We had the opportunity to attend SAP’s SuccessFactors Analyst Summit 2018, held from April 30th to May 2nd 2018 in San Francisco at the St. Regis. Attendance with over 15 analysts was good, still a good atmosphere to get a pulse on where the vendor is now, especially as it was the first analyst event under the new leadership of Tomb, and the product leadership of Willson and Harvey.
![]()
Want to read on? Here you go:
SuccessFactors is on the ‘Enslin March’. Since SAP put the ‘5 sisters’ (Ariba, Concur, Fieldglass, Hybris, SuccessFactors) under the leadership of Rob Enslin, it’s clear that the long-stalled technology conversion of these five business towards the SAP technology stack was about to happen. More specifically it means the long talked, not much executed adoption of SAP HANA as the database, the adoption of SAP Cloud Platform as a PaaS, the use of SAP Analytics as reporting and Analytics platform, the usage of UX elements coming from Fiori (here the SAP Cockpit) and of course SAP Leonardo for machine learning and more. SAP customers will appreciate that change in direction, non-SAP customers using the 5 sisters may be a little more nervous, but as all is deployed in the cloud, they should not notice at all – except for improvement. Behind the ‘Enslin March’ is the expectation to be able to get more business capability being built by the ‘5 sisters’ – an objective of great priority to customers – who always want more capabilities in return for their SaaS subscriptions.
Talent Acquisition bolstered by Onboarding and CRM. The other larger automation item from SuccessConnect was a new Onboarding and its good to see SuccessFactors delivering this capability now. Adding Candidate Relationship Management is a good extension of the Recruiting capabilities, and if done right recruiters using SuccessFactors will appreciate it. But both capabilities are built around an older Recruiting core, which needs an overhaul. And the overall Talent Suite inside of SuccessFactors needs an overhaul, maybe renovation if not replacement. At the core of Talent Management is Performance Management and SuccessFactors has done well innovating with the automation of the 1 to 1 meeting… but it needs to keep up innovating and experimenting in this area and reflect the move to Performance Management suites (which offer all ways to do Performance Management to enterprises and allow them to configure use the fitting practices to the right users and organizational units).
Compliance Investment, Permit and Visa Module. One area where SAP and now SuccessFactors has a clear leg up on all the competition is compliance… SAP offers support for 58 countries directly as part of its payroll portfolio and there 41 additional countries covered by partners (total is 99). Keeping up payroll compliant is continuous work and dealing with regulatory uncertainty that is only rising. To cope, SAP has dedicated professionals in each country, who follow the regulatory changes. Apart from payroll, it allows SAP to pop out capabilities like the Permit and Visa Module. This is very relevant capabilities for global enterprises to manage global talent and close to impossible for enterprises to manage inhouse… they use immigration lawyers and those can make mistakes as they decide on case to case basis. Much better to address in software and kudos for SAP to come out with this capability, likely as a response to its Global Mobility capabilities. The best talent somewhere in the world can’t help in country x if you can’t even get the individual to visit.
SAP SuccessFactors Analyst Summit 2018
Prefer to watch – here is my event video … (if the video doesn’t’ show up – check here - pardon the bad sound quality at times, will have to record when time allows)
Want to read on? Here you go:
SuccessFactors is on the ‘Enslin March’. Since SAP put the ‘5 sisters’ (Ariba, Concur, Fieldglass, Hybris, SuccessFactors) under the leadership of Rob Enslin, it’s clear that the long-stalled technology conversion of these five business towards the SAP technology stack was about to happen. More specifically it means the long talked, not much executed adoption of SAP HANA as the database, the adoption of SAP Cloud Platform as a PaaS, the use of SAP Analytics as reporting and Analytics platform, the usage of UX elements coming from Fiori (here the SAP Cockpit) and of course SAP Leonardo for machine learning and more. SAP customers will appreciate that change in direction, non-SAP customers using the 5 sisters may be a little more nervous, but as all is deployed in the cloud, they should not notice at all – except for improvement. Behind the ‘Enslin March’ is the expectation to be able to get more business capability being built by the ‘5 sisters’ – an objective of great priority to customers – who always want more capabilities in return for their SaaS subscriptions.
 |
| Enslin presents |
Focus on Mobile, with Leonardo ML and Co-Pilot. Mobile was the big headliner from SuccessConnect 2017 last year, so with some surprise it is also the big roadmap item for 2018. SAP has built a very good iOS app together with Apple, but ML wasn’t ready inside of SAP 12 months ago and SuccessFactors is now adding ML capabilities to the mobile application. More interesting is the adoption of Co-Pilot which is SAP’s chatbot platform, enabling conversation as a platform use cases. Most importantly it has support for Google’s speech recognition baked in, pretty much the clear leader in this capability, which is crucial to make this application use case work. Still it feels like SuccessFactors is working around the main issue that it has – a necessary refresh of the UX and new consistency for the browser-based UX. Many vendors try to buy time for this with mobile apps and chatbots, but a lot of users still have to go back to the browser as a platform and an all nice UX falls into shambles. SuccessFactors needs to tackle that area to keep its (power) users happy and remain competitive.
