splitting HR and payroll from the R/3 instance

[Dave_S]

Our technical teams have been asked by management to explore the feasibility of splitting (decoupling) HR and Payroll (HR/Pay) from our existing Core R/3 landscape; most likely as part of our upgrade from 4.6C to SAP ERP 7. We met internally, and had more questions than answers. There is also very little in either the SDN or ASUG discussion forums on this subject, and nothing current.

From a technical perspective (our business/functional side is also looking into this), we would like to know …

• Why other SAP customers have implemented separate HR/Pay and FI, etc, systems? What benefit does it provide?

• Have other customers split HR/Pay off of an existing R/3 system? What were the technical benefits of splitting?

• What is the degree interdependence/independence between HR/Pay and the remaining core system?

• Is a Master Data Management Server (MDMS) needed or recommended?

• How are system management activities (e.g., support packs, disaster recovery, etc) affected by the split?

• How many full time equivalent (FTE) team members are needed to support ALE?

• Does a split between HR/Pay and FI/CO, etc, introduce any archiving issues?

• Since this is being suggested as part of our upgrade, if we split, should we do it before, during, or after the upgrade?

I realize this is a big question – actually several questions. I appreciate any experience, advice, etc, anyone can share.

Thanks in advance,

Dave

[kmoore007]

Did you ever come back around to this project and split payroll out? We are looking to do the same.

[Dave_S]

kenneth.moore we never did come back to splitting out HR/Payroll.

[Dave_S]

We have decided to not persue splitting HR/Pay from the core system at this point, since it could jeopardize the success and timeline of our ERP 6.0 upgrade project.

[Former Member]

Hello,

We had the same question 4 years ago because the buzzword in our company, at that time, was "information systems urbanization". What was excellent before (integration), had become evil !

The technical team could only find cons and no pros for the split up. Luckily for us, the project was much too expensive and was finally dropped. And now we don't hear about Urbanization but SOA !

The only benefit, I would see, is that HR needs to be pretty up to date with support packages because of legal requirements and they disturb the other modules users who don't need the support packages.

Splitting the system would be a major headache : Make a database copy, rename the database at database and SAP level and then deleting the unneeded data from each system and then reorganize both databases. Then you need to connect both systems with ALE for the interface between payroll and FI/CO.

Hope this helps,

Olivier

[Dave_S]

Thank you for your reply Olivier.

We have decided to not persue splitting HR/Pay from the core system at this point, since it could jeopardize the success and timeline of our ERP 6.0 upgrade project.