SAP HCM vs SAP SuccessFactors vs Workday comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between SAP HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, and Workday based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about SAP, Workday, Oracle and others in Talent Management.
To learn more, read our detailed Talent Management Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"It has the best data management features.""The most valuable feature is Organizational Management (OM).""The master data where most of the reports were run from was the most valuable. We were quite satisfied with this module.""All of the core processes are very valuable aspects of the solution. These include personnel, administration, organizational structure, and payroll.""The technical support is quite good.""When you maintain your data in SAP, you can generate any kind of HR report with one click.""We have managed to consolidate our payroll for all India operations on this platform.""They provide the most stable and powerful technology in the areas of human resources, information systems, and ERP."

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"SAP SuccessFactors is stable, we have not found any bugs or glitches.""Considering the flexibility of the system and its ability to accommodate complex business processes, the product is ready to be used in multiple industries.""The most valuable feature of SAP SuccessFactors is analytics.""Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten...It is a stable solution.""The feature I like the most is the notification bar where we can see upcoming courses that the organization requires from time to time. It's easy to track any pending courses. I also like the search feature in SuccessFactors. We can search for newly available courses that are updated in the system for completion.""The initial setup was pretty simple.""The performance goals and learning management solutions are the product's most valuable features.""The functionality and user friendliness are constantly improving."

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"The most valuable feature of Workday is the ease of navigation to browse the application. The solution can hold information about the company and people with accounts can be discovered by others in the whole company.""The solution was very good at reconfiguration and customization of their software. It helped us to meet federal regulations.""The software is easy to learn and use. When compared to SAP HR and SAP HCM, the tool is easy to access and understand. We have a hierarchy and structural connectivity in Workday. There is a certification for the solution and when we do it, we become the certified partners of the company""This product is leaps and bounds above the competition. Part of the reason is that it is built with modern technology. It has no legacy coding in it at all.""The most valuable features of the solution are the usability, learning, and compliance tools.""It's intuitive, a very usable tool and it's easy to find the data you're looking for.""There is a lot of scope for customization with this solution""The solution is stable."

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Cons
"Managing changes in applications can be challenging since it complicates testing and unit testing, resulting in longer testing phases. This time-consuming process often leaves little room for actual work.""The organizational structure visualization could be improved in future releases. The solution has a very poor interface.""It would be very helpful for our company if a new version was released with the ability to contain all of the things that we have newly introduced in our company.""SAP HCM's long and tedious transactions can be improved.""The product's license is very expensive.""The speed of technical support can be improved.""SAP is not ready to sell the license on time and delays the progress of projects. It's better to work with a competitor like Oracle. Those that are selling the product just go through powerpoints and don't have the knowledge necessary to sell. They can't answer any questions.""The setup comes with a set of challenges as well."

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"There are some limiting aspects to this product.""SAP SuccessFactors could improve the integration. It is not simple to integrate and it needs to be made easier.""Its overall integration and user experience can be improved. SuccessFactors is a system that is built out of three different systems. The elements part was bought from Plateau, and the original performance dialogue was built by SuccessFactors itself. After that, SAP bought it, and it hasn't improved in the last few years. SuccessFactors is a perfect tool if you use it the way it is meant to be, but if you start building custom sessions and try to use it differently, then it is a total mess. It is not agile. It is like an old Mastodon truck or whatever. We don't have the Employee Central and Competence Management modules. Our company made the choice to not implement the Employee Central module. We also didn't implement the Competence Management module. We use the learning module to do some competence management, but I am not that fond of it. It would have been best to have the whole suite. SAP should never sell this without selling the whole suite because it just doesn't work. The biggest gain for me would be having the possibility of doing strategic personnel planning and managing internal mobility. If it could be used for social purposes, such as creating communities and connecting with media channels, that would be perfect. It should also have the possibilities for local admin and agile product development.""The pricing of SAP is quite high.""The data management part can be improved in terms of how you can manage data from the HR admin's or HR team's perspective. It has some limitations in the reporting part in terms of how you can update the data and fetch the data. SAP HCM comparatively has a lot of capabilities in terms of backup loads, data management, data changes, etc. You can do these things easily, which is not the case with SAP SuccessFactors. Data management should be simplified in SAP SuccessFactors in terms of accessing the data, reporting, and then manipulating the data.""The user experience could be simplified.""There are a few features that are missing. There are specific features on the HTM, such as telecom safety, that just isn't there. It's not a very detailed solution in that sense. However, it is maybe not expected to have those kinds of features on the surface level of the product.""The process for long modules needs to be improved, because compared to how it's done with a competitor (Meta4), the competitor's process was simpler."

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"The expenses and reimbursements module could be improved. Creating expense reports is time consuming and inefficient compared to other expense solutions.""There is a lot of complexity in the configuration of this solution.""The cost of Workday is certainly not inexpensive. It's very pricey.""I'm not sure they have added this feature yet, but there should be a cellphone version, so we do not need to do it on a laptop. I'd like to log in on a cellphone and have the same features. I'm not sure if that is already available or if it's on the roadmap, but that would be a great feature.""One potential feature that could be added is the ability to streamline business processes through quick tips and guided tours. This would allow for a smoother and more guided experience for colleagues as they navigate through different processes and steps. It would be similar to a guidance system or a step-by-step tutorial that could be added after the business process to guide users through it.""I would be happy if it was faster. Currently, when I try to navigate within the solution itself, it is a bit slow in terms of the page load time. When I click on something, it usually takes time to load. When you click on different icons or areas on the website, it is slow. Even when you navigate between different models, it is a bit slow. I would like to see a bit faster performance and a better user experience.""They don't offer any backend database access. This is one limitation that I found in this product. Workday hasn't opened up about what kind of database they are into, which can make it easy for the technical team to emulate issues. It would be good if they can offer backend access to the technical team. It would be helpful if they can also provide a Troubleshooting Guide that we can use to troubleshoot issues. When we have an issue, there are very limited resources to refer to.""For time management, it does not have a calendar generator. For example, if you want to have a shift calendar for an entire year, you need to push the entire year's calendar into the system instead of being able to generate it using a time management pattern."

