A large Australian government organisation recognised significant challenges arising from its use of multiple disparate, aging systems for human resource (HR) management. Its existing systems relied on multiple vendors and support teams, offering a reduced level of support across each system. The unrelated nature of these systems meant the potential value of combining data from multiple applications was also lost. The solutions were no longer fit-for-purpose, nor aligned with current technology direction.
The organisation also recognised a need to provide self-service access to important personnel information. Managing its growing workforce amidst digital transformation without modern and user centric HR management systems was becoming increasingly difficult. The government body sought a solution that standardised and automated HR service delivery while improving HR transactional and business processes, engaging employees, supporting workforce productivity and providing an intuitive and simple user experience.
“With cloud solutions, we’re seeing a new generation of continuous innovation. We offer a unique solution for our customers where proactive support is provided in the form of regression testing against all current capability, and training / webinars as required.”
Vincent Gray GM Customer Services, DXC Practice for Oracle
The solution
As part of its digital transformation and alignment of people with the business strategy, the organisation recognised existing systems were unsuitable for employees. With no self-service capability, the existing HR system did not provide the openness and transparency the business sought.
Following a competitive evaluation process, Oracle® Human Capital Management Cloud (Oracle HCM Cloud) was chosen to support its changing business requirements, with DXC Technology selected to deliver the integrated HR platform to replace the organisation’s current disparate landscape of solutions.
As an Oracle Platinum Partner, Cloud Premier Partner and Cloud Managed Service Provider, and the largest independent provider of Oracle consulting and managed services in Australia and New Zealand, DXC’s Practice for Oracle has the necessary skills and expertise to build, deploy, run and manage both Oracle and non-Oracle workloads on Oracle Cloud Platform.
Combining best-practice approaches using Oracle HCM Cloud, Taleo Cloud, Goals and Performance Management, and Compensation Management, integrated with Aurion Payroll and Microsoft Identity Manager, DXC was able to deliver an engaging and intuitive employee experience. Employees can now check leave; access payslips, remuneration and compensation information; evaluate learning and development opportunities; and assess opportunities for growth from a single interface.
Approach
DXC led the government organisation on a digital workforce transformation from its disparate landscape of systems to a single employee experience across all HR systems. Since many of its existing work processes needed to change, DXC also led the significant cultural transformation, ensuring complete understanding and buy-in from relevant stakeholders.
Vincent Gray, GM Customer Services for DXC’s Practice for Oracle, explained the organisation’s ultimate goal was a unified employee experience: ”Through our rigorous change management approach, we were able to negotiate the substantial stakeholder engagement necessary to achieve that. We made sure the relevant resources from people, culture, talent, HR, payroll and administration were engaged through the project lifecycle and prepared for what was coming. We also ensured they fully understood the potential future benefits the new system would provide.”
Since this was the government body’s first major cloud implementation, following a proven methodology tailored to suit the specific requirements of this deployment was key.
DXC followed the clearly defined Cloud First strategy based on the standard Oracle Unified Method implementation methodology. Gray continued, “Focusing on the entire lifecycle of adopting Oracle Cloud, from planning and assessment, to implementation, to continual improvement, our specialists assessed the organisation’s move, considering design, change management, enterprise architecture and ROI. Drawing on previous experience with HCM deployments worldwide, we were able to tailor our delivery method so that the organisation achieved the expected outcomes in a measured, efficient and timely manner. This largely focused on change management and comprehensive user training to ensure broad acceptance and uptake from within the business.”
As a government body, the organisation’s requirement for security and information privacy is paramount. DXC implemented solutions covering recruitment, performance management, learning and development, and compensation management, integrated with existing payroll and other Human Resource Information System (HRIS) systems — all provided as a single sign-on self-service model. Part of that process involved ensuring secure transmission and storage of highly confidential data and ensuring everything was auditable against policy.
“We made sure the relevant resources from people, culture, talent, HR, payroll and administration were engaged through the project lifecycle and prepared for what was coming. We also ensured they fully understood the potential future benefits the new system would provide.”
Vincent Gray GM Customer Services, DXC Practice for Oracle
Challenges
Primary challenges involved stakeholder preparedness for, and acceptance of, change; the project’s broad organisational impact; complex integration of multiple disparate systems; and the sensitivity of data involved.
Since the solution affected the entire employee population, a large part of DXC’s role was to adequately prepare for transition and support the team with enhanced change management and training. This included comprehensive user guides, train the trainer sessions, and a guided learning path on the Oracle product that was customised to the organisation’s needs.
With multiple work areas involved across the organisation, and heavy engagement necessary throughout the project are DXC dedicated a stream lead for each product area, who took responsibility for the net change requirement and shifting the client’s focus to owning the required future state.
“Having Oracle HCM Cloud provides more opportunity for people related data analytics and increased engagement by managers and staff in HR processes, and enables employees to focus on their employee experience, not system inadequacies. And DXC has been a trusted partner, guiding us on the journey to Cloud and a digital workplace.”
Chief Information Officer, Australian Government Body
Results
Since going live, the project has been considered a huge success, with the solution providing employees around Australia with self-service access to everything regarding their employment. The single solution has empowered the organisation’s employees, engaging them in their own career journey and increasing productivity, while aligning common HR processes and promoting a culture of compliance. The security implemented minimises exposure of personal data, with the data-driven features helping HR professionals and employees hire, work, engage and adapt in smarter ways.
Delivery using a flexible and continuous delivery cycle means other capabilities can, and will, be enabled quickly and efficiently as required. The complexity of the integration, strict government security policies, business processes and HCM/Taleo customisations were effectively managed and delivered by DXC consultants, who were commended by the organisation for their knowledge and efforts.
The organisation’s CIO, said, “We have confidence that our HR platform will continually evolve, implements global best practice and remains contemporary. There is minimal IT effort required in system upgrades, patching, security updates and system maintenance. Having Oracle HCM Cloud provides more opportunity for people related data analytics and increased engagement by managers and staff in HR processes, and enables employees to focus on their employee experience, not system inadequacies. And DXC has been a trusted partner, guiding us on the journey to Cloud and a digital workplace.”
“Drawing on previous experience with HCM deployments worldwide, we were able to tailor our delivery method so that the organisation achieved the expected outcomes in a measured, efficient and timely manner. This largely focused on change management and comprehensive user training to ensure broad acceptance and uptake from within the business.”
Vincent Gray GM Customer Services, DXC Practice for Oracle
The future
Leveraging a unique, continuous delivery framework, DXC was subsequently engaged to provide ongoing managed services and drive continuous innovation, including management of Oracle’s quarterly patch and upgrade releases, with full regression testing and analysis.
DXC also provides 24/7 technical and functional support, providing the day to day liaison and interaction with Oracle, so the organisation deals with only one resource to ensure fast and efficient issue resolution.
Gray said, “With cloud solutions, we’re seeing a new generation of continuous, innovation. We offer a unique solution for our customers, where proactive support is provided in the form of regression testing against all current capability, and training/webinars, are provided as required. We fully manage the integrated systems and provide potential technical issue analysis and functional uplift recommendations where necessary. This has proven invaluable to this government body following the successful solution implementation — and will continue to be an important driver of success moving forward.”