According to Cezanne, an HR system is a business application designed to manage the complete employee lifecycle from recruitment onboarding through core HR administration to employee engagement and performance management. You probably had some system for the management of some of your HR processes, but now you have found SuccessFactors and if you are going to do a good job of having consistent and trustworthy data, then you must integrate the new into the old.

If you don’t know anything about HR SuccessFactors but have heard that it’s like a magic pill that solves all your HR needs, you didn’t hear wrong; but you do need to check out our website to set your HR on the path to success with SuccessFactors. Then it won’t just be hearsay, it will become your reality.

In this piece I shall be taking you along on a journey; first to convince you that this integration is not just necessary but mandatory for your success story of which HeelsandTech wold love to be a part of, and secondly, to give you a few insider tricks and tips on how to both make it easy and do an excellent job that will get you the best results. Let’s dive in, friend or foe?

Why You should Integrate Your HR Systems

1. Accurately and Consistency of Data:

By now you should know that manual data entry is incomparable to automated systems in accuracy right? It should be banned in your organization! When you integrate your systems, a change in any of the system is reflected across all systems involved, leaving no room for the inconsistencies that are consistent with manual data entry processes.

HR processes are usually linked to one another, it would be a stumbling block to have a particular set of data accessible only through one of the systems involved.

2. Resource Maximization:

Have you heard that time is money? Personally, I think time is worth more than money. When your HR personnels don’t have to keep typing away at some words all day because only some and not all the systems are automated, you are likely to have more resourceful employees.

The aim of digital transformation is to maximize every resource you have. However, an unwholesome integration of your HR processes may take you right back to where you started from and you don’t want that. Taking the time and paying the price to have everything properly integrated will be a plus for your organization in the long run especiallyas you grow.

3. Data Driven Desicions and Insights:

Well, you really can’t trust a rumour why? Usually because you hear different versions of the same story from different people. What you want is to find the one person or source whose information you can really trust so that you can know exactly what happened and make the right inference. That’s the same with data. If you can’t trust your data, then why gather it? And if you don’t integrate your system to get the most unbiased data how can you gather it?

Data has become very popular and it has for a reason. You can’t let your organization be the only one to miss out on this, or worse still get things muddled up which is worse than doing nothing at all.

There are different types of integration that are possible, all depending on the needs of your organization and the particular systems involved. Let’s take a look at some of them.

1. Middleware Integration:

If you know what an interpreter does then you are not far from understanding what I am saying. A middleware stands as a middle man, enabling data to flow between different independent HR Systems. In cases where the format of the data stands in the way of the flow, it does the work of translation.

2. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs):

This is basically a lazy middleman. It allows different systems to exchange data but does not stand in the middle .Because it enables exchange of data directly, syncing is quick and easy, and this may not be the case with a middleware.

This means that the different systems exchange information quickly. This is basically what happens when you open a chrome page on your mobile phone and then open up your laptop to access the very same chrome page. However, the wonder in this is that this happens between different HR applications, unlike in the Chrome example.

3. File based Integration:

This functions more like purchasing a movie cassette and playing it in your DVD instead of streaming it online. Periodically data files are exchanged between systems and the systems updated according. This is a cheaper option than the two above. But I’ll tell you a secret; unless I am short of money and have no choice, I won’t choose this system.

Insider Tips and Tricks for Integrating SAP HR SuccessFactors with other HR Systems

1. Ensure Data Security and Privacy:

Any kind of movement of data involves this kind of caution. Sensitive data is usually involved and you don’t want to ruin the reputation of your organization just because you are trying to integrate your HR Systems.

There are data security regulations that you must strictly adhere to in order to avoid lawsuits. Adhere appropriately. Personal data of your employees should be kept personal in this process. This also means that you must have some level of trust in the personnel or organization that is helping you with the integration process, especially if they are not in-house.

2. Ensure that the Systems are Compatible:

You should know that it is possible to lose your business because there was a problem with your data. Some systems may just not be compatible with each other and in this case, you would want to migrate completely after you have counted the costs.

It is actually risky to try to integrate systems that make use of different data formats, though we mentioned that some middlewares do a good job at translating. So please be guided, we want you to grow, not go back to square one.

3. You Plan to Grow:

Ok, I don’t know if you plan for or know that your organization will grow in the near future, but we at HeelsandTech are quite certain about this. You must adopt a system that is scalable in your integration process. This is why we are all for SuccessFactors because it supports you to grow as large as possible. You had better stop now if the system you are trying to integrate with SuccessFactors is not scalable. Chew the bone and migrate Ok? We’ll be here cheering you on.

4. Continuous Testing and Monitoring:

Now that you have successfully integrated it is time to test and monitor. Before it becomes the new normal in your organization, ensure that you have done as many practicals as possible to prove that it’s worth it. Testing all kinds of possible scenarios and then deploying is a wise step.

You must also continually monitor these systems because a bug in an update in 5 years time may threaten what you have worked so hard to build. Updates and innovations are unpredictable and may have blind spots that could be detrimental to your business, therefore you must watch out.

This is the reason we advocate that you do as many things as possible for the management of your employees within SuccessFactors and let every third party application that has to be integrated be a need, not just an existence tied to sentiments.

In conclusion, integration is a lot of work and in some cases a risky one. Please do your best to have the best result obtainable by venturing into tech and choosing tried systems that support your growth. Resist the urge to scope creep and do your best to maximize SuccessFactors. HeelsandTech can’t wait to be a part of your success story.