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Outsourcing your SAP SuccessFactors support is a great way to help alleviate the confusion, frustration, and overall time your team spends on managing the solution. Whether it’s a portion of your team’s overall responsibilities or you have dedicated resources, SAP SuccessFactors support may be a necessity depending on your internal needs and skillsets. With so many support options available, how do you choose the right SAP SuccessFactors support plan for your organization?

In this blog, we’ll review a few common support plans that we offer and designed based on years of experience in supporting SAP SuccessFactors clients like you. It’s important to note that we don’t approach support as a one-size-fits-all, but our intention is to give you an idea of what’s typically offered in the market, so you can ask the right questions and decide what plan would best compliment your team. It’s always a good idea to discuss your specific needs with your partner to ensure your support plan allows for fluctuation and growth.

SAP SuccessFactors Ad-hoc Support

If you’ve been in the SAP SuccessFactors space for any period, you may be familiar with the term “bucket of hours.” You purchase a bucket or block of hours from a support vendor, and once you’ve used the hours in that bucket or block, you can either decide to replenish the hours, or walk away from the vendor. We often refer to this approach as ad-hoc support, where issues are resolved on the fly with no defined scope.

Who is this an ideal fit for?

While anyone can purchase ad-hoc support, we recommend this plan for teams that support 1-2 SuccessFactors modules like Performance & Goal and Compensation as the requests are typically cyclical in nature and can be accomplished in 20, 40 or 60 hours “buckets.” Ad-hoc support could also be a fit for teams that are equipped with the necessary skillsets and knowledge to support all the modules they have implemented but need consulting support when it comes to XML or back-end access that is only accessible to SAP or SAP partners.

Support Needs Typically Covered Under an Ad-Hoc Model

  • Break Fixes (process or integration related)
  • System support during events (Performance/Comp cycles, Benefits enrollment, etc.)
  • Manage and support operational reports

SAP SuccessFactors Annual Support

Annual support is a proactive approach compared to ad-hoc support as it’s a longer-term commitment (yearly) with some loose definition surrounding the scope of requests. This type of agreement typically handles all items covered under ad-hoc support but adds the release management component to help you manage the tasks and planning associated with the two releases from SAP each year.

Who is this an ideal fit for?

Annual support is a fit for anyone who wants to take a proactive approach to supporting their SAP SuccessFactors solution. We typically recommend anyone with Employee Central, Recruiting, and/or Onboarding to leverage an annual plan. Based on our experience, Employee Central related tickets require more time to resolve compared to the other modules due to the complexity of the modules and its integrations with the rest of the suite. While you can still leverage an ad-hoc plan to support your solution if it includes Employee Central, you’ll reap more benefits by proactively planning your hours with translated to cost savings, allocated resources, etc. No one wants to waste time and lose momentum when you must continuously renew contracts each time a bucket of hours is exhausted. The more you can plan, the better prepared your team and the partner support team can be throughout the year.

Support Needs Typically Covered Under an Annual Support Model

All the items listed under ad-hoc support plus:

  • Release management planning
  • Review product updates
  • Impact Analysis
  • Regression Testing
  • Instance Refresh Management
  • Data Management

SAP SuccessFactors Managed Services

Managed Services is the most proactive, comprehensive support plan an organization can leverage. Under managed services, your partner would be responsible for maintaining, and anticipating needs for a range of HR/IT processes and functions. Under this subscription model, you would likely gain priority service level agreement and metrics and governance tools that would give further insight to your support contract.

Who is this an ideal fit for?

Managed services are a fit for clients who have the full suite of SAP SuccessFactors and have a defined scope of requirements. The benefit of a managed services plan is that it allows you to compliment your internal team and mix and match various components such as types of resources, functional/technical skillsets, etc. from the partner team to drive operational efficiency and reduce expenses. This comes into play when clients have complimentary solutions like WorkForce Software, Benefitfocus, Dell Boomi, ServiceNow, etc.

Support Needs Typically Covered Under a Managed Services Model

All the items listen under ad-hoc and annual support models plus:

  • Business analysis
  • Requirements gathering
  • Change requests
  • Test and data management
  • New reporting & analytics
  • Process optimizations
  • Merger & acquisitions
  • Platform or technology migrations
  • Thought leadership
  • Solution architect
  • Project & program management

How to Determine Which Support Plan is Right for You

There's no single support plan that will fit the needs of every organization. That’s why it’s important for you to do your due diligence and have the necessary discussions with your potential support vendor to determine the best fit. When we help organizations determine what plan is best for them, we typically take the following into consideration and ask them the following questions to gain a better understanding of their needs:

  1. Current install; what is your SuccessFactors landscape today and what will it look like in years to come?
  2. Business cycle; Review existing talent processes to determine if there are spikes throughout the year that may require more hours (ex: performance, comp, seasonal recruiting, etc.)
  3. Release planning; Is this currently being performed by the internal team? If so, what’s the process? If not, is this something that needs to be included in the plan?
  4. Your team’s current skills; Is there a dedicated HRIS person or just a system administrator? What modules does your team excel at? What areas require more support?
  5. Required hours or full-time resources; How many resources do we need to provide to compliment your team based on it’s current (and future) skills?
  6. Mix of support needs; Production, maintenance & process: do you need one, two, or a mix of all support options?

When deciding which SAP SuccessFactors support plan is best for your organization, it’s best practice to determine what options are available and carefully compare them to determine what will meet your needs and offer the opportunity for some flexibility as your team grows and your needs change. If your initial comparison is still leaving you uncertain, we recommend discussing your needs with your potential support vendor. The more information and insight into your existing processes, what’s working, what’s not working, what’s on your wish list, etc. will allow them to help you determine the best plan to put in place and ultimately move the needle when it comes to managing and supporting your SAP SuccessFactors solution.

Need some guidance or looking for a new support partner? Schedule a call with our team to discuss your unique support needs. Here's what our clients have to say about working with us to support SAP SuccessFactors.

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