Month: February 2014

This post is part IV of IV in a series about ICG’s support and outsourcing solutions. You can see parts I, II and III here, here, and here, respectively. Be sure to check back later for more posts in the series.

Ongoing support is a requirement to provide the most functionality and return on the SAP investment, and to achieve full benefits of the technology.

In terms of the final segment of our support and outsourcing solutions, variable cost structure, we can once again break things down into a few parts:

• Realization of return on investment
• Minimizing of total cost of ownership
• Defining specific service levels at a predictable and flexible cost, reflecting business volumes

Such direct support provides significant value that will result in targeted benefits and shareholder returns. SAP provides bug fixes and new functionality that will help your organization improve and streamline end-to-end processes to drive decisions for your business.

Beyond the SAP changes, your business will also continue to evolve. Keeping SAP support cost to a minimum throughout will help your business meet its key strategic objectives and key performance indicators, ensuring overall success.

ICG will help you define a roadmap for your organization with the near- and long-term timelines by providing your organization with insight into where you are headed. We will define guidelines regarding the integration of new business requirements and new SAP functionality so that everyone in the organization understands the process and business benefits.

Variable cost structure allows you to realize your return on the SAP investment by minimizing SAP support costs, while also being able to harness existing and new functionality through the use of ICG’s experts. We will know your business, and we understand both where processes may be tweaked, and when new functionality will provide benefit. All of this helps you realize the value of all components with a fee structure based on a percentage. This approach is added value that goes beyond a unit, or fixed, price.

Service level agreements (SLAs) will be detailed for every organization. Timelines for responses and fixes will be put in place, along with the process to make that happen. This will be outlined in detail, and metrics implemented, for full transparency.

Scaling the number of resources to keep costs minimal, while providing increased support at critical times, will be defined within the SLAs. Our process methodology will strengthen your vision, create efficiency to improve results and payback, and capitalize on system innovation.

Variable cost structure is the last step in ICG’s support and outsourcing solutions, and helps your business realize ROI.

Want to learn more about ICG? Get in touch with us on Twitter!

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This post is part III of IV in a series about ICG’s support and outsourcing solutions. Over the coming weeks, we’ll cover each aspect of our support and outsourcing solutions, from global sourcing, to variable cost structure. You can see parts I and II here and here, respectively. Be sure to check back later for more posts in the series.

Throughout this series so far, we’ve covered two key parts of ICG’s support and outsourcing solutions: global sourcing, and leveraging technology. But as you might imagine, leveraging technology isn’t the only next step when it comes to ensuring the success of your business over time.

For us, deploying best practices means doing three things:

• Achieving business benefits and goals
• Implementation and support of best practices and technology
• Stabilizing the SAP environment

Global sourcing and leveraging technology work hand-in-hand with deploying best practices. SAP provides a tremendous amount of functionality, and continually adds functionality through updates.

Global sourcing’s advantages include tapping into skills or resources that were previously unavailable. It helps to reach procurement goals to generate cost savings, ensure quality, and reduce expenses. Implementing existing and new functionality with businesses processes that are efficient and effective can help drive ROI. And simplification and change management will be used heavily to reduce the time necessary to perform tasks, by maximizing functionality and eliminating workarounds.

In terms of best practice deployment, ICG’s many years of experience across organizations and industries of varying sizes has provided us with a detailed understanding of business process best practices for implementing effective change control programs. We also help with the identification of business goals, and understand that the business processes to get there may not be the same for every organization. We know the standard business processes very well and know how those may be tweaked to fit each organization perfectly.

Many times, simplification of business processes will be implemented with change management that will provide significant ROI through administrative costs and functionality enhancements. Simplification will also decrease the time needed to stabilize an SAP environment and allow for quicker training of new employees to the organization. And finally, deploying best practices that help reduce the complexity and cost of implementation will stabilize your SAP environment.

Want to learn more about ICG? Get in touch with us on Twitter!

