Conquering HR system sprawl and manual data entry without replacing your HR systems

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1 Conquering HR system sprawl and manual data entry without replacing your HR systems New rapid data integration techniques are available to cost-effectively reduce the intensively manual human integration most HR organizations use to deal with their messy patchwork of data and systems.

2 Conquering HR System Sprawl and Manual Data Entry Without Replacing Your HR Systems Human Resources Data is Different Not all data is created equal. When most of us think of the word data, we think of binary information and meaningless numbers residing on computer storage somewhere. This is not so with Human Resources data. As the name implies, Human Resources involves people and sensitive data upon which lives, livelihoods, careers, and more hang in the balance. Human Resources data consists of information such as Social Security Numbers, immigration status, medical information, addresses, phone numbers, bank accounts, compensation records, performance evaluations, recruiting information, and other qualifiers that can make it easy to identify the owner of that information. HR data is different than other forms of data and, as such, needs to be treated differently. In most organizations, HR data is stored in a variety of formats, data types, systems, applications, and databases. HR solution and data sprawl is the reality for many organizations and is the bane of existence for HR and IT professionals. For example, HR records could be stored in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, benefits enrollment status stored at a third party vendor, Form I-9 and immigration information captured in proprietary cloud systems, performance ratings in yet another system. These HR systems may be operating on Linux servers, Windows servers, be archived on mainframes running COBOL, laptops, desktops, external hard drives, on premise and in the cloud. Each may have its own user interface to master. This yields another find the end of the string situation. The data systems of organizations rarely originates this way. Systems and organizations evolve. The data and systems sprawl that occurs from this evolution is nearly always a natural outcome of growth and/or expansion. Left unchecked, these temporary solutions end up becoming the tangled web of systems most organizations are forced to use on a daily basis. The pain for Human Resources professionals is felt most when they are tasked to quickly and accurately perform job obligations, including: Recruiting new talent Interviews Government compliance Personnel reviews Labor Relations Changes to employee information Onboarding Benefits administration Payroll processing Time collection Reporting Analytics Talent management Every day, an HR professional engages in one or more of these activities. HR solution sprawl means working from systems that are non-integrated or poorly integrated, have multiple interfaces, and are slow to design or optimize, i.e. HR professionals have to meet their goals without a holistic view of their employees. Here are a few impacts we have heard from multiple organizations: Employees and HR professionals must rekey existing data between systems (time lost and errors introduced) Inconsistent and duplicate data and/or systems (interfaces built, addition financial costs of multiple systems, additional salaries for support personnel) 2

3 Personal data exposed to unauthorized individuals Increased effort responding to information requests Fines or possible jail time for inaccurate, incomplete compliance and tax information High performers leaving to join competitors Employees ineffective in their positions Over-payments to employees and vendors This is just a sampling of the daily realities faced by Human Resources as the professionals within the department attempt to contribute to the company bottom line. The Benefits of Holistic Employee Data to HR Organizations The buzzword that is all the rage presently is big data. The definition of what defines big data varies from source to source, vendor to vendor, professional to professional. A simple definition is that big data is really just data from many different sources merged to create a more holistic view. The key is that the volume of data produced and the velocity at which it is generated multiply every year. Each new application or system creates new data that needs to be stored and accessed. As that data is created, the demand for the data increases as well. The reason the demand for data is always on the increase primarily has to do with what is referred to as the flow of data. This is best illustrated by the diagram below: Raw data is created from systems, sources, and applications and is stored within applications and databases, storage hardware, on-premise or in the cloud. The data remains raw data until tools or processes are designed to extract value from that data. The data is then massaged, sorted, sifted, cleansed and redistributed to become information. As it becomes information via the tools applied against it, organizational intelligence comes into play. What was previously potentially terabytes of useless information, when visualized with analytical tools, becomes actionable. Organizations can make informed, strategic decisions on actionable data. For Example The HR department has years of employee data (raw data) stored in various databases and assorted systems. Unacceptably high turnover is being reported across the organization at the same time. Managers are simultaneously finding a lack of qualified internal candidates to promote to the vacant positions. The organization would like to know the impact of its various recruiting programs, employee 3

4 Conquering HR System Sprawl and Manual Data Entry Without Replacing Your HR Systems engagement programs, and pull in employee performance ratings. A data visualization or data analytics tool is applied to look for patterns in the data. The tool reveals that the employee turnover is concentrated in employees with less than 5 years tenure, in two core career tracks, and with a certain skill set lacking. The organization then uses this intelligence to design training, retention, and recruiting strategies that address the shortfall in talent. This decision point is only gained when the flow of data progresses from raw data to decisions that can be executed. Once executed, the shortfall can be addressed and actionable plans put into place. Enabling HR Organizations to Take Action on Their Highest Priorities In the study by Deloitte entitled, Resetting Horizons: Human Capital Trends 2013, HR and business leaders indicated the following desires: Leading Trends 84% = In favor of HR transformation with new business and technology priorities 87% = Want to change acceleration Emerging Trends 66% = Want to increased execution in the area of workforce analytics Top Three Priorities 55% = Developing leaders and succession planning 39% = Sustaining employee engagement and morale 33% = Connecting HR and talent with business critical priorities Challenges 14% = We are underperforming in HR and talent programs and radical improvements are needed. 23% = We are getting by in HR and talent programs but significant improvements are needed 38% = We have adequate HR and talent programs for our industry but we need to improve 21% = We are world-class in some areas of HR and talent programs, while we need to improve in other areas 3% = We are world-class in HR and talent programs Perhaps the most shocking fact is that 76% of HR and business leaders rated their HR and talent programs as adequate to underperforming and needed across the board improvement. A deeper investigation into meeting these trends and challenges yields the underlying need for a holistic view of employee data. For the 84% that desire HR transformation with new business and technology priorities, new HR Technologies are most likely sourced from multiple vendors creating the requirement to share employee information between systems to support actionable intelligence needed to achieve the HR transformation. For the 87% in favor of accelerating change, this will require weaving together employee information to support the complimentary operation of multiple solutions rather than a large scale rip-and-replace project. In terms of the 66% that want to increase execution with business analytics, a consolidation of data from various systems will be needed to create the business analytics desired. And for the 55% that are focused on succession planning, an optimal succession plan requires an accurate look at the existing employee pool and all of the relevant insight (most likely housed in multiple systems) in order to judge the talent landscape. To achieve all these actions, the present and future HR systems have to be integrated to provide holistic employee information. 4

5 Insight into Two Popular Integration Approaches As presented above, data is both created and stored in a variety of databases, systems, and applications. Problems arise when data and information from one system is needed by another or when the data and information in multiple systems needs to be utilized to make decisions. The changing nature of the business landscape now dictates that to achieve true value from the data in these systems, the data in each must be unlocked and shared with the other systems. Information silos provide little value to the business. Business professionals and executives of today need rapid responses to their information requests. An answer that is widely accepted, but quite often poorly executed is systems integration. This integration effort enables connections among and between systems to allow data sharing. Integration takes many forms; the two most popular have always been customized internally developed i.e. hard coded integration by the IT department, and enterprise application integration (EAI). Both forms have their merits, and also their drawbacks, that require closer examination. Pros and Cons of Internal IT department systems integration In-house developed integration is typically the first form of integration used by an organization. The reasons are understandable. Prior to investing vast sums of money into solving the issue, it makes sense to see if it can be done less expensively with existing resources. Few organizations possess a bottomless wallet from which to fund experimentation. The pros and cons of in-house developed integration include: Simple and less expensive (resources already on staff) The development resources have knowledge of the systems they integrate Lightweight, tailor-made to the internal architecture and infrastructure Point-to-point (direct connections between data sources or applications) Lack of flexibility as the need to connect more systems requires more specialized code that cannot be reused Not scalable, repeatable, or rapidly deployed Dependent on the skill set of a few employees (the intellectual property and expertise leaves when they leave) Lack security controls One of the most glaring deficiencies of internal integration is the inability to rapidly respond to a change in the business or technology landscape. Internal integration is best deployed in limited applicability, small scale integrations. As the number of integrations increases, the model starts to break down. This results in what is frequently referred to as integration spaghetti. Imagine attempting to identify the beginning and end of each noodle in a bowl of spaghetti. Next, imagine attempting to consume one particular noodle without disturbing the others. Cloud, Software-as-a Service (SaaS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), social media solutions, hardware upgrades, development languages and environments all can present massive hurdles for an internally developed integration solution to overcome. When the organization is hamstrung and unable to take advantage of the trends that are determining this landscape, the prospects for continued viability may become muddy. 5

6 Conquering HR System Sprawl and Manual Data Entry Without Replacing Your HR Systems Pros and Cons of Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) The second type of integration that is also widely seen is provided by the large enterprise application integration vendors. The pros and cons of EAI include: Removes the spaghetti integration factor Stable architecture that is traditionally a hub and spoke type configuration Quick modeling of the integration process to achieve connections Expensive initial costs Expensive maintenance (could be in hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars) Vendor lock in (more integration forces reliance on the EAI vendor and switching costs) Scalability requires more integration connectors and more money to the vendor Pricing model breaks down at department level integration (built on enterprise pricing model) IT-centric and not designed to rapidly change for the line of business Another form of EAI is Enterprise Service Bus integration (ESB). The pros and cons of ESB include: Removes some of the burden on the central hub in the integration network and spreads the work out across other components in the network Multiple configurations possible Configuration of the ESB is touted as easier than with traditional EAI Increased integration reliability Few changes, if any, to the applications to be integrated Standards based, but each vendor approaches ESB differently Return on Investment (ROI) is typically only realized after multiple projects because the upfront costs tend to be high ESB requires new skills of the IT department IT department focused In an all too common EAI or ESB scenarios, the line of business expresses a need to rapidly extract information from one system and share it with others. Or perhaps the line of business professional would simply like to reduce the number of interfaces he or she has to work in to perform daily tasks. All too often, the heavy footprint of EAI solutions restrict the organization s ability to respond as rapidly as the needs dictate, which holds the HR organization back from completing its mission timely and productively. Money, time, flexibility, competitive advantage can all be lost. Valuable data returns to gathering dust. 6

