SAP HCM Reviews

Payroll is always the central area the tool focuses on. It needs to ensure things are flowing, employees are paid on time, and there are no issues related to location, pay, or hiring. SAP HCM helps observe all the work, from hiring to paying paychecks every month. It's a system that depends on the data you input. You don't want to work with bad data and expect miracles. If the data isn't clean, it's more work.

What can be improved in SAP HCM depends on the industry it serves. The system's navigation could be simplified for users. The flow and integration between parts, like core HR, payroll, and recruiting, must be communicated properly. Users should focus on how doing things correctly from the start will improve things in the long run rather than feeling overwhelmed by tasks.

About stability, if companies think about the things I mentioned from the start, it'll be better. It's much better to have SAP help than to manipulate the data themselves. You can't put bad data in and expect the vendor to fix it. They might say it's too bad and you'll need more steps to fix it. Some organizations don't take these decisions seriously because they think vendors want to sell products. They might use one or two modules and expect others to work fine, too, depending on the correct data in the modules they already use.

I think this solution's scalability is good, but it depends on the organization. Scalability depends on what the company wants and what it's working with.

The tool's deployment depends on the type of data, where the source data is, how accurate it is, and whether there are any duplications to eliminate. This process requires data mapping and cleanup ahead of time.

The setup process usually takes about six weeks to six months, sometimes up to nine months, depending on the size of the project. It might take four months for one or two modules. However, you should plan for nine months because of potential resource constraints, budget issues, hiring consultants, and considering how many on-site resources the company has to support the project while doing their daily work.

Maintenance can be complicated. It depends on whether the company wants to do it themselves or have the vendor (like SAP) handle it. If SAP handles it, they support working with clients to ensure everything flows properly. If the company does it themselves, they might make manipulations that aren't right and make things worse. This often happens because they don't understand the delivered functionality within the system.

It all depends on how stable and standardized the company's processes are. If they make the workflow work properly, things can be easier. But if they manipulate data and expect things to work out on their own, they'll see a lot of issues. It's even more complicated when two people are doing one job, and security issues can occur.

If you do things the right way, you'll see results in six to seven months. If not, it could take a year or two, and things still won't be right.

The cost depends on the size of the organization. Compared to others, I'd say Oracle is number one, followed by Workday and SAP HCM.

I've only done one or two projects lately with SAP HCM. The use cases depend on the company, what it's implementing, and what issues it deals with daily. They also vary based on the modules it's working with. There's no generic situation.

How SAP HCM supports an organization's HR needs depends on where they want to go with the information, how they want to grow, and their budget requirements. I usually use a specific version within the core HR space. The impact depends on the project and the organization's size. The impact isn't big for small companies with few employees because they can use the standard functionality. However, the impact is huge for organizations with over 5,000 employees.

People often worry about the learning curve when switching from a system they're used to. They get curious about how much improvement they'll see rather than focusing on learning and seeing the results.

You need to be prepared to use the solution. You don't need to be a professional, but you shouldn't overthink it or worry that you won't be able to do it just because it's new. Many people get carried away in that process and lose track.

People often hesitate to learn and worry about different tasks. Instead of going from A to Z, they look for shortcuts, which don't work in all environments. You must go through the learning process to understand the system properly and get the necessary information. People often look for shortcuts, which isn't the right way.

I rate the overall solution a seven out of ten. 

I leveraged it for four end-to-end projects. There were a few different use cases, largely around human capital itself. 

1. The first was around 2009-2010 for a real estate company. They wanted HCM for their employees and contracted agents.  
2. The second was around 2016-2017 for a pharmaceutical company in Australia. They wanted to replace their other SCM tool with SAP HCM. Earlier, it was called SAP HRM; then it became HCM. 
3. We also worked on other HCM projects, like for a materials company. They provide materials on demand to companies like aviation/aircraft manufacturers. They had over 10,000 employees and contractors and implemented HCM to optimize their manpower utilization.
4. We also worked with Automobile company, along with their IT arm.

