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5 Posts tagged with the workday tag

Vinnie Merchandani has an excellent post today detailing some of his and others thoughts on the recent discussion around SAP maintenance fees and increases being imposed on the customer base.  "If this was an election, SAP would be losing 94% - 6%, SCARY numbers!!"

 

After watching the presidential debate last night and various polls coming in all night from different sources, we all know that depending on who you talk to, polls can be swayed.  But 94-6?  SAP might want to consider listening to its customers very quickly as Vinnie suggests.   Now, if they don't, what might happen?

 

  1. Nothing - people are too entrenched with SAP to even make a change if they want to in this economy
  2. Re-negotiate - hmmm - My friends, not sure if this will work - we don't know the unexpected
  3. Switch to a new core HRMS - doubtful, but possible in today's economy

 

So, while people disagree, once again the core HRMS market is at a standstill.  There are vendors such as Ultimate Software, Lawson and Workday working on some unique approaches, but still a VERY hard sell in today's economy as Knowledge Infusion is working with at least 10-15 organizations re-evaluating their core HR foundational strategy based on today's market.

 

Know what you are getting into, don't underestimate maintenance fees, and finally - DON'T OVERBUY!!  There are some very unique strategies we are working on in our "strategy factory" as to what organizations can do to still realize the power of a global data source without a FULL BLOWN ERP strategy.

 

Take a read of Vinnie's post and reply with questions/comments.  Thanks for keeping them honest Vinnie.

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

2 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: core_hrms, foundation, sap, oracle, lawson, workday, ultimate_software

 

In another move that continues to show that HR needs to continue to think INTEGRATION, not INTERFACING; Workday today announces the acquisition of Cape Clear, a leading middleware provider.  This move will continue to help HR tie together process and data point behind the scenes to make the user interface and employee experience even more crucial.  Watch for Oracle, SAP, Lawson and the talent management vendors to continue to stress these ideas at an even faster pace of change after this announcement.  Technology is no longer the bottleneck to a deployment as Rob Bernshteyn discussed today at the e-HR Conference in San Diego.  Proof positive in this announcement today.

 

This move also continues to point back to the ideas that Knowledge Infusion continues to build into organization's HCM StrategyMap's which emphasize the need for HRIS and IT to focus on integrations, web services and the presentation layer to the workforce.  This will continue to drive the success of HR deployments worldwide.  This is a game changing move by Workday and a move that will get all vendors to continue to discuss value of integration into all HR and talent processes.

 

A good recap from ZDNet is attached here.. Take a read, let us know if questions as to how this might impact you.

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

Link to article

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: workday, cape_clear, middleware

 

 

 

In a recent research note linked to below, Gartner made an interesting prediction that has caught the eye of the folks at Knowledge Infusion.  At KI, we are involved in many software evaluations and selections where price is an issue, not the only issue, but still an issue.  The latest research note from Gartner states that seven major things will drive costs down.  A few of the biggies include Software as a Service (SaaS) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).  Some things to note about this and how it will effect the HR and talent management software space

 

  • More and more HR organizations are looking to Software as a Service solutions to drive their workforce facing solutions.  The problem with this is that few HR organizations or vendors in the space are executing the deployment to acceptable customer service levels.  This has to change during 2008 for SaaS solutions to continue to gain traction.

  • The ERP vendors such as Oracle and SAP are racing to change their software deployment models and architectures; the question remains, will they be able to do it in time.

  • Vendors such as Workday and Lawson have already invested heavily in the SOA model giving them a huge head start on the future of the core HR and foundation layers.

 

 

This topic will continue to gain attention over the next 12 to 18 months as the face of HR software changes forever (again).  Stay tuned as the acronyms SaaS and SOA continue to replace the term ERP; and no, this doesn't mean Oracle and SAP are dead; just reinventing themselves.

 

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

 

Link to article

 

 

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: soa, saas, lawson, workday, gartner, erp_vendors, oracle, sap

Computerworld does a great job of talking with a Software as a Service (SaaS) expert from Saugatuck Technology Inc and the things that all enterprises need to be thinking about when looking and deploying SaaS solutions.

 

On a daily basis, Knowledge Infusion is working with clients to help them understand this evolving market and what organizations need to be thinking about before entering and during deployment of these types of solutions.  The nine things that this article highlights and some Knowledge Infusion comments are:

  1. What is Saas? - Read this carefully and do not let vendors try to confuse OnDemand or ASP with Software as a Service.  Organizations such as Workday and SuccessFactors to name a few are doing this right today in the human capital management and talent management markets.

