Many companies are moving their systems from SAP ERP HCM to the cloud system SAP SuccessFactors with Employee Central (EC). Yet as a result of this process, it’s not only the systems that have to run smoothly. It’s also vital that the people working with them can handle it well and are pleased with their new solution. In the on-premises system SAP ERP HCM, HR administrators are often used to search for employees via their SAP Personnel Number (Pernr). So, as to not slow down their daily workflow it might be a valuable feature to be able to search for the Pernr in the Action Search in EC as well.
In line with this, we have made the experience that the feature to make the Pernr searchable in EC has been highly appreciated by our clients.

Search for the Pernr in Action Search

And to give a quick answer to the question of whether that is possible: Yes, fortunately, it is!
However, the feature has not been implemented by SAP in SuccessFactors by default. Hence, it is unfortunately not possible to change the available configurations to make the Action Search process the Pernr easily.

How to implement the Pernr as searchable?

Yet, SAP equipped SuccessFactors with a powerful tool to make the Pernr searchable in EC, the Integration Center. The Integration Center is helpful for countless cases when integrating external or SAP modules in highly customized ways. Additionally, you can use it to „integrate“ SuccessFactors with itself. Meaning that you can add functionalities and automatisms to the system directly. Using this option, we can implement a logic to link the Pernr from SAP ERP HCM to the User ID from SuccessFactors.

On a last note concerning the User ID / Pernr mapping. Usually, the Pernr gets mapped to the User ID in Successfactors. Yet we cannot use the User ID in the Action Search to find an employee. That is why we make use of our logic in the Integration Center to bypass this circumstance.

If you’re interested in how to exactly to configure this logic or are looking for assistance in implementing it into your own systems, feel free to contact us any time!