More Workday Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Licensing is pretty complex. SAP does not have a straight forward way of licensing, and it differs from client to client."
  • "The terms on which you buy licenses might change due to the way they license in a particular product."
  • "For implementation, SAP offers little support unless you buy SAP Safeguarding from SAP Consulting."
  • "Be careful and guard against future changes in licensing."
  • "In my view, this product is a waste of money for SMB because there are much better products available and licensing is an issue."
  • "You pay per license. There not any costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
  • "SAP is extremely expensive. The integration costs and customization costs are also a lot."
  • "SAP is expensive, but if you're using the product, then the expensive product becomes inexpensive. Considering its performance and features, I find it quite reasonable."
  • More SAP HCM Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The licensing fees are based on the number of modules that are being used, and the number of users."
  • "I don't want to comment on the license cost, to be honest. It could be about $1,000 approximately per customer. However, it's very flexible in terms of the licensing costs depending on the volume and depending on the deal of installation."
  • "If you go by best practices and do it right from the outset, the setup won't be a costly endeavor. In terms of setup, there is a lot of flexibility compared to three years ago."
  • "It could be cheaper."
  • "We have a yearly license. There are no additional costs."
  • "SAP SuccessFactors requires an annual subscription."
  • "It is not expensive because it is a complete suite with a module-based cost."
  • "For SAP, the product is pricey, both CAPEX and the OPEX. It's something that could be improved."
  • More SAP SuccessFactors Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "With a bigger budget, I would recommend SAP."
  • "Workday is an expensive solution."
  • "You have the license fee per module, and then you have a kind of annual training fee, which is a kind of add-on. I wouldn't say it is exhaustive; it is minor. Licensing is pretty transparent for most of the part."
  • "The pricing is good from an HR perspective, although management gets upset after spending $500,000 a year, every year."
  • "Its price is pretty high. It is more expensive than what is offered by other competitors in the market."
  • "It has an annual subscription rate, but I'm not sure how it will work."
  • "The pricing for this solution is fairly high. It is not affordable for small and mid-sized companies."
  • "By and large, Workday is expensive. It is based on the headcount. I'd probably rate it a three or four out of five in terms of pricing. It'd be like buying a Mercedes or a high-end car. It's expensive, but there's a specific value that you're getting with additional features and things of that nature. Using that metaphor, Workday probably tends to be more of a luxury. There are others like ADP that can do your payroll, your time off, and other things, but they don't do it as well."
  • More Workday Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:SAP HCM is the one of the best ERP for an organization with a small to large scale business. It has the most efficient… more »
    Top Answer:HCM is a very important module that each organization should want to use. It will help any organization to calculate and… more »
    Top Answer:When it comes to user experience, SuccessFactors is unquestionably superior, as it provides end users with a new… more »
    Top Answer:Differences between Workday, Oracle Cloud,w and SAP SuccessFactors:w Oracle: "simple interface and deep customization… more »
    Top Answer:The tool's most valuable feature is its integration capabilities with on-premise ERPs and other systems.
    Top Answer:We use the platform for tasks, including applying for leaves, communication, and adhering to our organization's policies… more »
    Top Answer:They could provide a web chatbot feature in the dashboard for Workday.
    Ranking
    4th
    out of 85 in Talent Management
    Views
    9,245
    Comparisons
    7,315
    Reviews
    17
    Average Words per Review
    405
    Rating
    8.1
    1st
    out of 85 in Talent Management
    Views
    18,906
    Comparisons
    12,556
    Reviews
    41
    Average Words per Review
    502
    Rating
    7.7
    2nd
    out of 85 in Talent Management
    Views
    19,377
    Comparisons
    12,133
    Reviews
    26
    Average Words per Review
    398
    Rating
    8.3
    Comparisons
    Oracle HCM Cloud logo
    Compared 14% of the time.
    PeopleSoft logo
    Compared 3% of the time.
    ADP GlobalView Payroll logo
    Compared 3% of the time.
    UKG logo
    Compared 3% of the time.
    P&I LogaHR logo
    Compared 2% of the time.
    Oracle HCM Cloud logo
    Compared 10% of the time.
    PeopleSoft logo
    Compared 10% of the time.
    UKG logo
    Compared 9% of the time.
    Cornerstone Learning logo
    Compared 5% of the time.
    Ceridian Dayforce HCM logo
    Compared 3% of the time.
    Also Known As
    SAP Human Capital Management
    SuccessFactors
    Learn More
    Overview

    SAP HCM is a benefits administration solution that has a comprehensive set of tools and features for managing and optimizing all aspects of human resources. SAP HCM covers various HR functions including payroll, time and attendance management, talent management, succession planning, and employee performance evaluation.

    The goal of SAP HCM is to help organizations streamline HR processes, improve workforce productivity and efficiency, and support strategic HR decision-making. With SAP HCM, HR departments can manage employee data, track and analyze key HR metrics, and automate various HR processes to save time and resources. It is widely used by large organizations across various industries.

    SAP HCM Features

    SAP HCM has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Personnel administration: With SAP HCM, users can manage employee master data, such as personal details, employment contracts, and job information.
    • Payroll: The solution provides automation of payroll processes, including tax calculation, payment generation, and reporting.
    • Time and attendance management: Automated tracking and management of employee time and attendance help users streamline HR processes. 
    • Talent management: SAP HCM includes tools for recruiting, onboarding, training, and development of employees.
    • Succession planning: With this feature, users can plan and manage employee career development and succession within the organization.
    • Performance and goal management: SAP HCM is designed with performance evaluation, goal setting, and development planning for employees.
    • Compliance management: SAP HCM offers management of legal and regulatory requirements related to HR processes.
    • Reporting and analytics: Generation of reports and analysis of key HR metrics help support decision-making.
    • Integrations: The solution has integration with other SAP modules, such as SAP Finance and SAP Supply Chain, that provide a comprehensive solution for HR management.


