Item: SAP SuccessFactors
Rating: 5
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We implemented Performance Management globally back in 2006. We immediately thereafter added Total Goal Management which is also used globally. These were implemented outside our core HCM because the solution provided by our existing provider was sub-par. In 2008, we expanded our talent management offering by adding Career Development Planning and Succession. These have not been implemented globally. They were purchased to create a succession plan and in support of our focus on developing internal talent. As our organization matures in the succession process, the intent is to cascade down to all managers.

Pros and Cons

Performance appraisals are fairly simple. When we implemented, we had to create a form for each variation of content and language combination which made it a maintenance issue. The product now offers the ability to have a single form which can be translated into multiple languages. The process has been fairly intuitive for our managers who appreciate the continuity more than anything.
Appraisals can be conducted offline and then uploaded back into the system which is convenient for our traveling Sales staff. The process itself is either easy to grasp or our users can't track with it, so the results are a bit mixed but the opportunity is solid.
SMART goals are easy to maintain. There are areas that you should consider before establishing your goal foundation. If you want your goals to be private, this has impact to the goal content being visible on the dashboards. Only those with admin reporting privileges can truly report out private goal content.

Your core data restricts you to a handful of custom fields/filters that are used for areas such as security, reporting privileges, etc. You must have strong forward thinking to consider which filters you will require and still have flexibility built in as your needs will certainly change over time.
Support is a constant area of improvement. When SuccessFactors moved to a tiered model, it grew difficult to ever have our issues resolved at the lowest tier. They didn't understand the issue, were slow to respond and it took forever to escalate. SuccessFactors now markets a Platinum Support option which comes at a price, though we've had mixed results. Their AZ data center seems to have frequent issues which impact your ability to login, run reports, etc. If you purchase Platinum Support, you will be on the 'good' data center and should have limited issues.
Reporting is still a bit clunky and can be an issue, though SuccessFactors has provided more options in recent years including Ad hoc Reporting, Dashboards 2.0, etc.

Return on Investment

We have better performance and a consistent user experience for appraisals which has helped our user adoption of appraisals.
We struggle with user adoption of certain areas such as development goals. We can provide competencies linked to a given role, but the maintenance of the configuration is a nightmare. Very cumbersome, you can mass load the competencies and their mapping to a family & role, but you cannot mass load the expected rating & weightings which is incredibly time consuming. That was submitted to SuccessFactors as an enhancement request back in 2008 and has yet to come to fruition.
We are still working to build our succession process, so we have not yet realized our ROI in that area. However, as we roll the process out to lower levels of our business we are certainly seeing good information around our talent pipeline.

Alternatives Considered

Oracle PeopleSoft,Oracle eBusiness Suite,workday,Sumtotal

We originally implemented appraisals in Oracle eBusiness Suite to disastrous results. We selected SuccessFactors because they had a strong talent management solution, the workflow challenges we previously had appeared to be more easily managed in SuccessFactors, the product could be accessed from home and seemed fairly intuitive. When we initially purchased SuccessFactors, all of the solutions we've recently evaluated were either not available at that time or were cost-prohibitive.

Likelihood to Recommend

SuccessFactors' original offering focused on Talent Management is fairly strong. They have not yet gained a robust total HCM solution. When evaluating their total solution, it was presented as a single solution yet they have partners/purchased systems that will facilitate areas such as benefits and time & labor. The system has some flexibility, yet in other basic areas they fall down. For example, if you set your appraisal route map to go from a self-appraisal to the manager's assessment, you have the ability to enforce deadlines in your process and have the system 'auto route' the appraisal to the manager. If the employee hasn't completed his self-assessment, you can send the appraisal back however if the manager has entered any ratings or comments, whether approved or not they become visible to the employee. New features are added, yet many of these are fee-based and not included in the existing licensing agreement. For example, if you want to take advantage of role-based security outside of your initial implementation, that's a fee. It becomes hard to budget for and justify some of the upgrades and new functionality when you're constantly being nickel-and-dimed.

Likelihood to Renew

Support is still lacking. If we don't have a critical business need where we're looking to license something new, there is no partnership with SuccessFactors. Unless of course you purchase the Platinum Support which we did not. It is difficult for us to take advantage of new functionality when we have professional services fees that will be incurred as a result. We're in a tough economy and our budgets are slim. We don't have wiggle room to add $5k here or $10k there. The overall integration into a total HCM solution is also lacking.

SuccessFactors - leader turned lagger

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with SAP SuccessFactors Learning