Integration of SAP SuccessFactors to SAP HCM

SuccessFactors for SAP HCM integration: Many customers face the challenge of integrating their existing SAP HCM system to third-party systems such as SuccessFactors. If the third-party system is the "in-house" SuccessFactors (SF) system, you can use the "Pre-packaged integration solutionsby
SAP benefit. In this article, we deal in detail with the topic of SuccessFactors for SAP HCM integration and show you how you can benefit from it.

Depending on the scope of integration, SAP provides various standard solutions. Currently
the following integration packages are available:

• Employee master data and organizational assignment
• Objects from organization management
• Attendances/absences or time off and time sheet
• Cost Centers

On the one hand there is the Point-to-Point (PtP) integration, on the other hand the Business Integration Builder (BiB) integration. The integration approaches differ in their objective and scope of functions.

SuccessFactors to SAP HCM integration

The PtP integration offers a rudimentary range of functions. It is in this
Case around a completely predefined interface of the SAP, where the field mapping
between SAP HCM and SF Employee Central (EC) is fully predefined. This
Mapping is an integral part of the implementation of the interface. One
Depending on the infotype, customer-specific adaptation is only possible to a limited extent. The PtP
Integration aims to integrate with SF EC Payroll from, so that billing-relevant
information can be replicated. In general, this approach should only be chosen
if the SAP HCM system is very much based on the standard.

In contrast, the BiB integration offers a significantly expanded range of functions.
As the complexity of the integration increases, so does the implementation effort.
It must be weighed up which data should be integrated and which only in the
respective source system. With the BiB integration
map customer-specific needs and complex integration scenarios. As a general rule
we choose this path together with our customers.

First, with the BiB, SAP supplies a tool that is intended to
to implement integration scenarios. With the help of the BiB it is possible to access all data
access, which are provided via the SF web service "Compound Employee".
The connection or affiliation of the fields is made known via the BiB.
In addition, it is defined whether and which value conversion is carried out
got to. For example, it often happens that the SF system is used globally and that
SAP HCM system locally. This can result in certain information such as
For example, the cost center in the SuccessFactors system have a prefix "DEU_",
which is not readily available in infotype 1 "Organizational Assignment"
can be passed on.

In this case, rules can be stored in the BiB, which can be omitted from the "cost-center" field
remove the prefix from the SuccessFactors and the SAP HCM field cost center (techn.
assign KOSTL). The PiP integration can therefore be understood more as a framework,
which opens up the possibilities, the integration flexible and on the customer-specific
adapt systems. In summary, the "Prepackaged Integration" includes the
technical aspects of an interface, such as communication between the
systems, data exchange or generically programmed processing
Mapping assignment and value conversion. This can with little
Programming effort can be achieved. Nevertheless, the BiB offers the possibility using BadI
(implementation extension point) to intervene in the programming to when necessary
logical connections or complicated facts between different or
individual information to be taken into account. For example, you can use BadI to check in
which wage group/level the employee is in. Based on that, it can be done
determine the next advance date, so that there is no separate field in the highest tariff level
"Advance Date" is required.

Customer-specific infotypes, country-specific
Field mapping and value conversions will be implemented later on
this series of articles will be addressed.

Overview of the technical process of the interface and the interaction with the middleware - Integration SuccessFactors SAP HCM

Previously, we dealt with an overview of the integration solutions from SAP. We went further with the term "prepackaged' in the context of integration and how you can benefit from the SAP standard integration.

Now you will find out how the system landscape is designed as part of the integration and how the systems interact with each other.

SF HCM integration
System architecture of the integrated landscape

The graphic above illustrates the system actors of the integration. These consist of the SAP HCM system, the SuccessFactors system and the SAP Cloud Platform (SCP). If you have not yet had any contact with the integration, the SAP cloud platform may be foreign to you. The SCP is a middleware that is used to connect different systems to each other and to build the technical bridge for communication between the actors.

The middleware allows you to connect different systems with different communication protocols. It also offers the advantage that the configuration of the so-called iFlow (processing process in the SCP) is completely predefined. Referring to the first post in this series, it is the technical framework for integration. In general, the advantages of middleware are intermediate processing steps, security aspects, and flexibility and performance improvements.

In addition to the systems, the graphic shows the communication channels used. These are called web services. A web service enables data exchange on the basis of internet-based communication protocols. Both connections are bidirectional, whereby in the given context the main data flow takes place from the SF system via the cloud platform to the SAP HCM system. The employee master data is sent in this direction. The counterpart to this in the opposite direction sends the logs and results of processing from the HCM system. It should also be noted that the connection can be secured by a SAP Cloud Connector. This is indicated by the lock in the illustration. The SAP Cloud Connector reflects a secured tunnel that allows the HCM system to be reachable and communicate on the internet. The advantage here is that the system does not have to be publicly accessible. The SAP Cloud Connector also marks the system boundary of the HCM system on the on-premises side and symbolically represents the interface between the cloud and the on-premises world.

Technical process

The figure above outlines the flow of the integration packages. The function of the middleware, which segments both systems, can be clearly seen. The numbering of the arrows indicates the directed order of the steps to be carried out. Solid arrows outline the obligatory route. On the other hand, the dashed arrows indicate an optional path that supports integration, but is not mandatory. The individual functions were assigned to the systems and grouped accordingly so that the functionality of the SuccessFactors for SAP HCM integration can be explained in terms of system segments.

