SAP SuccessFactors people analytics

People Intelligence is SAP’s new add-on and needs several SAP products around it

People Intelligence arrives with ready-made insights and views that suit a works council

These are the reasons to take People Intelligence seriously. Each one saves your team work or helps with a question. A works council or a regulator may raise that question.

It takes a lot of set-up, and a missed setting can empty an insight

Most of the risk sits in the set-up, the access rules and the contract, not in the charts. Read these before you accept a demo as the finished product.

A reseller’s list price runs from £2.30 to £1.04 per user a month, before the data platform

SAP’s own pricing is by quote request. A reseller, NTT DATA Business Solutions, publishes a list price on the UK government’s G-Cloud marketplace. That gives you a number to look at before any sales call. Treat it as a starting point and not as your bill.

These list prices exclude VAT, and they fall as the user count rises. Discounts are available on request. NTT DATA’s pricing is subject to its own internal management approvals. Full detailed pricing comes from contacting the reseller. So the table is where talks start, and the real number arrives in a quote.

The table covers People Intelligence only. NTT DATA also requires subscriptions to SAP Business Data Cloud and to Employee Central Core HR. The minimum purchase is 500 blocks, so ask what one block is. For Business Data Cloud, NTT DATA prices one Capacity Unit at £0.79 a month. Initial minimum blocks are 640 Capacity Units. Buyers must also attach an Intelligent App or Customer-Managed Data Products. Customer-Managed Data Products is a flat £1,181.70 a month. Intelligent Apps, which include People Intelligence, have licensing models set by the SAP Business Suite application. So ask which route applies to you and what it totals.

Two NTT DATA documents give different answers on price rises. The price document puts the rise at 3.3% on each contract anniversary. The terms let NTT DATA raise charges each anniversary. The rise is capped at the cumulative rise in the Consumer Prices Index or 3.3%, whichever is greater. So the rise can exceed 3.3% when inflation is higher. Ask for a written cap.

Support also has two answers. NTT DATA’s price document puts solution support outside the subscription. Its service listing includes SAP Software Enterprise Support in the subscription fees. Ask for one written answer. NTT DATA gives a standard monthly availability of 99.7% for the production service. For each 1% below that, the remedy is 2% of the monthly subscription fees. It is capped at 100% of the fees paid for the month. P1 support incidents get a first response within 1 hour of case submission.

Basic AI comes with the subscription, and agents are metered by action. Base AI is at no additional cost with every SAP cloud subscription, with no AI Units required. Standard agents cost 0.02 AI Units per agent action and advanced agents 0.05. Joule Assistants are not sold or priced separately. All commercial measurement happens at the Joule Agent level. So ask what one AI Unit costs. Joule also has two answers. The People Intelligence help makes a bought and set-up Joule licence a prerequisite. SAP’s HCM pricing page includes Joule Base AI at no additional cost with HCM Base or Premium plans. Ask whether your plan covers the Joule that People Intelligence needs. SAP’s Business Data Cloud trial is free and lasts 30 days. It runs in a shared environment with data already set up.

The contract terms come from SAP’s sample general terms, so your own contract may differ. Under them, the subscription term is whatever the order form sets. Order forms cannot be cancelled, and fees are non-refundable except under named sections. You may not reduce the units you pay for during the term. That is why the first order needs careful sizing. Invoices are due within 30 days. Under NTT DATA’s terms the agreement renews automatically for one-year periods. Either side can stop that with three months’ written notice before the initial term ends.

Leaving needs a plan, because two sources set the rules. Under SAP’s sample terms, you can access and export your data in a standard format during the term. You may use SAP’s self-service export tools for a final export before the term expires. SAP will provide limited access for no more than one month past termination, solely to export data. You must ask in writing at least one month before termination. SAP will delete data left on production servers within three months of termination or expiry. The exception is where the law permits or requires retention. Under the sample data processing agreement, SAP deletes remaining personal data within a reasonable time. That time does not exceed six months after the agreement ends. Under NTT DATA’s listing, you are responsible for extracting the data before the contract ends. The extraction tools are included in the subscription. Extra costs apply where you need additional support from SAP or a partner to extract it.

Fourteen questions to ask before you sign

Put these to SAP or the reseller before you sign. Start with the first three, because they decide what the bill is. The rest decide what you can run safely and how you leave.

1. Which SAP products and licences does our quote cover, and which are billed to the reseller? Good answer: One written quote that prices every product we need, with the price of each.
2. What is one “block” in the 500-block minimum, and what does the minimum cost at our headcount? Good answer: A written definition and a written total before we sign.
3. Which licence route applies to us for Business Data Cloud, and what does it total each month? Good answer: A named route with the capacity units and flat fees added up.
4. Can you put a written cap on yearly price rises? Good answer: A fixed percentage cap in the order form.
5. Is solution support included in the subscription? Good answer: A named support level, written into the order form.
6. Does our plan cover the Joule that People Intelligence needs, and what does it cost if not? Good answer: A named plan that covers it, or a written price.
7. What does one AI Unit cost, and which agent actions will People Intelligence use? Good answer: A written price per AI Unit and a list of the actions we would run.
8. Can we see current security certificates for the platform that holds our people data? Good answer: Current ISO 27001 and SOC 2 reports for it.
9. Where is our data stored and processed in each part, and does EU Access cover all of it? Good answer: A named region for each part, written into the contract.
10. Who can see the pay results for named individuals, and who gets that access on day one? Good answer: Access limited by role, in writing, with a list of the people who have it.
11. How do we remove one person from the data products and insights when data purge is not supported? Good answer: A written process with a time limit for each request.
12. Which features are generally available today, and which are planned, such as the People Intelligence Assistant? Good answer: A dated list of what is live for us now, with a price for each item.
13. Can we reduce user numbers at renewal, and what is the last day to give notice? Good answer: A written right to reduce at renewal and a reminder before the notice date.
14. What does help with extracting our data at exit cost? Good answer: A fixed price or day rate in the order form.

Alternatives to SAP

Five products do a similar job. They are Workday, Oracle, Visier, One Model and Crunchr. You can also stay with the reports that SuccessFactors already includes.

Workday and Oracle sell analytics for their own HR systems, as SAP does for SuccessFactors. Workday People Analytics analyses Workday HCM and talent data for up to 400 thousand employees. Oracle Fusion HCM Analytics is built on top of Oracle’s HCM Cloud application. So they make most sense next to the HR system they read.

Visier, One Model and Crunchr work across systems. That matters if your HR system may change. Crunchr keeps historical data when a customer moves to a new source system, once the new system is mapped. One Model brings together HRIS, applicant tracking, payroll, engagement, performance and finance data, and it has a SuccessFactors connector. Visier maps the systems a customer runs into one workforce model, for customers from mid-size enterprises to the largest. Crunchr is for organisations with 1,000 or more employees.

What SuccessFactors already includes costs no extra licence. Story Reports comes with the Platform at no additional cost. The reports built into Employee Central are also included at no additional cost. If your questions are about today’s headcount and day-to-day reporting, check whether these answer them before you buy.