• Why integrate SAP SuccessFactors with Active Directory?
  • How do I integrate SAP SuccessFactors with Active Directory manually?
  • Integrating SAP SuccessFactors with Active Directory—the easier way

SAP SuccessFactors powers critical processes like recruitment, employee data management, and performance tracking in many organizations. But when these HR operations need to translate into IT actions—such as creating user accounts or assigning access permissions—the gap between the two systems can slow things down. Manual workflows, back-and-forth emails, and delayed updates can affect efficiency.

By integrating SAP SuccessFactors with Active Directory (AD), you bridge this gap, transforming what once felt like disjointed processes into an automated, streamlined workflow. From onboarding to offboarding, and everything in between, this integration ensures your HR and IT teams are perfectly in sync.

In this blog, we’ll explore the advantages of this integration, guide you through the manual setup process, and show you how ADManager Plus takes it further by simplifying AD management while reducing complexity.

Why integrate SAP SuccessFactors with Active Directory?

1. Speed up onboarding and offboarding

Onboarding a new hire involves getting their accounts created, assigning roles, and ensuring they have access to the right systems; with offboarding undoing this work. With SAP SuccessFactors managing your employee data and AD handling your access controls, a lack of integration can cause delays. This means waiting for IT to manually create user accounts; otherwise, you risk unauthorized access when someone forgets to update permissions.

The integration between SAP SuccessFactors and AD ensures that when an employee is added to the HR system, their AD account is automatically created with the correct roles and permissions, reducing onboarding time and improving security.

2. Improve data security

SAP SuccessFactors handles sensitive data such as payroll information, performance reviews, and compliance data. Without an integration between SAP SuccessFactors and AD, managing access becomes fragmented, making it harder to control who has access to what.

A seamless AD integration ensures that only authorized users can access sensitive HR data in SAP SuccessFactors, reducing risks related to unauthorized access or data breaches.

3. Keep permissions up to date with minimal effort

HR departments regularly update roles, permissions, and access rights for employees. The more manual this process is, the higher the chances of error. An incorrect access level or forgotten update can lead to security risks or productivity losses.

AD integration automates the updating of access rights directly from SAP SuccessFactors, ensuring roles and permissions are always in sync and up to date without additional work from your IT or HR teams.

4. Automate repetitive HR-IT tasks

Password resets, account modifications, and role assignments are tasks that HR and IT teams deal with on a daily basis. But they’re time-consuming and repetitive. Even minor errors can create security vulnerabilities or result in delays.

Integrating AD with SAP SuccessFactors helps you automate these repetitive tasks, freeing up your teams to focus on more important things.

How do I integrate SAP SuccessFactors with Active Directory manually?

Step 1: Gather the tools

Before diving in, you’ll need:

  • A configured Microsoft Active Directory server with PowerShell.
  • SAP SuccessFactors Integration Center with SFTP set up for file transfers.
  • An SFTP client installed on your AD server to fetch integration files.

Step 2: Use prebuilt templates

SAP SuccessFactors offers integration templates for three key tasks:

  • Create Accounts: Add new hires to AD.
  • Update Accounts: Keep user information up to date.
  • Disable Accounts: Revoke access for terminated employees.

These templates generate flat files for each task, which your IT team can process using PowerShell scripts.

Step 3: Customize the templates

No two organizations are alike, so you’ll need to tweak the templates:

  • Add filters to pull relevant employee data.
  • Map mandatory fields to ensure AD receives complete records.

Step 4: Schedule the workflows

Automation here involves carefully timing the integration tasks:

  1. Create new accounts.
  2. Update existing accounts.
  3. Disable terminated accounts.

Step 5: Process files with PowerShell

Once the templates generate files:

  • Schedule your SFTP client to download them to the AD server.
  • Use PowerShell scripts to process the files and update AD.
  • Ensure the scripts are error-free and run in sequence.

While it works, the manual approach isn’t perfect

  • Labor-intensive: Every step—from customizing templates and scheduling to running scripts—needs attention.
  • High stakes for errors: A missing field or a scheduling misstep can disrupt workflows or create security gaps.
  • Ongoing maintenance: As your organization grows or policies change, templates and scripts need constant updates.
  • Lack of scalability: Handling these steps for a small team is manageable. For a growing workforce? Not so much.

Integrating SAP SuccessFactors with Active Directory—the easier way

If managing AD through manual workflows feels like running uphill, ADManager Plus offers the downhill alternative. It’s built for HR-IT alignment, ensuring SAP SuccessFactors and AD work seamlessly together.

Here’s how ADManager Plus simplifies the process:

  1. Automated end-to-end workflows: When an employee joins, moves, or leaves, ADManager Plus automatically updates AD. Accounts get created, updated, or disabled in seconds. No backlogs, no delays.
  2. Eliminate the hassle of scripting: Forget piecing together scripts for every scenario. ADManager Plus handles everything with intuitive templates and rule-based actions, tailored to your HR-IT processes.
  3. Ensure data consistency, always: Keep your AD synchronized with SAP SuccessFactors in real time, ensuring roles, permissions, and accounts are always up to date without manual intervention.

ADManager Plus bridges the gap between HR and IT by automating account provisioning, ensuring real-time updates and removing the need for scripts.

But why stop there? With our growing marketplace of integrations , ADManager Plus doesn’t just solve one problem. It opens the door to a connected ecosystem where your tools work together to support your business goals.

Start your free trial of ADManager Plus today and explore our marketplace to discover integrations that can enable your team to work smarter.