New demands mean new pressures for HR leaders. Many have responded by supplementing core HR platforms with solutions purpose-built to manage specific aspects of their operations. While implementing these individual technologies may seem necessary, the cost and complexity can become overwhelming. Yet, no one vendor can hope to own all of the innovation needed to respond to changing organizational dynamics and disruptive external pressures. We believe in the power of many: many innovators, many thought leaders, and many contributors coming together in a unified, elegant ecosystem.

1. The Power of Many: Choosing A Modern Platform For Today’s HR Demands
1 / 7
© 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
SAP SuccessFactors Executive Brief
The Power of Many: Choosing a Modern
Platform for Today’s HR Demands
©2017SAPSEoranSAPaffiliatecompany.Allrightsreserved.

2. The Power of Many: Choosing A Modern Platform For Today’s HR Demands
2 / 7
© 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
New Demands Mean
New Pressures for HR Leaders
An HR transformation is underway. Driven by
mounting expectations from corporate
leadership, as well as by shifting dynamics
within the workforce, HR leaders now play a
much more active role in helping their
organization define and execute on its strategic
vision. As these responsibilities build – and
continue to shift and emerge at a rapid
pace – they have a direct impact on HR
processes, the people these programs support,
and the systems put in place to enable them.
Like many HR leaders, you’ve likely responded to
new demands – such as the increased use of
contingent labor, the need to bring more
diversity into the workplace, a shortage of viable
candidates, or something else – by
supplementing your core HR platform with
solutions that are purpose-built to manage
specific aspects of your operations.
While acquiring and implementing individual
technologies for tasks such as recruiting,
learning, performance management, payroll
management, talent management, and reporting
may seem necessary, the cost and complexity of
these technologies can become overwhelming
over time.
It’s expensive to implement and maintain so
many disparate systems. All of the moving parts
require complex integration work and
continuous IT support. And this jumble of
technologies means that you have to juggle and
rationalize separate release cycles, support
structures, and vendor contracts, to name a few
of the issues.
Because these issues can actively undermine
your ability to keep pace with new demands –
and reaffirm HR’s strategic relevance to the
business – it’s only natural that you might look
for a simpler route forward.
While implementing individual technologies may seem
necessary, over time, the cost and complexity can
become overwhelming.

3. The Power of Many: Choosing A Modern Platform For Today’s HR Demands
3 / 7
© 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
Option 1a
Is There “Power” in the Power of One?
Like many HR leaders, you might find some
appeal in the idea of moving from an
environment marked by disparate, disjointed
systems to one that’s supplied, managed, and
owned by a single provider.
If this move toward consolidation sounds
familiar, that’s to be expected: HR has been here
before. Toward the end of the twentieth century,
many human capital management software
vendors sought to differentiate themselves by
touting the benefits of an approach driven by the
“power of one.”They promised that one all-
encompassing solution, built on a single line of
code, would increase simplicity while eliminating
the need to manage a collection of add-on
applications.
The problem is, these single-platform vendors
struggled to keep pace with HR’s ever-increasing
demands for innovation, so their generic
solutions failed to effectively address changing
business requirements. As the belief that one
vendor could do it all and innovate everywhere
started to break down, HR departments had to
look to additional suppliers to close the gaps
their single provider couldn’t fill. And this put
them precisely in the position they were looking
to avoid.
And if this “one vendor” approach was
unsustainable then, it’s even less sustainable
now.
In the past, single-platform vendors struggled to keep
pace with HR’s ever-increasing demands for new
innovation, resulting in generic solutions that failed to
effectively address changing business requirements.

4. The Power of Many: Choosing A Modern Platform For Today’s HR Demands
4 / 7
© 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
Is There “Power” in The Power of One?
In today’s fast-changing environment, no single
provider can anticipate every need before it
arises – nor can a single provider move quickly
enough to satisfy every HR department’s unique
demands. And, as the nearly 2,500 startups
dotting today’s HR landscape can attest, anyone
with a good idea and access to a cloud
infrastructure can build and release something
of utility and value. Because of this, no one
vendor can hope to own all the innovation
needed to respond to changing organizational
dynamics and disruptive external pressures.
So while a single-platform environment seems
appealing – and some consolidation is certainly
necessary – the reality is that there are
significant limits to what one supplier can
provide. Such thinking is a relic of a bygone era.
It doesn’t account for the speed with which HR
is moving today. And a single provider can’t
realistically promise to supply your organization
with the capabilities it needs, at the moment
they’re most critical.
Depending on one vendor could, therefore, put
your competitive standing at risk. It could erode
your position as a strategic partner to the
business. And it could cause you to respond too
slowly to the latest demands placed on your
shoulders – if you can meet them at all.
Of course, you could always compensate for
your vendor’s inability to provide what you need
by sourcing these technologies on your own. But
that will just push you right back into the very
same disjointed environment you wanted to
move away from in the first place. You’ll end up
repeating the same costly cycle.
When you consider the tension this situation
creates – between aspiring to operate a single
platform and realizing that you actually need
innovation from multiple sources – the fallacy
behind the supposed “power of one” becomes
clear.
No one vendor can hope to own all of the innovation
needed to respond to changing organizational
dynamics and disruptive external pressures.