  2. What about security? - Take time to really understand how secure your data is.  The vendors in this space make your data much more secure in their world then it would be stored at your site.

  3. How do SaaS vendors charge?- This is very important to take time to understand, especially in the HR space. Many people have said to us, "The software would be more than what we paid for PeopleSoft or SAP!!".  The thing they are forgetting is how much they have paid in the past for support.  You have to look at this as a TCO argument.

  4. What kinds of services do SaaS vendors provide? - Once again, very important to understand in this space.  If you are used to x level support from your ERP provider, you are going to get Y level support from the SaaS vendor.  Not necessarily good or bad, just different.  You are also not implementing, but deploying which changes the types of support and services you need as well.

  5. Is SaaS only for small and medium businesses or will it work in our enterprise? - SaaS solutions are proving with the right planning upfront to work in any size enterprise.  The PLANNING piece is critical.  You have to look at your processes and understand how the SaaS vendors solution fits into your enterprise process flow.

  6. How mature are SaaS services? - Not very mature and rapidly growing up.  Depends on the vendor and talk to references.

  7. How mature is the SaaS market? - See response to number 6

  8. Is SaaS more than a flash in the pan? - We believe this is the right solution for many organizations, not all, but many and depending on factors such as, may be the future for your organization with PLANNING.

    1. What is your ERP?

    2. What is your BI strategy?

    3. What is your global strategy?

  9. What involvement should the service users have with the vendor once contract is signed? - ALOT.  This market is in constant BETA mode and things that you need in your solution are being added daily.  Your feedback is so important and it is important to give it early and often.

It is a very exciting time in this space as vendors continue to shift towards this model.  We will continue to see talent management vendors such as Taleo, Vurv, Authoria, Plateau, Saba, SumTotal, Halogen, Cornerstone OnDemand, Workscape and others continue to enhance or deploy their SaaS solutions over the next 12 months. Also, dont be suprised to see Oracle, SAP and Lawson continue to get MUCH better in this space.  Learn about the market now, stay tuned - much more to come!!

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

Link to Computerworld Article

 

 

 

 

 

 

PLEASE COMMENT BELOW!!

 

 

 

 

 

1 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: software_as_a_service, saas, workday, taleo, vurv, workscape, successfactors, halogen, cornerstoneondemand, plateau, oracle, sap

Knowledge Infusion Center of Excellence has been brining you updates from key sessions at HR Technology 2007 in Chicago, Illinois.  A great event this year showcasing leaders, technologies and futures in the HR, HCM and Talent Management space.

 

The HCM Battle is between Workday, Lawson and Oracle - VERY INTERESTING TITLE

 

Bill Kutik opens session with lots of vendors, these arent the only three and not necessarily the best. Important to understand that there are many vendors out there.

 

  • Bill Kutik written scenario is #1

  • Vendor written scenario is #2

  • Best Cool Stuff by each vendor is #3

 

No SCORING will be done at this event

 

Segment #1

 

Lawson

Theme is space - What is your technology space

"You want to do your work where you work" - outlook, facebook, applications

VP of HR - lives in MS Outlook

HR Generalist - lives in Lawson User Experience

  • Within Outlook, the MS Outlook Plugin has added My Direct Reports - very cool future technology

  • VP using Outlook to Create Job Req - all with real-time integration to Lawson job tables

  • Lawson Smart Client - nice dashboard

  • User Interface of Smart Client - very text based

  • Tabs at top similar to Firefox, nice working model

  • Once again, UI not sexy but very workable

  • Very cool use of free-form text search

  • Spider diagram mapping comptencies to profile - very nice use of new graphical approach

  • Great group selection tool - puts people into groups

  • Synchronized Outlook and then now in Outlook, the VP can review candidates

  • VERY NICE APPROACH TO USING one business tool for the VP and one tool for the HR individual

  • VP actual operating within Outlook and automatically sends off request to HR generalist

  • VERY COOL to see information in both Outlook and Smart Client depending on role and preference of UI

  • Good use of Org Charting - dynamic changes based on what was done in Outlook

  • Very good use of SPACE - best place to do certain task based on the person performing the task

