Blog

Nov 19 2021

How to Migrate an On-Premise SAP HR and Payroll Solution to SAP SuccessFactors

The business landscape is evolving, and with it, the workforce. HR and payroll must keep up by embracing more flexible systems that cater to today’s increasingly hybrid and remote world. Many SAP on-premise HR and payroll customers are moving to the cloud-based SAP SuccessFactors, a process that delivers a wealth of benefits, such as:

Increased agility, enabling you to better manage a remote or hybrid workforce
Improved flexibility, ensuring staff are remunerated in line with their contractual agreement
A single source of truth, making sure teams across your organisation are working with unified, real-time data
Actionable insights, allowing staff, HR managers, and executives to make data-backed decisions

Despite the growth-enabling potential of cloud-based HR and payroll, migration is often a sticking point. The process can take a significant amount of time to execute, regardless of whether a complete re-implementation of payroll is required. That’s where migration tools, backed by SAP expertise, come into play.

Migration tools – namely SpinifexIT’s SAP-compatible Easy Migration solution – help teams copy and migrate HR and Payroll data in record time, saving valuable resources and reducing stress. Out-of-the-box testing functionalities and data anonymisation further streamline the moving process.

We’ll walk you through the three-step implementation process below. But first, let’s take a closer look at Easy Migration.

What Is Easy Migration?

The Easy Migration solution minimises risk while accelerating your SAP SuccessFactors migration. The software copies the data and payroll configuration from your legacy on-premise SAP system. It then runs tests between your legacy and the new system to validate the data and configuration before go-live.

Easy Migration can move all employee information – including current and historical payroll results and infotypes – across to your new system. Built-in reports ensure your payroll executions perform as expected post-migration.

Conventional migrations from on-premise to cloud HR and payroll can take three to six months from start to finish. SpinifexIT’s Easy Migration can reduce that timeframe down for the initial build transfer to days.

How to Migrate from SAP’s On-Premise HR and Payroll to SuccessFactors

The migration process can be broken down into three main steps: copying payroll configuration, copying employee data and validating payroll before going live. Each of these phases is de-risked and accelerated by the migration tool. Here’s how the process unfolds with Easy Migration.

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Step 1: Copying Payroll Configuration

Conventional timeframe: 2-3 months

Easy Migration timeframe: As little as 2 days

Overview: This step encompasses copying your existing payroll configuration, migrating that configuration, and creating a test system.

Breakdown: Easy Migration comes with an in-built replication tool, complete with tables that tailor the migration process to each country’s requirements. You are able to decide what is migrated to your new system and what is not. This might include Infotype Setup, Payroll Configuration, Payroll Area Configuration, Time Evaluation, and more.

The Easy Migration replication will detect the relevant configuration for your country and migrate this across. Then, it will update the tables and store this information on a Transport, which means it’s ready to migrate to your test and production system.

For peace of mind, the process can be run in test mode first, empowering you to iron out any kinks before going live. Plus, the migration is traced through audit tables, giving you full visibility over the process.

Benefit snapshot:

Quickly create test and development systems
Preview what will happen before the live run
Monitor audit logs to detect issues before they cause damage

Step 2: Copying Employee Data

Conventional timeframe: 1-2 months

Easy Migration timeframe: As little as 3 days

Overview: This step encompasses converting data from your legacy system to SuccessFactors, validation of your data, and payroll runs.

Breakdown: Easy Migrations allows you to copy employee data between systems, with no in-between steps. That means you can migrate a sample of ‘test employees’ to your development system to check whether the payroll execution performs as expected. You can scramble that data, too, to reduce privacy risks and concerns.

Benefit snapshot:

No manual data extraction
Fuss-free payroll execution testing
Scramble data to protect employee privacy

Step 3: Validating Payroll

Conventional timeframe: 4 days

Easy Migration timeframe: As little as 4 hours

Overview: This step encompasses the conversion and validation of historical data.

Breakdown: You can undergo several pre-delivered tests to ensure your new system is functioning as expected. Crucial tests include the Pay and Year-to-day reports, which compare the payroll results from your two systems, underlining any discrepancies. Then, when you are happy with your results, it’s time to push the new system live.

