Talent management on demand

The human resource area within a company is playing an increasingly important role as the central arena in the struggle for know-how.

In addition to recruiting, talent development and employer branding are also becoming increasingly important. The aim must be to retain good people and thus important know-how in the company in the long term.

A talent management system integrated into the company with the appropriate processes is mandatory to cover these requirements. However, this costs money, a commodity that is often even scarcer than good skilled workers.

Integrated talent management

The talent management solution from SAP is currently used in Germany by more than 3,000 companies from the midmarket and large enterprises. SAP HCM offers comprehensive functions to optimally support the central HR processes.

Unfortunately, the introduction of these systems often took place so long ago that the installations no longer optimally support the new requirements for the personnel areas.

It is therefore necessary to set up new processes in HR management in order to find talent, retain it, make the best possible use of it and remain competitive in the long term. Regardless of whether a new system is implemented or an existing solution is adapted, such a step always means IT investment.

HR managers who have not yet implemented an end-to-end talent management system face a choice of technology. The key is to achieve the best long-term benefits through the right investment.

The decision for an integrated system is ultimately a decision for a continuous knowledge build-up in the company. In the process, the rapidly developing technologies should help to achieve long-term corporate goals.

There is no doubt that the goal of a high return on investment (ROI) can be achieved with such a solution - the difficulty here is measuring it and, conversely, estimating what the costs will be if the investment is foregone.

HR managers have to decide which way they want to go. They can run talent management as usual on their own systems or rely on an on-demand solution.

Until now, due to the demands of many existing SAP customers, the software has had to map the customer-specific process exactly. Special treatments, even for small groups of employees, are mapped in the system.

As a result, solutions can quickly and often unnecessarily become complex. Such a customized on-premise solution requires investment in software licenses, implementation, training, and any customizations or enhancements.

This is too expensive for some companies, even though Gartner has forecast a slight increase in investments for 2013.

Talent management on demand

In contrast, it's worthwhile for companies to consider an on-demand solution that can be configured to meet needs but with limited customization.

But what sounds like a disadvantage at first glance is the greatest strength of this new technology. Because in addition to lower costs, there are other advantages to operating an on-demand talent management system:

• Project runtimes can be accelerated rapidly due to the reduced complexity and the availability of the software at the push of a button.
• In order to supply systems outside the SAP on-premise solutions, it was previously necessary to create complex and high-maintenance interfaces between the systems. This costly and time-consuming factor is now eliminated because this functionality is provided by SAP.

  Thus, the previous advantages of a fast project runtime, combined with low project costs, remain. However, the disadvantage of the cost- and maintenance-intensive interface is eliminated.

• Attractively designed interfaces usually suit the personnel developer and do not have to be created individually.

Providing SAP HCM as an on-demand solution incurs hardly any implementation costs - moreover, demand-based billing is a good argument that makes it easier for HR managers to justify the decision to invest to management.

Conclusion

The decision as to whether a company should go down the path of an on-demand solution should always also depend on the current state of technology within the company itself.

If you do not yet have an integrated talent management system in place, or if you decide to implement a new system for other reasons, there are a number of advantages to choosing an on-demand solution.

In some cases, however, the necessary technology for an on-premise talent management system is already available, in that new components are added to the existing system and it is adapted to the new challenges in HR.

Such hybrid solutions allow the advantages of both solutions to be combined, making it easier to get started. The portfolio of SAP talent management software, including the extension with SuccessFactors, opens up to the customer an optimal alignment of employee goals with the corporate strategy through strategic personnel management and thus a fast and high ROI.

Last but not least, when considering an investment in SAP HCM, whether on-demand or on premise, the employee should always be at the forefront. After all, a company's greatest asset is still its bright minds.