Strategic human capital management is critical to the U.S. Federal government’s ability to cost effectively serve the public and achieve its stated goals. Highlighting its importance, strategic human capital management has been included in the
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) “
High-Risk List” – a list of programs and operations that are particularly vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement – since 2001.
In its assessment of strategic human capital management at the Federal level, the GAO has identified specific critical skills gaps in areas such as science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and cybersecurity. These skills gaps can result from a variety of reasons, including shortfalls in workforce planning and training, an aging workforce (particularly an increasing percentage of employees eligible to retire), loss of institutional knowledge due to retirement or talent turnover, and the changing nature of federal work. Strategic human capital management is so important to the Federal government that this topic also contributes to 22 of the other 35 high-risk areas included in the current GAO report.
The Importance of FedRAMP Assessment
Human capital management (HCM) technology, including the
SAP SuccessFactors suite, is at the core of the ability to address critical staffing and human capital risks such as those identified by the GAO. The reality is that, while the private sector is moving more quickly to adopt cloud-based HCM solutions, many Federal agencies and organizations still use on-premise technology to manage their workforces. There are various reasons for this, including budgetary and personnel reasons, but the reluctance to adopt cloud-based solutions is often due in large part to the intersection of cloud-based solutions and rigorous Federal security requirements.
This is why
FedRAMP is so important to Federal agencies. FedRAMP, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, was established about 10 years ago to provide standardized security assessments and authorization for cloud-based service providers and cloud-based software offerings like SAP SuccessFactors used by Federal agencies. The goal is to make sure that critical data is protected at a high level when used and stored in the cloud. Cloud services and solutions that are FedRAMP assessed are vetted by a 3PAO (third-party assessment organization).
SAP NS2 Drives Federal Workforce Modernization
SAP recognized the stringent Federal security and audit requirements and established SAP National Security Services (
SAP NS2). SAP NS2 is a wholly owned subsidiary of SAP whose mission is to deliver secure and compliant SAP cloud solutions to both Federal agencies and those non-Federal organizations that are required to meet government-level cloud security standards.
SAP SuccessFactors Human Capital Management solutions have been FedRAMP accredited since 2017. When it comes to SAP SuccessFactors, SAP NS2 customers span 11 industries and have more than 2.5 million users. SAP NS2 offers three cloud models serving the Department of Defense, Federal civilian agencies, and commercially regulated industries such as aerospace and defense. Each of these customers are supported by cleared NS2 resources with U.S. resources on U.S. soil and each environment includes all mandatory security controls such as Impact Level 4 for Department of Defense.
SAP NS2 addresses the need for highly regulated organizations to have a comprehensive cloud-based HCM solution like SAP SuccessFactors while maintaining complete control over their data. Data access (
who has access to the data?), data residency (
where does the data reside?), and data sovereignty (
which local laws apply and are they being addressed?) are essential components of any cloud strategy and are the pillars of SAP NS2’s offerings. To learn more about SAP NS2, visit its
homepage.