The first predefined integration package in the illustrated process is the integration package “SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Integration with SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA: Push Notification”. This is responsible for arrows one to three. The Intelligent Services Center is a tool in the SF EC system that allows triggering event-based actions or processing data in real time. As part of the integration package, it is required to trigger the integration for a new employee when they are hired. The triggering takes place via a web service to the SAP Cloud Platform, which receives the so-called push notification. A push notification describes the reactive behavior of the SF system by informing the interface that a changed data set is available.

The opposite of this is the principle of the pull. The data is queried by the SAP HCM system. The SF system plays a passive role in this as it does not trigger any action related to the replication of the employee. This happens regardless of whether there are changes or not. The SAP Cloud Platform forwards the push notification to the SAP HCM system via the inbound web service. The web service, in turn, triggers the execution of the replication. The scope of functions of the second integration package "SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Integration with SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA: Employee and Organizational Data" begins with the action "Execution of replication". This is where the actual integration of the systems begins. The notification is optional as it is not mandatory. The graphic shows that the execution of the integration is carried out based on a time interval. If the push notification is triggered, the integration will be executed in addition to the defined time interval. The program that performs the replication sends a request for the master data to the SAP Cloud Platform via the outbound web service in the SAP HCM system. This queries the employee master data from the SF EC system and forwards the result back to the SAP HCM system. There the request is accepted by the incoming web service and forwarded to the processing of the master data.

During processing, the employee master data is checked for completeness and conformity with the SAP HCM system. If this check is positive, the data is saved and the data has been successfully replicated. Once the processing of the master data has been completed, the tasks of the second integration package are complete. The last integration package “SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA Integration with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central: Confirmation v2” takes over the subsequent processing of the result or the status of the replication. The status of the replication is sent to the SAP Cloud Platform via the outbound web service of the SAP HCM system. The SAP Cloud Platform sends the data for updating the status to SF EC. This is where the status is stored and made available through the Monitor Data Replication action, allowing the agent or manager to seamlessly track the result of replication in a system.

In this section, you learned how the general technical process of the SuccessFactors to SAP HCM integration works. The integrated system landscape and architecture were also outlined. In the next section, we will show you an example of how the SF field "full-time employee" becomes the HCM field "part-time employee".

How the SF field "full-time employee" becomes the HCM field "part-time employee".


Illustration of the field "part-time employee" in SAP HCM and "full-time employee" in SF EC

The graphic illustrates the two fields of the different systems. The SF system with the job information from Employee Central is shown on the left. Accordingly, the information about the full-time employee status is displayed there as "Is Fulltime Employee". In this context, "Yes" means that the employee has a full-time job. The equivalent in SAP HCM is infotype 0007 (planned working time). The information about the part-time worker field is shown here. Accordingly, in this context, "Yes" means that the employee works part-time. This illustrates the need for a well thought-out mapping concept. The following graphic illustrates such a conflict.


Illustration of 1:1 field mapping

As part of the standard integration between SAP HCM and SF EC, there are various options for harmonizing the data models. Due to the difference in the data models, the following problem arises, which must be considered when creating a concept. On the one hand, the different structure of data storage between the SAP HCM infotypes and the object-oriented storage in portlets in SF EC. This results in the constellation that a storage object in SuccessFactors EC must be harmonized with two or more infotypes. For this reason, one-to-one mapping between infotype and storage object is usually not possible. On the other hand, the difference in the time logic between the SAP HCM time commitment concept and SF EC-effective dating represents the challenge of harmonizing these.

A primary mapping can be defined for each bay from the SF EC system. In this context, this primarily means that this is the actual assignment. A secondary assignment means that, for example, a different field assignment can be defined for a specific country. Regardless of the primary or secondary mapping, the implementation is as follows: First, the source field from the SF EC system must be specified. Based on the conceptualized value mapping, a mapping mode must be chosen. There are three options: BAdI mapping, infotype mapping, or preconfigured mapping. With the BAdI assignment, a customer-specific assignment logic is implemented, which must be implemented using SAP's own ABAP programming language. In contrast to this, the infotype, if necessary the subtype and the technical infotype field are specified for the infotype assignment. The pre-configured assignment is defined by SAP and maps specific logic. The preconfigured assignments are not discussed in detail in this entry, since they are not required for the given example. A value assignment entity can also be specified if there is a selection list for the respective fields or the value is to be converted using constant values.


Customizing of the field mapping

The figure shows the technical configuration of the mapping in Customizing. For the mapping of the full-time employee information, an infotype assignment is made first. This shows the already mentioned conflict, so that a one-to-one mapping is not possible. In addition to the field mapping, processing logic is required that inverts the information content.


Field mapping with BadI processing
Due to the additional BadI processing, the value from the SF system is now inverted, so that "Yes" -> "No" and vice versa.

In addition to the BadI processing shown, there are other options for adding logic to a one-to-one field mapping. No ABAP programming is required for this. There are a total of twelve predefined conversion rules to implement the conceptual requirements for data harmonization. For example, constant prefixes/suffixes can be appended or the received value can be multiplied by a defined number. Values ​​can also be replaced by others based on a pattern.

Complex data harmonization can be carried out using the board tools mentioned, which are provided by the predefined standard integration. With a well thought-out concept, we help you to successfully integrate the systems.

As part of this section, you have learned from an example of how data fields can be harmonized between SAP HCM and SF EC. The possibilities for data harmonization of the standard integration were presented. In the next article in this series, we will show you how you can identify master data errors when operating the interface and which protocols are available in the respective systems.

If you already have questions, suggestions or feedback regarding SAP SuccessFactors for SAP HCM integration, please use our contact form.

 

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