Benefit snapshot:

Connect legacy and new systems with ease
Easily compare payroll results with automatically highlighted differences
Drill down your tests to track key metrics

Do Migration Tools Keep My Data Safe?

While we cannot speak for all migration tools, SpinifexIT’s Easy Migration adheres to SAP’s robust privacy and security measures – because your data is safe with SAP, your data is safe with Easy Migration. Additional privacy measures – such as the ability to anonymise employee data and payroll results – ensure your business’s most sensitive information is protected throughout the migration, testing, and go-live process.

Migrate to SuccessFactors Without Days of Work and Hassles

Easy Migration’s solution is 100 per cent compatible with SAP, which means modernising your HR and payroll doesn’t have to be time-consuming, resource-intensive, or high-risk. By seamlessly connecting the legacy solution with your new system, you can migrate, test, and execute with total peace of mind.

Take advantage of the benefits of the cloud. Get in contact with our team today to kick-start the process. We know SuccessFactors inside and out, and we leverage the game-changing features of Easy Migration to get you on the cloud and running fast. But, migration is just the beginning. We help you thrive today, tomorrow, and beyond.

Nov 01 2021

Moving SAP’s HR/Payroll On-Premise to the Cloud with SAP SuccessFactors

Business is changing, becoming increasingly focused on flexibility, agility and mobility. The workforce is changing too, as staff members begin to expect more from their employers and the systems they work with. This means HR and payroll also need to change, keeping pace with this ongoing evolution. With SAP SuccessFactors, traditional HR models are moving to the cloud, unlocking a wealth of benefits in the process.

The Benefits of Cloud-Based HR/Payroll Solutions

You already have on-premise HR and payroll systems in place, so why do you need to migrate this to the cloud? Take a look at some of the key advantages of cloud migration with SAP SuccessFactors.

A Comprehensive Approach to Remote Workforces

Perhaps the primary advantage of cloud-based HR/payroll solutions is the increased agility they provide. The workforce is becoming more dynamic, with remote teams operating across disparate locations and partners collaborating in real-time across national and continental boundaries. The COVID-19 pandemic has also accelerated the pivot towards home-based work, with a large number of employees now spending significant proportions of their working week outside of the traditional office.

All of this puts strain on HR teams. These teams may find that their resources are spread increasingly thinly as they work to support a dispersed working model. With the cloud-based SuccessFactors solution on their side, HR personnel can manage distributed teams wherever they are found, reducing the time, effort and expense associated with this.

Improved Flexibility for On-Premise Teams

While a dynamic, remote workforce is becoming a common fixture in business, traditional on-premise teams still have a role to play. As we shift towards remote agility, we cannot forget about headquarters- or office-based teams, and HR personnel need to support these team members in the right way.

A cloud-based solution improves flexibility and support for these teams. The SAP solution integrates seamlessly with existing on-premise solutions, ensuring that no legacy capability is lost during migration to the cloud. Meanwhile, HR departments leverage advanced time tracking and attendance features that provide more capability for the in-office environment, supporting more flexible working practices while ensuring staff members are equipped and remunerated according to their contract requirements.

Centralised HR Data Source

The cloud-based HR/Payroll solution represents a central pillar of truth for human resource data. This is crucial as businesses grow and evolve over time, ensuring that all departments and teams are working from a unified dataset that is updated in real-time.

Via the staff member portal and mobile app, teams can ensure that all their information is correct, relevant and up-to-date. From the HR end, human resource teams manage and verify this information, achieving a growing data source that scales alongside the business. The centralised solution can be configured and localised to meet the specific needs of the business.

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Effective C-Suite HR Reports

HR data needs to be more than just data — it needs to be a leverageable source of information with actionable insight at all levels. This means providing the applications and portals that staff members and HR managers can use to access the resource and backing this up with higher-level operations such as C-suite reporting.

This is one area in which SAP’s cloud-based HR solution can make a great deal of difference. At the C-suite level, executives can commission reports that draw upon up-to-the-minute data, gaining a supreme vantage point from which to view and analyse operations. In this light, the SuccessFactors platform is inherently useful for businesses from the top-down, enabling all stakeholders to get more from human resource procedures and data stores.

