news & insights
back to all news
S2 C SAP HCM sunset
1 February 2025

transition SAP HCM to the Cloud

Why migrate from SAP HCM to the Cloud now?

With the announced end of maintenance for SAP HCM On-Premise, scheduled for the coming years, it is crucial for companies to start planning their migration to the Cloud with SAP SuccessFactors or S/4 HANA now. This transition is not just a matter of compliance but also an opportunity to optimize and modernize HR processes, adding the powerful of AI.

In other words, there is no escape: your SAP HCM suite as you know it today, will need some sort of upgrade in the coming years. So that's why probably you are facing those kinds of questions:

  • Is the SAP cloud offering robust enough for our business?
  • Will we have to start again from scratch?
  • Will the migration cause disruption to our existing HR processes?
  • How long will SAP continue to support my existing solution?

In fact, the transition from SAP HCM to the cloud can often feel overwhelming, with many misconceptions surrounding complexity, cost, and risk. However, with the SAP deadline for moving to the cloud quickly approaching, it’s critical that organizations have a clear plan to tackle this transition head-on.

At Arago, with Success2Cloud offer (S2C), we recognize that every organization is unique, so is their cloud journey. Not everyone is ready to rapidly transition from their familiar on-prem HR solution to cloud-based SAP SuccessFactors. That's why we support customers in both migration scenarios:

  1. SAP SuccessFactors - for the existing ECC customers who decides to move to SAP SuccessFactors (Core HR and/or Time and/or PY). As with all its solutions, SAP’s roadmap for HCM focuses on cloud-first: every innovation that SAP develops is embedded in its cloud-based SAP SuccessFactors platform.
  2. HCM for S/4HANA (H4S4) - For the existing ECC customers who want to extend their current investment in SAP ERP HCM, while creating a bridge to the cloud and the future. You may want to gradually move to the cloud, without a SAP SuccessFactors big-bang.

SAP has said that there is a migration path from SAP HCM to H4S4, but by definition, that is an intermediate step. The final step for SAP is still to move to SAP SuccessFactors. Simply put, this must happen, and it must happen as soon as possible. SAP’s message has been clear: SAP SuccessFactors is the future solution for HR and payroll.

Steps to the cloud Transparent 2

Reviewing the available options for customers, the SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite emerges as the most future-proof choice. Unlike other products available to customers, SAP SuccessFactors has no defined end-of-life or cessation in support, with an extended roadmap beyond 2040 and into the future. This underscores SAP’s long-term commitment to its cloud-based solutions, ensuring continuous updates, innovation and comprehensive support.

SAP End of Maintenance

the benefits of SAP SuccessFactors

SAP SuccessFactors offers a complete suite of cloud-based HR solutions, enabling integrated and flexible management of talents, payroll, and HR processes. By migrating to this platform, companies can benefit from:

  • Continuous updates: unlike On-Premise solutions, updates and improvements are deployed automatically, ensuring your system is always up-to-date with the latest features and regulations.
  • Accessibility: being a cloud solution, SAP SuccessFactors is accessible from anywhere, facilitating remote work and the management of distributed teams.
  • Enhanced Employee Experience: Through its ‘Employee Experience Layer,’ SAP SuccessFactors delivers a user-centric platform that enhances engagement and productivity.
  • Scalability: the platform can easily adapt to the growth of your business without requiring heavy investments in infrastructure.
  • Innovation: leveraging AI and machine learning capabilities, SAP SuccessFactors significantly enhances decision-making processes, automates routine tasks, and offers predictive analytics to improve HR outcomes. The innovative payroll slip search feature powered by the Joule AI assistant allows employees to quickly and easily find their payroll slips, resulting in substantial time savings and enhanced accessibility compared to traditional methods.

the challenges of migration

However, migrating from SAP HCM to SAP SuccessFactors can present some challenges that are important to anticipate:

  • Data complexity: migrating historical and current data can be complex and requires careful planning to avoid losses or inconsistencies.
  • Process adaptation: existing HR processes may need to be adapted to fully leverage the functionalities of SAP SuccessFactors.
  • User training: HR teams will need to be trained on the new platform, which can require time and resources.

Arago uses specific methodologies and tools to simplify, secure and accelerate this migration process.

the S2C offer from Arago

To simplify this transition, Arago offers a packaged solution called Success2Cloud (S2C). This solution enables a secure, rapid, and cost-controlled migration from SAP HCM to the cloud.

Arago provides a complete data migration and integration toolkit with pre-configured solutions that allow you to easily and successfully migrate and integrate data from SAP to cloud HR solution.

We provide templates with pre-built, legislatively compliant and leading practice configurations that can be adapted to fit your organisation’s unique needs. These templates integrate preconfigured settings for managing Payments, Allowances, Deductions, and other country-specific features. As an experienced implementation specialist, Arago s can significantly simplify the migration process.

