At a rapid pace
Selecting a package and implementation partner for HRIT is something you probably do only once every ten or fifteen years. Furthermore, the IT landscape is changing at a rapid pace. So it’s no excessive luxury for an organization to call in experts. Bas notices that many companies still do their selection ‘1990s-style’.
“What is much more important when selecting a package, is connecting to the strategic issue. What does your people strategy look like?”
“By this I mean that organizations often do not know how to select. They therefore put everything they think they need in a list of requirements: from the hiring process to performance management to – let’s take the most difficult language – Slovakian. The result is a very long list with a lot of questions, to which software vendors always reply with ‘yes’.”
SuccessDay’s customers are mostly larger, internationally operating organizations. As far as HRIT total solutions are concerned, they almost always end up with the ‘Big Four’: Oracle, SuccessFactors, Talentsoft or Workday. By now, the packages from those suppliers are almost all technically capable of doing the same thing. “So those 5000 questions you have formulated and analyzing all the answers, takes a lot of time, and in the end it doesn’t give you the right picture,” adds Juul van Dongen, Director of Operations at SuccessDay.
HR is not rocket science
Juul emphasizes that HR is not rocket science. All the parties in the HCM software space offer support for the same processes: recruitment & selection, talent development, retaining the right people, and getting people through and out. “That all your processes are covered makes the selection process a lot easier. What is much more important, however, is connecting to the strategic issue. What does your people strategy look like? How does HR support the overall organization? What does your employee experience look like?”
This is why SuccessDay approaches the selection process differently. Not that there aren’t any requirements, but the company starts from a fundamentally different premise: software is not seen as an end in itself, but as a means. The team looks at where the organization wants to go and what HRIT can do to help.
“But you don’t always need a Ferrari to go from A to B”
Bas: “In other words: what is the HR strategy? Has any thought been given to a future target operating model? Do you want to implement software to improve employee experience, for example, or do you want to obtain better data? Is it purely a cost consideration or does the organization want to work in a fundamentally different way? Answers to these questions will determine the direction of your future process.”
Only when the direction is clear should we think about the scope, after which SuccessDay can establishes the high level requirements. These are called the 5 Principle Elements. They provide guidance for each element of the selection process.
“There are many vendors who can do a lot and there are only a few who can do everything. But you don’t always need a Ferrari to go from A to B. In all fairness, we almost always end up with the same parties for our (international) customers: Workday, Oracle, SuccessFactors from SAP and Talentsoft. Then there are a couple of dark horses on the rise. We help our customers make the right choice,” says Bas.
From longlist to shortlist with speed dates
Next, speed dates are organized, in which vendors have to show quick & dirty – in a maximum of 45 minutes – what they can do. Then, based on the Principle Elements and in consultation with the customer, a shortlist is drawn up of two, maximum three vendors to continue the process with.
It is then agreed with the client which scores are attached to the elements and how heavily they are weighted. The outcome may well be that the most expensive option is not the best option for the client at all. Or that the most functional option turns out to be the most expensive one. If a client continues to insist on functionality, they will have to lobby internally to expand the budget. Juul: “That’s not always pleasant, but it is necessary. We do this very transparently and objectively.”
In any case, the total cost of ownership is always assessed during the selection processes SuccessDay facilitates. This includes not only the license and implementation costs, but all associated costs, including personnel costs, management costs after the go-live and any additional costs for data analytics. “We look at the whole picture. Only then can the customer come to a good decision,” Bas explains.
Customer-specific use cases
In order to prevent the presentations from becoming slick sales pitches, vendors are told what is expected of them no more than 48 hours in advance. They are presented with a number of customer-specific use cases. These are descriptions of how the software package tackles or solves certain problems.
“You especially want to know how useful an application is for the work methods of a specific customer”
Juul: “You especially want to know how useful an application is for the work methods of a specific customer. We are very familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of a package. This enables us to provide the customer with a complete picture. If you leave it to the vendor, they mainly show you how fast their Ferrari can go, but don’t tell you which maintenance is involved.”
According to SuccessDay, these use cases will quickly bring the right information to the table. Juul: “That reveals so much more than the 5,000 criteria that you would otherwise have drawn up. What we absolutely do not want is to think about all kinds of nitty-gritty requirements that customers may never need. Moreover, every customer thinks from his own frame of reference.
“If you select from that frame of reference, the criteria often arise from shortcomings you experience in the current way of working. That is always the wrong starting point. You have to think about the direction you want to go and formulate your criteria on that basis. Even then, a use case works much better than a list of thousands of requirements.”
Integrate into the package
An example of a use case that SuccessDay would advise you to always include: Suppose you’ve spent a lot of money on new software and on an implementation partner, and then a hiring freeze pops up. How do you adjust this process in your package and who will do it? Do you have to call headquarters to deal with this, or can you call someone in the Netherlands? Or can customers manage it very easily on their own, possibly with support from the company that managed the implementation? Or imagine you take over a company: how smoothly can you integrate this into the package?
“As far as we are concerned, the core team should include the CHRO, CFO, CIO and someone on behalf of the business”
The second thing that stands out in SuccessDay’s approach is the importance they attach to establishing good governance. According to Bas, this unfortunately goes wrong quite frequently in practice. “These are quite costly, time-consuming processes. We see that a lot of organizations that do the project themselves often forget to include all the important stakeholders. That is why we want all the key decision makers to be involved in the project at an early stage and have representation in the steering committee.
“As far as we are concerned, the core team should include the CHRO, CFO, CIO and someone on behalf of the business. After all, it’s not just an HR or IT thing. You have to involve Finance in order to be able to draw up a business case. But Purchasing and Legal need to be represented also. Finally, you need business to make it a success, because your managers will soon become an important user group.”
Setting the pace
SuccessDay therefore approaches the vendor selection process holistically: an integrated approach, which is established firmly across the above-mentioned axes right from the start, where everyone feels heard. If you don’t do this, according to Bas, you can’t set the pace.
“Talking about setting the pace: some organizations think: we can do the selection process within two months. That’s just not realistic! Our experience is that it takes at least four months. If you take that amount of time, it repays itself later in the project. We and the vendors are never the issue. We’ll step it up a notch or work through the weekend if necessary. But the challenge lies in whether the organization is ready and whether people are available. This will always take more time than you think.”
After choosing a software package and the implementation partner, SuccessDay helps by looking at the content of the contracts with a critical eye. Are the descriptions clear and is it clear what is expected of everyone? Or can the text lead to misunderstandings and disagreements about the costs and execution of possible additional work?
Bas: “When you see a contract like this for the first time, you have no idea what you are signing. We know, for example, that five compensation plans for 37 locations is often too little. Be sure to discuss this with each another. I have experienced that the ink on the signature of a contract had not even dried when we were told: ‘Of course we can still do these changes. It will only cost you x euros extra.’ We aim to prevent this kind of trouble in advance.”
The right people on board
Finally – once it is known which package has been selected – SuccessDay always does the Organization & Readiness Scan. Here they look at whether the organization has the right people on board to be able to carry out the project and whether they can be freed up sufficiently. In addition, the data and process standards are scrutinized. “You really have to take the time for this. During the project, you really don’t have time to define what an FTE is, or to draw up a job catalogue,” says Juul.
According to the two of them, good preparation is a vital part of the process anyway. If you fail to think carefully about your HR technology roadmap, and package, and vendor selection in advance, you’ll always be in for a surprise. “And not in a fun way. Those surprises can mean higher costs, but also delays, expectations that are not being met or insufficient support within the organization. Nobody is happy with that.”