 |
| Tomb talks, Harvey listens |
Talent Acquisition bolstered by Onboarding and CRM. The other larger automation item from SuccessConnect was a new Onboarding and its good to see SuccessFactors delivering this capability now. Adding Candidate Relationship Management is a good extension of the Recruiting capabilities, and if done right recruiters using SuccessFactors will appreciate it. But both capabilities are built around an older Recruiting core, which needs an overhaul. And the overall Talent Suite inside of SuccessFactors needs an overhaul, maybe renovation if not replacement. At the core of Talent Management is Performance Management and SuccessFactors has done well innovating with the automation of the 1 to 1 meeting… but it needs to keep up innovating and experimenting in this area and reflect the move to Performance Management suites (which offer all ways to do Performance Management to enterprises and allow them to configure use the fitting practices to the right users and organizational units).
 |
| Wilson presents the Job Analyzer |
Compliance Investment, Permit and Visa Module. One area where SAP and now SuccessFactors has a clear leg up on all the competition is compliance… SAP offers support for 58 countries directly as part of its payroll portfolio and there 41 additional countries covered by partners (total is 99). Keeping up payroll compliant is continuous work and dealing with regulatory uncertainty that is only rising. To cope, SAP has dedicated professionals in each country, who follow the regulatory changes. Apart from payroll, it allows SAP to pop out capabilities like the Permit and Visa Module. This is very relevant capabilities for global enterprises to manage global talent and close to impossible for enterprises to manage inhouse… they use immigration lawyers and those can make mistakes as they decide on case to case basis. Much better to address in software and kudos for SAP to come out with this capability, likely as a response to its Global Mobility capabilities. The best talent somewhere in the world can’t help in country x if you can’t even get the individual to visit.
MyPOV
SuccessFactors is making progress, but the pace seems to be glacial. Realistically using more of SAP technology, a good decision overall, means even more ‘plumbing’ work by R&D resources vs. ‘sun deck’ work (building SaaS capabilities). But it is an investment SAP should make, with the expectation of better productivity and more functionality being shipped in a few years – latest. And SAP needs to build a lead in capabilities, as it’s the only large ERP suite vendor not having HCM integrated in a traditional way (single sign on, same schema, same application etc.) compared to its key competitors. SAP argues correctly that there are new and better ways of integrated in 2018 than there ever were (microservices, REST, APIs in general etc.) – but SuccessFactors itself is the living proof that this is hard to achieve… I am still confident to win the bet of finding more save buttons in look and feel and location than looking at SuccessFactors modules. And UX is only the iceberg. But SuccessFactors is committed and now must execute – fast. Next stop Sapphire in a few weeks.
And more on SAP:
- Event Report - SAP Ariba Live 2018 - Las Vegas - Sustainability and UX - read here
- Event Takeaways - SAP at MWC 2018 - read here
- Market Move - SAP acquires Callidus - More Sales Effectiveness in the Back Office of the Front Office - read here
- News Analysis - SAP HCM On-Premise Option for SAP S/4HANA - or is this S/4HCM? - read here
- News Analysis - Microsoft and SAP join forces to give customers a trusted path to digital transformation in the cloud - read here
- Event Report - SAP Hybris Live 2017 Barcelona - YaaS morphs and more agility ahead - read here
- News Analyses Roundup - SAP's September Tech Announcements - SAP doubles down on technology - read here
- Event Report - SAP SuccessFactors SuccessConnect - New Leadership - Old Challenges - read here
- Summer 2017 News Analysis - SAP Leonardo event July 2017 - read here
- Event Report - SAP Sapphire 2017 - All in on Leonardo, but wait there is more... read here
- News Analysis - SAP reshuffles Executive Board - sets up for next 5 years - read here
- Event Report - SAP Ariba Live - The quest to make Procurement awesome - read here
- Event Report - SAP Capital Markets and S/4HANA Update - Good Plan - Execution matters in 2017 - read here
- News Analysis -SAP Introduces Jump-Start Enablement Program for SAP Leonardo IoT Portfolio >> Bundling and Simplification matter for IoT - read here
- Event Report - Event Report - SAP TechEd Barcelona - Analytics, ML, PaaS and HANA 2 - read here
- News Analysis - SAP to unveil HANA 2 - New platform vs a fork's tine - read here
- News Analysis - Microsoft announces SAP's choice of Azure to help enterprises transform HR - The SaaS land grab is on - read here
- Event Report - SAP / Trenitalia Digital Summit - SAP is serious about IoT - read here
- First Take - SAP BW/4HANA - Data Gravity and Cloud win - read here
- Event Report - SAP SuccessFactors SConnect - Push on all fronts - read here
- Event Report - SAP Insider Vienna - HCP, BI and SuccessFactors are the takeaways - read here
- Event Report - SAP Sapphire 2016 - Top 3 Positives & Concerns: SAP changes - probably for the better - read here
