SAP S/4HANA is the next-generation business suite. It is a new product fully built on the most advanced in-memory platform today – SAP HANA – and modern design principles with the SAP Fiori user experience (UX). SAP S/4HANA delivers massive simplifications (customer adoption, data model, user experience, decision making, business processes, and models) and innovations (Internet of Things, Big Data, business networks, and mobile-first) to help businesses run simple in the digital economy. S/4 HANA can be deployed as on-premise edition or a cloud edition.

The SuccessFactors HCM Suite (SuccessFactors) is the “default” HCM solution for S/4 HANA.  Customers choosing S/4 HANA as their next-generation business suite also require a next-generation HCM suite and this is the focus of SuccessFactors.  Productized integration (built and maintained by SAP) exists today so customers can connect SuccessFactors with S/4 HANA cloud edition; productized integration to connect with S/4 HANA on-premise edition is planned for 2H2015.  There are no plans to “simplify” SAP ERP HCM and future innovations will be limited, focused primarily on localization support and user experience renewal.  No changes are planned to this investment strategy.

However, some customers using SAP ERP HCM to support their HR processes may not be able to migrate their HR processes to SuccessFactors at the same time they migrate their core business processes to S/4 HANA.  In order to minimize disruption for these customers while they implement S/4 HANA, SAP is enabling options for them to leverage SAP ERP HCM (running on-premise) and connected to S/4 HANA with productized integrations.  This enables S/4 HANA customers the ability to deploy SuccessFactors at their own pace, according to their own needs/strategies, and in a deployment manner that they have today.  These options include:

1. Running SAP ERP HCM in a single instance co-deployed together with S/4 HANA on-premise edition
2. Running SAP ERP HCM in a separate instance,  connected (via ALE) to S/4 HANA on-premise edition

Productized integrations for both scenarios are planned for 2H2015.  Under consideration is productized integration between SAP ERP HCM and S/4 HANA cloud edition.

In summary:

1. New SAP customers should implement SuccessFactors as their HCM solution for S/4 HANA.  Productized integration is available to provide a seamless experience. SuccessFactors is SAP’s “go-forward” solution for HCM and most future innovations are planned there.
2. S/4 HANA customers wanting next-generation HCM should implement SuccessFactors.  Productized integration is available to provide a seamless experience. SuccessFactors is SAP’s “go-forward” solution for HCM and most future innovations are planned there.
3. S/4 HANA customers also using SAP ERP HCM and who are not able to make the move to SuccessFactors in the near term can continue to use SAP ERP HCM, running in either a separate instance or a single instance together with S/4 HANA.  Productized Integrations are planned for delivery in November to enable both scenarios. This helps minimize disruption to customers’ HR processes during the S/4 HANA migration and enables the ability to migrate their HR processes to SuccessFactors when they are ready.