Supercharge SAP: Automate New Hire Events with SAP Build Process Automation and SuccessFactors

[acharyaw]

Overview

SAP Build Process Automation is a low-code/no-code platform that enables users to automate business processes and tasks using visual drag-and-drop tools. It combines workflow automation, robotic process automation (RPA), and embedded AI capabilities to streamline processes and improve efficiency.  To know about the product roadmap, you can follow the link here.

SAP Cloud Application Event Hub offers a flexible solution to distribute business events across the SAP cloud landscape. This service supports SAP's strategic event-driven architecture initiative to create a well-defined, easily consumable and extensible ecosystem for exchanging SAP business events.

This blog explains how to use the event-driven automation for the New Hire Onboarding scenario spanning across SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Build Process Automation(SBPA) and SAP Cloud Application Event Hub. For more information on Success Factors events in Business Accelerator Hub read here. Read here for more details on the scenario.

The integration support of SAP Build Process Automation with SAP Success Factors via SAP Cloud Application Event Hub was released from SAP Build in Q2 2025. For more details refer to the YouTube video Whats New in SAP Build – Q2 2025 Highlights and Blog What’s New in SAP Build Q2 2025 - Release Highlights.

Note : Integration of SAP Build Process Automation with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public  Edition and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition is also available with Event Mesh and Advanced Event Mesh.

Here are the reference blogs Event Mesh and SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Setup for SAP Build Process Automation and Configure SAP Enterprise Messaging for SAP S/4HANA On-Premise 2020 via Service Key.

New Hire Scenario Introduction

The Onboarding process is a crucial and very common activity of Human Resource department of any organization, influencing the experience and success of new hires. Organisations often face challenges in onboarding process especially with equipment and trainings that are required by the new-hire. If these not done right, the onboarding process can involve manual and repetitive tasks, leading to inefficiencies and delays. An event-driven solution using process automation and customization to provide a personalized onboarding experience for new hires is much needed.

The current scenario is based on real-time event-driven business process integrations. It involves starting an approval workflow process using the SAP Build Process Automation solution, ensuring you involve the relevant stakeholders in certain scenarios.

Pre-requisite:

• The BTP and the SFSF systems needs to be connected already. This can be done by using Event Mesh, Advanced Event Mesh or SAP Cloud Application Event Hub.
• The details of the setup to be done using Cloud Application Event Hub is mentioned in the blog  Integrating SAP SuccessFactors with SAP Build Process Automation via SAP Cloud Application Event Hub   and the Devtoberfest video Using Intermediate Message Events and Success Factors Events in SAP Build Process Automation .

Creating the process step by step

Let's now create an end to end process. In this section we will create event triggers, add actions, add decisions, approval forms and email notifications.  Below are the sample steps:

1. Add an Event Trigger to start the process

The event here is "New Hire Data Review Initiated".

Note: The event project should be created , released and published in Lobby already. 

You can refer to this blog link on how to create an Event project in the Lobby or this YouTube video. Here is the link for reference in Business Accelerator Hub for details on the New Hire Data Review Initiated event.

2. Add the Actions to get further details of the new hire

We need to use additional APIs to get further details for employee and job details. The APIs used in this example are the  

a.  GET for /PerPerson('{personIdExternal}') from the  Personal Information API

b.  GET for /EmpEmployment(personIdExternal='{personIdExternal}',userId='{userId}') from the Employment Information API

Map the inputs of Actions to the required inputs from the events.

Note: The action projects should be created , released and published in Lobby already.

3. Add decisions to determine the Equipment and Trainings for new hire

The  EquipmentDetermination Decision takes JobTitle as an Input and Output can be a list of Equipment for which we need to create a Purchase Order later in the S/4HANA Public Cloud System via Actions(APIs).

The  TrainingDetermination Decision can take JobTitle as an Input and Output of  can be a list of Trainings that are required for the employee, which can be notified to the  employee via email after successful approval.

4. Create an Approval form

The Approval form shows the new hire data to be reviewed. Both the outputs from Equipment and Training can be used in the approval form. There are two options for user - Approve and Reject.

5. Create a Purchase Order via Actions

Upon successful Approval, add an Action call to create a Purchase Order in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public System with the equipment determined for the new hire.

The required SAP S/4HANA API call is  : POST for /PurchaseOrder.

6. Add email notifications

You can add email notification after the Purchase Order is successfully created and also for rejection scenario. The sample process looks like the following:

Execute the process:

1. Add a new employee in the SAP SuccessFactors application using "Add New Hire to Onboarding". This will create an event "New Hire Data Review Initiated" from the SAP Success Factors system.

2. In SAP Build Process Automation Approve/reject the equipment and training assignment to the new hire that you have created in the previous step.

3. Purchase order will be created for the equipment approved in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and end users will be notified accordingly.

Tips and Tricks:

• To check if events are configured properly and are reaching SBPA, check the SAP Build Lobby -> Monitoring -> Acquired Events -> Business Events. Here you will find information on the business events that are received by SAP Build Process Automation.
• The SFSF system needs to be enabled for sending events.
• The new hire event is dispatched only when all the steps are completed, i.e. all the OK windows are acknowledged by user.
• Proper destination for APIs for SFSF needs to be configured in BTP with correct API user in SFSF system
• Proper destination for APIs for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Edition system should be configured with appropriate communication users.
• SMTP Email destination needs to be created in BTP subaccount for the email tasks to work.
• Check that events and actions are working fine before using them in the project.

For any further queries, please feel free to reach out !  

I would like to thank my co - author Rumen for his support in creating this content.

Happy eventing !