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This post is part II of IV in a series about ICG’s support and outsourcing solutions. Over the coming weeks, we’ll cover each aspect of our support and outsourcing solutions, from global sourcing, to variable cost structure. You can see part I here. Be sure to check back later for more posts in the series.

Earlier this week, we kicked off our series on ICG’s support and outsourcing solutions with a post about global sourcing. But as you might imagine, support and outsourcing encompasses much more than just global sourcing. Today, we’re going to take a look at another element of this stage in the process: leveraging technology.

At ICG, leveraging technology includes two main things:

• Expanding the employee self-service mindset
• Proactive upgrading & maintenance management

How can you take advantage of and leverage SAP innovative technology to generate value for your business? Achieving the ROI of the SAP investment is a critical component of your company’s SAP strategic roadmap. Our professionals at ICG will uncover areas where the SAP functionalitymay be underutilized, and identify which aspects you should consider when implementing essential technology solutions to achieve sustainability for your business.

Utilizing SAP technology can transform the user experience and allow employees to maintain their own data such as bank accounts, new addresses, etc., which reduces the Human Resources overhead of shuffling paper and making those changes. Employees become empowered, and in many cases, this is new to HR and employees alike. Change management is necessary to facilitate this transition and to make it easy and effective.

Upgrading and maintaining the SAP investment on a scheduled basis will allow bug fixes and new functionality to be introduced at the organization’s desired pace. SAP provides several methods of maintenance, and ICG will work with your organization to determine which method best fits your needs so that your SAP technology can be up-to-date. HR has components, such as payroll and reporting, which require regular periodic updates due to legislative changes. We’ll work with your organization to design a methodology that will initiate these updates with minimal impact to various departments within the organization.

ICG professionals can help your team to embrace innovation, adapt to change, and ensure effective collaboration and efficient operations. Get in touch with ICG to discover how SAP software can help your organization leverage technology and achieve long-term benefits.

Want to learn more about ICG? Get in touch with us on Twitter!

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This post is part I of IV in a series about ICG’s support and outsourcing solutions. Over the coming weeks, we’ll cover each aspect of our support and outsourcing solutions, from global sourcing, to variable cost structure. Be sure to check back later for more posts in the series.

In our last series about ICG’s implementation solutions, we covered what goes into the actual implementation of our SAP HCM solutions, from project management to go-live and support.

But our services–and our process–don’t stop there. We also offer world-class support and outsourcing solutions and bring the skills, expertise, processes, valuable tools, and methodologies needed to manage your existing SAP implementation and transform it according to company requirements.

Our support and outsourcing solutions start with global sourcing, which can be broken down into three factors:

• Economies of scale
• Flexible and effective ongoing support
• Reducing client business risks regarding critical skills

Organizations invest a great deal of time and money in SAP and expect to gain significant efficiencies by fully utilizing the functionality, and streamlining whenever and wherever possible. Supporting the investment and identifying areas to ensure there is consistency and a knowledge structure takes a detailed understanding of the underlying SAP architecture and configuration. You want to build the right sourcing environment that not only drives a cost savings to the bottom line, but helps to minimize potential risk by consolidating sourcing processes.

Global sourcing support allows for greater flexibility with capacity management, staffing expertise, risk mitigation, and costs. Our experts come from across the globe and we leverage the right skillset at the right time to effectively sustain excellence through monitoring spending to reduce the bottom line contribution.

During times of higher need, we have the ability to scale to meet those needs, and then compress when the need subsides. This can reduce an organization’s spend by matching the need. As we scale, we continue to utilize experts in their areas to provide the most effective support. Our global resourcing and flexibility allow ICG to provide experts that will support areas of SAP that your organization finds valuable, all by making the most of every dollar saved.

Want to learn more about ICG? Get in touch with us on Twitter!