7 The HR DataExchange (powered by CloverETL) Solution To address the HR integration issues presented earlier and also accomplish the desires of the business leaders, the solution has to be both tactical and strategic, -. meet the line of business needs of today, but provide future flexibility without locking down the organization. We believe that AspireHR Labs HR DataExchange is the answer for rapidly connecting disparate HR systems, HR applications, databases, and information sources. Regardless of the type, location or volume of the HR data, HR DataExchange can access, transform, and integrate HR data sources without the need for the standard heavy footprint of EAI. The key is HR DataExchange s ability to rapidly connect SAP, SuccessFactors, PeopleSoft, ADP, Workday, Kronos, UltiPro, Infor/Lawson, Ceridian, Oracle, Taleo systems to each other, as well as non-hr systems. HR DataExchange provides process-integration capabilities to rapidly orchestrate bi-directional integrations between multiple on-premise and cloud applications. HR DataExchange s integration platform combines AspireHR Labs HR content and connectors with CloverETL a powerful rapid data integration platform. CloverETL is built for end-to-end speed of data integration that is achieved with a combination of extreme usability, intuitive design, a lightweight footprint, simplicity of design, flexibility and processing power. With CloverETL, users can integrate data from various sources and transform it into usable datasets very quickly with a graphical design tool, without too much learning or prep work. The solution is built-in Java, which makes it platform-neutral, mitigating vendor or technology lock in risk. It provides simple but powerful integration of any system to any other system, resulting in rapid deployment and configuration in days or weeks instead of months. As projects grow, the same toolset scales from the smallest desktop project to the largest system clusters. With a pricing model that doesn t penalize organizations for the number of connections, HR line of business can tame the HR system sprawl without breaking the bank. Quick to install and achieve rapid results, HR Data Exchange turns data silos into actionable intelligence that the organization can leverage. 7

8 Conquering HR System Sprawl and Manual Data Entry Without Replacing Your HR Systems Conclusion Patchwork, manual HR data, and systems issues can be resolved by focusing on data integration instead of costly systems replacement. With an integrated systems environment, HR can leverage the information contained within to deliver rapid response time and bottom line value to the enterprise. Integration projects shouldn t be difficult, time consuming, costly, and most importantly, not resolve the very issues it was designed to eliminate. To mitigate these risks, AspireHR Labs, with our focus on HR and innovative data integration tools, offer our clients time savings, financial savings, improved employee morale, unified systems access, HR expertise, scalable integration, and peace of mind. HR DataExchange meets the needs of the organization today with the flexibility to strategically respond to future organizational goals. About CloverETL Data integration software and ETL tools provided by the CloverETL ( platform offer solutions for such data management tasks such as data integration, data migration, or data quality. CloverETL is a vital part of such enterprise solutions as data warehousing, business intelligence (BI) or master data management (MDM). CloverETL s flagship applications are CloverETL Designer and Server. CloverETL Designer is a visual data transformation designer that helps define data flows and transformations in a quick, visual, and intuitive way. CloverETL Server is an enterprise ETL runtime environment. It offers a set of enterprise features such as automation, monitoring, user management, real-time ETL, clustering, or cloud data integration. About AspireHR Labs AspireHR Labs is a premier software and services organization focused exclusively on the unique needs of the HR marketplace. We believe HR is different and that HR technology is a key enabler of people and business success. With our passionate focus on people and technology, AspireHR Labs helps organizations eliminate risk in human resource technology implementations, as well as achieve their long term goals and purpose. AspireHR Labs offers leading-edge software solutions in the areas of HR Talent Management, HR Data Management, and HR Financial and Compliance Management, including HR data integration, migration and visualization, resume parsing, Social Employee Referral, job board posting and SAP HR reporting solutions, electronic Form I-9, and E-Verify compliance. AspireHR Labs offers implementation and administration services for SuccessFactors, including Talent Management, Jam, Employee Central, Workforce Analytics, and SAP HR hybrid and On-premise deployment. SAP HR implementation and support services include upgrades and ongoing support, Payroll, Time Management, Benefits, ESS/MSS, Talent Management and full historic data conversions. Copyright 2014, AspireHR Labs. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, or used in any form or by any means, without the express written permission of Aspire HR. AspireHR Labs 5151 Belt Line Road Suite 1125 Dallas, Texas, Tel: Fax: Web: 8