Over 18 years of experience using and implementing SAP HR/PY globally
August 22, 2016

Over 18 years of experience using and implementing SAP HR/PY globally

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with SAP Core HR and Payroll

SAP HR is our core system of HR records, used globally by our organization in more than 50 countries. Along with this, we make employee self-service and manager self-service available, mainly for information display and some limited update capabilities.
The Payroll module is used in the main countries. In the Americas we pay over 5,000 employees and track key demographic information for HR (i.e. for benefit and compensation administration) through SAP.
  • SAP HR is a mature system that provides robust support to global companies, with employees in multiple countries.
  • Because SAP HR is used by many global companies and has a large market share, developers and consultants are usually available.
  • Also, because SAP HR and Payroll have been used for long time, many vendors and providers will be familiar with the system and have pre-defined system interfaces to exchange information.
  • The SAP HR unser interface is not intuitive and requires significant training and experience to master. A web-based, simple and intuitive UI will mitigate this issue.
  • In general running reports and extracting information from SAP HR and Payroll is complex and time consuming. Since the reporting tools are limited and very basic, one ends up extracting raw data to be manipulated in standard tools like MS Excel.
  • The standard SAP HR and Payroll system integration tools are inefficient and ineffective; very often they fail to transfer small amounts of data requiring constant verification and rework of data transfers.
  • SAP HR is suited for large companies with a sufficient budget. Small budgets will not be able to cover the expensive licensing, technical personnel and consultants required of an SAP installation.
  • In regards to the total cost of ownership, my ROI experience has been that by replacing SAP HR modules with cloud solutions we have been able to reduce the cost up to 60% while modernizing our systems and improving the employee experience.
  • I would encourage decision makers to look for cloud-based alternatives with a robust system integration, before believing that supporting every area of HR with a single SAP installation is a good long-term strategy. Having SAP HR as the core integrated to best-in-class cloud-based systems is a very valid and effective system strategy.
We use SAP HR and Payroll because in our company it is the corporate mandate. However, based on our regional/business unit requirements and strategic plans other system would provide a better fit. However, just like in many large global corporations these type of decisions are made at the corporate level, many times giving priority to technology standardization instead of business priorities.
SAP HR can be well suited for global companies with operations in multiple countries. The Payroll module needs to be limited to one instance per country, otherwise trying to maintain multiple countries on the same instance is too complicated.
I would not recommend using SAP HR and Payroll for smaller companies because the total cost of ownership and the lack of flexibility will make it unfeasible. There are many cloud-based options now a days available that would fit better for this type of scenario.

SAP Core HR and Payroll Feature Ratings

Employee demographic data
6
Employment history
5
Job profiles and administration
5
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.
4
Organizational charting
1
Organization and location management
3
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)
6
Pay calculation
6
Support for external payroll vendors
6
Benefit plan administration
3
Direct deposit files
6
Salary revision and increment management
5
Reimbursement management
5
Approval workflow
4
Balance details
4
Annual carry-forward and encashment
4
View and generate pay and benefit information
4
Update personal information
4
View job history
4
View company policy documentation
2
Employee recognition
1
Report builder
3
Pre-built reports
3
Ability to combine HR data with external data
1
Performance plans
3
Performance improvement plans
3
Review status tracking
4
Review reminders
3
Multiple review frequency
3
Create succession plans/pools
2
Candidate ranking
2
Candidate search
4
Candidate development
3
New hire portal
1
Manager tracking tools
1
Corporate goal setting
4
Individual goal setting
4
Line-of sight-visibility
2
Performance tracking
3
Job Requisition Management
4
Company Website Posting
4
Publish to Social Media
2
Job Search Site Posting
4
Duplicate Candidate Prevention
1
Applicant Tracking
4
Notifications and Alerts
3