Article Written By: Author Michael Brown is Global Head of HCM, HCL Technologies./

This is part two in our look at integrating cloud-based human capital management applications. Experts advise customers to take a holistic view of the acquire-to-retire life-cycle and work with a trusted IT partner to create a tailored roadmap.

Part one of this series examines how the current business challenges facing human resources departments are impacting IT buying trends: The $4.3 Billion War for Talent – Part One.

Looking at today’s business challenges, there is a need for human capital management (HCM) solutions that are not only agile, mobile and have a consumer-grade UI, but also address the local and global requirements of customers; allowing them to run their analytics and/or predictive HCM analytics from one place.

Taking into account these considerations, SAP and SuccessFactors, an SAP company, offer the best of both worlds. SAP continues to provide market-leading, on-premise HCM solutions that address the legal and country-specific needs of more than 50 countries. And SuccessFactors brings with it a fantastic range of cloud-based core HR, talent management and collaboration solutions with a complete range of pre-delivered metrics and cloud-based benchmarking tools. The case in point here is that talent management, unlike core human resources information systems (HRIS), needs to be dynamic; requiring frequent changes and the addition of rich functionality. Such changes and functionality additions are very well supported in the SuccessFactors world through regular quarterly releases.

Taking a strategic approach
While customers can still choose to run either solution independently, many are showing a great deal of interest in a new hybrid model. A hybrid model is where a customer opts to use the core HCM on-premise solution as the main employee database to run all of their time-based and payroll processes, and the cloud solution for all their talent management processes.

Whatever the scenario, it is important to understand that one size will not necessarily fit all. Hence the strategic approach to a solution needs to be based on the following criteria.

• Improved strategic alignment: Try to close the gap between strategy and execution. Look for a partner with a long track record in HCM and HCM-related technologies and somebody with demonstrable skills in the field of cloud.
• Increased efficiency and productivity: Working with your chosen partner, you should analyze your current situation and look at how you can optimize your HRIS and talent management. In addition you should look to capitalize on workforce analytics to increase overall productivity and organizational performance.
• Accelerated business results with a HCM roadmap: In order to maximize business results in a shorter time period, you should work closely with your partner to develop an HCM roadmap. This should take into account organizational strategy, growth opportunities, HCM process and technologies.

Making the technology work for you
SuccessFactors, like other cloud systems, is configurable but not customizable. There may be defined processes within organizations that the SuccessFactors HCM suite may not support. Here, experts with HCM domain knowledge and SuccessFactors expertise (which includes a good understanding of the complete HR cloud suite from SuccessFactors, Meta Data Framework (MDF) and SAP HANA Cloud Platform, extension package for SuccessFactors) should be engaged. They will be able to leverage their knowledge for discovery and/or requirements analysis and deliver credible advice on which processes should change to adapt to the software, or which processes should be enhanced in the software for maximum business advantage.

Organizational change management, testing and training capabilities
Solutions from SuccessFactors, like many other top-of-the-line-cloud products, are based on industry-leading practices. This may mean dramatically different HR processes than what the organization is used to; in some cases they may be entirely new processes, such as implementing succession planning where none existed previously. Therefore, organizational change management (OCM), training and testing are key ingredients of a successful adoption of the new application. This is an important step as the bigger the gap between your current processes and the ones you will be adopting, the greater the OCM requirement. As result every SuccessFactors implementation should include OCM as part of standard project methodology.

Conclusion: accelerating business value
Recent technology advances have sparked business innovations we could only imagine a few short years ago. To keep pace, many clients feel the urgency to explore options for evaluating, optimizing, and extending the technology landscape for their current human capital management (HCM) functions.

At this juncture, IT and HR executives first must determine the most advantageous strategic direction to address current technology gaps and leverage modernized HR technology to accelerate business value from human capital management applications. Through taking a holistic view of the ‘acquire to retire’ lifecycle and adopting a best-practice approach to identifying, implementing and maintaining a best-fit solution, organizations can further ensure their HCM deployment is a success.

Author Michael Brown is Global Head of HCM, HCL Technologies.

Article Written By:  Michael Brown of HCL Technologies

Michael Brown is Global Head of HCM, HCL Technologies.

Companies look to spend record sums to manage HR processes and talent. Human capital management applications might just be the answer, but CXOs harbor concerns about integrating cloud solutions into existing landscapes.

For the last five years, human resources (HR) departments across the globe have been challenged to acquire and retain talent. This trend shows no sign of abating. There are a number of business factors impacting human capital management (HCM) as a whole, and particularly the HCM application landscape in a big way. A recent study by Aberdeen Group shows the following HCM trends and top HCM priorities:

Design HR systems to improve business outcomes

Today the face of HR is often a portal, rather than a person. Almost all firms now provide universal access to HR services through technology and web-based applications; dramatically changing the lifecycle practice of human resource management from acquisition to retirement. Organizations must determine what technology will enable a transformation of their HR practices and market or extend their Talent brand.

HR has a second transformation coming. This is being enabled by best-of-breed talent management solutions delivered from the cloud. This evolution into a more technology-based function with cloud-based HR and talent systems is providing improved business outcomes by addressing the following HR needs:

• Reduce HR administration and compliance costs
• Locate, retain, engage and develop global talent
• Improve service and access to data for employees and managers
• Provide real-time metrics to allow decision-makers to spot trends and manage the workforce more effectively
• Enable the HR and talent functions to transform and become a more strategic partner for the business.

The current HCM application landscape

Many of the HCM systems in large companies’ legacy enterprise applications suites are not only limited in functionality, but must also support an outdated, architecturally-constrained software model. At the same time, the application landscape is being influenced by the following factors:

• Cloud HCM and user experience
  Today’s users want a simplified user interface (UI) that is modern, intuitive and streamlined. Cloud applications bring to the surface frequently performed tasks, work across platforms and require hardly any training.
  What is required is a consumer-grade UI that should champion the themes of simplicity, mobility and extensibility to set the simplified UI apart.
• Talent management and Big Data analytics driving cloud adoption
  The topic of Big Data, HR analytics and predictive analytics has been given a lot of press lately, and rightfully so. It affords HR leaders an opportunity to show the direct impact of their processes and initiatives on business outcomes.
• The dream of one system for both core HCM and talent management applications
  For years, HR customers dreamt of a cohesive and integrated HR system with the best of both worlds: core HR and talent management functionality provided in the same system. Providers of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions have been promoting the promise of an integrated end-to-end HR suite.
• Integration with legacy applications
  In a recent global CXO survey commissioned by HCL, integration into existing landscapes was by far the biggest implementation issue faced when it comes to cloud deployments. Many organizations lack the integration skills needed to integrate HCM cloud solutions with legacy application landscapes as well as to manage the associated complexities.

According to recently published research on HR technology buying trends, the market is hotter than ever. As companies start a new war for talent, this $4.3+ billion market continues to explode with growth. In fact according to research conducted by Deloitte on behalf of Bersin, 57% of companies plan to make a major new HR software purchase in the next 18 months; of these, 20% indicated that they will replace their talent management applications with an integrated suite and 14% indicated that they are looking to replace their human resources and/or information management system.

Watch for part two next Tuesday!

How can a customer navigate the HR software market to ensure that it receives the best-fit solution for its organization? In part two of this series, we will talk about why it’s important to take a holistic view of HR processes and how to work with a trusted IT partner to create a tailored HCM roadmap.

Michael Brown is Global Head of HCM, HCL Technologies.

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