How to Have a Successful HR System Implementation
Rebecca Murray
Cultiv8 Consulting Inc.
You were born to succeed,
but to meet your potential,
you must plan to succeed,
prepare to succeed, &
expect to succeed.
Today’s Presenter
Human Resources Thought Leader
Rebecca Murray
Rebecca is an experienced HCM consultant who helps clients across the world implement
Process Consulting sustainable global workforce development strategies. As a partner at Cultiv8 Consulting,
she specializes in the design and integration of HRIS and talent management solutions to
help companies develop, optimize, and maintain high-performing workforces. Combining
Initiative Roadmapping her specialized knowledge with her love for teaching and learning, Rebecca speaks widely
on her experience with global HRIS implementations at conferences and trade shows
around the world and teaches Employee Central Classes at the SAP Academy. Rebecca is
HR Transformations a SuccessFactors Certified Professional Consultant and a Boomi Certified Process
Developer, and holds degrees in Computer Engineering and Business Administration.
Agenda
What We Will Cover
Introductions
Forming the Band
Determining the Definition of Success
Active Project Management
Project Activities for Success
Tips
Questions and Answers
Illumiti Group at a Glance
Illumiti is a member of united VARs, an SAP platinum partner
200+ 350+ 1000+ 75m+ 5 8
Happy Clients Consultants Customer 2015 Revenue Year-in-a-Row Worldwide
Engagements Top SAP Offices
Channel Partner
Cultiv8 Consulting is part of the Illumiti Group who serves more than 200 customers across a multitude of industry sectors and locations.
From its founding in 2000 to the end of 2015, Illumiti Group has completed more than 250 successful implementations at small, midsized,
and large enterprises. Whether it’s a HR transformation initiative, a merger & acquisition related project, a drive to propel a business to
best-in-class performance, or a system roll-out to other business divisions or countries, Cultiv8 does it faster, at a lower cost, and with a
higher level of confidence.
Agenda
What We Will Cover
Introductions
Forming the Band
Determining the Definition of Success
Active Project Management
Project Activities for Success
Tips
Questions and Answers
Where Are We?
Project Preparation.
• There are likely as many different implementation situations on the call as we have people
– “We are live!”
– “My company is mid-implementation.”
– “We are ready to get started.”
– “We are thinking about dipping our toes in the water. Maybe.”
• We tend to think of Project Preparation as a pre-cursor to a project
– This is true. But it is more than that. We should be constantly evaluating and preparing for the next
steps, next phase, next rollout, next module.
• A key initial step in any project is forming the Project Team
– The right people with balanced strengths is essential
– If your project is already underway and your team is missing some of the following people – add
them!
The Band Members
Auditions optional.
• Form the Project Team
– Your team should include business owners and stakeholders
– A representative from management and/or a steering committee executive should be actively
involved
• They provide direction, motivation, and a commitment to change
– A colleague(s) from your IT group, if possible
• There will be some technical considerations, even if you use a cloud solution
– Example: Single Sign On, integration with Active Directory
– A Project Manager
– Local Champions
• Increased user adoption rates
– External help, as needed
• System implementers, trainers, project manager, QA resource
• Determine how each member will be involved
– Inform managers that time for the project will be needed
Pre-Work: Examples of Team Members
Customer Team Implementation Team
Steering Committee/Stakeholders Project Director/Sponsor
Project Manager Project Manager
Business Leads Solution Architect(s)
Generalists/Specialists Implementation Consultants
Information Technology Resources Technical Resources
Change Management/Training Lead Additional Resources, as required
• Project teams will vary based on the size and scope of your project
Agenda
What We Will Cover
Introductions
Forming the Band
Determining the Definition of Success
Active Project Management
Project Activities for Success
Tips
Questions and Answers
What Do We Want? Success! When Do We Want It? Now!
Team members will approach the project with different perspectives.
• When we achieve success we know that this phase or portion of the project is complete
• Team members will likely have different definitions of what constitutes success
– Project Manager – on time, on budget, scope has been met
– Business User – my pain points have been solved
– Executive Sponsor – processes have been automated and there is a clear trend towards a positive
ROI
• In order to be able to label a project as successful the team needs to meet and determine
their mutual definition of success
• This includes setting a realistic scope – what will be achieved during this engagement
– Needs, wants, current state, future vision
– Timeline, budget, and team member time commitments
– Be realistic
– Use phases, if needed
Agenda
What We Will Cover
Introductions
Forming the Band
Determining the Definition of Success
Active Project Management
Project Activities for Success
Tips
Questions and Answers
The Project Management Triangle
Scope
Quality
Time Cost
• About 50% of projects are not completed on time or within budget. Planning and project
management make a difference.
Scope
Sooo….what are we doing?
Setting the scope and sticking to it
Determining the project scope is an absolute requirement. Team members
need to know what they’re working on and towards. Tasks cannot be assigned
and direction cannot be given until this step is complete. The scope includes
the minimum deliverable(s) and also defines boundaries so that the workload
does not become unmanageable in the time given and budget allocated.
Factors to consider when determining scope:
• Project Objectives (Success Criteria)
• Phased Approach
• Work/Tasks
• Competing Efforts
• Resources
• Budget
• Timeline
Tips for Scope
• Don’t be afraid to have phases with small, manageable objectives in each phase
• Adopt best practices, where possible
– Get the biggest bang for your buck
– Take advantage of automation and optimization
• Limit customizations to what is essential
– This will help save time and money
– Plan additional customizations and “nice to haves” for upcoming phases
• Be proactive with scope creep
– Acknowledge that everything cannot be accomplished in the first pass
– Work towards achieving your team’s definition of success and don’t add to the definition of success
– Changes to scope will impact the timeline and budget
– Plan for a follow up activity/phase to account for additional items
Timeline
SMART objectives are always time bound
Timelines are easy to identify when there is an identified business driver that is time
dependent. Short timelines should translate to a smaller, more contained scope
and/or a phased approach. The definition of success may be adjusted accordingly.
When there is not a time sensitive business driver, determining a timeline can be
trickier. In this case, project teams typically look at how much time is needed to
complete critical tasks and achieve the team’s definition of success.
It isn’t easy.
Coming up with a project timeline is not an easy task. It can be very difficult to estimate how long certain tasks will take. A good
timeline is broken into manageable chunks or stages and contains major milestones, estimated time of completion, and start/end dates
for major items.
Tips for Timeline
• Identify periods of high business activity and try to avoid scheduling major project activities
during this time
– For example, try to avoid scheduling parallel payroll testing during open enrollment
– Sometimes this cannot be avoided
• Payroll go-live at the beginning of the year coincides with year-end closeout activities
• Include major business time commitments on your project plan
• Identify contingency points and allot enough time for activity based on resource planning
– This means you must do resource planning
Budget
At the end of the day…
A project budget will be determined by its scope and timeline. If your budget
falls short then scope and timeline need to be adjusted. This should all be
planned and agreed upon prior to the start of the project. Failure to do so
causes delays and unhappy leadership. A good implementation partner should
be able to help you determine an initial budget and then fine tune numbers
once the scope and timeline have been set.
Factors to consider when setting a budget:
• Include breakouts for software, hardware, implementation, and support
– If you’re using a cloud solution then hardware costs can factor out and software will typically be priced as a monthly subscription
• Update fees, if applicable
• Data extraction or reporting add-ons
• Is the solution modular?
– Are you paying for more than what you need? Can you add new modules on as you need them and not have to pay for them upfront?
• Training
Tips for Budget
• Don’t increase the scope
• Work to avoid project delays
• Manage expectations from the beginning
– The team’s definition of success
• Ensure that outside resources are working on relevant tasks
• Mitigate changes that have cross functional impact
– Be aware that changes may have a downstream effect
Project Management Tools
Getting it all done.
• Find a project methodology that will work for your engagement type and team and stick with it
– Iterative approaches are becoming more and more popular
• Team members get hands on access to the system in early phases and stay engaged
• Receive and send regular status reports
– Keep the team up to date
– Allow team members to identify possible delays or issues
• Hold regular update meetings with the team
– Keep the focus on the project
– Encourage project engagement
• Plan for contingencies
– Something will happen
– Include time buffers in your timeline whenever possible
– Have pre-determined backup plans for scenarios where buffers are not possible
Agenda
What We Will Cover
Introductions
Forming the Band
Determining the Definition of Success
Active Project Management
Project Activities for Success
Tips
Questions and Answers
Working Towards Success
Things to consider.
• Spend time at the onset of your project determining whether the engagement will be a big bang
approach or a phased rollout
– This includes both the user perspective and the functionality perspective
• Which populations will use the new system first? Can we do everyone at once?
– Identify constraints (data conversion, training, magnitude of scope)
• Does all planned functionality need to be available as of Day 1?
– Identify constraints (budget, resource availability, user adoption, training, magnitude of scope)
• Data alignment should be carefully considered during the course of the project
– The data must reside in our new system if we are going to be the source of data for other systems
• Manual intervention or entry is always possible but not always the best solution
• We must spend time determining the data requirements of our downstream systems
• If a demographics file for a benefits provider requires a differentiation between an Executive and a Non-Executive, then
we must plan to store this indicator in our new system
– We must also map out the field characteristics of our downstream systems
• One system may require a four character code while another requires the use of their own pre-delivered one character
code
Working Towards Success, cont.
Things to consider.
• Data migration should be discussed as a factor of project success (i.e., at the beginning)
– Does historical data need to be migrated to the new system?
• Less is more. Don’t put junk in your new system.
• Determine if the exercise of converting historical data is worth the time and effort
– Is it even accurate?
– Where is our employee data? Who owns it? How can we get extracts?
• Is it clean and current?
• Testing should be performed by different groups including business owners and, if possible,
by end users (small pilot)
– You should plan to have a separate system instance for development/testing and production
• Major transformations may need a third environment (development, quality, production) especially if parallel
pay testing needs to be executed
– Testing is also an excellent method of training
• The execution of test scripts walks users through the process
Working Towards Success, cont.
Things to consider.
• Corporate communication should be an ongoing activity
– Assists with change management
– Gets employees excited about the benefits of the new system
– Reinforces the message from local champions
• Training activities should not be left to the end of the project
– Good training increases user adoption (<- likely a success criterion)
– Have a training plan defined
– Hands-on training is always most effective but isn’t possible in all scenarios
• Explore alternative options such as webinars, recordings, and printed materials
• Make a quick reference guide (QRG) available to end users
– Identify all populations of users who need training
• System administrators
• HR users
• Managers
• Employees
• etc.
Working Towards Success, cont.
Things to consider.
• Don’t forget about post go-live support
– Three types of support need to be considered:
• Everyday end user support
– Who will handle this in-house
– What method of communication will you use
» Ticketing system, email, hotline
• HR user and system admin support
– Who do your power users contact when they need assistance
• Hardware support
– Who will perform maintenance and updates when needed
– Who can handle emergencies and fixes
Agenda
What We Will Cover
Introductions
Forming the Band
Determining the Definition of Success
Active Project Management
Project Activities for Success
Tips
Questions and Answers
Tips
Just a few helpful things to know.
• Make sure your team includes business owners, an executive stakeholder, and local
champions.
– Include global colleagues if the scope is global.
• Get creative with your company communications.
– You may need to sell the new system.
• Do not skimp on training activities.
– User adoption is critical.
• Keep up with the project plan and hold team members accountable.
• Bring in outside assistance when needed.
• Begin the project insisting on a set scope, timeline, and budget and reiterate constantly.
– Set expectations up front.
Agenda
What We Will Cover
Introductions
Forming the Band
Determining the Definition of Success
Active Project Management
Project Activities for Success
Tips
Questions and Answers
Questions?
Feel free to say hi!
We are friendly and social.
rebecca.murray@cultiv8consulting.com
3500 Lenox Road
Suite #1500
Atlanta, Georgia 30326 USA
Thank you!
Illumiti is a member of united VARs, which is SAP platinum partner
@illumiti Illumiti Illumiti.com 905 737 1066
©Illumiti 2016, Proprietary & Confidential
We offer ideas that
empower your people beyond the expected
