Item: SAP SuccessFactors HCM
Rating: 5
Author: Jennifer Murillo

Overall Satisfaction with SAP SuccessFactors Learning

Pros and Cons

Pros

Base Compensation Module runs smoothly and is efficient.
The Platinum Support Reps are invaluable. Expensive but worth every penny. They work with you on a daily basis to support your individual company needs and keep you abreast of the updates and changes that will help you use SF to its fullest potential.
It is a powerful suite of modules that has the potential to provide an integrated soup to nuts HR solution.

Cons

The bonus planning module is cumbersome and overly complex to administer and program each year. It is not intuitive - for example, the administrator must manually calculate the bonus targets outside of the system and input them manually because SF is not intuitive enough to do the calculations on its own.
The talent management suite was in its infancy when I started using it. It has had been developed and fine tuned quite a bit since then but is still not as intuitive and easy to administer as other talent management tools available in the market place.
SF is a hierarchical based system, like others on the market. This presents difficulties when dealing with a matrixed organization. The person who is planning the compensation or performance mgmt is not always the one doing the review or familiar with the employee. There are work arounds but they are manual and are affected by any changes made to the data system that is used to feed SF.

Return on Investment

SF is not cheap. I wouldn't recommend it as a solution for a small business. And while it is constantly being developed, in my humble opinion it is not yet a mature enough player to provide a large business the flexibility and support that it needs. It is a good tool for mid-size businesses.
The amount of support that is needed from SF in order to use the system to its fullest potential can really only be gained with a dedicated support representative (very costly) and most changes that need to be made are additional charges and are outsourced to other preferred consultant groups that work regularly with SF. These are costly and can quickly add up based on the level of customization and changes that need to be made each year.
I'm in Human Resources so I hear all the moaning and complaining from managers and employees regarding performance management and compensation planning. I've been in several companies and used several other tools to administer comp and performance manaement. I will say that the base compensation, goal planning, and performance management modules in SF are efficient and easy to use and administer. Like any system, you just need to get through the initial implementation phase to reap the full rewards.

It would depend on what the company's needs and size are. As I mentioned earlier, I don't believe that a small company would recognize an ROI on a full suite of SF modules as it isn't cheap and there are other products on the market that would be better suited and priced for a small company. But a midsized company could potentially benefit from SF. I would recommend it as a contender when looking at any module but don't expect every module to function as well as the other. For example, the Talent Management module still needs more development to become the robust tool that can compete with others in the marketplace. But other modules, like base compensation planning, are a more mature and developed SF module and if that's what a company needs then defintiely take a look at SF. I would caution, as with purchasing any other large system, to ask questions about the customization of the product and the on going maintentance and customization needs for your business. The base implementation is expensive already but with the additional customization and training and support and maintenance costs . . . . . your ROI will be shrinking quickly.

Using SAP SuccessFactors Learning

Likelihood to Renew

I am no longer at the company where I used SF. However, I know that the company has since renewed its agreement with SuccessFactors and continues to fine tune the suites for its changing business needs. SF is venturing in to Employee Central that has the potential to really amp up and syenergize its capabilities and modules. I would like to see how the implementation and use of Employee Central progresses and allow them to work through the glitches first but would be interested in investigating that capability in a year or so.

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