Rebecca Carr is President, SAP HCM Products, and CEO of SmartRecruiters, an SAP company. HRTech Edition sent SAP five questions about its planned acquisition of TechWolf, which has not yet closed, and she answered them in writing.
How will SAP keep TechWolf’s data model open to non-SAP HR systems after close, and will that commitment carry a date or contract term?
Workforce intelligence is most useful when it reflects how work happens across the enterprise. TechWolf’s technology can use signals from the HR and business applications a customer chooses to connect, including SAP and non-SAP systems.
That approach is consistent with SAP’s commitment to customer choice and to securely connecting SAP and non-SAP data. SAP has announced its intent to acquire TechWolf. Any decisions about integration, product direction, or commercial terms would be made only if the transaction closes, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. We would share additional details when appropriate.
What will a SuccessFactors customer have to switch on for employee data to flow into the combined skills layer?
Today, TechWolf builds an evidence-based view of skills, tasks and workforce capabilities from the HR and business systems a customer chooses to connect. That’s why we see such a strong fit with SAP SuccessFactors: Helping customers connect what their business needs with the skills their people have. We haven’t announced what customers would need to enable or configure for a future combined offering. Following close, we would share those details so customers understand which systems to connect, what data would be used, and how access would be managed.
Which workforce agent question will TechWolf’s context graph let SAP answer that it cannot answer well today?
The question we hear from leaders is: Given what our business needs next, where do we already have the skills to do that work, and what is the best next action? TechWolf’s context graph connects work, skills, jobs, and labor-market intelligence with signals from the systems where work happens. That evidence can help an organization understand how work is changing, where relevant capabilities already exist, and whether the better response is to develop talent, move people, or hire. Following close, the opportunity is to connect that understanding with SAP’s broader business context, so an agent can help leaders understand what a change in the business means for their workforce, and what to do next.
How will SAP show customers that the grounding layer lowers what they pay to deploy workforce agents?
Customers should expect proof, not a blanket cost claim. TechWolf’s technology is designed to give AI applications relevant workforce context more efficiently.
Better context can help workforce agents produce more relevant results while making more efficient use of computing resources. To show what that means for customers, we need to measure the cost of completing the same work at a comparable level of quality, including deployment effort, computing costs, and how much human review or correction is needed. That’s how we should demonstrate whether greater technical efficiency translates into a lower overall cost for the customer.
How will employees see or correct the skills TechWolf infers about them?
Today, TechWolf’s Skill Assistant lets employees review inferred skills, accept or reject suggestions, add skills, and adjust their self-assessed proficiency. We believe that transparency is essential. A skills model should help people and organizations build a more current picture of capabilities; it should not become a black box that defines an employee. People need a way to correct what’s wrong and make visible the capabilities the system may have missed. That helps employees find opportunities to learn and grow, and helps the business recognize talent it may be overlooking. Details of how this would work in a combined offering would be shared following close.