    SAP HCM Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing SAP HCM. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Improved HR processes: The solution’s automation of HR processes, helps reduce manual effort and increases efficiency.
    • Better data management: SAP HCM provides centralized management of employee data, improving data accuracy and reducing the risk of errors.
    • Increased productivity: Because the solution streamlines HR processes, it frees up HR staff to focus on other strategic tasks.
    • Improved compliance: SAP HCM helps businesses reduce the risk of non-compliance by making legal and regulatory requirements related to HR processes easy and manageable. 
    • Better decision-making: Access to real-time HR data and analytics enables data-driven decision-making.
    • Increased transparency: SAP HCM improves visibility into HR processes, enabling HR departments to monitor performance and identify areas for improvement.
    • Better employee engagement: The solution’s provision of self-service options for employees improves employee satisfaction and engagement.
    • Cost control: SAP HCM’s automation of HR processes reduces costs associated with manual HR processes.
    • Talent management: The solution’s tools for attracting, retaining, and developing employees increase overall workforce productivity and effectiveness.


    Reviews from Real Users

    SAP HCM is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it has good payroll and personnel administration, it’s a powerful tool for maintaining company data, and has valuable SuccessFactors talent modules. 

    According to Dave D., Project Manager at Telecom Namibia, “[SAP HCM] allows us to do all of our HR management processes, including payroll and personnel administration.” He also adds, “Technical support is excellent."

    “I think that it's a very powerful tool for maintaining your company data. When you maintain your data in SAP, you can generate any kind of HR report with one click,” says Sameer Y., Team Leader at Fauji Meat Limited.

    Another PeerSpot reviewer, Arsala A., SAP HCM / SF Consultant at a computer software company, explains what she likes most about SAP HCM: "Payroll processing is my favorite HCM feature, and I like all the SuccessFactors talent modules also. SAP is making good progress on enhancements to the features in the SF modules."

    SAP SuccessFactors is a valuable human resource management system (HRMS) solution that streamlines numerous HR tasks and activities, such as payroll, talent management, and people processes, to help make the entire HR process run more smoothly and improve the overall employee experience. It is primarily developed to meet the needs of enterprise-class organizations. SAP SuccessFactors can also help users to boost business processes and achieve desired outcomes.

    SAP SuccessFactors is cloud-based and built as a Software as a Service (SaaS) tool. It can integrate seamlessly with any existing ecosystem. This solution can easily be accessed from any web browser, from any location, with any device.

    SAP Success Factors Key Features

    • Improve core HR and payroll process: SAP SuccessFactors can help users improve productivity by simplifying everyday tasks, streamlining processes across the organization, establishing consistent business practices, and improving the bottom line by reducing risk. SuccessFactors core HR tools include time and attendance, payroll management, document management, and additional core HR services to meet regulatory and compliance needs.

    • Staff planning and HR analytics: SuccessFactors can facilitate an improved DE&I (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) environment using intuitive people data measurements. The solution can help create action plans to ensure that hiring goals are met in a timely manner, preventing critical staffing gaps and ensuring that productivity and profitability goals are consistently being achieved.

    • Employee welfare management: SuccessFactors allows users to respond in a timely manner to employee needs and concerns, to better understand employee motivations, to keep employees happy and involved, to specify employee dissatisfiers, and to help improve the overall employee experience. The solution will also facilitate employee performance using an intuitive holistic approach, improve employee benefits, and guide and administer the entire employee career growth. SuccessFactors provides valuable opportunities for employee growth through intuitive individualized learning and career development opportunities. It also rewards and recognizes good performance and provides pathways for successful career growth. The solution will help to attract and retain the best available talent in the marketplace.
    • Succession Planning: The solution can be used to assist with talent sourcing, candidate management, and improving the overall candidate experience to include new hire onboarding, offboarding, and more. SuccessFactors also provides action plans for performance and compensation management, education and career development, talent reviews, leadership planning, and even sales performance management, goal setting, and quotas.

