ERP Area: HR/Human Capital Management
Software:  SAP SuccessFactors
Products Implemented:  HCM (HR Core),Talent Management (Learning, Performance, Succession Planning, Social Collaboration),Recruiting / Onboarding,Compensation
Company Size:  20 – 50k Employees    Industry:  Food & Beverage
Regions in Scope:  Europe, Middle East & Africa
Level of Complexity:  9
Reviewer Role:  Decision Maker

Project(s) in Scope:  Initial deployment (Phase 1)

Systems Expertise  3 out of 5
Implementation Process  1 out of 5
Responsiveness  3 out of 5
Quality of Consultants 3 out of 5
Flexibility / Adaptability 4 out of 5

SPEED & COST
Speed vs. Expectations:  1.5x the time we expected
Cost vs. Expectations: 1.25x cost budgeted

SCOPING ACCURACY:
How well did your implementation partner scope the work and understand your needs during the pre-sales process?
Partner under-quoted the project and we had multiple change orders

Was the implementation team who actually performed the work the same team that was proposed?
Slight change in team

What “Lessons Learned” would you provide to others implementing with this partner / software? What else would you tell us about your project experience?
Implementation partner:
– Our scope was probably something that our implementation partner had never done before, hence the timeline / cost exceeded our expectations.
– The implementation partner staffed some external resources, which led to some challenges in the project execution
– Project management was not up to the expected level, probably partly due to lack of experience on similar scope

SAP
– SAP recommended us to use their brand new HCI (Hana Cloud Integration) technology. We realized during the project that part of the recommended solution was not operational at all.
– SAP had also probably low or no experience of customers implementing so many modules (including Employee Central) at the same time

HR Software:  SAP SuccessFactors
Products Implemented:  Recruiting / Onboarding, Multiposting
Company Size:  0 – 1,000 Employees  /  Industry:  Non-Profit
Regions in Scope:  North America
Level of Complexity:  8
Reviewer Role:  Project Manager

Consultant Recognized:  Laura Hurt
Project(s) in Scope:  Initial deployment (Phase 1)

Systems Expertise  3 out of 5
Implementation Process  3 out of 5
Responsiveness  5 out of 5
Quality of Consultants 3 out of 5
Flexibility / Adaptability 5 out of 5

What “Lessons Learned” would you provide to others implementing with this partner / software? What else would you tell us about your project experience?
Itelligence’s strengths on the project: “Experienced and knowledgeable project manager & recruiting consultant”

HR Software:  SAP SuccessFactors
Products Implemented:  Learning
Company Size:  5 – 10k Employees  /  Industry:  Manufacturing
Regions in Scope:  Asia Pacific & Japan,Europe, Middle East & Africa, Latin America, North America, South Asia
Level of Difficulty: 2
Reviewer Role:  Decision Maker

Project(s) in Scope:  Initial deployment (Phase 1)

Systems Expertise ‎5 out of 5
Implementation Process ‎5 out of 5
Responsiveness ‎5 out of 5
Quality of Consultants ‎5 out of 5
Flexibility / Adaptability ‎5 out of 5

SPEED & COST
Speed vs. Expectations:  Right on schedule!
Cost vs. Expectations: Exactly what we budgeted

SCOPING ACCURACY:
How well did your implementation partner scope the work and understand your needs during the pre-sales process?
Partner scoped and quoted the work well, but our needs changed during implementation

Was the implementation team who actually performed the work the same team that was proposed?
No change

What “Lessons Learned” would you provide to others implementing with this partner / software? What else would you tell us about your project experience?
Itelligence’s strengths were their LMS expertise and a no-nonsense approach to implementation. They listened to what we wanted and needed and delivered an approach that lined up with those needs.

HR Software:  SAP SuccessFactors
Products Implemented: HCM (HR Core), Talent Management (Learning, Performance, Succession Planning, Social Collaboration), Recruiting / Onboarding
Company Size:  10 – 20k Employees  /  Industry:  Manufacturing
Level of Difficulty:  9
Reviewer Role:  Project Leader

Project Status:  My company is currently implementing our project

Project(s) in Scope:  ☑ Initial deployment (Phase 1)  ☑ Add-on deployment (Phase 2, and not in the original SOW)
Most important decision criteria:  Previous experience with partner
Partner NPS Score:   5

Systems Expertise  3 / 5
Implementation Process  2 / 5
Responsiveness  3 / 5
Quality of Consultants 2 / 5
Flexibility / Adaptability 3 / 5

SPEED & COST
Speed vs. Expectations:  1.5 x what we had expected
Cost vs. Expectations: Exactly what we budgeted

SCOPING ACCURACY:
How well did your implementation partner scope the work and understand your needs during the pre-sales process?  Scoping was not done accurately up front

Was the implementation team who actually performed the work the same team that was proposed?  No change

What “Lessons Learned” would you provide to others implementing with this partner / software? What else would you tell us about your project experience?
Itelligence’s strengths were their ability to learn and adapt with us through the project
Lessons Learned: have a true global implementation partner that has resources available in multiple countries. Do more due diligence upfront. Do more process standardization at the beginning of the project.

Live Interview done with CHRO
Industry:  Manufacturing / Industrial Machinery & Components
The Mission

To build a global HR system for 9,500 employees and streamline 40 disparate HR/payroll systems into one.

Countries:  40
Timeline:  24 Months (80% on-time / 100% on-budget)
Employees:  9,500
Successfactors Modules Implemented: Employee Central, Learning, Performance, Goals, Compensation, Recruiting (I/P), Onboarding (I/P)
Implementation Partner:  Itelligence

The end result: 

 “The system is helping us shape culture for our 9,500 employees.  We went from an internally developed appraisal system to one that allows us to define company-level goals (Innovation, Speed), and cascade them to our employees and ensure consistency where there was none prior.  Our system allows us a level of personalization that was not possible before.  Our CEO loves it.”

“Our skillset and value in HR is expanded and we’re becoming more analytical.  Our managers now have the information at their fingertips and don’t need to call HR anymore for data.  Our role now is changing to help turn that data into actionable insight.”

Implementation Lessons Learned: 

(1) A full suite implementation can be like a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle–there are so many pieces to put together.  We knew this was an integrated system, but during implementation it is easy to focus on the individual pieces and get lost.   You need a very clear picture of what the final puzzle is supposed to look like from the beginning and continue to work with that as the guide.  Having a strong system architect from the beginning is absolutely important.

(2) Just because it’s Cloud doesn’t mean no or less IT resources are needed.  When we went into this, we didn’t anticipate IT would need to be as involved as they were.  IT are just as needed as they’ve been in other (on-premise) projects, and in some cases more so with integrations to other systems (like Payroll.)

What did your partner bring to the Engagement?

“I’m not an easy customer, but I’m very loyal and look at our partnership as a long-term relationship.  I gave feedback throughout the engagement and Itelligence listened to me.  When we went through the process and encountered any rough spots, they were willing to go the extra mile to ensure the end result was positive.”

Any other comments?

“Having a resource like Raven Intel would have been superb during our due diligence process 2 years ago.  We didn’t know what we didn’t know when we started this project, and it would have been very helpful to get a clear picture and hear about the experiences of others.  We got lucky in selecting a good partner like Itelligence–but the idea of better project transparency is a win for everyone.  I see there to be tremendous value in this business for Human Resources professionals during their search.”