Organizations often run legacy systems for core operations—finance, procurement, manufacturing—and at the same time adopt modern cloud tools for HR and talent. The goal isn’t simply coexistence — it’s genuine integration, so that the enterprise operates as one unified system.
That’s exactly where SAP ECC and SuccessFactors come in.
The point of combining them is this: ECC handles the “operations”, and SuccessFactors manages the “human side.” Together, they sync changes bi‑directionally — enforcing consistency, eliminating duplication, and enabling smooth business flows.
The Foundations: What Is SAP ECC, And What Is SAP SuccessFactors
Before integration, knowing each system’s role is vital.
- What Is SAP ECC: It’s the enterprise backbone many companies use—modules for operations, logistic flows, finance, HR (traditional), manufacturing, inventory. It’s strong, stable, built over years, often heavily customized.
- What Is SAP SuccessFactors: The HR suite in the cloud—talent, learning, performance, recruiting, core HR. Designed to handle the evolving human capital demands flexibly and innovatively. Together, the two systems create a hybrid architecture: ECC handles heavy lifting; SuccessFactors brings modern HR user experience. But the magic lies in how they integrate. harmonizing data, and processes so that the enterprise behaves end‑to‑end as though it’s one system.
Why Hybrid Over Full Cloud or Full -On-premise
Switching everything to SuccessFactors or moving ECC entirely to the cloud is tempting. But they come with certain risks and trade-offs.
Many businesses aren’t ready to let go of ECC customizations and integrations overnight. Payroll, compliance, local regulation, complex cost-center models—these often still reside in ECC. These capabilities are well‑tested in many regions and may require heavy localization.
Meanwhile, HR teams demand agility, mobile UIs, and continuous innovation, which cloud HR provides more naturally.
So, hybrid mode—HR cloud + operations on ECC—gives breathing space. You modernize without breaking everything.
Key Objects That Must Sync Between Them
For the hybrid to feel seamless, certain core domains must shuttle between ECC and SuccessFactors:
- Employee master data (name, ID, org unit)
- Job/position and role structures
- Cost centers, organizational hierarchies
- Time, attendance, leave records
- Payroll-relevant fields
- Talent or performance data where overlap exists
For example, a promotion in SuccessFactors must flow into ECC cost accounting. Or a location change in ECC should reflect in SuccessFactors org charts.
SAP provides integration templates and prebuilt connectors to facilitate this data exchange.
Integration Architecture: From Replication To Orchestration
There are several levels of integration, depending on how “live” you need the systems to be.
- Basic replication: periodic batch pushes of HR data from SuccessFactors to ECC (or vice versa). It is easy to design, offers lower operational complexity, but poses latency, data-staleness risks.
- Near real-time updates: use event triggers so changes propagate quickly. It can minimize latency and keep clinical consistency between systems.
- Orchestration: combining events, validations, reconciliation—if something conflicts, rules decide which system overrides
- Bidirectional flows: ECC changes (e.g. cost center moves) go into SuccessFactors, and HR changes go back to ECC.
It needs careful design of data ownership, conflict resolution, and direction.
APIs, middleware, adapters—all play roles here. SuccessFactors offers SFAPI and OData APIs, and ECC can expose SOAP/RFC endpoints.
Typical Deployment Pattern: Core Hybrid
Many enterprises choose a “core hybrid” mode: SuccessFactors becomes the system of record for core HR and related modules, while ECC retains things like payroll, compliance, time in certain geographies.
In this model:
- SuccessFactors handles employee lifecycle, performance, goals
- ECC continues managing payroll where cloud payroll isn’t adopted
- Integration handles replication of employee and organizational data into ECC
- ECC sends cost center and organizational structure back into SuccessFactors
That gives modernization without disruption.
Challenges to Watch For
Bridging two big systems is not trivial. Some recurrent issues include:
- Data mismatch: fields named differently, formatting gaps, validation logic diverging
- Timing or concurrency issues: when changes happen near simultaneouslycan lead to data conflicts and inconsistencies.
- Custom logic conflicts: ECC custom infotypes or extensions that don’t map cleanly leading to data loss, misinterpretation, or integration issues.
- Access control and security: who edits where, and how changes are governed
- Version drift: SuccessFactors updates frequently, ECC may lag leading to potential compatibility issues.
Robust error-handling, reconciliation logs, governance rules help reduce surprises.
Best Practices for Integration Success
Here’s what tends to get things right:
- Data mapping workshops early—to confirm every field’s meaning, format, validation
- Use SAP’s integration templates or accelerator packs to reduce custom work
- Start small: replicate basic HR data first, then extend to payroll and more complex flows
- Reconciliation & audit trails: build logging so mismatches get flagged and corrected
- Govern change: define which side is authoritative for each domain
- Test end-to-end in realistic scenarios: transfers, promotions, terminations, org moves
- Train users to know which edits happen in which system
- Iterate: don’t try to perfect integration in the first shot
It is a continuous process feedback and evolving business needs.
Over time, you can ramp up complexity.
The Payoffs When Integration Is Tight
When ECC and SuccessFactors interoperate well:
- HR and operations data stay consistent across the enterprise
- Manual data entry across systems shrinks
- Reporting becomes more holistic—talent metrics + cost & operations
- Automated flows reduce lag in employee changes
- Better employee experience: self-service, cohesion, fewer disconnects
That’s how you turn two systems into a living, breathing, unified enterprise platform.
Coexisting While Transitioning
Many enterprises remain in hybrid mode for years while they transition more modules to cloud. Some payroll units stay in ECC for legal or regional reasons. Others migrate slowly.
You don’t have to switch everything overnight. The integration architecture you build early must support expansion, not lock-in.
Move talent modules first, compliance next, then payroll—all at your own pace—while ensuring core HR data is synchronized to minimize disruptions.
Final Thought
Linking SAP ECC and SuccessFactors isn’t a technical stunt—it’s a strategic move that bridges operations and people. When designed well—data flows mapped, integrations resilient, governance in place—the hybrid model lets an enterprise embrace cloud HR without abandoning core systems.
The smoother that connection is, the more the whole business hums.