SAP: Plans For SuccessFactors HR Applications Are Set

With its acquisition of SuccessFactors a done deal, SAP is offering a road map of how it will combine SuccessFactors' cloud-based Business Execution Suite (BizX) human capital management applications with its own human capital management software portfolio.

SAP also is promising that SuccessFactors "will continue to support an open approach to connecting with third-party solution providers," SAP said in a statement Wednesday.

Last week SAP completed its purchase of SuccessFactors' outstanding shares, wrapping up the $3.4 billion acquisition about 10 weeks after unveiling the deal in early December. A U.S. government agency, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, is still scrutinizing the deal.

"We've delivered this unified product direction for our BizX Suite within days of our tender offer close, demonstrating our agility and the power of our combined people, know-how and technologies," said Lars Dalgaard, SuccessFactors' founder and CEO, in a statement. "We are providing immediate clarity on our BizX road map to ensure we deliver the best possible suite of solutions for our customers."

Dalgaard is joining SAP and will be in charge of the company's cloud software strategy.

SAP said it will invest in SuccessFactors' Employee Central product as its core cloud computing human resource management application while continuing to offer the SAP ERP human capital management application as its core on-premise HR software.

For talent management applications, SuccessFactors Performance Management, SuccessFactors Compensation Management, SuccessFactors Recruiting and SuccessFactors Learning Management "will be the go-forward solutions" for SAP, the company said in a statement. It also said talent management components from SAP ERP human capital management will be continued as well. Social learning will be provided by the SuccessFactors Jam application.

SAP also said analytics will be an important area of focus within both SAP ERP human capital management and the SuccessFactors product portfolios. They will leverage SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics, SuccessFactors Workforce Planning, SAP's HANA in-memory computing system, and software from the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio of business intelligence tools.

The company said customers would particularly benefit from running SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics on SAP HANA. "The combination of SuccessFactors software and SAP HANA is one of the key priority areas for development of the BizX Suite, as it will help increase customer value by dramatically speeding existing processes, enabling access to large amounts of data in shorter periods of time and providing real-time access to information tailored to individual requirements," SAP said.

Approximately 14 percent of SuccessFactors customers run their applications side-by-side with SAP software. SAP said it will develop integration technology to link SuccessFactors' cloud-based talent, core HR, recruiting, learning and social applications with SAP's on-premise core HR software.

SAP plans to provide more details about the company's overall cloud strategy, product road maps and go-to-market plans in an event prior to the vendor's Sapphire Now conference in May.