Secure Data Migration From SAP HCM To SAP SuccessFactors

Your journey to the cloud:Secure data migration from SAP HCMto SAP SuccessFactors

With low investment and operating costs, unlimitedscalability, and permanently up-to-date applications, cloudcomputing offers many advantages for both managers andIT specialists in the field of Human Resources (HR). But oneimportant step lies between the concept of cloud solutionsand the reality of their productive use: data migration.While transporting data from an old system to a new one isnot rocket science, HR information is added and updated—and required—each and every day, so it must be accurateand available. Carrying out a migration with greater speedand control enables organizations to start reaping thebenefits of a new system quickly and easily. You may havefound yourself wondering how you can continue to runall of your HR processes smoothly in SAP SuccessFactorsfollowing your migration. How can you make sure that thetransition is seamless, that payroll is accurate, and that,ultimately, you will be able to take your old system offline?2

A team effortThe various tasks involved in a migration project requiredifferent skill sets. As a result, HR professionals or theirstrategic partners enlist a variety of teams that are oftenscattered across several locations. A challenge lies incoordinating these teams’ schedules and activities whileminimizing miscommunications or errors.At the same time, the HR department needs to offer itssubject matter expertise on various decisions related tothe HR data:Mapping out a migration manually using Excelspreadsheets is especially prone to common, but easilypreventable errors (typographical, forgotten fields, missingor incorrect field length specifications) that lead to delaysand additional effort further down the line. Consequently,the process of uploading data into SAP SuccessFactors willneed multiple cycles to complete the task. Software toolsmake it possible to avoid such errors by automating andmonitoring many of the steps involved in data migration.What data fields and structures need to betransported into the new system, for example,and how will they be mapped?How many years of historical data, if any, shouldbe migrated?What data will not be migrated but needs to bearchived for reporting and regulatory purposes?Is there any requirement for data enrichment andaugmentation, due to the data structure of thenew system, and what rules need to be applied tosupplement the source data?An actual migration is handled by an IT team in HR,who convert the data from the old system andcreate corresponding CSV files to be uploaded intoSAP SuccessFactors.At present, SAP SuccessFactors provides nearly 30 uploadtemplates—individual CSV template files that need to beproperly filled out—for migrating employee data alone.Before the data is actually transferred, a series of testruns (or “mock conversions”) are conducted. Every mockincludes more data and better quality as the errors arecorrected in each new run until the information in thetarget system matches that of the source.In many cases, the old field names can be implementedas-is in the new system. When they cannot, the situationis more complex. Conversion rules must be defined;experts in the HR processes at hand need to determinewhether certain data is required and how each rule shouldbe formulated to deliver the right results for each andevery relevant process.The necessary quality assurance tasks are handled by thetest team. The tests performed must cover all of the HRprocesses that are to be administered in the new SAPSuccessFactors system. This means that a sufficientnumber of test cases are needed for the different employeegroups or types. The effort required to properly organizethis task should not be underestimated.3

Regardless of whether the project lead is on thecustomer side or the consulting team, he or she needsto collaborate with the HR department in making threeimportant decisions:1. Are the results of the test runs good enough to proceedwith

Oct 05, 2017 · Carrying out the migration 1. Upload data into SAP SuccessFactors The exported data can be divided into smaller files, which prevents the upload process from causing performance problems in the SAP SuccessFactors system. 2. Check data consistency between the old and new systems The data in the old and new systems are compared automatically.