Web 2.0 Enterprise - McKinsey Report

If you read this McKinsey report, you would be wondering whether you are caught in another hype !!!

Web 2.0 which started with experimental adoption of tools has now come to a level where its being adopted as a broader business practice. However here is the result of the survey conducted by McKinsey, which says that

Only 21 % of respondents are satisfied with Web 2.0 tools
while 22 % respondents are dissatisfied with these tools.

Considering the fact that these are still early days, this skew towards dissatisfaction is definitely not a good sign, specially when Web 2.0 would mean heavy investments into not just the technology but also the practices and the way they are delivered.

What is interesting to note is the fact that Fundamental Changes have happened in the organizations which have expressed satisfaction. These companies have leveraged Web 2.0 tools to effectively bring change management and redesign org structures while becoming open to customers becoming a part of their innovation process.
Does this mean we would be again sitting upon a set of tools which only the best would be able to use and for others they would make no difference ??
What the report also points out is that " Blogs, RSS, Wikis and Podcasts" are the most widely adopted tools as business benefits are more visible in their usage. Also a large part of investment in Web 2.0 technology is in improving the internal facilities. Surprisingly this skew in adoption is more or less across the globe.
Another important factor thats pointed out here is the barriers to the usage of Web 2.0, some of the prominent ones being that of lack of potential understanding of financial returns, lack of infrastructure, incentives to adopt such technologies would cause problems for organizations to adopt the same.

So this seems to suggest that there are enough barriers to make the bubble burst ? Likely ? Not according to me..the reason is simple, I see Web 2.0 adoption as the next in the maturity value chain of ERP. Just like mature organizations first went in and adopted an ERP, so would it be for Web 2.0. Mature organizations with definite process chains would be early adopters.
However organizations would need to view this as an opportunity to transform their enterprises, bring about greater collaboration. Only then would they be able to get significant benefits from it.
Till then its Wait and Watch !!!

Analysis of your HR Systems

I had blogged about the CedarCrestone HR Systems survey here. More than 1000 people accessed the link through my blogpost and many responded to the survey too.

The good news is the survey is now extended till 30th Aug, 2008 !!!.

For those who dont know about the survey, here is what Alexia Martin , Director, Research and Analytics at CedarCrestone has to say

CedarCrestone is conducting 2008–2009 Human Resources Systems Survey: HR Technologies, Service Delivery Choices, and Metrics Survey through August 30, 2008.

The survey is a comprehensive research effort that has run for 11 years in the US, and is the first ever for Asia Pacific. It is designed to provide organizations with important data to plan, justify, benchmark, and execute HR technologies and outsourcing initiatives. The survey questionnaire can be completed online at www.CedarCrestone.com/hrssv53.

All responses are anonymous and will be kept confidential. We will only use your information in the aggregate. Your privacy is strictly maintained.

The 2008 HR Survey is broad in its coverage, including questions about:

* Talent management, workforce management, and business intelligence applications
* Self service, portal, and Web 2.0 innovations
* Sourcing choices (business process outsourcing, software-as-a-service, etc.)
* Current year expenditures and next year's budgets
* Metrics such as employee/HR staff ratios, administrative costs per employee, and more

The survey collects responses from Human Resources/Personnel and Information Technology management with knowledge of the HR technologies in use and planned, as well as those with an overview of key outsourcing decisions. CedarCrestone invites representatives from organizations in all industries (commercial, public sector, and educational organizations) with over 500 employees to participate. Participants will receive an advance copy of the results revealing best practices in HR Solutions and Systems for your industry. The survey questionnaire is available online at www.CedarCrestone.com/hrssv53.

You should complete as many questions as possible. If you do not have the information to answer some questions, however, please continue to the next question or section. Specific sections of most interest that should be answered at a minimum include:

* Demographics information
* Employee counts and percentages (total employees, total HR only at a minimum)
* Initiatives (Spending time and budget)
* Core systems
* Service Delivery Applications (self service)
* Strategic applications (talent management)
* Vendor solutions (HRMS, self service, recruiting, performance management at a minimum)
* Success and drivers
* Barriers and change management
* User satisfaction

My take on this survey
Its a must do for all those people who seek to understand their HR Systems environment and benchmark it against the best. This is the first time this survey is placing emphasis on the Asian market thus giving industries in asia a wonderful opportunity to analyse their HR systems requirement vis-a-vis what the market has to offer.
Go for It !!!

Group Companies Need Talent Management

Have you ever wondered why when we have Finance consolidation, HR consolidation is never heard of, and yes I am not talking about the typical HR Accounting stuff.

I think it augurs well for large companies which work across businesses and diversified interests to have a consolidated view to their talent.
I have in my experience dealt with a large number of group companies who have an excellent policy framework to manage the large scale that they cater to ( In India , Group companies manage a few ten thousand to hundred thousand employees), however whats lacking is a single framework to benchmark all the group companies on a common parameter and use that framework to identify top talent across group.

And before i move ahead let me define group companies - Group Companies are responsible for handling and driving the HR policies and strategy for an entire group which may contain different companies (as different legal entities)across diversified businesses.


Thats the challenge and thats something group companies should look to address.

So whats the solution? I would like to call it Talent Consolidation !!!
Group organizations need a single window where they can access key data on their employees.
In today's automated environment the individual companies may have a single / multiple HR systems. What this means is if there is a report requred by the Group CHRO, he would either have someone consolidate this from multiple system (remember, if these are different systems they might be capturing different aspect on employee) thus leading to bigger problems in consolidating data or get this as an individual company view. In either case, it gives only a partial view !!

Lets also see, Why its important for Group Compnaies to focus on Talent Management

1. Talent Management helps create Brand image - Many organizations have successfully used their talent for creating a brand image.
2. Talent Prediction and Analysis enables organization to get a correct picture on talent.
3. Whats most important for me ? Is it succession planning ? Attrition Management or Performance management ? These are talent drivers and they need to be identified correctly
4. A consolidation at a group level can also be the anchor for individual companies.
5. Groupwide talent management can be a factor in retention management.

However does it all happen if group companies do not have access to the data they need. So its important for group companies to not just look at the process part but also built in the enablement by investing in a robust system to help them manage their needs cohesively.
When would Group companies wake up and make this investment ? Only time would tell.