Software & Technology
Home
Complete archive of features and news articles, sample policies and procedures, assessments, and surveys.
Network and exchange ideas with other members in the forums or ask an expert in one of the hosted forums.
Access vendor directories, product case studies and showcases.
Read Best in Shows, view our conference calendar, read commentaries and take our news poll.
The Hot List
Blogs
Topic Channels
Comp, Benefits, Rewards
HR Management
Legal Insight
Recruiting and Staffing
Software and Technology
Training and Development
= Member Only
Workforce HR Jobs
Post Your Job
Post Your Resume



Subscribe Now
Workforce Magazine
Subscriber Help
























= Member Only


Feature:

State of the Sector: HRMS

  

Systems Open to Collaboration


Leading HRMS companies are flexible enough to open their systems for add-ons.
By Douglas P. Shuit

epsiAmericas was using a PeopleSoft HRMS system for payroll last year but was still struggling with cumbersome spreadsheets for other compensation issues. That’s when a salesperson from Authoria made a cold call, offering the company’s knowledge management tools. The timing was perfect.

    "We were trying to figure out how to get summary plan benefits out," says Dana Sacks, vice president of compensation and benefits and human resources information systems for PepsiAmericas, an independently owned Pepsi bottler with 15,000 employees worldwide.

    Putting the benefit plan books out involved wrestling with big spiral-bound notebooks and the added expense of printing and mailing them.

    Authoria’s solution was to do it online, which not only cut through a lot of time-consuming labor but also offered the possibility of easy updates that would allow PepsiAmericas to keep up to date with program changes. PeopleSoft had the ability to mix and match its products and had a working arrangement with Authoria that allowed a hookup to its HRMS system.

    "Our IT department has always wanted us to leverage PeopleSoft to its full extent. In my mind, that doesn’t always mean using PeopleSoft applications," Sacks says. "Authoria is a PeopleSoft partner. They have knowledge of how PeopleSoft works. That was a big advantage to us."

    The decision to go with Authoria is part of a trend: Leading HRMS companies are flexible enough to open their systems for add-ons that workforce managers are demanding in order to better train, track and reward the talent in their companies. Enterprise HRMS systems run by Oracle, SAP and Lawson Software collect vast amounts of data. Talent management software companies like Authoria develop ways to put that employee information to strategic use.

    Todd Chambers, vice president of marketing for Authoria, puts it this way: "It’s all about how you identify your top performers, how you make sure you are paying them appropriately, how you retain them, grow them and move them to midlevel manager, then upper-level management."


"There was a positive return on our investment in Year One. It was quicker, faster, cheaper."
--Dana Sachs, vice president of compensation and benefits and human resources information systems for PepsiAmericas


    Sacks is sold on partnerships like the one between PeopleSoft and Authoria, particularly the way it came into play in streamlining the disbursement of bonus checks to PepsiAmericas employees. Under the old system, bonuses were being figured out on spreadsheets. Mistakes were being made. People weren’t getting their checks. These days, everyone is happy, Sacks says.

    "There was a positive return on our investment in Year One," Sacks says. "It was quicker, faster, cheaper."

    For Sacks, shopping around for human resources software means learning a bit more about IT than she might have thought she needed. "I’m doing my best to learn this IT stuff," she says.

    She says PepsiAmericas uses Authoria’s Knowledge Manager for benefit plans and Manager Advisor for performance reviews, while Compensation Advisor helped her get out from under the bonus problem. Compensation Advisor now calculates bonuses, processes merit increases and performs other duties.

    PepsiAmericas purchased the software for Compensation Advisor, but Authoria hosts the program off-site. Authoria is responsible for running the system. Pepsi Americas updates its own information internally.

    "Updating the system ourselves is important to us," Sacks says. The company’s benefits people know benefits, "but they are not particularly technical. We need someone to manage the system."

    That type of flexibility is a hallmark of cutting-edge systems, as is their ability to save a company from cumbersome and error-prone spreadsheets.

    "The last time we used spreadsheets, I think we had an additional 1,200 checks to send out because of errors," she says. "Contrast that to February this year: We had no errors; the checks went out on time."

Workforce Management, June 2005, pp. 59-60 -- Subscribe Now!


Douglas P. Shuit is a Workforce Management staff writer based in Irvine, California. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.


Next Article: 2. Filling a Gap
Employease can implement its system in four to eight weeks, in contrast to months and sometimes years for larger systems.

Top of Feature | Features Archive



Feature Contents
Top of Feature

1. Systems Open to Collaboration


2. Filling a Gap
Employease can implement its system in four to eight weeks, in contrast to months and sometimes years for larger systems.

3. PDS Catches Attention With Low-key Approach
Apparently, the combination of good technology, low cost and service is working.

4. The Heart of HR Service Delivery
Six major HRMS vendors ranked by the percentage of companies which are using them as their core system.

5. Comparison Shopping
AMR Research evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of PeopleSoft, Oracle and SAP.

6. No One System Does it All
A chart showing the percentages of companies' HR systems that are developed in house, purchased or outsourced.

7. Technology Forum
Discuss how to choose system that will yield the best results, as well as how to maintain it, and how to calculate its return on investment. (Please note that this forum is dedicated to workforce-management professionals only, and not for employees.)

Similar Documents

Related Topics



Sponsored Tools

Recruiting & Staffing Software
The industy's #1 Applicant Tracking System! Solutions for SMBs and Enterprise organizations.


PCRecruiter - HR Software that fits your practices
PCRecruiter HR software is used by nearly 3000 organizations worldwide. Discover why right now


A Brighter Talent Management Solution
Easily assess, develop, motivate and retain a high-performing workforce with Halogen Software.


Time & Attendance Systems
Easily collect time data with our exclusive clocks, and manage it through our software, TimeForce.


World-Class Recruiting Software
Powerful, custom-tailored applicant tracking & onboarding by SonicRecruit. Click here for free tour


Get Listed >>>

 


 Workforce Blogs

The Business of Management
Workforce Management editor John Hollon analyzes and comments on business, management and the art of leading a workforce.

Workforce Washington
Washington staff writer Mark Schoeff Jr. provides an insider’s insights to the workings of our nation’s capital from the workforce management perspective.

Global Work Watch
Staff writer Ed Frauenheim blogs about how companies worldwide marshal and manage their workers.






Copyright © 1995-2008 Crain Communications Inc.
All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement