Companies flock to cloud HR systems launched by SAP

SAP, the market leader in enterprise application software helps organisations fight the damaging effects of complexity, generate new opportunities for innovation and growth, and stay ahead of the competition.

SAP released its new product named SAP SuccessFactors which helps companies not only update their human resources IT system, but also obtain value out of the employee data stored.

"HR technologies can be fairly antiquated," David Ludlow, group vice president at SAP Labs told eWEEK. He also added that HR is always disregarded when it comes to making modern approaches to employee management is that business leaders view HR as a "cost center, not a profit center.

Ludlow said the People Central Hub enables enterprise customers "to integrate HR data into enterprise systems." Those systems can include enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, identity management systems and other critical business platforms that may benefit by tapping into employee information.

The process of integrating HR data becomes complex to any enterprise with workforces that are spread across the globe and whose regional offices run hundreds of HR systems that don't speak the same language, in the literal sense. Oftentimes, these systems are inherited as part of a merger or acquisition, further complicating matters.

To relieve enterprises from these challenges, SAP introduced its product SAP SuccessFactors. Although customers can use SAP SuccessFactors People Central Hub solely for its data integration capabilities, it can also provide an on-ramp to cloud-enabled human capital management (HCM) systems, including the SAP SuccessFactors HCM suite, said Ludlow. SAP acquired HCM specialist SuccessFactors in 2012.

The People Central Hub can serve as a "first step toward an eventual replacement" of legacy on-premise HR systems for organizations that may not have the budget for a sweeping overhaul, said Ludlow.