HR Technology Advisory
Supporting businesses to navigate the HR vendor landscape to select best fit HR technology solutions that realise sustainable business benefits
HR technology solutions can be confusing
There’s so much choice. It seems a new vendor pops up weekly offering a slightly differentiated offering that promises to transform your business and solve all your compliance problems and a myriad of vendors touting technology solutions across the end to end HR lifecycle. Some vendors offer best of breed point solutions, others offer integrated solution suites. Pricing models vary making it hard to compare apples with apples and to top it off you need to consider the optimal service model; on-premise, cloud based, hosted, outsourced. What a nightmare!
Common mistakes - what not to do
A prospective client recently presented us with a list of Workforce Management vendors and asked what we thought. We dutifully read through the list and asked a few questions. How was the list compiled? We just asked around the payroll office and did a Google search. Why do you want to change vendors? Our current system isn’t very good and the vendor is not attentive to our needs (the system was poorly implemented and the client was using less than 50% of the full functionality). Have you developed a list of detailed business requirements across the workforce management lifecycle to assess each solutions capabilities? Blank looks. You get the picture.
More recently we’ve seen some LinkedIn posts asking their networks who they recommend for core HRIS and payroll systems! Of course being well meaning, contacts provide names of vendors that they use and have good experiences with. Now, what fits one organisation may not fit another based on size, award complexity, industry, core functionality, scalability, hosting options to name but a few.
Finally, the Expression of Interest, or EOI. Vendors are asked to provide licensing, implementation and support costings to feed into a business case. Usually the information provided by the organisation is so high level that accurate costings are impossible to provide, hence diluting the business case and compromising any implementation should they get that far.
Who can you trust to help you successfully navigate through the vendor selection process ?
Impact HRT has more than 20 years of experience. We advise and support organisations to develop fit for purpose solutions for real world workforce challenges. We navigate the vendor selection process to ensure the best fit technology solution and implementation approach delighting internal customers and ensuring your proposed solution is fit for purpose, value for money and capable of delivering sustainable value to the business.
Six tips to successfully start your HR technology journey:
The following tips are a summary of the critical success factors that, when applied, will put our organisation in the strongest possible position to implement their chosen technology solution.
Be very clear on the business drivers for replacing any of your core systems. Establishing and agreeing the burning platform (compliance and risk, cost, efficiency etc.) will facilitate leadership alignment and consistent executive messaging.
Develop detailed business requirements that allow you to objectively assess vendors functionality (meets, partially meets, does not meet) against your statutory, business critical and desirable requirements. Weight responses based on supporting evidence provided.
Establish an evaluation criteria for shortlisting potential vendors (e.g. experience integrating with your payroll / financials, scalable solution to x thousand employees, offer cloud based solution, implementation model, i.e. off-shore / local on site presence, specific industry experience.
Ask for a minimum of two client references and request your shortlisted vendors to arrange on-site visits to speak with end users and the client side implementation team.
Whilst vendor demonstrations are of some value, digging into a vendor’s implementation methods, lessons learnt and understanding the user experience relevant to your industry will give you a far greater sense of comfort that you’ve chosen the right implementation partner.
When you have a clearly preferred vendor, keep a shortlist of two to ensure some competitive tension through the process and sharp pricing.
Speak to us about any of our Advisory services:
Current State Assessment and Recommendations
HR Technology Roadmap
Business Case Development
Vendor Market Scan and Shortlist Assessment
RFx Development Support
Vendor Assessment and Selection Support