The journey of SAP’s HR solution from on-premise to cloud is documented in our SuccessFactors Employee Central page. The role of payroll and the reluctance of customers to move from on-premise to cloud based solutions is discussed here.

As most customers had invested heavily in the customisation of their on-premise payrolls and particularly in integration with other systems e.g. for benefits and time and attendance, it became clear that bridging solutions would be needed to encourage migration to cloud-based solutions. There was also significant concern over the maturity of cloud-based solutions with such localised and sensitive data.

SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll is not a new solution. SAP has taken its existing payroll solution and moved it to a ‘hosted cloud’ environment. In doing so, it seeks to promote the Software as a Service (SaaS) mentality. This means that it is based on best-practice and there will be no core modifications or changes to enhancement spots. It is suited to larger organisations with no complex time or benefits processes.

In its simplest form the migration would require a re-implementation and removal of existing customisations, the purchase of a SuccessFactors Employee Central and Employee Central Payroll license and new integrations (if needed) to third party benefit and time management packages. Uptake was slow, despite the 2025 end-of-support deadline that SAP had placed on HCM on-premise software.

In 2015 SAP SuccessFactors Managed Payroll was offered as a starting point for customers who wanted to start their journey to the cloud without re-implementation or loosing any customisation. This was offered by two SAP partners only and involved carving out the on-premise payroll and simply hosting it in the cloud.

In 2018 the end-of-support deadline was increased to 2030 for all customers who upgraded to an SAP S/4 HANA license with SAP HCM for SAP S/4 HANA becoming available in the second quarter of 2022.
The pressure is on.

With SAP offering the following scenario guidelines: