SAP on the Cloud

Walking on a level playing field for HR – with end-to-end talent management suites with pre-integration

October 11, 2012 by Sven Denecken

Virtually everyone talks the talk:  “The workforce is our most important asset”.  But how many companies actually walk the talk?  Why is it there always seems to be budget for classical assets like facilities, but HR has to fight an uphill battle just to keep systems up to date?  I believe, it boils down to ROI.  Boards invest where they’re confident of the return.  So how do we improve the link between talent management and workforce productivity?

  (more…)

What’s the price for a talent?

August 23, 2012 by Sven Denecken

In the mid-1990s, Reinhard Sprenger published a book titled “Mythos Motivation” (The Motivation Myth). Sprenger’s analysis of the ways to escape common motivation traps quickly gained popularity and became a bestseller in no time. I’m sure anyone who has worked long enough in the HR space has read this (non-)motivation bible

This simple passage captures the core of what Sprenger was getting at: “People no longer motivate themselves, because they are so used to having someone else to motivate them…A manager’s role should be to simply resolve demotivation roadblocks”.

Sprenger had hit the nail on the head and this breakthrough idea quickly caught on in the 90s.  Though this philosophy proved popular in the 90s, does it hold true in today’s rapidly-changing environment? The work environment is increasingly populated with millennials, and before long, they will dominate the workplace. Never having experienced life without web and mobile access, this new generation of workers will approach work differently, identifying themselves with the work they do, rather than who they do it for.

With their need for mobility, flexibility and freedom in the way they work, would the same idea apply to them?  We believe not.

(more…)

SAP and SuccessFactors – this combination is about acceleration, not consolidation

February 26, 2012 by Sven Denecken

During the multiple briefings and interviews in the last days in preparation and following the product announcement SAP and SuccesFactors Accelerate Unified Product Direction, here are the top / most asked questions and the answers that we would like to share. We hope this helps, especially as we did receive so much positive feedback on being:

-       quick in making decisions

-       open in sharing so our customers and partner do know what we will do

-       proactive in reaching out to the influencers and press with rich content and open for all questions and answers

We do thank you for this feedback, it is very encouraging for this team that worked hard on the topics once we were allowed to share and collaborate more intensively.

This is just the start, as we will communicate more as soon as we have it baked, but we firmly believe it is important to push back on marketing-ish pasturing of evident problems in strategy, product overlap and needed decisions.

After all this acquisition is all about growth and acceleration, not about consolidation. We would like to call this a merger. Our customers and partners will win.

(more…)

The Role of HR in the employee centric era

February 17, 2012 by Sven Denecken

In our previous blog: Talent On Demand? Key drivers to get- and keep best talents engaged we eluded to the idea that cloud vendors wanting to win in the talent management space must build applications from the employee up, not the enterprise down. We outlined the key principles that we believe any vendor should look at when designing applications for employees.

One important piece, which is attached to the employee success, is having an effective talent management process that a company can offer to their employees. HR should, and to some degree already is, transforming their talent management process to better serve employees. Nonetheless, this transformation needs to happen fast.

(more…)

Co-Innovation – Best Practices That Bring On-Demand Solutions to Market More Quickly , or – Innovating a New Product Is Only Half the Battle

February 4, 2012 by Sven Denecken

If you have an urgent business need for an cloud / on-demand solution, see an opportunity for first-mover advantage, or personally want to see a specific app be built, then this Co-Innovation@SAP-Whitepaper is for you. Here you’ll learn how companies like yours partner with SAP to bring their software ideas to life – and benefit by gaining fast access to world-class, cloud/on-demand solutions from SAP.

Are you ready to shape and influence the next cloud solutions from SAP?

You’re invited to the table – because at SAP, it all starts with the voice of the customer. And by participating, you not only get to prioritize functionality and user interfaces but also benefit from high user acceptance, reduced project risk, and access to functionality well ahead of your competition. Innovation happens when creative ideas are transformed into new products, services, or processes and they successfully penetrate the market.

(more…)

Talent On Demand? Key drivers to get- and keep best talents engaged

January 22, 2012 by Sven Denecken

In previous blogs, we discussed that the next generation Talent Management solutions will no longer  be the system of record merely of employee data but also of employee skills and potential. The reason is that employees nowadays, especially millennials, demand applications that are more focused on their career rather than on what their company believes should be their career. They are no longer interested in feeding systems with data; especially systems that do give minimal benefit in return.

In the battle for gaining and retaining the best talents, the challenge for any talent management vendor is to deliver applications that keep employees engaged with their companies and their work. In the end, everyone’s career should be linked with the goals of their company and projects. This is what every company is trying to achieve with their talents: to keep them motivated and loyal.  Talents build the road they want to walk on. So companies must offer opportunities to build that road to the extent their land allows.

Bottom line also the companies will benefit, as not only the motivation will be higher, but also the quality of information, the collaboration spirit and the nurturing of hidden talents are effects that accelerate the performance of the enterprise. Of course this will only work if you are able to connect this new systems of engagement seamlessly with the process oriented system of records. If not, it is just noise on top of the existing work that needs to be done.

So it is all about turning around the priorities: build solution from the employee up, not the enterprise down. The company will benefit more if we do it this way.

Then what are the key principles we need to look when designing solutions that matter?

(more…)

Importance of Co-Innovation to design the next generation of Talent Management applications

January 12, 2012 by Sven Denecken

In our previous blog “Understanding the employee – or in tech speak: the end-user is the currency“, we have talked about the importance if being people centric. With this blog we want to emphasize the importance of co-innovation when designing the next generation of talent management applications.

Image via CrunchBase

Understanding what will be the present and the future of Talent Management and build the next generation of applications in that space, is a combination of SAP experience in the Human Resources market, where SAP has been leader for years, a deep understanding of trends and the competitors landscape and Co-Innovation with SAP customers – a program which is unique in the industry.

Co-Innovation offers the opportunity to expose the design and development of applications, specially the next generation, to customers and partners, where feedback is continuously incorporated whilst those applications are built. The vendor, in this case SAP, becomes a extension of the customer delivering the right product in the right moment, covering the right needs. Next generation solutions tend to be very forward thinking, therefore co-innovation delivers the right amount of innovation that the end user expects, making sure that adoption is not compromised.
(more…)