My top curiosities going into SuccessConnect 2025

Please note: the opinions and comments expressed below are solely my own and do not reflect the views of SAP, SAP SuccessFactors, or the SAP Confidant Program.

In a few weeks, many colleagues and I within the HR Tech industry will attend SAP SuccessFactors’ annual conference, SuccessConnect 2025 in Las Vegas. This year will prove to be a good one, as there are several recent events that will shape the portfolio for years to come.

I have listed some of my top curiosities below. Please feel free to add comments to indicate some of your own questions or expand on any of my thoughts.

1. Strategic direction of Talent Acquisition The acquisition of SmartRecruiters was recently closed, so how will this shape Talent Acquisition in the years to come for SuccessFactors customers? For those customers currently implementing SuccessFactors Recruiting or those who were looking to do so in the months to come, what will the guidance be from SAP? Certainly integrations will become a main discussion item, as pre-delivered integrations will need to be created and maintained in order for these two systems to sync. It will be interesting how these two solutions will co-exist within the SAP HCM eco-system… I feel like we are back 30 years ago, revisiting ‘best of breed’ vs ‘best-of-suite’, especially with all the recent acquisition news between SAP and Workday.
2. Talent Intelligence Hub (TIH) Over the last year, I have been fortunate to work with several customers on TIH scoping, visioning, and implementation. Still in its (relative) infancy, this framework is extremely important to support Talent processes across the SAP SuccessFactors suite. Since TIH stores/maintains the skill and competency catalogs for the organization, it’s critical to get TIH design correct from the start (e.g. ensuring that you choose your rating scale since it’s irreversible!). A few important holes remain in the solution including:
   • When will advanced permissions be added to make rolling out to employee self service and manager self service viable? I’ve seen 1H 2026 from community blogs but let’s hope we hear officially from Product Management soon. We need this improvement in order to make permissions more specific to a particular set of competencies / skills. Could we expect permissions to use the Tag as the way to discern? Let’s wait to see what Product comes up with.
   • When will custom attribute types (not just the standard ones, i.e., skills and competencies) be available throughout all functionalities in Talent (e.g. career worksheet). Custom attributes are already integrated into the Job Profile Builder (JPB) but only integrate to the Growth Portfolio and not many of the legacy features yet.
3. Onboarding 2.0 “Oh ONB 2.0, where shall I begin with thee?” This is a special module. Special kudos to the SAP Product Management team for delivering constant improvements in the recent years. This module has been a challenge to implement but features are slowly catching up with the ONB 1.0 offering.
   • Many are interested to see what’s in store over the next few releases, particularly in the US Compliance area (e.g. Form I-9, E-Verify WTPA for NY and CA).
   • User experience continues to be a challenge with this product but I understand improvements are on the way so we shall see!
   • How will SmartOnboard play into the onboarding space? Will be interesting, as ONB 2.0 is extremely tethered to Employee Central.
   • Earlier this year, I wrote a blog Top 5 tips when Implementing SAP SuccessFactors Onboarding 2.0 it’s a quick read and could help some out!
4. Report Stories continue to be a challenge for customers to adopt. Between issues with IAS syncing and overall end user experience, customers have been struggling to adopt. SAP has been offering training which I recommend for customers still needing assistance. FYI, People Intelligence in SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) is not replacing Report Stories (or ad hoc, for that matter). We know Ad Hoc was resurrected but we can eventually expect a new date. I am interested to hear more about People Intelligence and BDC during the conference.
5. Can AI within SAP SuccessFactors gain traction in 2026? So far, AI use cases (for my implementations at least) have been discussed but not implemented. I believe 2026 will be the year where customers finally start moving the needle to use AI in SuccessFactors Talent Management. Currently, most customers are still trying to grapple with the foundational aspects of Talent with TIH, Opportunity Marketplace, and the rest of CTD (Career and Talent Development) and AI is mostly considered a “phase 2 item”. Let’s see if that changes in 2026.

Please let me know if you’ll be attending SAP Connect 2025 in person, send me an email info@worklogix.com  and let me know!

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