Market Perspectives

We are happy to share some insights about SAP drawn from our latest market research, Ventana Research Buyers Guide: Payroll Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.  

We recently published three Ventana Research 2023 Payroll Management Buyers Guides, an assessment of technology vendors and products that provide individual and combined payroll management, domestic payroll and global payroll platform support.  

At Ventana Research, we continue to believe that, for most use-cases, there is a clear choice for payroll management platforms for any use in your organization. We developed three technology assessments and buyers guides to focus on overall payroll management requirements as well as specific domestic payroll and global payroll platform use-cases. 

In all of our Buyers Guides, we utilize a structured research methodology called the Value Index that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal (RFP) and vendor selection process for payroll management. We evaluated SAP and seven other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two related to the vendor (TCO/ROI and vendor validation).  

In the overall Payroll Management Buyers Guide, our analysis classified SAP as Exemplary, receiving an overall grade of B++ with an 80.8% performance. SAP’s best grouped results came in Product Experience at 81.8% performance and an A- grade due in part to its A- in Reliability. In Customer Experience, SAP received a B++ with a 75.4% performance due to its 76.8% performance in Validation. SAP was designated a Leader in Adaptability, Manageability, Reliability, and TCO/ROI. SAP partially participated in the RFI process. 

SAP’s A- grade in Product Experience was impacted by its B++ in Capability where it could further support digital innovation into blockchain and extended reality. Customer Experience was impacted by its B+ grade in TCO/ROI where it could provide more depth into the achievable cost savings from using the product.  

SAP performed best in Product Experience with an A- grade, notably in Reliability, receiving an A- due to its dedication to ensuring business continuity. In Adaptability, SAP has presented a large scope of common enterprise software integrations available to users. SAP’s breadth of technology administration capabilities available to non-IT users led to its A- in Manageability.. 

In the Domestic Payroll Buyers Guide, our analysis classified SAP as Exemplary, receiving an overall grade of B++ with an 80.8% performance. SAP’s best grouped results came in Product Experience at 82.0% performance and an A- grade due in part to its A- in Reliability. In Customer Experience, SAP received a B++ grade with a 75.4% performance due to its 76.8% performance in Validation. SAP was designated a Leader in Adaptability, Manageability and TCO/ROI. SAP partially participated in the RFI process. 

SAP’s A- grade in Product Experience was impacted by its B++ in Capability where it could offer further incorporation of other digital technologies. Customer Experience was impacted by its B+ grade in TCO/ROI where it could offer further insight into the strategic value of their product.  

SAP performed best in Product Experience with a n A- grade, notably in Reliability, receiving an A- due to its ability to further business continuity with its information security capabilities. In Adaptability, SAP demonstrated a large scope of integrations. SAP’s detailed onboarding information led to its B++ in Validation. 

In the Global Payroll Buyers Guide, our analysis classified SAP as Exemplary, receiving an overall grade of B++ with an 80.6% performance. SAP’s best grouped results came in Product Experience at 81.7% performance and an A- grade due in part to its A- in Reliability. In Customer Experience, SAP received a B++ grade with a 75.4% performance due to its 76.8% performance in Validation. SAP was designated a Leader in Adaptability, Manageability, Reliability and TCO/ROI. SAP partially participated in the RFI process. 

SAP’s A- grade in Product Experience was impacted by its B++ in Usability where it could look to improve some of its accessibility functions in the user experience such as NLP capabilities. Customer Experience was impacted by its B++ grade in Validation where it could continue to showcase its customer commitment through success stories and customer references.  

SAP performed best in Product Experience with an A- grade, notably in Reliability, receiving an A- due to its strong business continuity information. In Adaptability, SAP received an A- grade because of its strong integration options. 

This assessment was based on SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll, Version 1H, released May 2023.  

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of human capital management software in the industry. Technology buyers can learn more about how to use our Buyers Guide by clicking here and included vendors that wish to learn more can click here. Click below to read the individual reports: 

Payroll Management Buyers Guide  

Domestic Payroll Buyers Guide  

Global Payroll Buyers Guide