Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise: Creating a New HR Organization in Six Months with SAP SuccessFactors Solutions

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1 Picture Credit Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE), Colombes, France. Used with permission. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise: Creating a New HR Organization in Six Months with SAP SuccessFactors Solutions After being spun off from the Alcatel-Lucent Group, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) had to build a new global HR organization from scratch covering 50 countries and simplify its HR processes. The deadline to achieve this was 12 months. But using SAP SuccessFactors solutions, it took just six allowing ALE to hit the ground running as a stand-alone company.

2 Company Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) Headquarters Colombes, France Industry Telecommunications communications and networking solutions Products and Services Enterprise communications solutions and services, from the office to the cloud Employees 2,700 Web Site -lucent.com Partner Capgemini BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION Objectives Simplify global HR processes and build the global HR team from scratch Provide the new organization with an HR information system befitting a midsize company Build flexible, scalable HR infrastructure to support business growth Implemented SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, SAP SuccessFactors Performance & Goals, and SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting Management solutions for 2,700 employees and 800 contractors Partnered with Capgemini to achieve a state-of-the-art solution quickly Used a big-bang implementation so ALE could become a stand-alone company in all 50 countries in 6 months Benefits Standardized, fast reporting on key performance indicators Seamlessly connected approval paths and workflows Instant availability of employee data for management decisions A more agile, entrepreneurial corporate culture Read more We needed an HR solution that could be up and running fast and was state-of-the-art, reliable, user-friendly, and off the shelf. We achieved all that with SAP SuccessFactors solutions in just six months. Maarten Huntjens, VP Human Resources, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise 87% Time savings for headcount reporting 6 months For global rollout of SAP SuccessFactors solutions for all 50 countries ALE operates in Faster Updates of HR data due to self-service Simplified Global HR processes 2 / 6

3 Ready for a new beginning On October 1, 2014, Alcatel-Lucent closed the sale of its enterprise business to China Huaxin, a stateowned investment company. The spin-off began a new era for Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE): with fresh investment and resources from Huaxin, ALE would have better opportunities to grow in the future. But before ALE could begin life as a stand-alone company, it faced a daunting to-do list. It had to create new legal entities, IT systems, and a brandnew financial infrastructure. After the spin-off, there was little HR infrastructure left over in most of the 50 countries where ALE was present. So it had to build a global HR team, implement a new payroll and benefits system, design and implement simple global HR processes, and provide a new HR system to the organization. All this had to happen fast. For a complex spin-off like ours, you normally need up to 24 months to build up a new organization. We were given 12 months. We needed an HR solution that could be up and running fast, was state-of the art, reliable, user-friendly, and off the shelf, explains Maarten Huntjens, head of human resources at ALE. Finally, ALE s diminished size after the spin-off required a change in corporate culture. ALE was no longer part of a multinational company with 60,000 employees, but now a midsize company with 2,700 employees. By simplifying its HR processes, ALE could empower employees and help shape a strong startup mentality. 3 / 6

4 Going simple with a robust, state-ofthe-art system Given the tight timeline, Capgemini was brought in to advise on options and an approach. The situation was challenging since ALE was successively dropping out of all legacy HR tools and processes that it had inherited from its mother company over the 12-month time period. ALE s approach was to focus on the three core HR processes it needed most managing core employee data, recruitment, and performance and to simplify those processes as much as possible. Management was initially skeptical of a cloud solution, thinking it would be too sophisticated for ALE s needs. But after we saw the demos, we were convinced of the opposite. It was a state-of-the-art system and just the right choice for us, says Johannes Neumann, the HR project manager at ALE responsible for the implementation. The SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central solution was chosen to underpin its new core HR system. It was configured with a simplified organization and job family structure with only two levels. It was also set up to capture new hires, terminations, and changes in current employee data while leaving other functionalities, such as absence management and global assignments, for later consideration. We appreciated being able to select the solutions we needed to establish a foundation that we could build from, instead of getting a total solution with functionalities we knew we wouldn t use, says Huntjens. For its two other HR processes, ALE selected the SAP SuccessFactors Performance & Goals and SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting Management solutions. 4 / 6

5 Empowering managers to focus on the core business Thanks to the swift implementation of the SAP SuccessFactors solutions, ALE s HR operations became stand-alone before the 12-month spin-off period was over. ALE was also able to keep its promise of providing staff with the same level of HR services they were used to under the old mother company. This helped ALE retain staff and increase satisfaction. Employees are enthusiastic about the userfriendliness of ALE s new HR system based on SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central. The software has also made things easier for managers. They can now get accurate, real-time HR information about their teams in seconds, broken down by individual, team, country, business unit, and manager. For hiring, managers have the choice of just two job requisition forms (one for internal and one for external recruitment); and most of the fields are auto-filled, including the necessary approval paths. Such efficiencies let managers make faster decisions, instead of getting stuck in broken approval paths, and focus on the immediate business priorities. HR efficiency has shot up too. Reliable headcount reporting is now possible within a few working days instead of several weeks of manual work. We can quickly extract the data we need for accurate headcount reporting while still getting enough granularity to provide the business with the information it needs, says Huntjens. Fast and unbureaucratic it s exactly the kind of culture ALE wanted to create. And the results showed: A year after coming under new ownership, ALE celebrated important milestones in innovation and customer loyalty. All this would not have been possible if employees had continued to drown in paperwork and be forced to work with disparate, time-consuming tools. 5 / 6

6 Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Ready for any business direction (16/01) Within 12 months of being spun off from its mother company, ALE became an independent, stable, midsize business with 2,700 employees in over 50 countries and the culture and mind-set of a startup. And thanks to its new, simplified HR processes, employees have more time to innovate, focus on customers, and improve existing products. Given this transformation, it is no wonder that ALE s new owner now believes the company can double its business and increase its market share in the next five years. As ALE scales up its business, it may require other add-on SAP SuccessFactors solutions. We need to be ready to anticipate the evolution of our business, whether through natural growth or through acquisitions, says Huntjens. With the standard functionalities we have now, we have a solid foundation with which to anticipate any direction the business may go. 6 / 6 Picture Credit Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE), Colombes, France. Used with permission.

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