The last project ended in November 2023. Since then, I have no HCM-related projects.

The compliance management functionality is quite good. 

Compliance management has two aspects: internal compliance and external compliance, such as laws of the land. 

Internally, you can define rules like allowing a hybrid work culture (after the COVID era), which wasn't always the case before. 

Earlier, attendance was based on punching cards, but now it can include working from home. You can define these rules and configurations to capture this information. 

For external compliance, it allows you to generate reports and offers out-of-the-box support. That's about it.

For payroll management, we have the flexibility to define wage types, which allows us to effectively define different pay scales and allowances. 

Additionally, we can merge rules to accommodate leaves and policies, like determining holiday entitlements versus leaves taken, and whether it's within the limit. 

If it's within the limit, the full salary is allowed. Otherwise, based on the rule, the amount is deducted before releasing the final amount. This is done through Infotypes. By defining these details, we can accurately calculate summaries and other relevant information.

The limitation of HCM compared to new-era human capital management solutions is the cost. While those solutions offer similar features at a lower price, they are not typically used by large enterprises. 

However, for small and medium enterprises, the HCM licensing and maintenance costs are quite high. There are numerous solutions like Zoho and Odoo that offer subscription models at a much lower cost, even as low as $10. This significantly impacts SAP's market share, especially among smaller businesses.

The high cost is the main reason why it's not widely adopted by smaller businesses. Currently, it's largely used by big enterprises, and only a small percentage of SAP users actually utilize HCM, even though they might be using other SAP modules. The small organizations are not keen on using it. 

I have been using it for three to four years now.

The on-premises part sometimes faces issues and gets on the slower side, which could be due to server sizing. 

If the server isn't scaled up as the load increases, it can affect stability. However, overall, the functionality and stability are okay. It's not on the negative side.

It is scalable. There are enhancement points, so we have the flexibility to scale up. However, every enhancement comes with certain limitations. 

You can't scale to something unexpected, but all practical needs can be brought within the framework. It's scalable enough.

For SuccessFactors, which is cloud-based, there is a limitation. You can't change everything. It provides scalability up to 30%.

The customer service and support are satisfactory, but the ecosystem part needs some revisiting. 

If the ecosystem isn't aware of all available features, it's hard to sell to new customers. For example, if you've added ten features but I, as a channel partner, know only two, I'll keep selling only those two. If a customer asks about the other eight, I'll either call it customization or reach out to you. This gives the wrong impression. If there are ten features, it should be known that there are ten, not just two. So, they need to work on their ecosystem.

Neutral

I have worked with a few of the competitors, including Zoho.

HCM itself isn't installed anymore, as it's now SuccessFactors. That's pretty easy. Earlier, HCM required an implementation cycle, not just deployment. Now, with SuccessFactors, it's fast and deployed out of the box. However, SuccessFactors has limitations due to being cloud-based, so customization is limited.

Additionally, the consultants offering SuccessFactors or HCM on a subscription model tend to sell what they know rather than the full capabilities of the tool. So even if the product offers ten features, they might only talk about two and assume the rest require customization. There's a lack of awareness about the full potential.

SAP HCM requires a full-blown implementation cycle: installation, configuration to your policies, and then usage. This takes about a year.

The newer version, SuccessFactors, is quicker. It takes three to four months, or six months, with practical delays. This is because SuccessFactors is cloud-based and only requires enabling from SAP's side. Your server or cloud is ready, so you just create your tenant.

The older HCM implementation and configuration took longer due to setting up servers.

In a nutshell, if it is HCM, it usually takes around six to nine months. SuccessFactors, however, takes less time—typically three to six months. The difference is that SuccessFactors is cloud-based, while HCM is on-premises.

The resources required for the deployment depend not on the tool but on the dimension/size of the enterprise and where you're delivering it. 

For example, if all information can be gathered from one office, the process is faster. But, if you need to visit multiple offices, like in a company with branches in 180 countries, the process is much more complex. 

Even within one country, like India, a company with 35 different offices and a minimum of 1,000 employees per office would require more time.