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In conversations about our services here on our blog, and even in broader conversations about SAP HCM consulting, a term you’re very likely to see come up is “change management.” But if you’re unfamiliar with SAP HCM and HCM solutions, there’s a chance that you may not know exactly what change management is, or why it matters.

So what is change management, and why should businesses be so concerned with it?

Put simply, change management is an approach to implementing changes in an organization in a structured, thought-out way. Any time a business needs large-scale change within the organization–such as implementing SAP HCM solutions like we do here at ICG–a structured approach makes success much more likely, and almost always ends up with better results than you’d see without proper change management.

Proper change management focuses on both the big picture and the smaller details at the same time. Here at ICG, for example, our implementation process covers everything from a business blueprint which fully structures the application of SAP HCM, all the way down to the training of individual employees in all aspects of the software and of support. By focusing on the big picture while not losing sight of important small details, we help to ensure that businesses can navigate the change as smoothly as possible.

In all situations where change management is a factor, the end goal is increased efficiency, smoother processes, and overall better preparation for today’s changing business environment. From the implementation of SAP HCM software, to an overall change in strategy to reflect a changing industry, change management isn’t limited to any one specific change–only the processes that surround it. So long as there’s a structure in place, the concept of change management is one that can be applied across a wide variety of changes and consulting needs.

Making sure you have the proper processes in place for whatever change you’re seeking to implement is what change management is all about. If you’d like to learn more about ICG and how we can help your business with change management and the implementation of SAP HCM software, let us know on Twitter @Integrated_CG, via email at info@integratedcg.com, or by phone at (866) 415-0071. We’re always here to answer your questions and would be more than happy to help.

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While SAP HCM represents an incredible opportunity for HR departments to manage their workforce when used correctly, there are other tools and strategies that HR can deploy for recruiting, branding, and even management.

In today’s day and age, social media is a great tool across all of those aforementioned categories. From recruiting new employees to managing current ones, social media has a surprisingly large number of uses in HR.

If you’re struggling to find ways to effectively use social media, don’t worry. See below for a few of our suggestions about ways for HR to use social media to better their organization:

• Use big platforms for employer branding. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are great for showcasing current employees and talking about your company culture. By using them to post photos around the office, discuss stories about your company’s accomplishments, and showcasing the ‘about me’ side of your company, you can build a strong following of recruits interested in your company, and help remind current employees why they love working within your organization.
• Find new recruits–even if they’re not currently looking. Thanks to social media, it’s easier than ever for HR to find potential recruits. If you know what kind of recruits you’re looking for, social media search tools offer you the opportunity to follow relevant people based on their social profiles and public work experience–even if they’re not looking. And if they are looking, social media is an absolutely incredible recruiting tool. Both because of positive employer branding opportunities and the powerful connective capabilities it offers, social media is fantastic for finding new employees.
• Use games and gamification to help retain current employees. While this tactic is used primarily by a few forward-thinking companies, gamification, or “using video-game techniques… to make your HR connections more interactive” is great for employee retention and satisfaction. Whether for helping employees get in shape, or for fostering teamwork and peer recognition, HR departments can use games to produce measurable results when combined with traditional recognition and rewards.
• Manage your employees’ personal use of social media. Finally, although this is less of a ‘use’ than it is management, all companies should be prepared for the potential challenges that social media can bring. That means planning in advance for any situations that could arise from the new connectedness that social media offers. In setting up a company policy for social media, individual members of HR may want to think about getting active themselves to set an example for other employees about the correct use of social media. That isn’t an all-encompassing solution, but is certainly a step in the right direction.

HR departments today are tasked with managing employees in an increasingly connected world–no small task, especially with social media thrown into the mix. Even so, the best way for HR to stay on top of employee management moving into the future is to embrace social media. These methods discussed here are only the beginning of an effective social media strategy for HR, but should provide a good start for companies looking to dive into the mix.

