Irrespective of the business and industry, it is the people who drive an organization and people are therefore a big part of an organization. Hence in a globalized world when a medium to large organization wants to operate efficiently in the HR space, it moves to a reliable ERP based HRMS / HCM system which helps to integrate and consolidate the various HR functions and helps to maintain, access, share accurate information with other systems, as well as stay connected with and respond to employees promptly. Any standard HCM should support functions as eRecruiting (applicant tracking), Onboarding (employee profile), Performance Management (assessment, goal management, succession planning), Core HR (personnel administration, benefits, compensation management, payroll), Workforce Management (absence management, activity tracking, scheduling, time and attendance) and eLearning (learning management system).

Choosing the right HRMS is a fairly exhaustive process and depends on the following external and internal factors:

The Vendor Reliability Factor  

This is based on the Vendor/Software Reputation, the feedback from the market on the track record of the Vendor. Most of the large players of the market have of course their place in the industry so this is really easy to know.

The type of the Organization

This is all about the business of the organization, the industry, the category of the organization, number of employees, the investment made and the future capability for investment, the current headcount, the annual turnover. Some cloud based products in the market are tailored for certain industries, others are more versatile.

Vision and strategy Factor

This is an internal factor. How the organization visions the roadmap, the growth plan and strategy, possible restructuring, acquisition and merger or divestment and hive off all play a part.

Alignment of the product with Business Function Factor

Once the second point is clear, the organization needs to gather information and compare the products on the market and assess how each one aligns with the required functionalities of the current organization as well as the near term or mid-term evolution and changes of the organization.

Pricing Factor

The price factor and the budgetary consideration of not just the product but also the full implementation and integration aspect, the maintenance aspect must be determined. This will include both the hardware, software, related data centre/infrastructure and manpower costs.

Implementation Aspect, Resource Availability Factor

This comprises the entire gamut right from information on proven methodology of the vendor, the research and knowledge base of the vendor, the database and performance, the availability and practice of detailed documentation, the best practices followed, the maturity and skill of the resources available with the vendor and in the market.

Integration Factor

Often the HRMS system may need to pull or push data from or to other system such as Time clocking, payroll, talent acquisition, finance and accounts etc. Often there are legacy systems in operation which still serves the organization well and may need to be retained. This implies

Ongoing Support, Training and Usability Factor

The usability and life of the product for a reasonable timeframe and the potential of upgrade and scalability is a critical as these investment made by the organization is heavy. The continued success of any implementation relies a lot on the ongoing support, the training imparted and availability of round the clock and efficient helpdesk services.

Today,to cater to small, medium and large organizations, there are a wide range of well-known HCM suites (refer to the list in the table below, in alphabetical order).

VendorProductTarget Market
ADPADP Vantage HCM , Product: ADP Workforce Nowsmall/ medium
Adrenalin eSystemsAdrenalin HCM on Cloudsmall/mid/large
Advanced Computer Software GroupOpenHR and OpenPeoplesmall/mid/large
Aragon-eRHAragon-eRHsmall/mid/large
BambooHR BambooHRsmall/ medium
CeridianDayforce HCMsmall/mid/large
cfactor WorksVibe HCMsmall/mid/large
CoreHRCoreHRmedium to large-
EpicorEpicor HCMsmall
FairsailFairsail Global Cloud HRMS (now called Sage People)small/mid/large)
FinancialForceFinancialForce HCMsmall/medium
High LineHigh Line Personalitymedium
InforInfor Human Capital Managementmedium to large
KronosProduct: Kronos Workforce Central, Product: Kronos Workforce Readysmall/mid/large
Meta4Meta4 PeopleNetsmall/medium
MidlandHRiTrentmedium to large
NGA Human ResourcesPreceda HR, ResourceLinksmall/mid/large
OracleOracle HCM Cloud, : Oracle PeopleSoft HCMmedium to large
RaetYouForce —-
Ramco SystemsRamco HCMmedium to large
SAPSuccessFactors, SAP ERP HCMmedium to large
SumTotalSumTotalelixHR ,  SumTotal Talent Expansion Suitemedium to large
Sopra HR SoftwareHR Accesssmall/medium/large
Talentia SoftwareTalentia HCMmedium
Ultimate SoftwareUtilProsmall/medium/large
WorkdayWorkday Human Capital Management (HCM)medium to large
Zuchhetti GroupHR Infinitysmall/ medium

The biggest names dominating the Cloud HCM market today are – Workday, SuccessFactors and Oracle HCM and Oracle PeopleSoft HCM, ADP, Kronos, Ultimate software.
Market Share: According to the survey data from 2016, the top 10 HCM software vendors accounted for 51% of the global HCM applications market area. Oracle, Workday & SuccessFactors led the pack and together these products capture half of the market share. Below is a quick look at Workday, SuccessFactors, PeopleSoft HCM and Oracle Fusion HCM.

