors Employee Central customers are coming from SAP HCM. They have completed the transition from on-premise to the cloud.
SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is the core HR module; when you move it to the cloud, you move everything. It contains extensive HR functionalities, from hiring, termination, positions and organisational chart tracking to time sheets and benefits programs.
Final thoughts
HR technology continues to be a major challenge. In this year’s Global Human Capital Trends survey, 74 percent of respondents rated the topic important or very important, and 21 percent called it one of the three most urgent topics their organisations faced moving into 2019. While billions have been invested in integrated cloud-based systems, it appears that many organisations are still not satisfied, and research shows that the average satisfaction with these systems is only 3.3 out of 5, a drop of 3 percent over last year.
So, I would like to invite everybody to watch these spaces: HR Digital Transformation, building employee centric tools, increasing productivity, caring for a five-generation workforce, and introducing AI and Robotic Process Automation (RPA). These will continue to be challenging areas that lead the way into the future.