Ventana Research Analyst Perspectives

I am happy to share some insights on SAP SuccessFactors drawn from our latest Value Index research, which provides an analytic representation of our assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index: Workforce Management 2019 is the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts by Ventana Research. We utilized a structured research methodology that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect the breadth of the real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal (RFP) and vendor selection process for workforce management. We evaluated SAP SuccessFactors and 12 other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two related to the vendor (TCO/ROI and vendor validation). To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our experience and data derived from our benchmark research on workforce management.

SAP SuccessFactors placed sixth overall in the Value Index for Workforce Management, ranking first in Adaptability due to its robust configurability and integration and fourth in Manageability due to the extensibility of its Platform as a Service (PaaS). The vendor also ranked third in the Capability category, despite shortcomings in scheduling and forecasting and activity management, and collaboration-specific support. It did well due to its competitive Time and Absence Management offering as well as the vendor’s broad range of analytics capabilities. Due to its product depth, it was ranked third in the product area of the five specific categories.

SAP SuccessFactors offers robust self-service, reporting and business rule flexibility around absence management and time tracking and a well-articulated vision for leveraging IoT and augmented reality, including in target verticals such as manufacturing, oil and gas and utilities. The vendor recently partnered with Kronos and now offers Employee Central Time and Attendance Management as well as SAP Time Management by Kronos. For this Value Index we evaluated the former as it is still the vendor’s primary WFM option. SAP SuccessFactors’ strength in WFM is related to its pure-cloud PaaS architecture for customers and partners wishing to extend the vendor’s cloud HCM applications.

SAP SuccessFactors was ranked 10th and would have scored higher in Validation with customer references and depth in the product roadmap. It also ranked eighth in TCO/ROI due to limited benefits, costs and tools related to this offering.

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of workforce management software in the industry. You can learn more about our Value Index as an effective vendor selection and RFI/RFP tool here. Participating vendors can learn more about how to use the Value Index here.