Here are the highlights of this offer:

  • Dual expertise: Our teams have dual expertise in SAP HCM/Payroll and SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and ECP (Employee Central Payroll), ensuring a deep understanding of both systems.
  • Three dimensions of migration: S2C offer covers the migration of Payroll, Core HR, and time management, ensuring a complete and integrated transition.
  • Configuration audit: An audit phase is included to compare the current configuration with the target configuration, identifying the necessary adjustments for a successful migration.
  • Specialized tools/Accelerators: Powerful tools designed to streamline and enhance your payroll migration and validation processes. Their solutions are built by HR and Payroll experts for SAP HCM and SAP SuccessFactors users and industry leaders. These tools optimize key HXM and Payroll processes, de-risk and accelerate implementations and upgrades, and improve overall user productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness.

S2C Readiness check

A detailed feasibility analysis must be performed to determine which items can and must be migrated before moving these over to the Cloud.

That's why we provide you a deep evaluation of your current SAP HCM landscape, with two dimensions:

  • HCM Assessment Report (free of charge): accessing to the required level of insight into key topics areas (such as implemented functionality, degree of customization, number of interfaces, and existing data footprint) necessary to properly assess the complexity of your existing SAP HCM landscape.
  • HCM Executive Report: to help you plan the next steps on your digital transformation journey (highlight key findings and immediate opportunities for value creation, provide project costing estimate and value realization plan with recommendation on tangible ROI opportunities). You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of the true benefits of the cloud, a stronger position to evaluate your options, and key insights into accelerators—like Lift, Shift and Transform approaches—that can dramatically reduce timelines and costs, making your cloud migration more efficient and cost-effective than ever before.

The S2C Readiness check will help you select the journey that best meets your unique needs. And, of course, we can help you implement any solution you’re choosing!

SAP SuccessFactors EC (Employee Central)

You start with your core or foundation with EC which is the ‘system of record’ for your Master Data for employees in the award-winning SAP SuccessFactors solution. Here you maintain all the starters/leavers/movers in your company, adding personal, contractual and payment information to build up a detailed HR record.

SAP SuccessFactors ECP (Employee Central Payroll)

This is your new Payroll processing engine, hosted by SAP. It looks like ‘traditional’ SAP, so the end-user experience is pretty much the same, with arguably the most powerful payroll engine – SAP Payroll. The difference is you won’t be using them in the traditional manner, you’ll be working in the new SAP Payroll Control Centre (PCE). By migrating to ECP, companies can also:

  • Reduce operational risks: thanks to innovative cloud technology, delivered localization, and pre-delivered content, companies can reduce operational risks and costs.
  • Improve user experience: simple and consistent processes across HR, payroll, and benefits management improve the user experience.
  • Digitally transform HR operations: by migrating to a cloud solution, companies can make smart business decisions and improve organizational outcomes.
  • Personalize employee experiences: the solution allows for personalized employee experiences, thereby increasing satisfaction and engagement.
  • Streamline and automate their payroll processes with Payroll Control Center, saving time and reducing the risk of errors.

SAP Time Management

Time Management is a complex process that often requires specialist solutions to meet a customer’s needs.

Time Management plays an important role in connecting business activities, workforce and payroll. It ensures that employees’ effort can be logged and attributed to the relevant project tasks or operational duties, that employees are correctly paid for their work by payroll, and that management has a clear overview of its labour costs.

Nowadays, organizations running SAP’s HCM solution make use of its well-established Time & Attendance module. Moving to the cloud and for businesses that require sophisticated and integrated Time management functionality, SAP proposes different 3 options:

  • SAP SuccessFactors Time-off:  Global absence management capabilities to support all types of employees across geographies. Time Off feature has proved sufficient for basic management of leave balances and negative variations from normal working hours.
  • SAP SuccessFactors Time Tracking:  Comprehensive and advanced time tracking capabilities to cover hourly, blue-collar, shift, or deskless workforce. Time Tracking provides enhanced time evaluation possibilities, which removes some major barriers to migrating payroll from an ERP HCM system.
  • Consolidated Time Recording with S/4 (only available with S/4HANA PCE): offers consolidated time management processes across SAP S/4HANA and SAP SuccessFactors. Consolidated Time Recording (CTR) with SAP S/4HANA is a successor to the Cross-Application Time Sheet in the Cloud. This feature allows you to benefit from a single Timesheet interface with centralized and streamlined time tracking across various SAP S/4HANA and SAP SuccessFactors business processes like project monitoring, billing, costing, HR regulatory compliance, and payment to employees.
as a conclusion

Anticipating the end of SAP HCM maintenance soon, by migrating now to the cloud allows you not only to remain compliant but also to modernize and optimize your HR processes. With Arago's S2C offer, this transition can be carried out securely, quickly, and economically, thanks to our expertise and integrated approach.

The various deployment options (Greenfield, Brownfield, and Hybrid) provide tailored pathways for organizations based on their unique requirements and existing setups. But for those that haven’t, it’s important to acknowledge that with many SAP customers in a similar situation, delaying the inevitable migration may lead to a shortage of resources or increased prices as the transition deadline draws closer.

One thing is certain for all businesses, and that is that time is ticking, and companies must pick a migration strategy for their on-premise SAP HCM as soon as possible.

Different scenarios are then possible and we are here to support you and help you to find the right path, so don't hesitate to contact usLet's talk!