Cloud HR/Payroll in Action: SAP SuccessFactors Use Cases

How does the solution work in practice? What will migration from on-premise HR solutions to the SAP SuccessFactors cloud platform look like for your business? Let’s examine some use cases to learn more.

Providing and Managing Timesheets for Remote Teams

Employees need to be remunerated for their time. Businesses need to ensure that remuneration is delivered fairly and efficiently, streamlining the operational procedure. This is where mobile timesheets from the SAP SuccessFactors platform come in. Timesheets can be configured, customised and delivered without delay. From the employee side of things, staff members can complete and submit their timesheet via a mobile device, attaching any supporting documentation or resources.

Timesheets can then be approved, managed and audited by HR teams and by managers at other levels. The result is a far more efficient and transparent process for all stakeholders.

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Employee Mobile Access

Employees need to be able to do more than simply complete and submit timesheets. They will also need to manage and edit their existing HR data and complete other actions such as requesting leave. Traditional on-premise models have made this difficult and inefficient, but secure cloud platforms have revolutionised employee-HR interaction.

SAP SuccessFactors goes further, providing a dedicated employee app that integrates with the platform via a secure connection. Employees can use this to manage data and complete other business-critical actions without compromising data security.

C-Suite Report on the Move with Enhanced Mobility

We’ve already touched upon the benefit of a cloud-based solution for C-suite level reporting. However, executives and upper management teams also need to leverage the flexibility and agility of modern solutions. Reporting has always been possible with on-premise HR solutions — albeit slowly — but a forward-thinking solution needs to do more.

With SuccessFactors, C-suite level reporting is achievable on demand and on the move. Secure integrations with tablet and mobile apps mean that reports can be configured and commissioned with just a few taps of the touchscreen, putting insight at executives’ fingertips.

Modernise HR with SAP SuccessFactors

Moving your HR solutions from an on-premise model to the cloud becomes a seamless process with SAP SuccessFactors. Integrations with legacy solutions make sure of this, while innovative features unlock a wealth of potential for businesses.

Reach out to our team today to get started with this solution. We are the SuccessFactors experts, supporting you as you implement a more efficient, more effective, future-focused HR model for your business.

Oct 11 2021

What Can Employees Do with the SuccessFactors Mobile App?

SAP’s mobile-first strategy has unlocked a wealth of opportunities for its enterprise users. Rather than relying upon desktop platforms and other static solutions, organisations can improve the experience they provide by leveraging mobile software, such as the SuccessFactors Mobile App. In turn, operations become far easier to manage and the employee experience is greatly enhanced.

The mobile experience has also become critically important, particularly as the workforce in Australia and New Zealand grows younger and becomes increasingly comprised of digital natives. Smartphone penetration in Australia is expected to surpass 80% of the population in the coming years, making an offering like the SuccessFactors mobile app in the modern workplace.

Let’s learn more about the specifics of this mobile app, approaching it from the point of view of your team members as we examine what employees can do with the SuccessFactors application.

Manage HR Data

Within the SuccessFactors mobile app, employees can access the Core HR area. This is a portion of the mobile app that is designed to be employee-facing, giving team members the tools they need to manage their data and ensure it is up to date. They can achieve this via the Employee Self Service — or ESS — a feature that is built into the app. From here, team members can access and update personal information held in their Employee Central People Profile.

Complete and Edit Timesheets

The SuccessFactors app supports the completion, editing and submission of timesheets, ready for approval from management teams. Employees can complete their timesheets digitally, ensuring that all of their working hours are properly recorded and that they are remunerated for their time according to their contract. These timesheets are then viewable in the Manager Self Service — MSS — area of the app and can be approved or queried.

Case Study: Outsourced IT Maintenance

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For organisations that need to outsource specific aspects of their work, the importance of this timesheet feature becomes acutely evident. While some businesses may have a very simple salary structure, plus any required overtime, more dynamically structured firms will need to be able to manage timesheets from both sides, i.e. from the HR/management side as well as from the employee side.