Would you like to learn more about how ICG’s SAP HCM solutions, or how we can help your entire business–HR included–run more efficiently? Let us know on Twitter or LinkedIn–we’d love to hear from you and would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

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This post is part IV of IV in a series about ICG’s implementation solutions. You can find parts I, II, and III of the series here, here, and here, respectively.

The previous three phases we’ve discussed over the last few weeks, project management, business blueprinting, and realization, lead us to the final go-live and support phase with a level of comfort and thorough understanding of how SAP is set up to run. By this point in the process, the staff has been trained, and support is ready to go to improve operations.

Go-live and support is broken down into four parts, which we’ll detail below:

Final cut over and execution:

In this stage, preparations are finalized and SAP production is updated for the processes that were put in place during the realization phase. Data conversions are performed and processes are tested in production. Communications are sent out, and at this point, our new system is in place and ready.

Validate live business processes:

Once SAP production is up and running, our professionals will continue to work with your IT staff and business users to review that all the processes are working as intended. We’ll also make sure that all issues and problems are resolved for transition to the production support team. In addition, the change management employed throughout the project, with proper change management procedures established, will continue to help staff become accustomed to the new system. 

Ongoing production support:

During the project management phase, we determine how the company is going to continue support—internal, outsourced, or hybrid. Help desk scripts created during the realization stage can help facilitate quick responses. Our professionals will continue to work with your support team to make sure they are comfortable, and have the knowledge to quickly respond and resolve inquiries from your staff.

Post go-live end-user training:

Best practices in training will continue to be an important component of a successful system installation, and of ongoing use. New employees, or employees that move to a new area, will need to understand the processes they will be responsible for and how those fit into the overall system end-to-end. This foundation within the company’s workforce is important for any employee changes so that this on-going knowledge transfer is not lost.

Throughout this entire process, organizations continue to morph, and processes may need to be adjusted as time goes on, requiring new configuration. The project management phase will have identified the continuing education needs so that all parties involved with the change will understand the implications and make proper adjustments to training.

The go-live date also doesn’t mean the end of preparing documentation. Instead, it is an ongoing process that includes frequent updates throughout the lifecycle of the system in place. From project management to go-live and support, ICG’s implementation solutions are here to help your business navigate the change.

Want to learn more about ICG’s SAP HCM solutions, and how we can help your business meet its goals in this changing business environment? Get in touch with us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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This post is part III of IV in a series about ICG’s implementation solutions. Over the coming weeks, we’ll cover each aspect of our implementation solutions, from project management to go-live and support. Be sure to check back later for more posts in the series. You can find parts I and II of the series here and here, respectively.

After the critical steps of project management and business blueprinting, the next stage of ICG’s implementation process is realization–the final stage before go-live and support.

Like project management and business blueprinting, realization can be broken down into a few main parts:

• System configuration
• Report specification and build
• Interface specification and build
• Conversion specification and build
• Unit testing
• End user training preparation and delivery

Realization takes the time and effort put into the business blueprinting stage and enacts the desired outcomes and expected benefits.

During the project management phase, we identified the resources, and who would complete the configuration efforts by thinking through all of the ways our project affects the organization. With all the processes and requirements fully documented and understood, our professionals work with your staff to configure SAP and deliver projects with better control.

Knowledge transfer continues through this phase so that the eventual support staff thoroughly understands the implementation and configuration through documentation and/or hands-on training.

As the configuration is put in place, unit tests are completed, and any adjustments necessary to the configuration are identified and resolved. Adjustments go through the change request process identified during the project management phase, and business blueprint documents will be updated to capture the changes.

Unit tests, as part of the development process for proper operation, are determined and performed, and will eventually be the foundation for end-user training development and help desk support scripts. Custom code for reports, interfaces, and conversions is written and thoroughly tested in a dedicated testing environment.

After realization, the process is nearly complete and we can move through to the go-live and support stage. It takes a lot of planning and preparation, but our process here at ICG is meant to evaluate every aspect of our project to enable success after go-live.

Want to learn more about ICG? Get in touch with us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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