- First Take - SAP Sapphire Day #2 Keynote - read here
- News Analysis - SAP and Microsoft usher in new era of partnership to accelerate digital transformation in the cloud - read here
- First Take - SAP Sapphire Bill McDermott Day #1 Keynote - read here
- Event Preview - SAP Sapphire 2016 - What to expect and look for - read here
- News Analysis - Apple & SAP Partner to Revolutionize Work on iPhone & iPad - read here
- Progress Report - SAP SuccessFactors makes good progress - now needs appeal beyond SAP - read here
- News Analysis - SAP HANA Vora now available... - A key milestone for SAP - read here
- Event Report - SAP Ariba Live - Make Procurement Cool Again - read here
- News Analysis - SAP SuccessFactors innovates in Performance Management with continuous feedback powered by 1 to 1s - read here
- Event Report - SAP SuccessFactors SuccessConnect - Good Progress sprinkled with innovative ideas and challenging the status quo - read here
- News Analysis - WorkForce Software Announces Global Reseller Agreement with SAP - read here
- First Take - SAP SuccessFactors SuccessConnect - Day #1 Keynote Top 3 Takeaways - read here
- News Analysis - SAP SuccessFactors introduces Next Generation of HCM software - read here
- News Analysis - SAP delivers next release of SAP HANA - SPS 10 - Ready for BigData and IoT - read here
- Event Report - SAP Sapphire - Top 3 Positives and Concerns - read here
- First Take - Bernd Leukert and Steve Singh Day #2 Keynote - read here
- News Analysis - SAP and IBM join forces ... read here
- First Take - SAP Sapphire Bill McDermott Day #1 Keynote - read here
- In Depth - S/4HANA qualities as presented by Plattner - play for play - read here
- First Take - SAP Cloud for Planning - the next spreadsheet killer is off to a good start - read here
- Progress Report - SAP HCM makes progress and consolidates - a lot of moving parts - read here
- First Take - SAP launches S/4HANA - The good, the challenge and the concern - read here
- First Take - SAP's IoT strategy becomes clearer - read here
- SAP appoints a CTO - some musings - read here
- Event Report - SAP's SAPtd - (Finally) more talk on PaaS, good progress and aligning with IBM and Oracle - read here
- News Analysis - SAP and IBM partner for cloud success - good news - read here
- Market Move - SAP strikes again - this time it is Concur and the spend into spend management - read here
- Event Report - SAP SuccessFactors picks up speed - but there remains work to be done - read here
- First Take - SAP SuccessFactors SuccessConnect - Top 3 Takeaways Day 1 Keynote - read here.
- Event Report - Sapphire - SAP finds its (unique) path to cloud - read here
- What I would like SAP to address this Sapphire - read here
- News Analysis - SAP becomes more about applications - again - read here
- Market Move - SAP acquires Fieldglass - off to the contingent workforce - early move or reaction? Read here.
- SAP's startup program keep rolling – read here.
- Why SAP acquired KXEN? Getting serious about Analytics – read here.
- SAP steamlines organization further – the Danes are leaving – read here.
- Reading between the lines… SAP Q2 Earnings – cloudy with potential structural changes – read here.
- SAP wants to be a technology company, really – read here
- Why SAP acquired hybris software – read here.
- SAP gets serious about the cloud – organizationally – read here.
- Taking stock – what SAP answered and it didn’t answer this Sapphire [2013] – read here.
- Act III & Final Day – A tale of two conference – Sapphire & SuiteWorld13 – read here.
- The middle day – 2 keynotes and press releases – Sapphire & SuiteWorld – read here.
- A tale of 2 keynotes and press releases – Sapphire & SuiteWorld – read here.
- What I would like SAP to address this Sapphire – read here.
- Why 3rd party maintenance is key to SAP’s and Oracle’s success – read here.
- Why SAP acquired Camillion – read here.
- Why SAP acquired SmartOps – read here.
- Next in your mall – SAP and Oracle? Read here
And more about SAP technology:
- Event Prieview - SAP TechEd 2015 - read here
- News Analysis - SAP Unveils New Cloud Platform Services and In-Memory Innovation on Hadoop to Accelerate Digital Transformation – A key milestone for SAP read here
- HANA Cloud Platform - Revisited - Improvements ahead and turning into a real PaaS - read here
- News Analysis - SAP commits to CloudFoundry and OpenSource - key steps - but what is the direction? - Read here.
- News Analysis - SAP moves Ariba Spend Visibility to HANA - Interesting first step in a long journey - read here
- Launch Report - When BW 7.4 meets HANA it is like 2 + 2 = 5 - but is 5 enough - read here
- Event Report - BI 2014 and HANA 2014 takeaways - it is all about HANA and Lumira - but is that enough? Read here.
- News Analysis – SAP slices and dices into more Cloud, and of course more HANA – read here.
- SAP gets serious about open source and courts developers – about time – read here.
- My top 3 takeaways from the SAP TechEd keynote – read here.
- SAP discovers elasticity for HANA – kind of – read here.
- Can HANA Cloud be elastic? Tough – read here.
- SAP’s Cloud plans get more cloudy – read here.
- HANA Enterprise Cloud helps SAP discover the cloud (benefits) – read here
Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.
SAP SuccessFactors Analyst Summit 2018