August 2011
Welcome to the August edition of iProCon Insight, your leading source of insights for IT and business transformation and interim management.
Today’s issue has a strong focus on Enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS), a topic also taken up on our blog, twitter and facebook pages.
Features (navigation works in browser view only)
- Resources: iProCon associates available for your project
- News: Events and online resources
- Article: Enterprise SaaS solution Workday HCM
- Food for thought: Will SaaS make traditional vendors’ offering more diverse?
- Article: Stakeholder power as a barrier for SaaS transformation
- Article: Cyber security is not purely a technology problem
- Client case study: Global T&E Rollout in 3 months
iProCon associates available for your project
iProCon grows and nurtures a network of excellent associates. Here are just a few currently available for projects:
- Programme manager, with a track record of delivering and rescuing large SAP programmes as well as IT infrastructure projects in various industries including pharmaceutical, transport, and the financial industry.
- SAP trainer with 6 years experience in FI/CO, PS, IM, MM, SEM, and SRM.
- Director level programme manager with a strong background in HRIS and various SaaS solutions. Strong change capabilities, BPO expertise, and experience in optimising IT operations.
- IT/Business relationship manager and IT programme manager with 10+ years of experience. French/English speaking.
- IT helpdesk professional with experience in a wide range of office and IT infrastructure products
If you want to work with one of these associates or want to discuss resource requirements for your project, please get in touch.
iProCon grows and nurtures a network of excellent associates. Here are just a few currently available for projects:- Programme manager, with a track record of delivering and rescuing large SAP programmes as well as IT infrastructure projects in various industries including pharmaceutical, transport, and the financial industry.
- SAP trainer with 6 years experience in FI/CO, PS, IM, MM, SEM, and SRM.
- Director level programme manager with a strong background in HRIS and various SaaS solutions. Strong change capabilities, BPO expertise, and experience in optimising IT operations.
- IT/Business relationship manager and IT programme manager with 10+ years of experience. French/English speaking.
- IT helpdesk professional with experience in a wide range of office and IT infrastructure products
News
- iProCon created a new discussion group for HR Software as a Service (SaaS) on XING to bring together users, decision makers, experts, analysts, and vendors interested in HR SaaS. The group is meant to discuss general questions as well as specific systems like Workday HCM, SuccessFactors or SAP byDesign. Opening this group on XING is one step to bring HR SaaS expertise to the German speaking and Central European countries well represented on this platform. Click here to visit the group. To become a member of the group XING membership is required, which can be obtained at no cost.- iProCon was involved in the Cranfield School of Management Business Technology Conference on 7th July 2011. Senior Partner Kieren Beltrame joined a panel discussion about Cloud Computing and Lee Swonnell discussed career opportunities in the Interim market with MBA students.
- We are now sharing articles an news on our facebook page. Please like the iProCon facebook page to follow the updates.
- The AdManus network including it's largest Member iProCon GmbH host the 7th SAP HCM in Practise event on 9./10. Nov. 2011 in Berlin. As always there will be two days of enlightening sessions (in German language) in 3 streams presented by consultants as well as clients - preceded by special workshops on 8.11. Topics include: Self Service, Workflow, Adobe Forms, T&E best practise, performance management, HR analytics. Click here for the conference programme.Enterprise SaaS solution: Workday HCM
Many clients are currently asking for more information about Software as a Service to remove some fog and get a better view of what’s going on in the cloud. We therefore decided to run a new series of blog articles providing an overview on SaaS solutions as well as tips for managing integration and change around SaaS implementations. The articles will be in no particular order and we are starting with Workday HCM today, only because our team has come across it a lot in projects and discussions recently, so it sat on my mind, when I started writing. So check out our overview on Workday HCM.Will SaaS make traditional ERP solutions more diverse?
When hearing "SaaS", most people think "higher standardisation", and "out of the box solution". Within the constraints of whatever configuration the SaaS solution allows, this is usually right. Multi tenancy usually enforces a common code base and doesn't allow custom development, while making upgrades faster and less painful, and quite often also making the configuration, as far as allowed, more straightforward than in traditional single tenancy ERP solutions. However, the demarcation line between SaaS and "traditional" vendors is blurring. Click here for full article on SaaS solutions based on traditional products and where they might lead to.Stakeholder Power as a Barrier for SaaS transformation
Software as a Service (SaaS) is becoming an important concept for large organisations appealing to CxOs and business users for a variety of reasons. Recent discussions have show that there are quite a few barriers slowing down the adoption of the idea and that it’s not necessarily the right thing for all organisations anyway.We’ve identified one particular barrier, which seems to me to have the potential to slow down SaaS adoption considerably: there are powerful stakeholders, who are loosing out in the process. Many employees, decision makers, and most notably large IT service providers and system integrators have reason not to like SaaS, as it will threaten their jobs and revenues. Read more about stakeholders slowing down SaaS adoption.
Cyber Security: not just a Technology Problem
A recent article in the McKinsey Quarterly gave some interesting insights. "Meeting the cybersecurity challenge" shows that more sophisticated attackers are only one of several reasons for the increased threat. Other reasons are more based on how the nature of the business has evolved with employees expecting flexible access, suppliers and customers being more closely interlinked in supply chain processes, and companies forced to venture out from behind their firewalls to earn their money online.Therefore, the solution of the problem cannot be expected to come from the IT specialists alone. There are business decisions to be made, e.g. classifying data to see, where the most critical information sits and focus the main efforts there.
We also observed that a paradigm shift is required in many organisations to change data security from being perceived as a purely technical problem to a business problem to be addressed on various levels. Many of the recent high profile security disasters were owed to behavioural rather than technical problems. Whilst security technology is to play a key role and needs to be driven forward, we believe awareness of information security needs to become part of the culture of an organisation - and with probably the majority of CxOs giving away passwords to their PAs or others, there is a long way to go...
Client Case Study: Global T&E Rollout in 3 Months
A high tech client aimed at making their T&E processes more efficient and get controls and analytics in place.The project comprised a new travel policy, a new global travel agency, online travel booking and online expense reporting with approval workflows, rollout of credit cards to 50% of the workforce, an outsourced audit service, and tighter controls on providers of travel and accommodation.
The project was successfully delivered based on SaaS products (primarily Concur) within 3 months, followed by a period of optimisation in interfaces and analytics.
Read full T&E case study
As always: hoping to hear your thoughts via contact@iprocon.co.uk
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