systematicHR

So in part 2, I stated that point solutions usually have both better functionality and usability.  So why would anyone buy an ERP?

Contrary to the title of this post, I’ll now state that it’s not always about the user.  Sometimes it’s about better process.  It’s nice to think about a core HRMS with a talent acquisition system, talent management, learning, and whatever else sitting around.  You’d have the best in class systems.  However, the chore of synchronizing all your competency models into every component of the application suite gets pretty crazy.  It’s true you can interface the whole thing and tie it up with a pretty red bow.  But once you have your data integrated, you need to get your process integrated.  Therefore, all those workflows that kick off in the core HRMS now need to created events that in turn create new workflows in the point solutions.

Basically what I’m saying is the technology currently exists to integrated data across systems, but the integration of workflow and process across systems is much less mature.  ERP solutions have a huge advantage in overall integration.

If integration is so good, then we should talk about how far behind the ERP’s are in functionality and usability.  PeopleSoft version 9.0 will have huge improvements in usability.  Their focus intelligent UI design is finally catching up to their focus on increasing functionality.  Also, Oracle Fusion is going to be cool.  I’ve stated many times over that I don’t think Fusion will be released on time.  However, I might have to eat my own words – yup, I’ve seen the future and the sub-alpha is really out there.  Current PeopleSoft users have a ray of hope.  SAP had better be careful.