Let’s take outsourced IT maintenance as an example. If an organisation has an ad hoc arrangement with a third party IT maintenance team, they will need to pay for the work carried out. This can become confusing with traditional timesheet solutions, as errors or discrepancies may not be noticed until after your company pays for services. With the SuccessFactors app, maintenance workers can edit and submit timesheets in real-time, gaining swift approval and eliminating errors along the way.

Request Leave

Employees are able to submit leave requests via the SAP SuccessFactors app, inputting the dates and duration of the leave and identifying the type of leave required. This leave may be part of the annual leave provided in their contract, or it may be a different kind of leave, such as paternity or maternity periods, which employees are legally entitled to. The employee can support their leave request with any documentation that may be required — for example, medical documents and doctor’s notes in the event that sick leave is required. Management can provide swift approval for leave requests, or ask the employee to provide further information — interactions that can be picked up in real-time via the app.

Access Pay Statements

It is useful for employees to be able to access digital pay statements and payment records. They can achieve this in the Employee Central area, using the Payroll Information feature to view pay statements. This feature is provided alongside the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll, and the system will need to be properly configured and integrated before team members can gain access to payroll data via the application. Employees will not have access to Year to Date Gross and Net data via the Employee Central area, although this data will still be viewable by management and HR teams.

Complete Performance Goal Actions

The Mobile Performance and Goals area of the SuccessFactors app is primarily for management teams to create performance goal plans and to conduct and manage performance reviews. However, employees will be able to complete actions when prompted. If the employee is required to view and confirm goal and performance review data, they can use the mobile application to carry this out.

Access Training and Learning Features

The Learning Features area of the mobile application is similarly geared towards the creation and management of training and learning programs. However, employees will also be able to use this area to manage course enrolments and to approve and sign off on actions that have been completed.

Employees will be able to access learning and support content via this area of the app. The Learning Features section of the app integrates with Continuous Performance Management — CPM — to form the Improved Learning and Talent Experience feature, supporting the ongoing development of personnel.

Case Study: Logistics Fuel Benefits

To understand how the app’s training and learning features work in practice, we can examine a case study from the logistics industry. Employees in the logistics field have specific training and learning pathways based on the requirements of their role — a driver, for instance, will have different learning objectives to those of a maintenance worker. Employees can access specific learning modules and content based on their own needs, ensuring that only relevant content is delivered to them.

This is just one example, of course. The training and learning feature is broadly applicable and can be leveraged across a wide variety of different industry sectors.

Support Your Employees with the SAP SuccessFactors Mobile App

Digital technology puts a great deal of power into your hands — and into your employees’ hands too. With the SAP SuccessFactors mobile app, you can provide the very highest levels of support to your team as they go about their work.

Reach out to us today to get started. We are SuccessFactors experts, assisting you as you make life easier for your team members and achieve a better way of doing business.

Aug 04 2021

SAP SuccessFactors Talent Management

What comes to mind when you consider your business resources? Perhaps it is the capital you have at your disposal. Maybe it is the tech assets that drive your organisation forwards. Or it could be the infrastructure that supports your operations. All of these are key resources, but your personnel and your talent outshine all of this.

This is what makes talent management such a key consideration for modern businesses, which is why Talent Management modules from SAP SuccessFactors are so critical in achieving a competitive operational structure in the long term.

Key Benefits of Talent Management

We have put together some of the key benefits of an effective talent management strategy that can help your organisation.

Focus on Employee Development and Growth

Your employees need to be supported if they are to develop and grow over time. This means delivering the right tools, the right understanding, and the right training to employees in the field. Without this, your teams will still be able to do their jobs, but productivity and efficiency will suffer.

Talent management gives your business a way to keep on top of this ongoing development. With the insight derived from this kind of solution, training and growth become more straightforward. Upskilling opportunities are identified and capitalised on, while reporting and analysis assist with ongoing management of training and support.

Foster Engagement Among Employees

Talent management solutions are comprehensive and wide-ranging, covering all of your employees across each of your teams. However, conversely, this enables you to adopt a more personal approach to employee engagement and support.

With a talent management system handling the overarching data, you will be able to gain insight into individual employees. From here, you can provide the direct support and personal and professional goal-alignment that each individual needs to be fully engaged with and invested in your business.