5. The Power of Many: Choosing A Modern Platform For Today’s HR Demands
5 / 7
© 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
From One to Many
These risks emphasize the importance of
following a different approach, of moving to a
modern HR platform that embraces the realities
of today. This new approach offers an alternative
to disjointed, multi-vendor infrastructures while
avoiding the limitations created by
“single-platform” environments.
Adopting this modern platform requires a
provider that can build out the core, strategic
capabilities you need to run HR today – and into
the future – while maintaining the flexibility to
innovate, scale, and expand as new challenges
and opportunities arise. That means acquiring
additional functionality instead of developing it
all in-house, adding value through partnerships
with leading vendors, and opening up the
environment so it can be extended by third-party
and internal developers.
At SAP, we believe in the power of many: many
innovators, many thought leaders, and many
contributors coming together in a unified,
elegant ecosystem. It’s why we’ve made this
“build, acquire, partner, extend” strategy the
driving principle behind our HR technologies.
Rather than trying to own everything, it allows us
to acknowledge the groundswell of innovation
happening across the HR market and serve as
an orchestrator that quickly facilitates the
connection of these innovations – while still
delivering a single, connected experience and
the trust you demand from SAP.
We believe in the power of many: many innovators,
many thought leaders, and many contributors coming
together in a unified, elegant ecosystem.

6. The Power of Many: Choosing A Modern Platform For Today’s HR Demands
6 / 7
© 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
From One to Many
Bringing everything together in a single,
ever-evolving ecosystem means you’ll still
benefit from the consolidation of essential HR
technologies, and you’ll have fast access to the
best solutions the world has to offer – now and
in the future. You’ll have more control over how
your HR programs and processes shift in
response to emerging external pressures and
internal initiatives. You’ll reduce risk and
strengthen your strategic relevance to the
business. And you’ll stay ahead of the curve and
remain poised to address tomorrow’s needs,
whatever they may be.
BUILD, ACQUIRE, PARTNER, EXTEND: THE POWER OF MANY COMES TO LIFE
So, how does a modern HR platform both leverage and benefit from this “build, acquire, partner,
extend” philosophy?
•• Build: With nearly 2,000 internal developers, SAP can freely expand a solution to deliver what you
need to run HR today – and tomorrow – including features that help you nurture employee
performance, leverage Intelligent Services, and eliminate bias throughout the employee lifecycle.
•• Acquire: Our purchase of Fieldglass illustrates our ability to spot an emerging trend – the increase in
contingent labor in this case – and quickly answer the challenges and opportunities it holds by
integrating the market’s best available solution into our ecosystem.
•• Partner: Uniting our core features with the electronic signature capabilities offered by DocuSign is
just one example of how our partnerships bring additional value into the environment.
•• Extend: Encouraging partners and developers to freely build on our platform is how we inspire new
innovations, such as the alumni management application that helps companies build valuable
connections between current and former employees.

7. The Power of Many: Choosing A Modern Platform For Today’s HR Demands
7 / 7
© 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
www.sap.com
SAP Americas, Inc.
3410 Hillview Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94304
USA
T +1-650-849-4000
F +1-650-849-4200
Products and Services:
+1-800-872-1727
(17/01)
© 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or for any purpose without the express permission of SAP SE or an SAP
affiliate company.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as
their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP
SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. Please
see http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.
epx#trademark for additional trademark information and notices. Some
software products marketed by SAP SE and its distributors contain
proprietary software components of other software vendors.
National product specifications may vary.
These materials are provided by SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company for
informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any
kind, and SAP SE or its affiliated companies shall not be liable for errors
or omissions with respect to the materials. The only warranties for SAP
SE or SAP affiliate company products and services are those that are set
forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products
and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting
an additional warranty.
In particular, SAP SE or its affiliated companies have no obligation to
pursue any course of business outlined in this document or any related
presentation, or to develop or release any functionality mentioned
therein. This document, or any related presentation, and SAP SE’s or its
affiliated companies’ strategy and possible future developments,
products, and/or platform directions and functionality are all subject to
change and may be changed by SAP SE or its affiliated companies at any
time for any reason without notice. The information in this document is
not a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material,
code, or functionality. All forward-looking statements are subject to
various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue
reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of
their dates, and they should not be relied upon in making purchasing
decisions.