On average, for one HCM implementation, you need two functional experts (one senior, one junior or midrange), two technical experts, one project manager, one basis expert, and one testing person. 

So, six to seven people can do an HCM implementation. Similarly, six to seven people would be required for SuccessFactors, which is cloud-based. This is just an average estimate.

For a larger part of the SAP products, ROI comes on average within three to five years. So that's okay.

From my perspective, it's fairly in the range.

It is costly but feature-rich. 

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

I would recommend using it. Our biggest plus is its integration with finance. The second point is that it is scalable. 

We can add as many different policies or rules as we might need internally in any enterprise. There are always a number of those.

It provides some reports that are AI-enabled and others that are process-based. These reports give us detailed insights into where we stand as a group and where we can look for improvements. These features are quite user-friendly.

We use the product for analytics, employee experience, and talent management.

The platform is beneficial in terms of managing data points. Additionally, it gives a lot of insights, helping us with people analytics. The employee experience features allowed us to derive new inputs for management.

SAP HCM has valuable features for analytics data management. The employee experience feature is another good functionality that allows us to note down feedback. It provides ease of utilization and efficient integration with stand-alone products and works well in delivering reports. It has a better mobile application compared to others.

The product's learning and development features could be better, including new exclusive LMS tools. Additionally, the data analytics feature could have more depth, similar to Workday.

I have been using SAP HCM for about eight to ten years.

Stability-wise, the platform works well.

It is a scalable product. The number of users varies for different organizations. I have been a part of a company with over 20,000 users. On the other hand, there was a company with only 200 users. I have worked with a different range of employees.

We are using Workday. It works better regarding certain analytics features in integral databases than SAP HCM.

We took assistance from consultants to implement the product in a few companies. At the same time, we implemented it ourselves in one of the companies.

In my earlier organization, we comprehensively analyzed the ROI after implementing SAP HCM. The results showcased substantial progress and benefits over the years. We were able to bring a lot of insights to business leaders through efficient reports and dashboard functionalities.

We purchase the product's yearly license.

SAP HCM's personal administration feature greatly impacts the organization's record-keeping process. It eliminated a lot of unnecessary manual work effectively. It is a good product; advise others to go for it if they have an essential budget.

I rate it an eight out of ten.

Currently, we use it for payroll and to maintain our master data. As I explained earlier, the retail portion is still on SAP, and then we have the administration staff, like HR, finance, etcetera, which are on SuccessFactors and EC. Plus, we use HCM because payroll is on-prem. So, we operate on an on-prem and hybrid cloud model.

I think that with the cloud's introduction and because of the new changes, SAP HCM will become dormant. The talent components in SAP HCM are not really viable anymore. One thing that I know is that SAP HCM has no workforce planning. But in the olden days, we had personnel planning, which worked very well for finance or budgeting. So if there was something similar to it in the solution, I'm not too sure about it since I haven't had all the exposure to workforce planning to see how different it works from personnel planning.

I have experience with SAP HCM since 2012. I am a customer of SAP HCM.

I think HCM was the most stable for me, but it's because I had experience with it. If I do two or three more implementations and you have to ask me the same question regarding its stability, I would give a different answer.

It is a very scalable product.

In all honesty, I must admit that I haven't had any direct interaction with SAP's technical team. The credit for the successful implementation of upgrades, notes, and overall planning goes to the data teams I worked with since the collaboration with these teams and the individuals involved was always very good.

We completed the planning, blueprint planning, config addition, and testing for the initial setup. We also incorporated the USB and provided support. Throughout the process, we focused on various areas of HCM, such as personnel administration, org management, personnel planning, qualification catalog, and skills catalog. We developed different views using third-party products for the old structure view, which worked across all platforms and publishers. As we progressed into TalentHR, SuccessFactors acquired that component, leading to its discontinuation in SAP development.

