SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is a cloud-based HRIS designed to streamline global HR processes and provide real-time insights for informed HR decisions.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central | 1.0% |
| Workday | 8.6% |
| SAP SuccessFactors | 8.5% |
| Other | 81.9% |
With automated workflows and intelligent services, SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central facilitates end-to-end HR management rather than treating tasks individually. It enhances operational efficiency, delves into deeper insights, and strengthens business results by standardizing HR functions worldwide.
What are the key features of SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central?SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is implemented across various industries to support HR processes tailored to specific industry needs. Its flexibility allows for adaptation, ensuring HR compliance and boosting productivity in diverse business sectors.
| Author info | Rating | Review Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 11-50 employees | 3.5 | I've used SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and Payroll for over a year; while the solution offers strong reporting, employee profiling, and payroll features, it suffers from high pricing, data duplication across modules, and inadequate customer support. |
| Senior ERP Consultant at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees | 5.0 | I find SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central a user-friendly, cloud-based solution for employee master data, integrating seamlessly. It streamlines payroll and global compliance, with excellent technical support. I believe it would benefit from more Generative AI integration. Overall, I rate it 10/10. |
| SAP Consultant at NoblQ | 4.0 | I worked as an integration consultant on a project integrating SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central with SAP S/4HANA. I value its easy access and user-friendly UI but see room for improvement in communications and simplifying reports. |
SAP Business One targets small to medium-sized enterprises, while SAP Cloud ERP targets large enterprises. There is a clear difference between the target markets for these two products.
I am currently working with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and Employee Central Payroll. These two modules are my primary focus in my current role.
The complete payroll process is managed through Employee Central Payroll. Throughout the month, timesheets are tracked from the moment you check in at 9:00 AM until checkout at 5:00 PM. The system records all leaves taken during the month and deducts any loans or advances that have been taken. Once the month ends, a complete payroll process occurs where your daily incoming and outgoing information is monitored, and your payroll is processed accordingly.
SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central provides complete profiling for any employee in the system. From my academics and experiences to my background and previous work history, including where I started my job, organizations I have joined, and my experience certificates, all of this information can be entered into the module. With just a single click, you can retrieve comprehensive information about an employee, such as their current profile, where they work, how many organizations they have changed, their years of experience, and their capacities and capabilities. Additionally, employee KPIs and performance-related information can be mentioned in the system, which is top-notch.
In SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, we can manage the benefits offered to an employee. We mention these benefits and perks in the profiling area when setting up an employee's information.
There are some activities that we perform in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and similar activities that we must also perform in Employee Central Payroll. If information has been entered in Employee Central, why is there a need to add the same information in another module of SAP SuccessFactors? This duplication of activities is a concern we have faced. One thing is opened in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, and the same activity must be performed in Employee Central Payroll as well. If the product is the same and contains two to three modules, why does SAP require us to perform duplication of work under the same product?
The pricing is very high. There is significant competition in the market, and we face challenges in selling the product due to the high prices that SAP is offering. SAP needs to reconsider their pricing strategy.
I have been working with this solution for the past one year.
I would rate the customer service as a three out of ten. There is a very poor response from SAP that we usually experience. The issue is not just about response time. SAP may have their own policies, but if the consultant or consulting company does not know something, SAP, as the principal, has a responsibility to guide the consultant or consulting company about what the gray areas are and what areas need improvement. Instead, SAP appears to pull their hands out of the situation and expect the consultant or consulting company to handle it independently. I do not believe this is the right policy or the right approach to take with consultants or consulting companies.
Neutral
Particularly for HCM and payroll processes, solutions are often country-specific, as every country has its own HR policies and payroll processes. In India, Pakistan, Dubai, and KSA, there are customized solutions within the market. In the Pakistani market specifically, Flow HCM is a big competitor because the solution they provide is a one-window, complete cloud-based solution that is very affordable. Most of the functionality they offer is more or less compatible with SAP, yet SAP is approximately four times more costly. Flow HCM is providing the same functionality at four times lower cost, which creates significant competition.
SAP Cloud ERP, previously called Grow with SAP, had its name changed last year in 2025. It is a complete SaaS model ERP with more modules included, such as sales, purchase, production, after-sales services, and MRP. There is no need to jump to any other product when SAP Cloud ERP provides such comprehensive functionality.
Regarding integration, I have only performed integration with SAP S/4HANA for the finance part. Employees opened in SAP S/4HANA are automatically created in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, which serves as the touchpoint for integration. Initially, when an employee is opened in SAP S/4HANA, the same employee will be created automatically in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central. The integration works perfectly fine with no issues because the platform uses BTP for integration purposes.
