SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

2823947 - Logged in user is redirected to the logon page when clicking on an instance URL from a Microsoft Office application – SuccessFactors Platform

Symptom

  • A user is logged in the browser and can access a SuccessFactors URL by copying and pasting the URL into the browser without having to authenticate again
  • When clicking on the same URL within a Microsoft Office application (i.e. a hyperlink in an Excel spreadsheet or in a Word document), user is prompted for authentication
  • Why is the user being redirected to the logon page when clicking on a hyperlink in a Microsoft Office document, if the user is already logged in?

Environment

  • SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite

Cause

As per the below documentation by Microsoft, that occurs because SuccessFactors relies on HTTP session cookies for client identification. Thus, even if the user has already provided the credentials, he is prompted to provide the user credentials again.

Resolution

As a workaround, users can copy and paste the URL into the browser’s address bar.

Since this issue is caused by the different ways Microsoft Office and SuccessFactors deal with cookies, you can submit an enhancement request for our Development team to work on for future system releases. That can be done on our Customer Influence Portal by following KBA 2090228.

Keywords

successfactors platform, office, microsoft office, excel, powerpoint, word, authentication, link, SSO, log in , KBA , LOD-SF-PLT , Platform Foundational Capabilities , Problem

Product

SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite all versions