The purpose of this migration is to prepare your company for the future as well as to maximise the advantages of next-generation operations.
Is SAP® SuccessFactors® Employee Central Payroll an ideal solution for you?
Closely observing the market trends, payroll migration to the cloud is driven by many reasons, including businesses’ desire to save expenses while increasing efficiency.
After numerous years of development, SAP ERP HCM’s payroll system is incredibly sophisticated. Over time, customers – especially those with substantial number of employees and highly bespoken payroll solutions, have made significant investment in terms of cost, resources for implementation, ongoing maintenance, and staying current with updates to their payroll solution. These customers would like to take advantage of their ERP HCM Payroll investments and investigate the potential for switching to SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll (ECP).
Factors that led to the migration of SAP ERP HCM customers towards ECP
- Streamline the current system to adopt more modern and integrated solutions.
- Fully transition into ECP before the end of mainstream maintenance date for SAP ERP HCM being 2027 (or extended maintenance to 2030).
- Streamline the legacy payroll processes by adopting a unified tool, Payroll Control Center supported by KPI’s and validation rules.
- Improve user experiences with simple and consistent processes across HR, payroll, and time and benefits management.
Overview of migration process from SAP ERP HCM Payroll to EC Payroll
The migration process from SAP ERP HCM Payroll to EC Payroll commences by engaging an implementation partner capable of assessing both the legacy system and business processes to formulate a strategy, requiring meticulous evaluation and planning. Following the preparation phase, the design phase ensures the alignment between current processes and the new system, with potential process redefinition based on system capabilities. An assessment of the data migration strategy is performed to determine the data slated for migration and ascertain the level of historical data inclusion.
Subsequently, the system is built according to the agreed-upon design and undergoes several testing phases, including unit testing, system integration testing, user acceptance testing, and parallel run. The parallel run, a critical phase in any payroll implementation, validates the system’s readiness for production use. Effective change management and ongoing support are vital to ensuring a seamless transition and facilitating end-user adoption of the new system.
By adopting a strategic approach and leveraging the expertise of experienced partners like Zalaris, organisations can successfully navigate the complexities of migrating to SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll.
Problems HR professionals are trying to solve with migration
HR professionals primarily focus on enhancing efficiency and accuracy in payroll processes. They aim to streamline current systems by
adopting more modern, integrated solutions like Employee Central Payroll (ECP) that offer improved functionality, regulatory compliance, and user experience. But evolution doesn’t stop there. SAP’s strategic shift toward cloud technology is reshaping how businesses tackle HR and payroll management. This shift isn’t merely a trend – it’s a game-changer.
By embracing cloud-based solutions, companies unlock a host of benefits, including access to niche cloud-native products that amplify productivity and innovation.
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Challenges while implementing SAP ECP and how to navigate through them
Every payroll implementation presents its own set of unique challenges, yet the common goal remains to seamlessly transition current business processes into a new system with minimal disruption. One of the primary hurdles faced by customers is migrating master data to the new system.
For customers currently utilising SAP ERP HCM and transitioning to SuccessFactors ECP, they have the choice between lift and shift the existing configurations and data or ‘start from scratch’. There are certain tools available in standard that translates the ERP HCM data into the SuccessFactors format, for instance, SAP Infoporter tool. Alternatively, the Spinifex Easy Migration de-risks and accelerates the migration to ECP.
Non-SAP customers seeking to migrate to SAP SuccessFactors ECP do not have the lift-and-shift option, compelling them to start from scratch. This requires thorough planning due to the significant costs associated with changing payroll products.
Opting to start from scratch provides customers with the opportunity to leverage accelerators offered by implementation partners, streamlining the process and reducing both time and costs.
Overcoming the implementation challenges
Implementing a new payroll system can be a daunting task, but with the right approach and tools, organisations can successfully navigate through the challenges. Customers should conduct a comprehensive assessment of available payroll products and choose the one that aligns with most of their business requirements.
This evaluation should encompass the long-term objectives of the organisation to ensure that the selected system not only handles payroll processing but also integrates seamlessly with other essential business functions, such as HRIS and talent modules.
While several aspects address these issues, the most significant include:
- Thoroughly assessing your organisation’s payroll needs and requirements.
- Defining clear objectives and goals for the implementation process.
- Involving key stakeholders early on.
- Utilising appropriate tools for data migration.
- Collaborating closely with the implementation partner to align with your business processes.
- Anticipate resistance to change and proactively manage it through effective change management strategies.
- Identify potential risks and develop mitigation strategies to address them proactively. Monitor progress, identify early warning signs, and take corrective action as needed to prevent project delays or cost overruns.
It’s essential to recognise that payroll is not a one-time event but an ongoing process.
Integration – Key feature of SAP SuccessFactors ECP
In today’s dynamic business landscape, the integration of Employee Central Payroll (ECP) with SAP’s Human Experience Management (HXM) suite marks a significant advancement in managing HR and payroll processes. This seamless integration provides organisations with a unified system, streamlined operations and enhanced efficiency.
While the task of maintaining and updating systems to comply with local legislation can pose challenges for many payroll providers, SAP addresses this concern with ECP locale complaint for 50 countries, with plans to gradually add more countries. This ensures that organisations can stay up to date with regulatory requirements without unnecessary complexities.
SAP’s Cloud Payroll (ECP) utilises the same payroll engine as proven existing SAP ERP HCM Payroll, but it’s hosted on the cloud with improved user interfaces and seamless integrations. ECP features a unified tool Payroll Control Center, which is truly proactive than reactive. It allows real-time monitoring and makes the end-to-end payroll process simple and efficient. It’s One-Click Monitoring provides real time insights in terms of data quality and accuracy even before the productive payroll.
Employee Central Payroll integrated with SAP’s HXM suite, combined with a cloud strategy, presents a compelling solution for organisations looking to streamline HR and payroll processes while staying compliant and competitive in a rapidly changing business environment.
Start the migration journey with Zalaris
Zalaris, as a leading SAP gold partner with over 2 decades of experience in implementing and supporting SAP HR & Payroll solutions offers PeopleHub, powered by the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll (ECP) solution.
A template enriched with pre-built, legislatively compliant and leading practice configuration, that minimises the need for users to reinvent the wheel. This template integrates preconfigured settings for managing Payments, Allowances, Deductions, and other country-specific features. Serving as an accelerator, it offers customers advantages such as base configuration, simplified business processes, and streamlined data migration processes.
Furthermore, the solution is bundled with Spinifex IT Easy Reporter tool, granting customers access to a comprehensive suite of payroll reporting capabilities. Starting from the planning phase of the implementation, Zalaris collaborates closely with the business to devise a strategy for payroll transformation. This involves in-depth discussions leading to the proposal of architecture, peripheral system considerations, and overall integration within the customer’s ecosystem.
Feel free to reach out to us if you would like to move your on-premise SAP Payroll to SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll with the assistance of Zalaris.