Employee engagement is more linked with the Onboarding module, which is another module in SAP SuccessFactors. Employee coordination is primarily managed through SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, which serves as a kind of master data that is entered in the system for any employee. After entering data into the module, there is minimal chance for that data to be used for communication with the employee.
The reporting in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is very strong. With a single click, all possible information that an employee has entered in the system is retrieved. This is very helpful as there is no need to navigate through each piece of information individually.
I work with SAP but with a different product of SAP. Previously, I was connected with SAP S/4HANA on-premises. Currently, I am doing the implementation and presales of SAP Public Cloud, which I believe is a top-notch product of SAP right now. It is a full package in one ERP.
Working with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central for more than the past year has shown me that the solution is somewhere between complex and simple. It is moderate in terms of difficulty. The reporting and daily tools that we use in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central are definitely helpful for any consultant working on SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and are useful in our daily practices.
SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is a solution that I recommend to others. Although there are some issues, they do not prevent me from recommending it. We offer and sell the solution in the market, and I believe the solution is perfectly fine. I have rated this review a seven out of ten.
SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is essentially the master data for an employee. Compared to on-premises, it is simply OM and PA taken to the cloud and becomes the master data for an employee.
Regarding dynamic organizational charting capabilities, organization charts and everything are managed within SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, making it quite feasible to manage the organization structure and position structure within the system.
SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is cloud-based, eliminating the need for any infrastructure with readily available data centers. It is very user-friendly and integrates seamlessly with the Employee Central Payroll and all other talent modules.
I have utilized the payroll integration, noting that on-premises payroll is called SAP Payroll, while when taken to the cloud, it is referred to as Employee Central Payroll, which runs on the same server and is configured on on-premises but on a different node.
Within the cloud, SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central integrates with Employee Central Payroll via point-to-point applications, which push the master data from Employee Central to Employee Central Payroll, forming the bridge between these two modules.
Regarding improvements or additional features for SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, nowadays Generative AI is booming, and AI is integrated within SAP. I am planning to get certified in automation to SAP and also work on Generative AI, aiming to become a Generative AI consultant in the near future.
Generative AI is an artificial intelligence that automates recurring actions within SAP, minimizing a lot of work and human intervention in these processes.
I have used SAP SuccessFactors HCM for several years. I often refer to it as SAP HCM when differentiating it from SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, which is built on it.
The technical support is good. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate it 9 plus because they respond promptly and provide clear instructions on how to resolve issues.
Positive
The solution has helped to streamline organizational payroll processes. I have worked with many clients who used SAP on-premises, as well as clients with legacy systems, necessitating the retrieval of master data from either SAP on-premises or legacy systems. The information is extracted via Business Integration Builder from SAP HCM and non-SAP to push it to Employee Central and form master data, which is then pushed via replication to Employee Central Payroll.
For managing global compliance and integration of regional laws, I maintain GDPR rules for Employee Central and Employee Central Payroll globally, using a universal template applicable for all countries in Northern America, Latin America, India, and Asia-Pacific.
I have worked on analytics, though not extensively. The reports that I have seen are satisfactory.
Overall rating: 10/10.
I was working as an integration consultant, and in the integration project, I worked as a functional consultant. My role in this project was field mapping, integrating between SAP cloud and SAP HCM systems.
My customer's usual use case for SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is integrating the two systems, as they are already using SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, with the integration being between SAP S/4HANA and Employee Central.
Employee Master Data integration is the use case we implemented.
The features of this solution I have found most valuable include that it is a cloud product, providing easy access without any T-codes. We can easily manage profiles and everything.
I find SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central to be user-friendly, with a good UI, accessible through Fiori, making it easy to navigate without using T-codes.
The areas of SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central that need improvement include the voice breaking issue in communications.
SAP can improve RDP and reports by making them more user-friendly, as there are complex processes in understanding and handling them.
The solution requires careful consideration of timing and availability for optimal implementation.
The deployment takes less than 24 hours to complete.
For stability, the solution rates as seven out of ten.
SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central demonstrates high scalability with a rating of eight out of ten.
The initial setup of SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central in the cloud is very easy compared to the on-premise setup.
The initial setup rates as seven to eight out of ten. It doesn't take more than 24 hours for the initial setup, including all the preparations before working.
I am a certified consultant in both SAP HCM and SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, working specifically with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central for the past two years.
The deployment time depends upon the requirement. There is a high dependency on provisioning, particularly when downloading the configuration workbook.
I am currently working as an SAP consultant at NovaIQ.
Overall rating for this product is 8 out of 10.