While "onboarding" typically refers to straightforward hiring, SuccessFactors introduced a distinct definition for it. Consequently, a considerable amount of customization development was involved in personnel management and administration. Additionally, I created a solution for employee wellness, an area where SuccessFactors is not particularly strong. When it comes to disability management and health and safety, SuccessFactors lacks the necessary features. In certain cases, government regulations in South Africa require the employment of disabled individuals. However, the onboarding process may not adequately cater to disabled individuals, such as those who use wheelchairs. Addressing disabilities is a significant aspect, and SAP would greatly benefit from creating a dedicated module for it.

Managing changes in applications can be challenging since it complicates testing and unit testing, resulting in longer testing phases. This time-consuming process often leaves little room for actual work. These are crucial factors that SAP should consider when evaluating their product, including upgrade releases. While providing updates to clients is essential, SAP should take additional steps to ensure a smoother process, potentially by creating a dedicated partner to handle these tasks instead of relying solely on implementing partners. SAP should also focus on delivering more presentations and sharing valuable content directly rather than leaving it solely to implementing partners.

I recently attended a presentation that impressed me, and I would appreciate receiving a copy as promised. During the session, I asked if the presentation would be made available, and the speaker confirmed it would be accessible afterward. However, I have not received anything yet. This is an area where SAP needs to improve by taking ownership and not relying solely on implementing partners to fulfill such commitments. SAP should have a dedicated partner responsible for managing and delivering content, focusing on forthcoming changes. This could include webinars where participants worldwide can access different speakers discussing specific localizations. For instance, if I want to listen to a presentation about localization in South Africa, I should be able to select the corresponding audio and video content. The presentations could be pre-recorded for ease of access, and having an individual available to answer questions during the session would be beneficial.

HCM is cheaper than SuccessFactors. The only thing is that SAP is now threatened and has to stop doing the development. I can tell you this since if I didn't, a lot of people would stay on-prem, as we call it.

It is a different story regarding the implementing partners because one has to differentiate between them and the product. A lot of times, the product gets a bad reputation because of the implementation partners and the knowledge that they bring to the table. I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten.

My primary use case for the solution was managing employee data and handling all payroll-related operations. It included managing employees from their entry into the company until their exit and resolving any errors within the system.

The product significantly improved our organization by automating many processes, which reduced paperwork and provided clearer, more accurate goals and competencies. 

The most valuable feature of the SAP HCM solution was its integration with SuccessFactors, particularly the Performance Management feature. This integration allowed for effective employee performance and payroll data management.

The product could be improved in terms of cost. Additionally, having a reliable support partner who thoroughly understands our needs and can promptly address issues would enhance the overall user experience.

I have worked with the SAP HCM solution for five years.

The product is stable. 

The solution is scalable. 

Our experience with customer service and support was moderate. While the support provided by the vendor was helpful to some extent, some areas required improvement in terms of understanding our specific needs and providing timely solutions.

Neutral

We are planning to switch to a local program due to financial constraints.

The initial setup was straightforward. We followed the guide and translated our company's needs into the system, making the process smooth and manageable.

We implemented the solution with the assistance of a vendor team.

The product is expensive. 

SAP HCM is a powerful program that can greatly benefit organizations with its comprehensive features and integrations. However, companies should be mindful of the costs and ensure they have the necessary support infrastructure.

I rate it a nine. 

We use SAP HCM for recruitment and payment modeling features.

It is a valuable product that helps our company organize payment structure, recruitment, and talent management.

The platform is simple to use and has a user-friendly dashboard and integration features.

The product's license is very expensive.

I have been working with SAP HCM for seven years.

It is a stable platform. I rate the stability an eight.

Our organization has 300 SAP HCM users working from the finance, administration, HR, and engineering departments. I rate the scalability a seven or eight. It is a scalable product.

The technical support team is responsive.

Neutral

We also use SAP S/4HANA, a business suite product from SAP. It enables financial, controlling, and material management.

I am a technical expert, and thus, it is very simple to install for me. They have documentation to refer to. However, configuring HR processes, including reporting and workflow features, can be challenging. The deployment depends on the number of employees. It takes around three to six months to complete the process. We have a team of three technical executives. One resource can maintain the product. SAP also provides support to each customer for maintaining the application. They release updates every year.

