Link to My post on Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sap-hana-cloud-platform-best-both-worlds-thierry-logiest?trk=mp-author-card
So you thought that SAP offered SuccessFactors ( A Cloud HR solution with seemingly limited configurability and extensibility ) to its HR community based on the assumption that “All HR processes are the same for all companies” and as a consequence there is no need for company specific processes & requirements (-; ? Don’t faint … OF COURSE NOT !
SuccessFactors is no longer that inflexible cloud black-box of a few years back and with every speedy 3 months release ever less so.( Yep releases are much much quicker in the Cloud then On Premises )
Today SuccessFactors Meta Data Framework (MDF) working together with the SAP HANA Cloud Platform (HCP) offers you the ability to create full blown application extensions to SuccessFactors Employee central but also SAP ERP HCM.
In practise this means that you can for example create a new access point in standard SuccessFactors EC such as a new menu entry and link it to your new development. Once you click on the link you get directed to your new application running on SAP HCP together with the necessary authorisations and contextual data, only the URL changes in the browser but apart from this the experience is seamless.
Quoting SuccessFactors :
“The extension package for SuccessFactors delivers the in-memory computing speed of SAP HANA and includes capabilities from the SuccessFactors Metadata Framework (MDF) and the SAP HANA Cloud Platform for extension development. This combination of technology makes it easier for SuccessFactors customers, partners, and developers to extend cloud or on-premises applications, build entirely new cloud applications, and enable new processes that meet unique business needs”
By the way If you hadn’t noticed (-; the HANA Cloud Platform is often confused with the HANA In Memory database or even, since the announcement last February, with the S4 Hana SAP Upgrade. No need to get confused the common denominator here is the HANA In Memory database which is used by all 3 solutions but apart from this they are very different offerings.
The HANA Cloud Platform (HCP) adds Platform capabilities to the SAP HANA In Memory database and in doing so essentially becomes the central point of your enterprise application development and system integration. Furthermore this allows SuccessFactors and future SAP Cloud solutions to become as flexible as On Premises while remaining as agile and cost effective as a cloud solution should be … to me this sounds like the best of both worlds no ?
