SAP HCM: 5 Benefits of a SAP Best-of-Suite & Platform Strategy
The HR IT landscape is becoming increasingly dynamic: automation and artificial intelligence are gaining momentum, and the pace of change continues to accelerate. At the same time, user expectations for modern, seamless HR experiences are rising. Many companies are now faced with a fragmented tool landscape, built up over time across multiple vendors, platforms, and technologies. Maintaining such a setup requires specialized skills and considerable effort to manage integrations and partners. A classic best-of-breed approach is reaching its limits. To stay competitive and future-ready, a shift is needed – toward a SAP best-of-suite and platform strategy centered around SAP HCM. In this blog post, we’ll explore why this approach could be the right path for your HR IT landscape and highlight the key benefits.
A closer look at the HR tool landscape in many organizations reveals a highly fragmented setup. Over the years, a wide range of systems and tools have been introduced to meet individual needs – often without an overarching strategy. The result is a complex web of integrations, leading to increased IT complexity, high maintenance effort, and manual processes that create inefficiencies and risk. What’s often missing is a central entry point into this scattered HR environment.
Employees and HR managers alike are forced to navigate multiple tools with inconsistent user experiences, even for simple tasks. At the same time, a holistic view of HR data is nearly impossible, as information is spread across systems. This makes reporting time-consuming, fragmented, and heavily reliant on manual effort – limiting the ability to make data-driven decisions.
HR systems are among the most sensitive and high-risk areas of enterprise IT – shaped by strict regulations and complex legal requirements. That’s why a clear, forward-looking strategy is essential to build an HR IT landscape that enables both flexibility and speed.
This is where the SAP Best-of-Suite & Platform Strategy comes in. It combines a stable core with the ability to innovate and scale. Below, we’ve outlined five key benefits that can support your decision-making process:
1. Reducing Complexity in the HR IT Landscape
Using a unified platform for all HR processes significantly reduces system complexity and integration efforts. There’s less need for custom interfaces or middleware solutions. At the same time, standardized workflows and a consistent design language (SAP Fiori) streamline processes, minimize fragmentation, and create a seamless user experience – for both employees and HR teams.
2. Increased Efficiency with a SAP Best-of-Suite Strategy
A centralized data foundation ensures consistency and eliminates redundancies – from master data and payroll to talent management. At the same time, the unified SAP cloud environment with SAP SuccessFactors and the Business Technology Platform (BTP) enables automatic updates and continuous innovation – without the complexity of managing separate upgrades for different providers.
3. Harmonization and Standardization in HR IT
Leveraging SAP standards significantly reduces the effort required for customizations and minimizes the need for tool-specific adjustments. Additionally, standardized governance policies within SAP HCM ensure consistent and reliable compliance with security and regulatory requirements across all HR processes.
4. Fewer Tool Providers – Easier to maintain in HR
By having SAP as the central point of contact for all HR solutions, companies benefit from simplified contract and license management as well as faster, more efficient issue resolution. At the same time, dependency on third-party vendors is reduced, since proprietary standalone systems – which may eventually be discontinued or disappear from the market due to acquisitions – are no longer needed.
5. Unified Technology and Skill Management as a Key Success Factor
A consistent user interface and experience (UI/UX) across all HR modules significantly reduces training efforts for HR and IT staff. SAP BTP serves as a central integration and extension platform, enabling seamless and standardized integration of custom developments and AI applications into the existing SAP landscape. This creates a unified skill set within IT, as only SAP technology knowledge is required – isolated solutions with their own specific demands become a thing of the past.
Do you already have an SAP HCM roadmap?
Our SAP HCM Squad supports you on the journey toward a SAP Best-of-Suite & Platform strategy. We believe that SAP’s HR portfolio – covering H4S4, SAP SuccessFactors, and extensions on the SAP BTP – combines all the functionalities of a modern HR suite. Together, we assess your current HR IT landscape and develop a roadmap for a future-proof setup. Our HCM and BTP experts guide you step by step and implement projects together with you, gradually. We’d be happy to discuss this with you!
