In today’s world, employees want a similar digital experience at work as they have outside of work. They want quick, easy, intuitive solutions that engage, empower, and provide a positive consumer experience.

We in HR at SAP are the Formula 1 test drivers for many of our solutions and are delighted to be the largest enterprise to go live with the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central solution running on SAP HANA.

About 95,000 SAP employees are testers of this cloud solution, which enables them to take control of their own personal HR and employment details, making it easy to initiate, update, and complete their own data changes.

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central moves most of our manager and employee self-services into the cloud, standardizing around 70 process flows and eliminating over 1,300 data fields — more than 20 percent. SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central also provides a mobile experience on the SAP SuccessFactors app, one of the most popular mobile apps in the SAP employee and manager community.

As a result, HR information for more than 100,000 — headcount and non-headcount related — active users across 152 legal entities is managed directly in cloud-based HCM software from SAP. On average, it is expected to handle more than 4,800 organizational changes per month, with all of SAP’s key HR processes now in the cloud.

Why Has SAP Moved to SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central on SAP HANA?

SAP is focused on helping its customers become intelligent enterprises. So where better to start than within SAP itself? Intelligent enterprises deliver a best-in-class consumer experience, and at SAP employees and managers are now able to update or change many personal and employment details themselves.

SAP Managers and Employees are Test Drivers

We want our managers and employees to have a positive consumer experience with all HR touchpoints. As the first large-scale organization to implement SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central on SAP HANA, we want to get it right so that we can share our experiences with customers of this size.

With SAP running SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central on SAP HANA, we are experiencing optimized performance. We are also set up to reap the benefits of being on the same data management platform as SAP S/4HANA and SAP Analytics Cloud. For example, we’ll be able to perform real-time reporting and analysis across HR and finance data as well as leverage advanced predictive techniques for planning, recruiting, and developing talent.

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central means not only more automated and consumer-focused HR services, but also more transparency and easier tracking, which simplifies day-to-day business for managers and employees. It also means we can focus our time and efforts on leading and developing our people, as well as driving business results.

Stefan Ries is chief human resources officer and a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE.