What HR leaders can look forward to with SAP SuccessFactors

SAP HCM is on borrowed time. Standard support ends in 2027, with premium support available until 2030. And if you’re holding out until then, you can probably still agree that the software is nearing obsolescence. Yep, SAP is shifting its focus to the more advanced SuccessFactors platform.

The human resources leaders we’ve spoken to are excited about what SAP SuccessFactors can do for the team and their business, so we’ll be breaking down its top features and show how pairing it with an AI-powered document management system boosts productivity—so your people spend less time on paperwork and more time on people work.

First, let’s explore the reasons behind why the support for SAP HCM is ending.

SAP’s move from HCM to SuccessFactors is driven by the need to modernize HR systems and meet current business demands for cloud-based solutions. SuccessFactors offers flexibility, scalability and lower maintenance requirements compared to the older on-premises HCM. By transitioning to SAP SuccessFactor’s cloud-based infrastructure, businesses can:

• Manage HR processes more efficiently
• Access real-time data
• Reduce infrastructure costs
• Benefit from regular updates and new features introduced by SAP to keep up with industry changes
• Benefit from improved employee experience, advanced data analytics and easier compliance management

See SAP’s official statement.

SAP SuccessFactors is a comprehensive HR management platform designed to cover a wide range of HR activities across an all-in-one cloud-based system. In day-to-day operations, SuccessFactors reduces the administrative burden on HR teams by automating repetitive tasks, offering self-service options for employees and providing a unified platform to handle all aspects of HR management.

Here’s how it will impact your team:

Enhanced mobile capabilities:
SuccessFactors enables HR tasks to be managed on the go through its mobile app. Features like viewing the organizational chart, accessing learning modules and managing employee profiles are all available from a mobile device. This means HR teams can stay connected and manage tasks even when away from their desks​.

AI-driven recruitment and performance management:
The platform introduces AI-assisted tools for recruitment, such as skills matching and applicant screening. This means that the recruitment process is more streamlined, allowing HR professionals to match applicants' skills with job requirements quickly.

Automated onboarding and mass task completion:
SuccessFactors provides an enhanced onboarding experience where new hires can complete all onboarding tasks from a single page. For organizations with high-volume hiring, the platform allows for mass task completion, enabling managers to complete tasks for multiple new hires simultaneously.

Improved time tracking and payroll management:
The platform integrates a new timesheet experience that works in tandem with SAP S/4HANA, allowing employees to record time for payroll and track activities in a unified manner.

Compensation planning with audit tools:
SuccessFactors introduces a planner audit tool for compensation planning. HR planners can view and download compensation change history logs, providing real-time visibility into changes and reducing the administrative burden of running audit reports.

AI-powered learning and development:
The platform offers AI-driven recommendations for employee development. This includes personalized career pathways, upskilling opportunities and targeted learning courses, making it easier to nurture talent and support employee growth​.

Below is a comparison that highlights how these two platforms stand in contrast across various critical dimensions:

SAP SuccessFactors offers a wealth of features to boost the efficiency and strategic management of HR departments. But when integrated with an AI-powered document management system (DMS), its value multiplies. A document management system (DMS) captures, organizes and manages your documents digitally — helping your teams streamline admin, automate routine tasks and keep everything secure and searchable. That’s a game-changer for HR where teams are often overwhelmed by document-heavy processes like onboarding and employee recordkeeping.

But when your DMS includes intelligent document processing (IDP), it goes a step further. IDP uses advanced AI technologies like machine learning and OCR to automatically identify, extract and validate key information from any document, in any format. Whether it’s a CV or tax form, IDP understands the document’s type and context, pulls out the relevant details, checks them for accuracy and routes them to the right process — all without manual input.

For HR, this means faster onboarding, cleaner records and more time to focus on people rather than paperwork.

Some of the powerful capabilities include:

• Intelligent HR data management and integration
  With intelligent document processing, the software automatically classifies documents extracts key information and files them in line with data protection laws. It turns content into searchable metadata, routes it to the right people, and transfers relevant employee or candidate data to connected systems like SuccessFactors or Payroll.
  
  
• Automated document validity checks
  The system automatically verifies whether documents are still current by checking expiration dates or missing information. This helps HR avoid relying on outdated or incomplete files and keeps personnel records accurate.
  
  
• Document centralization
  A DMS is fantastic at automating the categorization, archival and retrieval of documents, ensuring they are organized in a coherent system that simplifies searching and access for users. Ideal for when tools like SharePoint just aren’t cutting it.
  
  
• Self-service
  HR professionals can use a modern DMS’ self-service functionality to quickly and easily generate customized documents based on each employee’s or applicant’s particular needs, reducing their workload.
  
  
• Transparent employee lifecycle
  With version control and a uniform folder structure with complete transparency, HR leaders maintain complete oversight over the employee lifecycle.
  
  
• Automated onboarding/offboarding
  Manage the provision & return of access cards by IT, company vehicles & office equipment by purchasing and much more.

A modern DMS is ideal for tidying up your digital documents before the big move. The system gathers all your essential files, ensuring they are neatly organized and readily accessible for when you transition to SAP SuccessFactors. And while some companies using SAP HCM may have a modern DMS, it’s far more likely to find no DMS or an outdated legacy system in place. Without a DMS, documents are simply stored in HCM, meaning they aren't securely organized or audit-ready, much like leaving files scattered in shared drives. If they do have a legacy DMS, it's likely incompatible with SuccessFactors.

To streamline the transition to SuccessFactors, it’s best to adopt a modern DMS before migrating. This ensures that all documents are properly stored, secure and compliant with regulations. With the right access controls in place, employees can view their own files but not others'. Once documents are securely in the DMS, only the data within HCM needs to be migrated to SuccessFactors. The documents stay where they are, and only the interface shifts from HCM to SuccessFactors, making the entire process smoother and more manageable.

Take the case of adesso Group, a leading IT service provider in Europe. With a sprawling workforce spread across 63 locations and entirely paper-driven processes, adesso faced formidable challenges in HR management. The absence of digital files and centralized access to HR documents made every process sluggish and cumbersome—right at a time when the company aimed to implement SAP S/4HANA and SAP SuccessFactors.

Recognizing the need for a foundational change, adesso integrated a modern DMS to prepare for this major systems overhaul. This strategic move revolutionized their approach by digitizing and centralizing their entire repository of HR documents.

Here’s how it unfolded:

• About 5 TB of HR documents were migrated into the new DMS.
• The system now serves over 1,500 frequent users and approximately 8,500 occasional users, facilitating broad access and interaction across the company.
• With the new DMS, the creation and digital signing of employment contracts were significantly expedited.
• Management gained location-independent access to digital employee files, integrating seamlessly with SAP SuccessFactors, allowing for more efficient workflows without the need to switch applications.

Transitioning to SAP SuccessFactors marks not just a technical shift but a strategic leap into modernizing your HR landscape. This move to a cloud-based platform redefines your ability to interact with, analyze and manage employee data and workflows, representing a switch from traditional practices to proactive, data-driven HR management, where every decision can be informed by real-time insights, and every process is streamlined for maximum efficiency.

And when you're ready to simplify your migration and transform your HR document management, then make sure you see a DMS with IDP capabilities in action. Book a demo today.