Product Features:

• Workday’s HCM suite offers workforce planning, recruiting, talent management, learning, time and attendance, payroll, benefits and compensation. It allows customization for a business specific and unique needs. Workday also offers onboarding module bundled with its Performance Management module and the Succession Planning features with the Talent Management module. It has analytics tool and useful dashboards to view and drill down metrics. Workday is not designed for small businesses (i.e. organization with less than 100 employees).

• SuccessFactors from SAP is a HCM suite which offers core and strategic HR functionalities, modules on recruiting, onboarding, learning, succession and development, performance and goals, compensation, time and attendance management, workforce planning and workforce analytics. It also offers cross-suite solutions such as diversity and inclusion, health and well being, total workforce management to help in better employee engagement.

• PeopleSoft HCM is highly-scalable application and provides solution for the small, medium and large sized companies, it includes modules such as planning, recruiting, learning and development, career development, performance, and compensation, among others. It provides a user-friendly and instinctive interface. PeopleSoft can also be purchased in an on-premise and private cloud implementation and offers the flexibility to enable the businesses to modify their system as per the specific requirements of the industry.

• Oracle Fusion HCM Cloud Applications are a fully-integrated suite of operational and strategic HR tools that integrates readily with other, existing enterprise applications. With modules for all core HR functions, including onboarding, payroll, benefits administration and absence management, as well as groundbreaking new functionality for goal management, performance management and workforce intelligence, it can serve as a complete, affordable, rapidly-implemented replacement for the patchwork of different spreadsheets and systems run by the majority of HR functions today.

Implementation and Training:

• Workday’s approach towards implementation is to work through its partner network but it has a very well-defined 5 step deployment process which has the robustness to align to a client’s unique requirements and needs. These steps are -: 1.) project plan review; 2.) integration approach review; 3.) prototype configuration review; 4.) test review; 5.) final configuration review. The implementation timeline of course varies by specific needs of the company. The general timeline is within a year. Workday provides training via a variety of ways – classroom training, on-demand training, virtual classrooms and self-service online training, adoption toolkit which contains videos, job aids and marketing materials. SAP SuccessFactors has an implementation has a pre-packaged implementation plan for fully customized solution.

• The SuccessFactor team analyses the client needs and unique requirements and provides the best practice of SuccessFactors deployment. SAP SuccessFactors also has an integration delivery team to help integrate SuccessFactors with either SAP products or the client’s existing applications. SAP education system offers instructor-led specialized training and certification programs for a variety of SuccessFactors modules, and a subscription-based service called SAP Learning Hub for users to access any training content on any of its products anywhere.

• Oracle Unified Method (OUM) is the single implementation methodology designed to be used for ALL Oracle product implementations. It is a methodology to handle project and program management and is a robust approach for adaptive, efficient handling of the IT lifecycle. Oracle has extensive training offerings for its Customers and users.

Customer Support :

• Workday has premium support services, a Customer Success Management program for clients who prefer a dedicated customer support manager. The client works with a manager on long-term strategy and continued benefits of using the Workday software. This includes regular review of Workday usage, recommendations on further training and ensuring the client gets the right support for troubleshooting issues. Workday users can contact the Workday Support team for resolution of issues or submit a request for support via the online Workday Customer Center which is then taken up by appropriate customer service team. The Workday provides product documentation, updates on new features etc.

• The SAP Enterprise support package includes the customer community for users to communicate and share ideas on issues with the software or general HR topics; a support portal for browsing through articles and videos and submitting support requests, support via live chat, SuccessFactors webinars. There is also SAP Preferred Care option for clients that want a dedicated support manager.

• Oracle Premier Support and Oracle Advanced Customer Services can provide its customers the required range of support coverage. Options like- My Oracle Support or Mobile My Oracle Support, online technical support offers a range of resources for Oracle Premier Support customers.

Pricing – The pricing information is not published in open forum so clients will have to contact the Product Company for an accurate quote.

Conclusion – While some of the smaller products are focused on the niche markets or specialized industries and are bringing out new features and functionalities to keep their place, the top line extensive HCM suites offered by the Goliaths of the IT Industry are battling it out for top spot by keeping their focus and investment on innovation, research and development, training, customer needs analysis and market trends. There is no prescriptive recommendation on what is best suited for an organization as it is a combination of so many factors.

About the author:

Sonali Sengupta is a regular contributor on SOAIS blogs and brings to the table 25 years of HR domain & technology experience. She has led several large HR transformation programs and has seen HR evolve from a back-office, operations function to a strategic enabler of customer businesses. Sonali can be contacted at sonali.sengupta2001@gmail.com

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