    Reviews from Real Users

    “We are using it for a lot of things: HR, performance management, and learning management. There are a lot of features embedded in SuccessFactors. We recently implemented a learning platform that employs the individual staff to actually manage their own learning. They can do it at their own pace. SuccessFactors allows you to manage your team, have calibration for promotion, and you can generate reports and see how you're doing.” - Alaba O., IT Asset Management Lead at Dangote Industries Limited

    “SuccessFactors Talent Management tools help us in managing the entire employee journey. HR and managers can use the succession and development tool to create career paths and staff development plans. When combined with the learning tool, these development objectives can help employees gain the skills they need to advance their careers within the company.” - Yamen Z., SAP Project Manager at a manufacturing company

    Workday is a cloud-based software solution that specializes in developing applications for capital and finance management applications. The system is built to work in global workforces and is adaptable. The global system ensures that users are up to date and can manage internal career-related information, and everyday business problems like timesheets, payrolls, and time off.

    “A Pioneer in Software-as-a-Service”

    Workday Human Capital Management tool is designed to simplify and streamline your work. It leverages machine learning to adapt capital management to a changing environment.

    The Workday model is based on delivering a single system that uses a single source of data and a single security model to deliver a unique user experience. The system is user-friendly and ensures that employees and management can use it from any and all devices. Workday HCM integrates into a central system that includes financial management, payroll, recruiting, learning, and planning. Managers and employees can provide feedback to one another, too.

    Workday’s features include:

    • Flexible framework that lets you organize your staff according to different criteria. You can group employees by function, hierarchy, or department.
    • Personalized career guidance: Knowledge management and career guidance that can be easily customized for each staff member and also done at scale.
    • Augmented reporting and analytics: Configure, change, update, and publish reports, scorecards, and dashboards. The system centralizes the transactional and analytical data so you can act on the data from anywhere.
    • Compensation tools: Compensatio, payroll, and time tracking are automated and simplified.
    • Workforce planning allows you to uncover and address talent gaps and get visibility of your staff.
    • Mobile-first ensign approach: Users can access all resources from any device, and they are always in sync.
    • Machine learning capabilities enable personalized enterprise experiences and faster business processes.

    Workday smart platform consists of the following modules:

    • Human resource management
    • Business process management
    • Reporting and analytics
    • Benefits administration
    • Compensation management
    • Talent management
    • Survey framework
    • Employee and management self-service

    Reviews from Real Users

    Many organizations choose Workday because it provides an all-in-one modular solution for human capital and finance management. Our users say they like the ease of use for time-off requests, career and development segments, and overall HR management. The records and reporting capabilities are another popular feature.

    "The solution was very good at reconfiguration and customization of their software. It helped us to meet federal regulations," said one user. Another said that the best feature is the optimization of the work day experience with a unified platform that can be applied across different business units. “You will never find a use case that cannot be covered," said a third.

    Sample Customers
    City of Cape Town, ADAMA Agricultural Solutions Ltd., TransAlta Corporation, Keolis, PT XL Axiata Tbk, National Football League (NFL), Plan International, Yoh, A Day & Zimmermann Company, China Talent Group (CTG TMO), Umicore S.A., Butterfield Bank, Skrill Group Ltd.
    City of Cape Town, ADAMA Agricultural Solutions Ltd., TransAlta Corporation, Keolis, PT XL Axiata Tbk, National Football League (NFL), Plan International, Yoh, A Day & Zimmermann Company, China Talent Group (CTG TMO), Umicore S.A., Butterfield Bank, Skril
    AAA, Allied Global, Avago Technologies Limited, Aviva, Cardinal Health, CareFusion, Chiquita Brands International, Equifax, Flextronics, HP, Life Time Fitness, McKee Foods, MGM Resorts International, Sanofi, ServiceSource International, Symantec, TripAdvisor, Yahoo!
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Energy/Utilities Company18%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Healthcare Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company14%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Retailer6%
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company26%
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization45%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    Financial Services Firm6%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm29%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Transportation Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization26%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise64%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise63%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise63%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business11%
    Midsize Enterprise50%
    Large Enterprise40%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise9%
    Large Enterprise65%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise32%
    Large Enterprise54%
    Buyer's Guide
    Talent Management
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about SAP, Workday, Oracle and others in Talent Management. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.