Understand the business requirements and engage key stakeholders
An organisation must fully understand the problem it is trying to solve. This sounds simple, yet remains one of the biggest stumbling blocks.

Teams often haven’t mapped the current business processes so they cannot fully understand the end result of what they are requesting. If you start by understanding what is working and what isn’t you can identify best practices and take full advantage of the functionality and workflow offered by a new ERP system.

Equally important is engaging leadership and consultants early enough in the process to manage expectations and ensure the best possible results.

Once a project starts, it is difficult to change direction without significant cost, weakening of the design and delays. This can lead to missed market opportunities and rapidly turn initial internal enthusiasm into antipathy of the new system.

Choosing the right technology
There is a wide range of ERP solutions available, from monolithic ERP solutions and mid-market ERP solutions, to industry specific ERP solutions and everything in between. 

Choosing a solution isn’t just about price. It’s important to look at a variety of parameters. We suggest you consider:

• depth of functionality
• industry-specific features
• ease of support
• future development path
• flexibility to adapt to the changing business model
• integration with existing / future systems
• cloud versus on-premise reporting and analytics tools

Industry specific solutions deliver deep functionality combined with the technology, upgrade path and fundamental benefits of out-of-the-box applications, without the risks associated with typical customised legacy systems.

Future-proof the decision
Choosing an ERP solution is not a quick-fix job.

It’s a project which requires extensive planning and attention to detail. Therefore, it is important to select a solution that maps as closely as possible to the current and future requirements of the business.

With this in mind, it is best to look for an implementation partner which isn’t tied to one ERP solution. Companies that work exclusively with one product will, of course, recommend that solution, but this means that better suited products may be overlooked.

Look for a strategic partner
An ERP implementation is a major IT infrastructure project. A successful project will depend highly on the accomplishments of the partner. They should be stable, financially secure, well referenced and reliable.

The right ERP implementation partner will have strong skills in technology, business applications and project management as well as expertise in your particular industry.

The best possible starting point for an ERP partner is to invest time in understanding your business goals and strategies, so they can act as a true partner and an extension of the customer’s internal project team. An ERP project is not about simply installing some software. There are many stakeholders and complex, mission-critical business processes involved. This means a high quality of work is required, with the scope for customisation and the need for appropriate (technical) support.

Here are the key attributes to take into consideration when choosing an ERP implementation partner:

• Experience: Look for a partner that has managed different projects and has run implementation teams in similar industries. Experience will mean the company has the ability to foresee issues and solve them quickly. The value of experience is almost immeasurable so check the credentials of the people who will be working on the project.
• Knowledge: An ERP implementation is incredibly complex. Make sure your partner company has the technical know-how for the project, from security to networking to service and enterprise architecture.
• Attitude and work-ethic: Look for a passionate team, which can deliver the right support and commercial people. With a business-critical project such as this, the team should not be afraid to work extra hours to get the job done and should be invested in the success of the project.
• Communication skills: Your partner company needs to be able to communicate at all levels in the organisation – from ground staff, to managers and the leadership team. Regular communications on the progress of the project are required, and any hurdles or issues need to be flagged as soon as possible. Transparency and clarity are key to the success of a project.
• Self-awareness: It’s important to understand where each person fits within the project and how this contributes to the overall success.

Post-implementation support for ongoing success
The implementation of an ERP solution is a longterm investment, which requires continued input from your chosen partner. When the project is finished, it’s not the end of the story. There needs to be a clear support mechanism for changes to the system and your partner should be looking at modification and optimisation continuously.

“Choosing an ERP solution is not a quick-fix job. It’s a project which requires extensive planning and attention to detail.”

It is also important to make sure your internal team has the right training and education so they have the skills they need by the end of the implementation process. 

Involving the entire team with the new system will add to the success of the project and its adoption into business processes.

This article was supplied by UXC Eclipse, formerly Eclipse Computing. For more information on UXC Eclipse’s ERP experience and strategy, contact:

UXC Eclipse New Zealand
www.uxceclipse.co.nz
info@eclipsecomputing.co.nz
0800 472 962

UXC Eclipse Australia
www.uxceclipse.com.au
info@eclipsecomputing.com.au
1300 660 471

Are you the person in the Human Resources Department that everyone comes to when they have an address change or when they want to add a new baby to their benefits? If so, you are going to love the features and functionality of Employee Self-Service. You of course will need to give the employee their login information for this module of your ERP solution and also to help guide them through the system easily so they will adapt to it well.

The biggest value that Employee Self-Service brings to a company includes the relief from some of the administrative work that comes with working in the Human Resources Department, as well as putting the accuracy of the information into the hands of the person who knows their information best, the employee. While the opening up of this information may be scary at first, with proper training and data integrity audits you can make Employee Self-Service one of the most valuable tools you can provide to your employees.

