A new direction for SuccessFactors Time Management

If you have been following the evolution of all things in the Time space in SAP®, On-Premise and in SuccessFactors, you would notice that there have been some recalibrations over the past few years. I wrote a blog back in 2018 titled SAP SuccessFactors Launches Employee Central Time Management which has some historical information for reference.

To summarize, in the early days after the acquisition, customers were encouraged to move from SAP HCM On-Premise to SuccessFactors. They were originally encouraged to use one of two partners to manage their time component, Workforce or Kronos, as shown in the diagram below.

© SAP 2021

This was encouraged as the equivalent functionality available to customers who were used to their robust SAP On-Premise Time solution, as that functionality did not exist in the SuccessFactors landscape. In 2018, SuccessFactors launched Employee Central Time Management with basic functionality designed for absence management and basic time evaluation for correct employee payments. SAP SuccessFactors made it clear that they were not attempting to recreate the ‘best of breed’ functionality that existed in On-Premise SAP Time or with the noted partners, but rather to provide basic functionality for those customers who required it.

SAP SuccessFactors has launched a new offering in Q1-2021 for SAP SuccessFactors Time Tracking. The solution is available today, although some restrictions apply. SAP SuccessFactors has advised that all future timesheet and time-tracking roadmap enhancements will be focused on this new solution.

This offering is a delivery on the commitment promised as part of the HXM Move initiative, specifically pillar number three for Building Time Functionality Parity, as shown below.

© SAP 2021

HXM Move includes a focus on moving existing customers to the cloud. The addition of new time functionality in Employee Central can be used to reduce the barrier that some customers reported that inhibited the speed of their move to Employee Central. As discussed in that earlier blog, SAP Payroll, fueled by SAP Time Management and Evaluation, is often referred to as the ‘secret sauce’ that keeps SAP’s approximately 8,500 On-Premise Payroll customers going every day. Offering a bit more functionality in Employee Central is a step towards making the solution more palatable to that audience who may have basic or foundational needs.

This transition to the development of Time in SuccessFactors is a step towards making an additional option available to customers who make the move to SuccessFactors. An easy way to look at it is that there will be two flavors of Time for SuccessFactors customers:

1. A sophisticated solution designed to address any and all Time needs (Workforce, for example)

2. A foundational solution for customers with less sophisticated needs (SAP SuccessFactors Time Tracking).

For customers with complex time requirements for hourly or shift workers, SAP SuccessFactors continues to recommend Workforce software. Instead of having two vendors who offer this complex type of functionality, Workforce and Kronos, they have simplified their partnership to rely on Workforce only. The Kronos partnership is scheduled to end in March 2022. SAP SuccessFactors is making it clear that they are not intending to compete with these ‘best of breed’ solutions, but rather to offer an additional option for customers who have more basic time needs. This option may address the concerns of many of the existing On-Premise SAP HCM customers who were previously reluctant to move if it meant having to transition to leveraging a partner for time management.

Existing Employee Central based timesheet capabilities are now in maintenance mode

All of the functionality that exists today for time-off is considered a part of Employee Central from both a technical and a commercial perspective. Additionally, any of the Timesheet functionality that originally existed in Employee Central has been frozen in time and the customers can continue to use it. However, after November 2021 all of the existing timesheet capabilities available as part of Employee Central will go into maintenance mode. So all existing Employee Central based timesheet capabilities are in maintenance mode, with support only and no enhancements.

Employee Central Timesheet extension

Customers have the choice between sophisticated do-it-all time management systems (such as Workforce) and Employee Central’s foundational solution. There is a third option, however. Some customers fall right in between these two, requiring more flexibility than the foundation offers but without all the complexity of standalone time management systems. These customers typically need shift rostering, compliance checks, automatic shift adjustments, and advanced reporting, in which Employee Central is somewhat lacking. Ideally they would want to use what Employee Central already provides, but extend it with the features required to provide a complete time management solution.

EPI-USE Labs created GeoClock to fill this exact need. GeoClock is an extension to Employee Central which adds much-needed features surrounding time reporting, shift rostering, and compliance.