The product generates a return on investment with the capability to develop and manage the talent in the company. It helps with detecting talent, employee rotation, and managing resources. We can make a decision on employee retention using SAP HCM.

It is an expensive platform. The pricing depends upon the specific model and number of user accounts included in a bundle. The licenses for 1000 users might be less expensive than licenses for 100 users. We have to pay around 20% of the license cost for maintenance and support services for two years.

I recommend SAP HCM to others. It is a very useful application that can centralize the management system. We can integrate it with S/4HANA for financial features.

I rate it an eight out of ten. I would not rate it a nine as it requires specific change management and deployment training. It is a new application, and users need to familiarize themselves with the functionality.

With SAP HCM, decision-making is very helpful. Every data that's related to our employees is stored in the solution. We are an organization of over 2,000 employees, and the solution has helped to maintain a database for everyone.

All our employee data, like performance and payroll, is managed through SAP HCM.

SAP HCM's long and tedious transactions can be improved.

We have been working with SAP HCM since 2004.

We have never faced any stability issues with SAP HCM. We have an on-premises system and never faced any server issues or technical glitches.

SAP HCM is a scalable solution.

SAP HCM's technical support was on point. I appreciate that every data we wanted, every help, reconfiguration, or customization we wanted in the system, happened as soon as the request was made.

Positive

The system is now becoming outdated because it involves all the transactions and is very detail-oriented. We want to move towards the cloud solution they're offering.

The solution's maintenance happens weekly for us because we have a lot of customizations done in the system. We're directly in contact with the SAP facilitation team, and they do it for us, the local partners in Pakistan.

Before choosing SAP HCM, users should consider the transaction time, how the data is being configured, and how the data or report generation comes out for them.

Overall, I rate SAP HCM an eight out of ten.

We have different structures dealing with the enterprise, starting with enterprise structure, employee structure, payroll structure, and other structures in SAP Human Capital Management. We make these structures in SAP HCM and deal with organizational management and other information related to personnel administration, management, payroll, and personal actions. HR deals with different master and permanent data aspects. The administration aspects, the different functionalities, and the processing features in the personnel administration are necessary to define default values and business authorizations like decision-making. Other use cases include personnel calculation rules and different schemas, sub-schemas, rules, recruitment, e-recruitment, and time management, including positive and negative time management. SAP HCM is also important for payroll processes, including country-specific payroll. Training for event management is also a sub-module to prepare candidates for training events and event management, booking events at the company's internal cost. SAP HCM also covers employee and manager services. Along with that, integration interfaces, and human resources are reporting.

We have features such as ABKRS based on the client's requirement, tariff and TMSTA, and so on.

What cannot be facilitated through the product's standard functions can be done through development. Success factors also come into the picture in the new cloud management aspect and integrations. For instance, S/4HANA. The two aspects are development, with reports, interfaces, conversion, enhancement, prompts, and smart forms. The reporting aspect covers employee and manager self-service, anything the employee can do. Then there are already success factors for the cloud solution which cannot be integrated into S/4 HANA.

I have worked with SAP HCM for about ten years.

The solution is stable.

The solution has chain management, so it is scalable and climbing up. Some of my clients are smaller and medium-sized businesses, while others are enterprises.

The initial setup is not difficult. The time we take to deploy the solution depends purely on the project's scope, size, and budget. On average, it could take one to two years, but sometimes it can take longer or less time.

I have seen a return on investment. In the long run, I need to check the depreciation. After calculating the depreciation on the cost of this solution, I can count the return on investment. Based on what the client invested in the project, SAP HCM is stretching as per their business process while minimizing their wastage. And as per the decision-making, clients can save a lot of revenue.

The solution is cheap. Suppose a client can afford to purchase their software and hardware on-premises, even if it's expensive. In that case, that's okay because they can afford their agenda, which is an on-premises installation for security. And some clients who cannot afford the same, but allocate it to a business expansion, can choose either a private cloud or public cloud, sometimes operating in a hybrid mode. Some clients can pay a subscription if they want to go for a certain route.

