This article outlines the instructions for configuring the Udemy Business and SAP SuccessFactors Learning Management System (LMS) integration. These steps will need to be configured by your SuccessFactors Admin and your SuccessFactors credentials will need to be configured in your Udemy admin portal.
Before you start
What the integration does
Once connected, your learners can search for, discover and launch Udemy Business courses directly from SuccessFactors, and your SuccessFactors admins can assign Udemy Business content as part of your curriculum. Course completions in Udemy Business can also be recorded back into SuccessFactors.
Checklist
- Udemy Business LMS/LXP integrations are only available with the Enterprise Plan.
- You have a SuccessFactors Learning administrator who can edit system configuration, roles and OAuth settings.
- You have a Udemy Business administrator who can access Manage > Settings.
- You know which SuccessFactors environment you are connecting (for example, test or production).
- You know whether other OCN content providers are already connected to this SuccessFactors environment. See the warning below.
- If different people in your organisation administer SuccessFactors and Udemy Business, you have agreed a secure internal way to pass credentials between them.
| Issuing a new OAuth secret affects other providers. In SuccessFactors, issuing a new secret invalidates all existing ones. If other OCN providers are connected, either reuse the existing token or re-issue the new token to every provider. |
| Keep credentials within your organisation. API keys, secrets and SAML assertions give access to your SuccessFactors environment. Your Udemy Business admin enters them directly in Udemy Business, so there is no need to send them to anyone at Udemy. |
How long it takes
The configuration itself can be done in a single working session. After activation, allow up to 72 hours for the Udemy Business catalogue to first sync into SuccessFactors, before you can import courses and test.
Values your Udemy Business admin will need
Your SuccessFactors admin produces these during the setup in the next section. Your organisation's Udemy Business admin then enters them directly on the Udemy Business integration page. If one person administers both systems, they can complete both phases in one session.
| Field in Udemy Business | What it is | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Base URL | The endpoint for the SuccessFactors API | Your SuccessFactors login URL, up to and including the domain. For example, from https://example.successfactors.com/login#/companyEntry the base URL is https://example.successfactors.com. |
| API Key | Identifies the client application you register in SuccessFactors | Manage OAuth2 Client Applications (step 1.7) |
| API Server Endpoint | The endpoint for the SuccessFactors authentication token server | Your SuccessFactors environment. Your SAP administrator or SAP documentation can confirm it. |
| Assertion | A SAML assertion used to authenticate | Generated from the certificate you register (step 1.8) |
| Company ID | Your SuccessFactors company identifier | Your SuccessFactors environment |
If your SuccessFactors login URL uses a regional domain rather than successfactors.com and the integration does not save, contact Udemy Business support. Do not include credentials in your support request.
1. Set up SuccessFactors
Done by your SuccessFactors admin
- Create the provider label. Go to References > Manage Labels > Labels and create the label label.u.UdemyForBusiness.
This gives Udemy Business a readable name in SuccessFactors.
- Enable Udemy Business as an OCN provider. Go to Learning Administration > System Administration > Configuration > System Configuration > Open Content Network and add these properties, one per line:
providers[UDEMY].enabled=true
providers[UDEMY].name=Udemy Business
providers[UDEMY].label=label.u.UdemyForBusiness
providers[UDEMY].syncCourses=true
providers[UDEMY].baseLaunchUrl=https://yourcompany.udemy.com
providers[UDEMY].pricingModel=
defaultValues.markCompleteOnLaunch[UDEMY]=false
| Check baseLaunchUrl carefully. Replace your company with your own Udemy Business subdomain. The value must end at .udemy.com, with no trailing slash, path or other characters. |
- If Udemy Business is your first OCN provider, also set these three defaults in the same file:
- defaultValues.itemType[default]: find the value under References > Learning > Item Types (run a blank search).
- defaultValues.itemCompletionStatus[default]: find the value under References > Learning > Item Completions (run a blank search).
- defaultValues.domainID[default]: find the value under System Admin > Security > Domains (run a blank search) and choose the domain where items should be created.
These values vary between SuccessFactors environments. For help choosing them, contact SAP SuccessFactors support.
- Add the Udemy Business logo (optional). Upload a thumbnail under Open Content Network > Logos.
- Create an OCN Admin role. Go to Security > Role Management and create a role with the Add History Record permission (called Add Learning Events in older versions). If you plan to use the OData method for completion sync (section 4), also allow this role to query users through the SuccessFactors OData Search service.
