SuccessConnect exclusive - Mike Ettling's five SuccessFactors differentiators
- Summary:
- At SuccessConnect, Jon had a chance to get Mike Ettling's five SuccessFactors differentiators - he didn't mince words.
1. Depth of content and process models. Noting that SuccessFactors now has 16,000 content elements in their system, Ettling said:
Standardization and process models customers can go to is a key point we talk about. When you standardize, is you don't want to have to create the standards. You want to have the content which you can just click and say, "Okay, here's the performance form. Here's job families."
Ettling sees added content strength with the announcement of Run Simple HR, an openSAP "MOOC" course that begins on October 13:
Run Simple HR which is a training course, but we are also building down to level three and four processes, based on a Run Simple HR process model. So when our sales team says, "Hey, do you want to buy Employee Central?" They can also say, "Do you want the standard process model with it? If you use it, you can get Employee Central deployed 50 percent faster than if you don't have the process model."
2. Application extensibility via the Extension Center and HANA Cloud Platform - Ettling notes two areas of SuccessFactors extensibility, one is the extensibility within the SuccessFactors solution, which Ettling calls "object extensibility." At SuccessConnect 2015, Dmitri Krakovsky demoed the Extension Center, which is supported by the Meta Data Framework (MDF).
Ettling sees a "really unique" advantage via the HANA Cloud Platform, which provides "application extensibility." Ettling made the case that a Peoplesoft customer would find it easier to migrate to SuccessFactors due to extensibility:
We know from our own projects that ripping out PeopleSoft is the toughest. It's much harder than taking out SAP HCM to go to the cloud, because PeopleSoft had this capability which allowed customization way beyond what you ever saw in SAP. SAP HCM on-premise also has a early generation MDF object type model anyway, so the customization in SAP HCM is more sophisticated.
So let's say a PeopleSoft customer comes along, and they're going to move to EC. Our partners are able to tell them, "This is the standard you have to go to. Yes, we can configure some custom objects through the MDF configurator to deal with certain things you need, such as some unique data fields in Korea or whatever. Then, with the HANA Cloud Platform (HCP), we can help you create custom apps for a specific purpose.
I asked Ettling for an example of a custom HCP app, which he calls "unique apps" because they begin as built-for-purpose, rather than in an app store:
Disney's got a custom app which allocates park tickets as reward and recognition to employees. We can build that type of app for you in HCP. When we do these projects, what are partners are showing us is that they can really get a lot of extensibility into the standard solution with MDF.
They use change management to get most of the solution to standard. Then you get down to about a dozen unique apps, and we'll build those in HCP for you. Workday doesn't have that. That's why we're the better migration option for PeopleSoft.
3. Globalization capabilities - Ettling believes that SuccessFactors has unrivaled cloud HR globalization/localization capabilities. Ettling cited 71 countries that have been localized by SuccessFactors, along with 30 country-specific payroll offerings from Employee Central (EC):
The depth of globalization is really important. It's not just about having foreign currency fields, or having a German Social Security Number field. It's about having objects which can do intelligent things, such as not reveal certain data in the Employee Profile page in Germany versus what is revealed in the U.S. Our localization of HR data is very deep compared compared to our competitors.
The same day Workday made a fanfare of England, I think we released Saudi Arabia and Columbia. In the big global deals we're winning, the clients are getting this. Right before this meeting, we just had a client tell us that when they poke at the competitors claims on globalization and lift the hood, it's very, very different compared to ours.
4. Usability and adoption - While competitors still hammer SAP on usability, Ettling says that when it comes to SuccessFactors, that issue no longer applies. He sees usability as an advantage:
One of the big anti-SAP talking points traits is "Look at the usability - SAP systems are clunky." From about November of last year, when customers have come up with that, we've said, "Fine, let's do a shoot out.We'll set up a sandbox, ask our competitor to put up a sandbox, and have your people play with it." And we win. We win over and over again.
When you look at the solution now, it's crisp. Other players don't have the action search. There's been this myth about usability in the market, and it's not starting to be debunked out there, which is great. Also, pretty screens for the sake of pretty screens do not make the business case. Adoption makes the business case. The whole thing we're doing around investing in adoption executives is part of that. We're working with customers around new releases, new features, we're constantly aiding them to get better adoption.
5. Mile wide, mile deep product investment strategy. Ettling positions SuccessFactors differently than both the talent pure play vendors and HCM suites. Referring to ten HR product categories SuccessFactors is developing on, Ettling says:
Many competitors with pure plays on talent are an inch wide and a mile deep. Then our core HR competitor is, I say, inch deep, mile wide. But we are mile wide and mile deep.
Ettling wonders if other cloud vendors will be able to keep up with R&D if the still-mostly-favorable investment climate shifts to a focus on profit valuation:
Who else is going to be able to sustain that type of R&D investment for the next five years? I think the cloud bubble is going to start deflating in stages over the next three or four years. As investors start saying, "Thank you for all this growth, but can we now get a profit?" Will that force changes in leadership at companies that are focused on growth, not profits? Do you, as a client, want to live through all that turmoil? Whereas at SuccessFactors, my investment strategy for product is going to only change if I change it.
My (quick) take
I'm not going to dissect these five points here, though I will address some of them in subsequent coverage. But for now, I give the most weight to the globalization factor. Plans to optimize/standardize the data center presence worldwide for all SAP cloud properties under CTO Quentin Clark could add strength here. Ettling's team is also working on a semi-confidential project to address data sovereignty issues that could add to SuccessFactor's strength if/when new cloud regulations are imposed in disparate regions.
In terms of pace of functionality development, Ettling did concede that Oracle could potentially do the same, so that story remains to unfold. As for extensibility, I've heard it argued that Workday provides fairly equivalent extensibility options to MDF via Workday's Business Process Framework. By comparison, custom apps via the HCP looks like a more significant advantage, though I believe that for SAP to seize that edge they'll need to double down on HCP and resolve issues from a number of angles, from customer awareness to partner ramp-up (I'll return to HCP in a future piece; Den covered some HCP pricing/web issues recently).
At any rate, Ettling is clearly not shy about asserting the differentiators he believes are fueling SuccessFactors' growth. The rest, as always, will be hotly debated.
End note: Yes, I will be addressing what I learned pertaining to my original SuccessConnect preview – 8 questions for the SAP HCM cloud post - look for that next week (I'll include more info from my discussion with Ettling, including the S/4HANA cloud GA launch, in the piece). You may also want to check out my use case, How Edgewell Personal Care conquered data and skills issues on their SuccessFactors go-live. And yes, podcasts are coming too - keep an eye on the iTunes feed.
Image credit: Mike Ettling on stage via the Elephants and Rhinos Twitter account; Mike Ettling in meeting room by Jon Reed.
Disclosure: SAP, Workday and Oracle are diginomica premier partners as of this writing. SuccessFactors handled most of my travel expenses to attend SuccessConnect 2015.