Recruitment to HR
iCIMS to SAP SuccessFactors integration: accepted offer as a new employee in Employee Central
With an integration between iCIMS and SAP SuccessFactors, a candidate with an accepted offer in iCIMS becomes a new employee in Employee Central, with person, employment and job on the proposed start date. If something goes wrong, the recruiter sees the reason in iCIMS right away, because KoppelHet returns the error message as the response to the status change.
What the integration does
Organisations that recruit in iCIMS and use SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central as their HR system have HR enter every hire again in Employee Central. If a code is missing or a department is wrong, the recruiter only hears about it when the new colleague is about to start.
- The recruiter moves the candidate in iCIMS to the status for an accepted offer.
- iCIMS sends numbers and links; KoppelHet fetches person, application and job itself.
- KoppelHet creates the person in Employee Central first, then the employment and then the job with a hire event.
- If that works, the recruiter gets a confirmation in iCIMS.
- If it fails, the recruiter sees the reason in iCIMS and sets the status again once it is fixed.
What to watch for with iCIMS and SAP SuccessFactors
- iCIMS lets the party receiving the status change return an error message, which the recruiter sees immediately. If Employee Central rejects a department or position, KoppelHet passes that rejection back to iCIMS in plain language.
- Employee Central wants a new employee in fixed steps, from person via employment to job. Because iCIMS can have the status set again after an error, KoppelHet remembers per iCIMS person which step already succeeded and continues there on a new attempt.
- An iCIMS job has a field for an external ID of up to 64 characters. We have the SuccessFactors position code entered there, so the job in Employee Central lands on the budgeted position without a table per job.
- The address in iCIMS is in separate fields for street, postcode, city and country. Employee Central has its own address format per country; for the Netherlands KoppelHet puts the house number separately if the format asks for it.
- iCIMS stores an offer amount, bonus, relocation amount and paid time off as separate fields. Compensation in Employee Central depends on pay components per country. In the first version KoppelHet only carries the start date; compensation can be added later as an extension.
- SuccessFactors is phasing out API access that works with username and password. KoppelHet uses OAuth 2.0 with its own API user, so the integration with iCIMS does not break on that.
- If you use SuccessFactors Onboarding, an external ATS can start there instead of directly in Employee Central. According to SAP that needs an external user record through the OData API and always middleware. We choose one route per customer, never both.
How we build and run it
- The integration runs on the KoppelHet platform, hosted in a data centre in the EU.
- Every sync and every error is visible in the functional log; on an error your administrator is notified.
- A change that cannot go through is not half-applied but queued for another attempt.
- KoppelHet is ISO 27001 certified. Data travels encrypted and stays on the platform no longer than needed.
- After go-live we manage the integration and adjust it when your process changes.
- The integration fits next to your existing integration layer. Only the fields in the design are transferred; the platform keeps no register of its own.
Implementation and price
This is not an app you switch on. We build the integration for your organisation on our platform, with building blocks we reuse on every project. So it is custom work that does not start from scratch.
A consultant prepares the intake and analyses both systems. We then record the mapping and exceptions field by field, test in the test or acceptance environment and go live at a moment you choose. Costs are a one-off amount for the setup and a monthly amount for platform, monitoring and support.
Frequently asked questions
Does iCIMS not have its own SuccessFactors integration?
Comparison sites mention one, but we found no public description from iCIMS or SAP. If you already have it, we first look at what it does before building anything.
Why does the integration not start when the offer is sent?
A sent offer can still be declined. Employee Central only receives candidates who are really coming.
Does the BSN come along?
No. iCIMS usually does not ask for it, and HR adds it in Employee Central.
Technical details for IT
For those who want to know how it works under the hood: APIs, fields and sources used.
- iCIMS through the Workflow Status Update event (WorkFlowStatusChangeEvent with newStatus, oldStatus, personId, jobId, systemId and links), configured on a trigger status in the workflow profile. Respond 200 with userMessage or 400 with a message for the recruiter. Then GET on applicantworkflows (proposedstartdate), people (firstname, lastname, email, phones, addresses, birthdate) and jobs (externalid, department, joblocation).
- SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central through OData v2 upserts on PerPerson, PerPersonal, PerEmail, PerPhone and PerAddressDEFLT, then EmpEmployment and EmpJob with a hire event; personIdExternal as key. OAuth 2.0 with SAML assertion; basic authentication is being phased out.
Which fields are transferred
The key fields. The full mapping is agreed per customer.
| Field in iCIMS | Field in SAP SuccessFactors | Notes |
|---|---|---|
firstname, middlename en lastname | PerPersonal (firstName, middleName, lastName) | |
birthdate | PerPerson (dateOfBirth) | |
email | PerEmail (privé) | |
phones (type Mobile) | PerPhone | |
addresses (addressstreet1, addresszip, addresscity, addresscountry) | PerAddressDEFLT | |
proposedstartdate | startDate van EmpEmployment en EmpJob | |
externalid (vacature) | position in EmpJob | The SuccessFactors position code |
department (vacature) | department (foundation object) | Through a lookup table |
- iCIMS Developer Community – Workflow Status Update
- iCIMS – Recruiting Workflow data model
- iCIMS – Job Profile data model
- iCIMS – Person Profile data model
- SAP Learning – Integrating Onboarding with an external ATS
- SAP Business Accelerator Hub – Employee Central (OData v2)
- Oracle – Retirement of SAP SuccessFactors basic authentication
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