CONSULTING · HCM
Connecting HR processes, data and applications.
Human Capital Management (HCM) reaches beyond the HR information system (HRIS): alongside core HR, organisation and payroll, it covers talent and learning.
New platform, applications to connect better or an existing system to evolve: we analyse what is in place, compare the options and quantify costs and expected value.
VENDOR EXPERIENCE, ON THE BUYER’S SIDE
Years spent responding to RFPs. Now on your side of the table.
A company rarely changes its HCM system. A vendor sells one all year round.
RFPs, demonstrations and negotiations are part of everyday work for vendor teams. For a company, choosing an HCM system is a much less frequent exercise, which most people will only carry out a few times in their career, alongside their day-to-day responsibilities.
Having worked through this process on the vendor side helps us understand how it works from the inside. We prepare the questions and scenarios that genuinely differentiate the solutions. We include costs that can be underestimated in initial proposals: data migration, interfaces, adoption and ongoing operations. And we identify early the trade-offs that are likely to resurface during the project.
A demonstration shows what the system does well. You also need to test the exceptions.
A vendor demonstration naturally follows the processes the solution handles best. The decision also depends on less straightforward cases: an employee with two contracts, a pay rise entered three months late, country-specific rules for long-term sickness absence, or a reorganisation that needs to be implemented within a few days.
These situations directly affect the workload of HR teams, the workarounds they need and the Excel files that remain in circulation after the project. We bring them into the requirements, the demonstration scenarios given to vendors, and later into acceptance testing.
No vendor commissions and no reseller partnerships: our recommendation depends only on your needs.
HOW WE HELP
We support you at every stage.
- BEFORE THE PROJECT
Scope and choose
We map your processes, applications, data and interfaces with your HR and IT teams, and design the target architecture. Scenarios are costed on explicit assumptions. We then prepare the vendor consultation, with demo scripts built around your exceptions rather than the happy path.
OUTCOMEThe Value Engineering methodA reasoned recommendation, a business case to support the decision and then track costs and benefits, and an implementation roadmap.
- DURING THE PROJECT
Design and secure
We support you in the trade-offs between standard and custom, and bring an independent view on the integrator’s and vendor’s proposals. We prepare early what weighs most on the schedule: data migration, testing, and the global and local model when the roll-out spans several countries.
OUTCOMEDocumented decisions, risks identified early, and a project steered on what really matters.
- ONCE LIVE
Optimise and evolve
We review configuration, processes and actual usage, and compare the value achieved with what the business case planned. Each vendor release brings new features: which to switch on, which to leave aside. Before a contract renewal, the same analysis gives a factual basis for the discussion.
OUTCOMEA prioritised, costed improvement plan, and factual input for the next contract milestone.
Client-side experience: an HR system selected and deployed across 30 countries in nine months, and both groups’ IT landscapes mapped across 40 countries during a merger.
AN EVERYDAY CASE
One internal move, and the whole HR system shifts.
A team manager moves into a new role. On paper, nothing complicated.
Across the HR landscape, the change has consequences everywhere. The core HR system records the new position and reporting line. Payroll picks up the new compensation, sometimes retrospectively. Workforce management needs to move the employee onto the right schedule. Access rights change. Objectives and learning plans need to follow the new role. Her pending requests on the HR portal are probably still waiting for her former manager’s approval.
The issue is rarely each system on its own. It is what happens between them: data entered twice, an interface that only covers part of the process, an overnight batch, a file emailed between two teams.
Does the answer necessarily have to be an integrated suite? There is no universal answer. The right architecture depends first on a few structural choices: which application is the system of record for each type of data, how changes propagate, which interfaces need to be maintained, and what they cost over time.
That is where much of the simplicity or complexity of an HR system is decided.
A system aligned with your operations
Working time and workforce planning have their own constraints. Data protection shapes access, flows and retention from the design stage.
Let’s discuss your project
A new HCM system or a new requirement?
Tell us which processes are involved and which applications you use. We will identify the options worth comparing and how to quantify their value.