- Create an OCN Admin user. Go to Security > Administrators, create a user and assign it the role from the previous step. This user makes the API calls.
- Register a client application and note the API Key.
- Search for Manage OAuth2 Client Applications in the admin search bar and open it.
- Click Register Client Application, fill in the required fields, then click Generate X.509 Certificate.
- Complete the certificate fields and click Generate.
- Download the certificate as a .pem file, then click Register.
- Open the registered application and note the API Key.
- Generate a SAML assertion using the certificate from the previous step. Follow SAP's guide: Generating a SAML Assertion.
| This phase is complete when you have the Base URL, API Key, API Server Endpoint, SAML assertion and Company ID ready for your Udemy Business admin to enter. |
2. Activate the integration in Udemy Business
Done by your Udemy Business admin
- Go to Manage > Settings > APIs & integrations.
- From Select an integration, under LMS/LXP integrations, choose SuccessFactors.
- Enter the Base URL, API Key, API Server Endpoint, Assertion and Company ID.
- Click Save.
- Open the APIs tab and click Create credentials. The integration uses these itself. You do not need to enter them in SuccessFactors.
| This phase is complete when the integration saves successfully. Allow up to 72 hours for the catalogue to appear in SuccessFactors. |
3. Import Udemy Business courses
Done by your SuccessFactors admin
Once the catalogue is listed in SuccessFactors, the courses must be imported before learners can see them. This step is required and cannot be skipped.
- Go to Learning Administration > Content > Open Content Network.
- Import (approve) the Udemy Business courses you want in your catalogue.
- Optionally, schedule Learning Administration > Automatic Processes > Open Content Network Content Synchronization to keep course details up to date and clean up inactive courses.
Plan a regular import. Importing does not repeat on its own, so new Udemy Business courses will not appear until you import them. Most organisations repeat the import weekly.
| This phase is complete when a learner can find and launch a Udemy Business course from SuccessFactors. |
4. Set up completion sync
Done jointly by both admins
To record completions in SuccessFactors, each learner's SuccessFactors BizX User ID must be stored in their Udemy Business lmsUserID field. Choose one of these methods:
| Method | How it works | What you need |
|---|---|---|
| SuccessFactors OData API | Udemy Business looks up each user by email in SuccessFactors and stores their BizX User ID. | OData Search permission on the OCN Admin role (step 1.5). Let your Udemy Business representative know, so they can enable OData on the Udemy side. No credentials are needed for this. |
| SSO from your identity provider | Your identity provider (for example Entra ID, Okta or OneLogin) sends the BizX User ID as the lmsUserID SAML attribute. | The BizX User ID must be reliably available in your identity provider. Your IT team configures this. |
| SuccessFactors as identity provider | SuccessFactors passes the BizX User ID directly during sign-in. | Talk to your Udemy Business team first, as this method is more complex. |
| CSV upload | You export user emails and BizX User IDs from SuccessFactors and send the file to Udemy Business support, who upload them. This file contains user data only, not credentials. | Talk to your Udemy Business team first, as this method is manual. |
See How to assign an lmsUserID to learners for more detail. Udemy Business can reprocess historical or missed completion events once the mapping is in place.
| This phase is complete when your test learners have their BizX User ID in the lmsUserID field. Your Udemy Business admin can check this in a user export from Manage Users. |
5. Test the integration
Done jointly by both admins
- Sign in to SuccessFactors as a test learner whose BizX User ID is mapped.
- Find and launch a Udemy Business course.
- Complete the course in Udemy Business.
- Confirm the completion record appears in SuccessFactors for that learner.
For a fuller test plan, see How to test your LMS integration with Udemy Business.
| The integration is ready when at least one end-to-end completion appears in SuccessFactors. |
Troubleshooting
| What you see | What to check |
|---|---|
| Udemy Business courses don't appear in SuccessFactors | Has it been 72 hours since activation? Have the courses been imported under Open Content Network (section 3)? |
| New Udemy Business courses are missing | Imports don't repeat automatically. Run the import again. |
| Courses fail to launch or open the wrong site | Check baseLaunchUrl matches your Udemy Business domain exactly, with nothing after .com. |
| Course titles or descriptions are blank | The course language doesn't match the SuccessFactors locale. See the next section. |
| Completions don't appear in SuccessFactors | Check the learner's BizX User ID is stored in their Udemy Business lmsUserID (section 4). |
| Another content provider stopped syncing | A new OAuth secret may have been issued, which invalidates existing ones. Update the other providers with the new token. |
Course languages and locales
SuccessFactors only shows a course's title and description in the locale it was populated in. If your Udemy Business subscription includes courses in multiple languages, enable the matching locales in SuccessFactors so those courses display properly. To change locale defaults for titles and descriptions, raise a case with SAP SuccessFactors support.