This is critical for keeping hold of your team members, bolstering your business, and reducing the cost associated with hiring replacements.

Create an Effective Business Culture

Over time, talent management will begin to transcend the delivery of support and development. Rather than being a solution to help you to deliver this directly, it will become a cornerstone of your human resources strategy. In other words, high levels of employee support and engagement will become core elements of your business culture.

With talent management as part of your business identity, your productivity and agility will accelerate. This will help you to step ahead of your competitors.

Hire with Confidence

While a talent management system helps you to retain the talent that drives your business forwards, you can’t expect to keep hold of all of your personnel assets indefinitely. You will still need to hire new personnel eventually, and when you do, you need to be able to do this with confidence and decisiveness.

The solution will give you the data you need to achieve this. You will gain the insight required to identify where hires are necessary, as well as an understanding of the attributes you are looking for as you select and onboard new personnel. This is designed to remove much of the uncertainty from the process.

Improve Decision Making

The data insight achieved from a talent management solution goes beyond simply understanding your current teams and bringing in new hires to complement this. In fact, the system becomes a valuable data resource that will inform your strategies going forward.

With the reporting and analytical functions discussed above, you will be able to gain an accurate insight into how your business is performing and what needs to be developed or evolved. This data serves as fuel for decision-making and goal-setting, dramatically improving the efficiency of both.

SAP SuccessFactors Modules for Talent Management

The best talent management strategies are geared towards workforce optimisation. This means following the optimisation cycle of planning and outlining a strategy, identifying and acquiring talent, developing this talent, retaining team members and structures in the long term, and helping personnel assets to reach their full potential.

This is why increasing numbers of businesses are utilising the SAP SuccessFactors platform to achieve enterprise-level talent management. The platform features a number of different modules designed with this capability in mind.

Recruiting

Find and engage candidates from across the globe, identifying the hires that will benefit your business, and nurturing them in the right direction.

Treat candidates like client-side leads, fostering increased engagement and connection with your business. Then, deploy automation and workflow simplification capabilities to improve procedural efficiency.

Onboarding

eSignatures and digitised documents make it easy to secure new hires without the additional paperwork. What’s more, a user-friendly onboarding portal helps management teams analyse and monitor the whole process.

Onboarding and cross-boarding capabilities make it easy to bring in new hires and promote or move existing personnel into the optimal roles.

Performance and Goals

Support your employees as they set goals, and then deliver the required data to them so they can follow a proactive path towards goal achievement.

Performance reviews become more detailed and development-aligned thanks to the data from the solution. Meanwhile, action planning tools support better decision-making.

Compensation

Compensation has always been an important aspect of human resource management. With the SAP solution, you will be able to set rewards and deliver recognition for your personnel and manage their remuneration in an accurate and effective manner.

You will also be able to model optimal compensation programmes and implement these on an ongoing basis.

Learning

Put compliance training programmes in place and deliver educational resources to personnel as and when required.

The solution will help you to foster a profound culture of learning and development at the core of your business identity. From here, you will be able to extend enterprise learning to meet evolving needs.

Succession and Development

Manage the career paths of your employees, conducting talent reviews, and implementing calibration tools that help the right employees develop into the right roles.

Eliminate talent gaps in key roles by fostering an efficient pipeline of talent development.

Sales Performance Management

Sales Performance Management modules — such as SAP Commissions, SAP Territory and Quota, and SAP Agent Performance Management — assist your business as you keep on top of the performance of your teams in the field.

Put SAP SuccessFactors to Work for Your Business

Your team members are key resources for your business, and managing this resource is critical to your success. With SAP SuccessFactors’ Talent Management modules, this not only becomes easy to achieve but becomes a vital part of your business’s structure and identity.

Let’s begin. Reach out today and speak to our friendly and knowledgeable team of SuccessFactors experts. Together, we can optimise your teams and achieve formidable flexibility and capability.

Feb 03 2021

Future-Proof Your Organisation with SuccessFactors Succession and Development

People are the heart of every organisation. The employees who commit to a shared vision push a company to better serve its clients and succeed. But life happens, and time progresses. People move and retire. They seek a sea change or career change. They pack-up, say their goodbyes, and leave.