 

Oracle

  • Showing Oracle EBS Release 12

  • Good use of Portal - email, calendar - mention of RSS feeds

  • Conolidated worklist from all enterprise systems - nice to have in one place

  • iRecruitment - clean interface, very text based

  • Graphical review of embedded decision support

  • Nice ability to pull up performance data, resume all from one place, easy to access

  • Very little menu navigation - meeting todays new standards around taxonomy

  • Nice ability to store policy, procedures, forms within application

  • Good use of automatic workflow and processes without need for manual intervention

  • User interface overall very non-web 2.0 based, but very sound tactical

 

Workday

  • Role based homepage

  • Cool search capability to find "how to do a function" - create a team

  • Lots of use of Search - VERY VERY good search capability and ability to use search info

  • Nice use of windows allowing for good use of desktop - comparing side by side windows

  • Tab view again - Firefox like - Easy to navigate and use

  • Compare feature of qualified workers - could use graphical view vs. text view to make comparison easier

  • Create role on the fly based on eligibility - VERY powerful based on grouping capabilities needed today

  • No menus again making deployment easier - Not navigation based but task based - very web 2.0 looking

  • Nice organizational chart - creation of team and org view

 

Scenario #2

 

Oracle

  • Configuration Workbench - powerful tool for creating org structures and applying data

    • Interview based wizard

    • Powerful tool for guiance in the application

    • System recommended best practices - much needed in todays fragmented world

    • Import data from spreadsheets - well needed based on people using Micosoft in most cases

    • Very easy for end users

  • Great use of analytics and metrics in Daily Business Intelligence

  • Compensation Workbench

    • Very powerful tool to find all data in one place to drive compensation decisions

    • Visual indicators and budgeting - MUCH NEEDED today

  • Checklists

 

Workday

  • Great organizational charting and visualization

  • Ability to take actions right from charting

  • Cool sliding Inbox - Adobe FLEX

  • Dynamic currency conversion - big feature

  • Business Event Configuration - apply own rules based on business rules without hard coding - VERY POWERFUL

  • UI very clean even when much text on screen

  • Related Tasks - powerful - helpful with training / deployment in cutting costs

  • PDF, Excel, RSS feeds - powerful

  • Expose reports as web services - quite powerful for corporate directories, etc

  • Decent looking HR graphs and charts

 

Lawson

  • Desktop nice interface and broken up in easy to understand ways

  • Embedded filterning is powerful without needing to run reports

  • Very powerful talent functionality - similar to best of breed vendors

  • Smart Client allows for everything to be done within one form - nice selling point around deployment

  • Very dynamic form - stretch fields, columns

  • Succession SPACE - all in one place

  • Create PDF easily like Workday

  • One SPACE for transactions, content, metrics/analytics, and delivery

  • VERY GOOD DEMO - IMPRESSIVE

 

Scenario #3

 

Workday

  • Workday demos reorgs alot, clearly learned from PeopleSoft days - very impressive

  • Not only reorganized people, but the people that support them

  • Business Process framework - everything is an event allowing for tailoring

  • NO IT Involved, NO customization involved, configuration

  • Extend Workday - adding data elements

    • Looks very easy, not IT

    • SaaS yet very configurable, IMPRESSIVE

  • Very sound SaaS HCM tool with great future

 

Lawson

  • Showing FACEBOOK and using web services to put Lawson Recruiting on a person on Facebook page

    • Very Web 2.0* Very important in todays world of Millenials

    • Great looking interface from Lawson Recruiting from Facebook

    • Integration nice back into Facebook Community

    • Lawson gets where the market is needing to go by providing these Web Services

 

Oracle

  • Gretchen Alarcon starts with impressive Web 2.0 dashboard

  • Demonstrates ability to integrate RSS feeds, Instant Messaging, Tagging, Blogging

  • Oracle Labs doing a good job of staying up on Web 2.0 standards and looking for ways to embed into solutions

  • Certainly hope Oracle can take these technologies and embed into products without major upgrades

  • The power that Oracle might be able to provide combining enterprise data with Web 2.0 technology is staggering

  • Gretchen does a great job summarizing and does the great job showing how they may use Web 2.0 into the future

 

To vote on who won the Battle if you were in attendance, go to the KI Center of Excellence Community

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: hcm_battle, lawson, workday, oracle, hr_technology_conference

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