So after my little rant on integration yesterday, you\u2019d think that I\u2019m pretty sold on ERP?\u00a0 You\u2019d be right.\u00a0 I\u2019m also sold on point solutions though, and there is indeed a time and place for them.\u00a0 First, let me start with my pro\u2019s for point solutions from yesterday.<\/p>\n
They are the \u201cbest of breed\u201d solutions, have the most advanced functionality, slickest user interface and self service tools, and probably the best per function process and workflows.\u00a0 And while I won\u2019t go into ROI or TCO, there is usually a significant difference in the cost model between ERP and point solutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll be honest, advanced functionality does not excite me that much.\u00a0 When it comes to performance, there is a box that everyone has, and anything truly unique will need to be customized.\u00a0 That\u2019s ok, but the facts are that everyone (comparing apples to apples \u2013 you can\u2019t put an SMB solution against Taleo) is going to be within 5% of everyone else.\u00a0 And any new, interesting functionality hasn\u2019t really meant that much to me.\u00a0 So vendors are offering Facebook integration.\u00a0 So what?\u00a0 They are not helping you define the governance model.\u00a0 They are not telling you what the legal issues are with privacy.\u00a0 And they are not helping you understand how this advances your strategy.\u00a0 So while they are giving you an interesting functional improvement, they are also giving you a strategic and policy nightmare.<\/p>\n
Self service and user interface is indeed important however.\u00a0 This goes right down to change management.\u00a0 While you should always have a change management program with every implementation, a decent user interface will make your life a bit easier on this front.<\/p>\n
So I think workflow for the very specific (not end to end) process will be best in a point solution?\u00a0 Probably so, as they have much more time to invest thinking and programming the possible permutations.\u00a0 As mentioned yesterday, processes are end to end and I think that the ERP wins this battle.\u00a0 What I would say though, is if you\u2019re going to buy a point solution (let\u2019s say talent), think seriously about sourcing all your point solutions from a single vendor.\u00a0 This way, competencies, performance, compensation and succession will generally be integrated.\u00a0 Going with the right vendor, either recruiting or learning may be as well.\u00a0 Make sure that you\u2019re also checking out how integration is really happening on the back end.\u00a0 Often, vendors have cobbled together a set of applications they have purchased and the back end is a disaster that you\u2019ll never know about until after implementation.\u00a0 But some good research and questions will allow you really figure out if you\u2019ll have integration or just the appearance if it.\u00a0 (What are those questions you ask?\u00a0 Sorry, that\u2019s stuff I get paid for)\u00a0 At the end of the day, if your integration points are between core HR and a single suite of point solutions, you\u2019re still probably ahead of the game.\u00a0 You\u2019ll still have areas where process is broken, but hopefully you\u2019ve eliminated most of the integration points and therefore eliminated much of your manual work as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So after my little rant on integration yesterday, you\u2019d think that I\u2019m pretty sold on ERP?\u00a0 You\u2019d be right.\u00a0 I\u2019m also sold on point solutions though, and there is indeed a time and place for them.\u00a0 First, let me start…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hr-technology","category-point-solutions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}