Now and then, SAP changes as per the requirement. Earlier, it was ECC, and some clients still run on databases with limited aspect software. In 2012, they came up with S/4HANA. I'm comfortable with the previous one and the new one, S/4HANA, including on-prem and on the cloud.

I rate the solution a ten out of ten because clients have received a return on investment.

It didn't go live with it.

Sap HCM is not a flexible solution to meet our requirements.

There are several issues with GuI, and it's not easy to use. Additionally, it requires a significant amount of configuration, and we haven't been able to find anyone who can meet our specific data configuration needs. But the major issue it's a really old fashion app. We are in 2023, there is no need to use an app that looks like this.

It's been around two years now. We already had SAP in our company, and we already were working with a partner to finalize all the configurations, but it didn't succeed. So it's not working yet.

It is a pretty stable solution.

It is a scalable solution. For other modules, it's around 100 to 200 users in my company. We had 12 administrators.

The customer service and support team is okay for all modules. But for HCM, we couldn't find a dedicated consultant to assist us.

Negative

It was difficult to deploy. However, it has already been deployed, but there were challenges regarding configurations and implementation. So, we had a lot of issues.

The setup took around one year. Because configuration included our requirements and making the rules, ensuring compliance with insurance rules and governance tools. It's like insurance policies in Egypt or something similar that may affect the SAP HCM system.

The pricing is really high. Compared to Odoo, it's very high. However, if you already have the other modules, it's okay. But SAP will cost you a lot of money.

We are looking to switch to Odoo. It seems easy to use. It is very, very easy to use and configure according to our requirements.

I don't recommend implementing SAP HCM. It's not good at all. Overall, I would rate the solution a three out of ten. It is primarily due to complexity, configuration, and pricing. 

We use it for accounting, billing, purchase requisitions, and raising purchase orders. It manages accounts, tracks attendance, and handles auditing and reconciliation. It also generates reports, manages pricing, creates invoices, and processes POs. I am assigned to the accounts division and use SAP HCM for my tasks. SAP HCM also has modules for HR tasks, such as documentation and onboarding.

The feature I like most in SAP HCM is its effectiveness for talent management. I'm comfortable with the complete accounting module, using transaction codes and generating invoices. The process is easy, and using entry sheets is flexible. I find the accounts module very good.     

When performing reconciliation, manual entry is sometimes required, and barcode scanning isn't always available. Integration with barcodes would make reconciliation smoother and track every product. If I enter data for many products and need to go back, I want the process saved so I can resume without starting over. Integration would help.

For HR processes, SAP HCM is very effective. It handles large employee data sets, making onboarding, paperwork, and document storage easy. It also manages tickets and other HR tasks efficiently. Overall, I find it excellent for HR.

I have been using SAP HCM for the past year and will continue to use it. 

SAP HCM is stable. If there is a technical glitch, raising a ticket can resolve it.

In our organization, more than thirty users use the HR module, and over four hundred use the accounting module.

The technical support is excellent. Any escalations are usually resolved within one or two days. Escalations are usually resolved within one or two days.

For installation, the technical team is always available. Since we purchased SAP HCM, the SAP technical team handles all installations and support. They are available 24/7, so there are no issues with installation. It's good.

The benefits of using SAP HCM are significant. It saves a lot of time by automating processes and centralizing tasks in one system. This eliminates the need to connect multiple people via phone or manually track orders and attendance. With SAP HCM, even hundreds of branches can be coordinated efficiently. It provides ease of access, quick response times, and overall time savings. 

I would rate SAP HCM ten out of ten because I haven't experienced any issues. It's a good product. For those starting to use SAP HCM, I recommend it if the company has the budget and strong employees. SAP HCM requires substantial resources, so it's ideal for large organizations, especially those with multiple branches, supply chains, logistics, and active accounting departments. For smaller organizations, ranging from one to fifty employees, it may not be as suitable. For larger organizations, I highly recommend it.