Leveraging on their existing global strategic alliance, SAP and IBM plan to facilitate cloud-to-cloud integration of their human resource software and services.
The product integration on the human resource front will help companies make facts-based decisions more quickly, simplify recruitment processes and manage employees effectively, while customers can work in tandem to improve on their business processes.
The first offering from this strategic alliance will be made available to customers by mid-2015. This planned move will see integration between IBM Kenexa cloud-based HR software Talent Acquisition Suite and SAP’s SuccessFactors Employee Central solution.
This integration is expected to enable IBM customers to move their HR Information Systems (HRIS) to the cloud with the help of leading core HR solution provider SuccessFactors.
Also through careful integration of HR solutions, the human resource personnel at these reputed companies can now protect their recruiting investments, while offering customers with a broader set of options to help recruit, assess and facilitate on boarding of candidates.
This move builds on the 40 years long partnership between the two companies namely SAP and IBM to harness their potentials in consulting systems integration and thereby offer, Business-process-as-a-Service (BPaaS) to add value to each of their individual customers. This integration will help existing customers of IBM and SAP to build upon their capabilities, by offering them choice of offerings to deploy and operate.
Debbie Landers, general manager, Kenexa and Smarter Workforce, IBM said “We are both committed to putting the client first and ensuring that those who choose to work with us clearly see 1+1 = 3 — and they obtain more value, more quickly. The opportunity to not only extend our existing solution reach together, but to team on bringing SAP data into IBM’s Talent Insights (powered by Watson Analytics) is expected to be a game changer for our clients who want to move more quickly to analytics-driven business decision making.”
See: Cloud-Based HR System: Revolutionizing the way recruitment works
Through this integration on cloud offerings, SAP and IBM plan to offer customers with an opportunity to leverage on the vast amount of data from the SAP® ERP Human Capital Management (SAP ERP HCM) solution, cloud-based SuccessFactors HCM Suite and IBM Kenexa Workforce Sciences for analytics.
This will help enable better insights for strategic decisions on hiring, training and retaining the existing workforce. Customers who choose to experience the best of both worlds through this SAP-IBM integration of HR solutions will see collaboration in key areas such as implementation and ongoing support.
“We are very focused on helping our customers deliver value with their HR strategies and processes. This partnership intends to make it easier for our mutual customers to leverage the cloud solutions that help them achieve their goals so they can focus more on their business and less on integrating solutions,” said Mike Ettling, president, HR Line of Business, SuccessFactors.
Ettling continued, “Customers today see the power and the simplicity of the cloud, and in their journey, they want to be assured they can continue the investments they have in what’s working for them today, while taking advantage of what will drive better business value tomorrow.”
Another integration plan that seems to be on the backburner for quite some time now is, the tech majors are looking forward to integrate IBM’s Learning Content Management System (LCMS) and the SuccessFactors Learning solution.
The combined learning expertise solution customised to meet every individual learning need is expected to make available next year. As a result of this learning capability integration, customers of both companies will further have access to premium learning resource and content that exactly meets their needs in the most efficient manner possible.
Also read: How Technology Can Save Onboarding
