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Review of Move to Cloud Event: “Not technology, but people are the biggest challenge”

Terugblik Move to Cloud Event een mensenuitdaging
  • Strada
  • 25 March, 2025

On March 13, the ‘Move to the Cloud Event’ took place, organized by Strada and SAP. The goal? To prepare organizations for the transition to payroll in the cloud. Participants gained insights from experts, saw a live demo of ECP within SAP SuccessFactors, and listened to the practical experiences of KLM. In this report, we share the key insights.

The kickoff was provided by Wim Valstar, Global Director HCM at SAP. Wim talked about the trends and developments that determine the strategic direction of SAP’s services. Important trends include the growing focus on productivity and integrated collaboration in HR and payroll, as well as technological developments such as AI. From December 31, 2027, SAP will no longer support on-premise SAP HMC, meaning organizations must switch to a cloud-based solution. SAP Employee Central Payroll (ECP) within SAP SuccessFactors is the logical successor.

“Only the cloud offers the speed and flexibility our customers need to elevate their business and drive innovation”

Christian Klein
SAP

Multiple paths to the cloud

A migration to the cloud is not an overnight process, acknowledges Wim Valstar. He highlighted the different migration routes SAP offers:

  • Full-suite HCM: organizations fully migrate to SAP SuccessFactors Public Cloud, with integrated functionalities.
  • Core Hybrid: HR core processes migrate to the cloud, while payroll remains in the existing ERP system.
  • Talent Hybrid: talent management and analytical tools run in the cloud, while core processes and payroll remain in a private cloud.

Organizations are generally advised to implement SAP SuccessFactors for their core processes. For organizations that have already chosen SAP as their HR source system, the best practice is to use Employee Central as Core HR. Why? It is the latest technology offered by SAP and works with the same data model as for Payroll, Time, analytics, and talent. This module is upgraded annually with new functionalities and corrections. Moreover, it integrates seamlessly with ECP via a standard point-to-point integration. For organizations using Workday or Oracle as their HR source system, this does not apply, and integration between Payroll, Time, and HR is advised.

Four-step plan for the cloud

Next, Reno Rutten (Solutions Architect at Strada) and Wim Valstar discussed the four-step plan that helps organizations transition to the cloud in phases:

  1. Discover & prepare. This phase is about developing a business case: what does the cloud migration yield?
  2. Explore & plan. Then it’s important to investigate how ready your HR systems are for migration to the cloud. SAP offers tools such as the SAP Readiness Check for SAP SuccessFactors Solutions.
  3. Move & deploy. Then it’s time for the actual migration, with SAP providing various tools and best practices for a smooth transition.
  4. Run & innovate. Adoption tools and automation solutions help you make the most of cloud investments and continue to innovate.

Strada: the guide in your cloud transformation process

Caroline Yannart, Sales Representative Northern Europe at Strada, emphasized that transformation projects often provoke resistance but offer enormous opportunities for optimization, innovation, savings, and employee engagement. She explained how Strada supports companies in this process. According to Caroline, the biggest challenge often lies not in technology but in changing human behaviour.

The experts at Strada offer support on all fronts: from optimizing and automating processes to testing and improving the user experience. A Change Manager from Strada can also guide the process, ensuring employees receive the right training and support to master the new systems.

Demo: familiar functionalities, new environment

The Move to Cloud Event concluded with an interactive demo of ECP by Marjolein van Parijs, Pre-Sales Solution Consultant at Strada. Marjolein showed various simulations, such as entering and processing a bonus. For participants, it was a relief to see that familiar on-premise functionalities are retained in the cloud, but all options are now found in one environment (instead of scattered across various systems).

Additionally, Marjolein demonstrated the benefits of the Payroll Control Center (PCC), a tool within SAP SuccessFactors. PCC provides payroll administrators with real-time notifications of inconsistencies or errors, allowing them to follow up immediately and better distribute the monthly workload. Finally, Marjolein gave a preview of the AI solutions (such as Joule) within SAP SuccessFactors.

Want to know more?

Would you like to know more about cloud-based payroll and how your organization can make the transition? Contact Strada for personal advice and support in your cloud journey. Curious about how SAP ECP works in practice? Sign up for an on-site demo.

 

  • Strada