Succession is inevitable, and it’s how an organisation copes with the movement of talent that defines its future. Success doesn’t happen by chance; conscious effort, planning, and preparation are crucial to ensuring the next generation of workers thrives. That’s where SuccessFactors Succession and Development comes into play.

What Is Succession Planning?

Before you investigate SuccessFactors’ career development planning capabilities in greater detail, here’s a staggering statistic to give you some perspective: 58 per cent of managers have never undergone management training.

Remarkably, many management employees find themselves in leadership positions by chance. It’s a case of being in the right place at the right time as their organisation scrambles to reshuffle after a staffing surprise.

But in today’s competitive business landscape, thoughtful job design, dynamic internal development opportunities, and intelligent organisational structure are fundamental to fostering an agile workplace that engages employees and promotes retention. These best practices lend themselves to the principle of succession planning: the activity of identifying potential successors for key positions and nurturing their skill set in preparation for increased responsibility.

Systematic employee development – which encompasses challenging job assignments, professional development sessions, and other enriching activities – overlaps with what’s known as leadership development. The goal is to mitigate the risk irreplaceable employees pose by equipping future leaders with the first-hand experience, nuanced understanding, and self-confidence they need to excel.

Nurture Next-Gen Leaders with SuccessFactors Succession Management

Intention is one thing. Achievement is another. Executive and HR managers dedicate the majority of their resources to day-to-day operations and strategic growth mapping. Succession planning is often left off the agenda.

SAP Succession Planning takes the hard work out of future-proofing an organisation. The comprehensive system minimises risk by accurately pinpointing top performers and providing a framework for employee development. The results are two-fold: nurture the talent needed to achieve today’s goals while gaining the insight and planning capabilities required to sustain tomorrow’s growth.

With the right succession planning tools, you can develop the right people and fit them into the right roles.

Here are three of the chief benefits of SuccessFactors Career Development Planning:

1. Cultivate an Engaged Talent Pipeline for Future Growth

SuccessFactors Succession Planning gives you the visibility needed to precisely evaluate employee competency and identify unsuspecting talent via firm-wide searches. With your best (and worst) performers firmly recognised, you can analyse the risk and potential impact of staff loss. From there, you can formulate an evidence-backed succession planning roadmap that mitigates this risk, boosts engagement, and feeds into future growth.

2. Empower Employees to Develop Their Skill Set

A continuous improvement mindset helps high-performing team members stand out and advance their career. Give your staff the tools they need to take charge of their professional development and progress on their journey toward professional fulfilment.

SuccessFactors Succession and Development empowers executives and employees by achieving the following:

Open dialogue that provides staff with feedback on a regular basis for improved awareness and self-reflection
Accelerated high-impact development and learning programs that combine best-in-class mentoring and leadership plans
Access to resources that encourage proactive exploration of career trajectories, required skills, and organisational gaps

Employers can leverage employee activity to explore automated ‘good fit’ recommendations to uncover individuals whose skills and interests align with role opportunities. This leads to a more efficient, more productive organisational structure.

3. Achieve Superior Business Outcomes

Ultimately, a business’s success relies on the competence of its employees. By preparing your organisation to adapt seamlessly to talent movements, you safeguard operations against disruption and mismanagement.

SAP Succession Planning goes one step further. You can connect employee development initiatives with strategic business goals, funnelling your efforts toward the organisation’s North Star. You can identify and close talent gaps, create informed recruiting plans, and recognise optimisation opportunities.

Crucially, SuccessFactors Succession Management allows you to measure the results of your succession strategy. From there, you can tweak your approach to enrich employee experiences further and better deliver on key performance metrics.

Safeguard Your Corporate Organisation’s Future

It’s a cliché that bears repeating: fail to prepare and prepare to fail. Just as your organisation’s current success depends on your staff today, future growth relies on future employees.

Succession planning gives your company the flexibility it needs to adapt and transition in the face of surprise or scheduled talent movements. Moreover, engaging and developing your employees enhances retention and workplace satisfaction, further propelling your organisation toward industry leadership.

Get started with SuccessFactors Succession and Development and lock-in your future success. Contact the Discovery Consulting team today for personalised advice.