Key Benefits of the Employee Self-Service Module

The Employee Self-Service module offers a range of features that employees can use to update and maintain their information. In particular, here is a list of common functions and benefits available to you when you use this module properly:

1. Employees can  initiate their own change of address and update contact phone numbers when these change.
2. Employees can add new dependents to their benefits, as well as remove dependents that are no longer eligible.
3. Employees can add dependents’ birthdates and social security numbers
4. If a dependent lives at a different address, the employee will be able to update their dependent’s address too.
5. Employees know best the gender of their dependents so letting them maintain this information helps with data integrity checks.
6. Employees can update beneficiaries in Employee Self-Service.
7. Employees can see the various benefit plans available for them and with open enrolment they can choose the benefits they want to sign up for or drop out of. 
8. Employees can also see their job title, supervisor’s name and department information in Employee Self-Service. Although these items are usually only viewable but not editable to employees, they can alert the proper people when they think this information is not correct.
9. The above is also true of salary information. Employees know how much money they make for their job and if they see a different amount in the Employee Self-Service module they will alert their supervisor and possibly payroll to get it corrected.
10. Employees can also see their Performance Reviews through Employee Self-Service. (This capability is usually done in combination with the Human Capital Management modules of an ERP solution).
11. Employees may also be able to take on-line training classes through the portal of Employee Self-Service. Their supervisor can even recommend they attend a certain class in that module and they will be prompted with reminders to take the class until they have completed it.
12. Employees can generate a benefit and compensation statement which shows them the true value of their employment with the company. These statements show what the company contributes to their 401(k), benefits and compensation to give an overall compensation value to the employee. These statements are priceless.

As you can see above, Employee Self-Service has a huge impact on eliminating the paperwork flow that traditionally has been part of the Human Resources functions to administer employees’ information. The accuracy is also much improved, as the Human Resources Information Systems Analysts no longer need to contact the employee to get the correct information. They simply become the approvers of information that the employees initiate in the Employee Self-Service module of an ERP solution.

Tips on Implementing Employee Self-Service

Some key points to remember to make the transition to employees using Employee Self-Service includes making sure that employees are properly trained on what they can and can’t do in the application. Without proper training your information is at risk for data integrity issues as well as non-value added time on the part of Human Resources tracking down documentation for such changes.

Another key point to remember is that you need the support of the top level in the Human Resources Department to ensure that employees are held accountable for managing their own information in the Employee Self-Service module. Getting the buy-in of the top leaders and having them cheer employees on for following the process is so extremely valuable.

Be prepared to answer a lot of questions such as login information for employees, how to do certain functions in the Employee Self-Service application and you may have to do some hand holding in the beginning to ensure that employees are comfortable that this is a value-added process for the company and very important to get participation by all employees.

So what kind of information is contained in the Human Resources module of an ERP system?  Listed below are the types of information that reside in that module and what can be done to such information in the ERP solution?

• Demographic information such as the employee’s full name and address, birth date, age, gender, and ethnicity.  This information is critical to some government mandated reports that makes sure the employer is not discriminating on the people they hire and terminate. 
• Emergency contact information is also part of the Human Resources module.  This information is critical to keep current so that if an emergency occurs the proper people are notified.
• Dependent information such as their name, relationship to the employee as well as their age and current address is maintained in this module as well.  It is very important to keep this information up-to-date as it affects benefits coverage as well.  Most employers allow employees to update this information using the Employee Self-Service module. 
• Employment information such as the employee’s current position, department and supervisor.  This information is also stored as historical information so you can see the different positions or supervisors the employee has had while working for your company.  This information is also helpful in calculating the employer’s turnover rate which is a critical report for managers to see in case there is a consistent turnover in a specific department or team. 
• Salary and pay grade are also part of the Human Resources module of an ERP system.  This information is also available as historical information where you can see the progression the employee has taken in salary while at the company.  This information is also used to compare employees to find out who are your high performers and if there are employees that may need additional training.
• Training classes are sometimes part of the Human Resources module allowing employees to take classes to further develop their skills and also allows them to learn new skills.  Employees that are given the capability to learn new skills are more valuable to their employer. 
• Payroll information is also tied into the Human Resources module as the Human Resources module feeds payroll their current hourly or annual salary of the employee so that employees can be paid correctly.
• One of the biggest areas and a very important area of the Human Resources module is the benefits administration area.  The benefits information is used to track the benefits that an employee has elected for the current year and did have previously.  This information is often fed to third party vendors such as insurance carriers and benefit providers.  This area is critical to its accuracy level as so many people depend on this information to be up-to-date.  For example: when an employee leaves the company the benefit specialists are required by US law to provide the terminated employee with a COBRA letter which allows the employee to elect to stay on their current benefits program for a specific period of time. 
• Recruiting technology is also a capability of the Human Resources module.  This technology allows the recruiting team to look for and manage the top candidates for open positions in the company.  With the state of the economy today when an employer posts an open position they are often inundated with applications from people that have diverse backgrounds and often times not qualified for the position they are recruiting for.  The recruiting technology helps the recruiters manage the many applicants to find the best qualified candidates and to arrange and manage interviews for the candidate to get feedback from those employees who do participate in the interviewing process. 

The Human Resources module is a critical business intelligence area of the ERP solution and one that every company can use to add value to the information that they track and report on for top managers of the company.  In many companies the information contained in the Human Resources module is also used to feed information to other areas of the company, again making the accuracy of the information critical.  For example: the Information Technology Department receives termination notices when an employee leaves the company, allowing them to terminate all systems access that needs to occur immediately to keep disgruntled employees from wreaking havoc on key business systems or from sending out emails to the entire company, which most companies prefer not to happen. 

If you find yourself involved in the Human Resources area of a company you will find the use of the ERP solution to be a value added tool that you can use to help you manage the wealth of information that the Human Resources module offers you to manage and report upon, as well as provide to third parties whether they are other departments in the company or benefit providers who need the information. Make it a key metric to always keep the employee information updated to the best of your ability, while providing the employees to help you keep the information updated using Employee Self-Service.  You will find that the time spent maintaining accurate employee information is both fun and rewarding when you are asked to provide information to the leaders of your company.