Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Employee Central Is Not A User Interface for SAP ERP HCM OnPremise

I had a lunch conversation with two program managers who are leading a project to move human capital management from on-premise to the cloud. Over the course of our conversation we sketched out their current landscape which involved SAP HCM on-premise, time management on-premise, travel management on-premise and talent management applications from multiple vendors in the cloud. They have more than 7 file based integrations today with about 10 systems.

On a piece of paper, we drew a simpler future state where all people management is done in the cloud and connected to on-premise ERP using Dell Boomi as the integration middle-ware. We spoke about the dos and the dont's. We also discussed the phases of the project and the steps they can take to significantly reduce their risk and save millions of dollars in project costs.

At this point one of the program managers asked me if he can use SuccessFactors Employee Central as the user interface for SAP HCM Core HR on-premise. I explained to him that Employee Central is a replacement for SAP ERP HCM, not a user interface. I also explained to him that such a thing is probably never going to happen for many reasons.

1. It would unnecessarily complicate the functionality in Employee Central.
2. Customers would end up paying for two different systems, implementations and upgrades.
3. It will also create a dependency that could become cumbersome, costly and diminish the benefits provided by cloud software.

He was convinced and told me that he did not want to go down that path.

The conversation was very productive and, I believe, set the stage for a successful move of their people management software from  on-premise to the cloud. If you are a current on-premise  human capital management software customer planning to move your software to the cloud, insist that your SuccessFactors sales executive arrange a session like the one I described above. It will bring clarity, save you a lot of money and significantly reduce the risk and duration of your projects.

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