Microsoft to Use SAP SuccessFactors for HR Management

By Casey Houser
Contributing Writer

The typical storyline we often see here follows a smaller company adopting the software or hardware of a larger, more experienced company. But what happens when two global entities meet? That is the tale behind Microsoft’s recent adoption of the SAP (News - Alert) SuccessFactors human capital management (HCM) suite.

Microsoft, as readers here all know, is one of the largest businesses in operation both in terms of its employee base and it terms of its global product reach. The employee base alone boasts more than 114,000 on the full-time roster, so human resources (HR) has an armful of responsibility when it comes to dealing with payroll, benefits, hiring, and the many other tasks delegated to that department’s own employees.

HCM software, like the cloud-based SuccessFactors, absorbs all these HR tasks into a single system that individuals can access no matter their location. What this means for Microsoft (News - Alert) is that it can have its offices in the U.S. link with offices in Europe or any other continent and manage the same personnel. They can support continuous training of existing employees to match regulatory requirements and can connect their own local training materials to offices hundreds or thousands of miles away.

In large part, the HCM helps eliminate the replication of effort and creation of materials. One office can create training materials, for instance, that apply to other offices in various nearby countries. Their collective link to the cloud-based software keeps their necessary efforts in lockstep and allows all jurisdictions, of which Microsoft has many, to remain in good standing with local and state business requirements.

Mike Ettling, the president of SAP SuccessFactors, said this will keep Microsoft and his company’s other partners from leading HR departments that are too complex.

“HR today has become overly complex, especially for large global enterprises contending with hundreds of legal and regulatory jurisdictions,” Ettling said. “Microsoft recognizes that transformation requires simplifying that environment, but just as importantly, as a global technology innovator, it also realizes the importance of providing its people with cloud-based solutions that are cool and easy to use.”

He spoke for his entire company in noting its excitement for beginning another chapter in the saga that is the SAP-Microsoft partnership. The two companies have a long history of collaboration; most recently, SAP chose Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform as a preferred cloud service for running SuccessFactors. The wheel turns as both companies benefit from each other’s products. As they have in the past, surely both companies expect success to follow.