HR to ITSM
SuccessFactors TOPdesk integration: employees and onboarding tickets in TOPdesk
With an integration between SAP SuccessFactors and TOPdesk, new Dutch employees from SuccessFactors are persons in TOPdesk, with department, branch and manager, and KoppelHet creates an incident or change for the right operator group for every new colleague, job change or departure. A new colleague or departure prepares an incident or change for IT, building management and fleet, without an email from HR.
What the integration does
Organisations that manage employees in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and use TOPdesk in the Netherlands for IT, building management and fleet enter new colleagues based on an email from HR. A job change in Employee Central never reaches TOPdesk.
- New departments and locations from SuccessFactors appear in TOPdesk first.
- HR hires a new Dutch employee in SuccessFactors.
- The employee then appears as a person in TOPdesk, with job, department, branch, cost centre and manager as they apply today.
- The service desk sees an onboarding change based on your TOPdesk template; on departure an offboarding change with the last working day.
- After the end date the person is archived in TOPdesk.
- The onboarding incident is in the new colleague's name and goes to the operator group of the branch, with the start date as target date and job, department and manager in the text. If the service desk wants fixed tasks, it becomes a change from a template.
- A new job or department results in a change ticket, so IT adjusts access and equipment.
What to watch for with SAP SuccessFactors and TOPdesk
- Because EmpJob works with effective dates, KoppelHet sees a hire with a future startDate before it takes effect. The onboarding ticket arrives four weeks ahead by default, while the person in TOPdesk only gets today's data from the start date.
- A departure is an EmpJob row with a termination event reason in SuccessFactors. KoppelHet turns it into an offboarding ticket a week ahead and archives the person after the end date.
- Building management and fleet often have their own operator group in TOPdesk. One hire then results in a change with activities per group, instead of three separate incidents.
- SuccessFactors stores job data as history with effective dates. KoppelHet takes the record valid today, not the last one entered, so a change from next month is not yet in TOPdesk.
- SuccessFactors has a number per person and a number per employment. For TOPdesk we use the person number, so a second employment does not create a second person.
- The manager is stored in SuccessFactors with their own user number. KoppelHet first looks them up in TOPdesk; if they are not there yet, they are added as a person first.
- A group often has companies in several countries in SuccessFactors. KoppelHet only includes the Dutch company, so employees from other countries stay out of TOPdesk.
- Locations in SuccessFactors fit TOPdesk branches well, since both have an address. A new location becomes a branch first, before persons are linked to it.
- In SuccessFactors the integration may only read the data TOPdesk needs. Salary and personal data such as nationality are not included.
- TOPdesk allows 20 characters in the employee number. If SuccessFactors uses a longer number, we store it in an optional field on the person.
This integration is also part of joiner, mover, leaver.
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
Can we also have tickets created for onboarding and offboarding?
Yes. By default an onboarding incident or a change from your template arrives four weeks before the startDate, with activities for IT, building management and fleet, and an offboarding ticket one week before the last working day.
Can it also happen right at every change in SuccessFactors?
We can explore that per customer. By default we fetch changes at fixed moments, because that also picks up retroactive changes.
Does this work if we use SAP ERP for cost centres?
Yes. SuccessFactors holds the cost centre that also exists in ERP. KoppelHet sets it in TOPdesk, so facilities costs end up in the right place.
What happens on a transfer abroad?
Once the employee no longer belongs to the Dutch company, the integration treats it as leaving and archives the person in TOPdesk.
Do archived persons ever become active again?
Yes, when someone returns. KoppelHet then unarchives the person based on the person number.
Technical details for IT
For those who want to know how it works under the hood: APIs, fields and sources used.
- SuccessFactors Employee Central is read through the OData API on lastModifiedDateTime, with OAuth and read-only access. Entities PerPerson (personIdExternal), PerPersonal, PerEmail, EmpEmployment and EmpJob (effective-dated with startDate and seqNumber; department, location, costCenter, managerId as userId), plus FODepartment and FOLocation.
- TOPdesk is written through the TOPdesk REST API (Supporting Files and Change). Departments and branches get the SuccessFactors code as external link; personIdExternal goes into employeeNumber (at most 20 characters).
- SuccessFactors Intelligent Services as an alternative to periodic polling can be explored per customer.
- Tickets through the TOPdesk REST API: incidents with POST /tas/api/incidents (callerLookup to the person, briefDescription, request, category, operatorGroup, targetDate and externalNumber), or changes with POST /tas/api/operatorChanges from a template (template and requester). KoppelHet stores per employee which incident or change has already been created, per hire and per end date.
Which fields are transferred
The key fields. The full mapping is agreed per customer.
| Field in SAP SuccessFactors | Field in TOPdesk | Notes |
|---|---|---|
PerPerson.personIdExternal | employeeNumber | |
Voornaam (PerPersonal) | firstName | |
Achternaam (PerPersonal) | surName | |
Zakelijk e-mailadres (PerEmail) | email | |
Functietitel (EmpJob) | jobTitle | |
EmpJob.department | department | |
EmpJob.location | branch | |
EmpJob.costCenter | budgetHolder | |
EmpJob.managerId | manager | managerId is a userId and is translated to the manager's person |
Startdatum dienstverband (EmpEmployment) | hireDate (contract) | |
Einddatum dienstverband (EmpEmployment) | employmentTerminationDate (contract) | |
Indiensttreding, wijziging of vertrek | Melding (incidents) of wijziging uit sjabloon (operatorChanges) | Chosen per event at the start |
Gesynchroniseerde persoon | callerLookup of requester | The ticket is in the employee's name |
startDate van de EmpJob-regel | targetDate en briefDescription | For example Onboarding 01-11-2026: name |
Functie, afdeling en leidinggevende | request (tekst van de melding) | |
Vestiging of afdeling | operatorGroup en category | Operator group per branch |
Related
Ashby → SAP SuccessFactors
Ashby to SAP SuccessFactors integration: hire as a new employee in Employee Central
Bullhorn → SAP SuccessFactors
Bullhorn to SAP SuccessFactors integration: placements as employees or contingent workers in Employee Central
Carerix → SAP SuccessFactors
Carerix to SAP SuccessFactors integration: successful placement as a new employee in Employee Central
Greenhouse → SAP SuccessFactors
Greenhouse to SAP SuccessFactors integration: a hire as a new employee in Employee Central