How to Integrate SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central with SAP S/4HANA

As a system of record, SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is where all employee master data is housed and the employee lifecycle is managed.

When using SAP S/4HANA for your ERP processes (such as finance or headcount planning), it’s important to ensure that employee data is available in SAP S/4HANA so that it can be used in those processes.

Packaged integrations for SAP S/4HANA provide replication of employee master data and organizational data from Employee Central to SAP S/4HANA and replication of cost centers from SAP S/4HANA to Employee Central. These scenarios are very similar to those used when integrating Employee Central with SAP ERP. The following figure shows the data flows between Employee Central and SAP S/4HANA.

All packaged integrations for SAP S/4HANA are only available on Cloud Integration. They are not available on Boomi.

Employee Data Replication Integration Process

Once Employee Central is set up, all configuration of the packaged integration (such as infotype mapping and assigning BAdIs) is performed in the Cloud Integration middleware and in SAP S/4HANA. Within SAP S/4HANA, configuration is performed in the Business Integration Builder in the IMG via menu path Personnel Management > Integration with SuccessFactors Employee Central > Business Integration Builder.

The integration process is almost identical to the employee data integration process between Employee Central and SAP ERP. The integration process is as follows:

1. Query program ECPAO_EE_ORG_REPL_QUERY reads the Business Integration Builder configuration and calls the outbound web service getEmployeeMasterDataAndOrgAssignmentBundleReplicationQuery, which sends a query to the Cloud Integration middleware. This is recorded in the query administration tables in SAP S/4HANA.
2. The integration middleware calls the Compound Employee API in Employee Central to retrieve the data specified in the query.
3. Data transformation is performed and the data processed as necessary in Cloud Integration.
4. Cloud Integration calls the inbound web service EmployeeMasterDataAndOrgAssignmentBundleReplicationRequest in SAP S/4HANA and sends the data. The inbound web service triggers the processing of the employee data and triggers event SAP_SFIOM_EE_ORGAS_RPPQ_CREATED. Any organizational assignment data is stored in a staging area.
5. The employee data is written to Personnel Administration (PA) infotypes. Records are created, edited, or delimited as required based on the data sent from Employee Central and the infotype framework in SAP S/4HANA. Once the update is completed, the organizational assignments are created in the Organizational Management (OM) infotypes.
6. The outbound web service EmployeeMasterDataReplicationConfirmation is triggered to send a success or failure message to Cloud Integration, which in turn is sent to the Data Replication Monitor in Employee Central.

For more information on the details of the integration, field mappings, BAdIs, and minimum requirements and prerequisites, refer to the Replicating Employee Master Data and Organizational Assignments from Employee Central to SAP S/4HANA HR integration guide found on the SAP Help Portal.

Organizational Data Replication Integration Process

Once Employee Central is set up, all configuration of the packaged integration (such as infotype mapping and assigning BAdIs) is performed in the Cloud Integration middleware and in SAP S/4HANA. Within SAP S/4HANA, configuration is performed in the Business Integration Builder in the IMG via menu path Personnel Management > Integration with SuccessFactors Employee Central > Business Integration Builder.

The integration process is almost identical to the organizational data integration process between Employee Central and SAP ERP. The integration process is as follows:

1. Query program RH_SFIOM_ORG_OBJ_REPL_QUERY reads the Business Integration Builder configuration and calls the outbound web service getOrganisationalObjectReplicationQuery_Out, which sends a query to the Cloud Integration middleware. This is recorded in the query administration tables in S/4HANA.
2. SAP Cloud Platform Integration calls the OData API in Employee Central to retrieve the data specified in the query using the filters defined in the middleware configuration.
3. Data transformation is performed and the data processed as necessary in Cloud Integration.
4. Cloud Integration calls the inbound web service OrganisationalObjectReplicationNotification_In in S/4HANA and updates table SFIOM_QRY_ADM with the status for each object type (Sent, Successful, or Failed)
5. Cloud Integration calls the inbound web service OrganisationalObjectReplicationResponse_In in SAP S/4HANA and sends the data. The inbound web service triggers the processing of the employee data and triggers event AP_SFIOM_ORG_STRUC_RPRQ_CREATED.
6. The data is written to OM infotypes. Records are created, edited, or delimited as required based on the data sent from Employee Central and the infotype framework in S/4HANA.
7. The application log is updated.

For more information on the details of the integration, field mappings, BAdIs, and minimum requirements and prerequisites, refer to the Replicating Organizational Data from Employee Central to SAP S/4HANA HR integration guide found on the SAP Help Portal. 

Cost Center Data Replication Integration Process

Once Employee Central is set up, all configuration of the packaged integration (such as infotype mapping and assigning BAdIs) is performed in the middleware and in SAP S/4HANA. Within SAP ERP, configuration is performed in the IMG via menu path Controlling > Integration of SAP ERP CO Master Data with SuccessFactors Employee Central.

The integration process is almost identical to the cost center data integration process between Employee Central and SAP ERP. The integration process is as follows:

1. Data replication is triggered via scheduled jobs. If replication is via IDoc technology, then Report RBDMIDOC runs in SAP ERP (usually as a scheduled job), followed by Report ODTF_REPL_CC. If replication is via a flat file, then Report ODTF_REPL_CC_CSV runs.
2. Data conversion and transformation is performed as necessary in the middleware.
3. The data is written to Employee Central. Records are created, edited, or delimited as required based on the data sent from SAP ERP FI-CO.

For more information on the details of the integration, field mappings, BAdIs, and minimum requirements and prerequisites, refer to the Replicating Cost Centers from SAP S/4HANA to Employee Central integration guide found at http://help.sap.com/hr_ecintegration. 

Monitoring Replication

The Data Replication Monitor in Employee Central can be used to monitor and re-run replication from Employee Central to SAP S/4HANA. The Data Replication Monitor supports monitoring of employee data replication, organizational assignments, absence data, and time pay components data.

The Data Replication Monitor provides a status of replication, error messages, filtering options, and the ability to reschedule data replication (manually or automatically).

Hint: For more information on Data Replication Monitor for SAP S/4HANA refer to the Employee Central Data Replication Monitor for SAP S/4HANA Integration guide found on the SAP Help Portal.

Conclusion

Combining the power of SAP S/4HANA with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is a great way to supercharge your HR processes. This blog showed you how to integrate the two solutions; did you read anything that made you go “I wouldn’t have thought of that!”?

Editor’s note: This post has been adapted from a section of the book SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central: The Comprehensive Guide by Luke Marson, Rebecca Murray, and Brandon Toombs.