Migrating to SAML-based authentication (existing customers) by November 2027
As SAP SuccessFactors is deprecating basic authentication, if you already have an active Udemy Business–SuccessFactors integration, please follow the steps below to migrate it to SAML-based authentication.
1. In SuccessFactors, search for Manage OAuth2 Client Applications in the admin search bar and open it.
2. Click Register Client Application, fill in the required fields, then click Generate X.509 Certificate.
3. Fill in the relevant fields and click Generate.
4. Download the certificate as a .pem file, then click Register.
5. Open your newly registered client application and note the API Key shown.
6. Generate a SAML assertion using the certificate you downloaded in step 4. By following the instructions in the SAP documentation: Generating a SAML Assertion – SAP SuccessFactors.
7. In Udemy Business, go to the APIs & integrations page (under Settings). Then, open your existing SuccessFactors integration, and click Migrate to new auth.
8. Enter the API Key (from step 5), your API server endpoint, Company ID, and the SAML assertion you generated in step 6.
9. Test the credentials and confirm they validate successfully.
10. You have now successfully migrated your account.
Enabling Course Completion sync
This integration uses the SuccessFactors BizX UserID as the unique identifier to sync learner completion records from Udemy Business to SuccessFactors. Udemy Business stores this value in the lmsUserID field.
The SuccessFactors BizX UserID must be mapped into the Udemy lmsUserID field for the course completions to sync. There are multiple ways to upload the SuccessFactors BizX UserID into Udemy Business:
Option 1: Via the SuccessFactors OData APIs
For this method, Udemy Business will call the Open Data Protocol (OData) API provided by SuccessFactors to allow third-party access to data stored within SuccessFactors. This enables the user email address and BizX User ID from SuccessFactors to be pulled via this API for any user also in the Udemy Business environment directly. If the user’s email address is found, the BizX UserID is stored as lmsUserID in Udemy.
To enable this method, please follow the OData API configuration steps above and let your Udemy Business representative know to enable OData on the backend as well.
Option 2: Via SSO from your Identity Provider (Azure, Okta, OneLogin, etc…)
For this method, you will need to configure your SSO Identity Provider to map the SuccessFactors BizX UserID as a SAML attribute into the Udemy lmsUserID field.
Please note: For this to work you must also be able to reliably and effectively map the SuccessFactors BizX UserID from SuccessFactors into your Identity Provider.
- Udemy Business cannot oversee this process and you may need to work with IT to configure this.
Option 3: Via SuccessFactors acting as the Identity Provider
SuccessFactors has native capabilities to act as an Identity Provider and can pass the BizX UserID via SSO directly.
Due to its complexity, this method requires consultation with your Udemy Business team.
Option 4: Via CSV Upload
If you do not use SSO or the OData API is not an option you can manually download a CSV file from SuccessFactors with the user emails and BizX User IDs. From there, you will have to send this file to Udemy Business support to have them upload the lmsUserID.
Due to the manual nature of this approach, this method requires consultation with your Udemy Business team.
Please note: Udemy Business can reprocess historical or missed completion events.
Managing SuccessFactors Locales
In SuccessFactors, course titles and descriptions only appear in the locale to which they are populated. If your Udemy Business subscription includes multiple languages, you may notice some Udemy Business content appears in search results without a title and description. This means the locale you are searching in SuccessFactors doesn’t match the locale of the Udemy Business content. The title and description are only returned for courses for the user's designated SuccessFactors locale.
For example, if your SuccessFactors locale is set for English, you will be able to see course titles and descriptions for all English courses.
- SAP support articles:
To request title and description locale defaults, please submit a case to the SuccessFactors support team.
Here you can find a full list of Udemy Business international languages. You will need to enable the locales in SuccessFactors to see the title and descriptions for Udemy Business courses offered in these languages
Test the integration
Once you’ve configured your Udemy and SuccessFactors APIs and SSO you will want to test the integration between Udemy Business and the LMS (Learn how to test your integration).
Questions or support
If you encounter any issues or need help with Udemy Business SSO or LMS/LXP Configuration, please contact our support team. For issues related to SuccessFactors, please contact the designated SuccessFactors support team.