Many organisations see HR system upgrades as an opportunity to adapt the way they work, using the transition to streamline their internal processes, increase the level of automation and reduce their administrative overhead. But upgrading is also a useful time to ask more fundamental questions about the way you run your IT function – and in particular, to weigh up the option of moving to outsourced services.

This was the route taken by Livability, a charity focused on bringing opportunities to disabled people, which was formed by the recent merger of two not-for-profit organisations, the Shaftesbury Society and John Grooms. Prior to the merger, Shaftesbury had been using Computers in Personnel’s Compel for Windows system for almost a decade, and in early 2006 was looking for a replacement. In particular, says HR manager Debbie Kiberd, it was looking for simplicity, primarily in the shape of a system that would need minimal change.

The Compel for Windows system had been heavily customised when it was first installed in 1997 to cater for the specialist nature of Shaftesbury’s work and its diverse employee base, which combines case workers, occupational therapists, lecturers and teachers. But heavy customisation tends to make future upgrades complicated, since custom changes have to be carried forward into any new version of the software, and as a result, the charity had chosen to carry out only essential upgrades to the core system. That meant it had missed out on multiple new features and functionality released in the years following its initial implementation.

After looking at all the options, Shaftesbury decided to extend its existing relationship with Computers in Personnel and upgrade to its Ciphr system. As well as the breadth of functionality available in a more modern system, Kiberd was interested in rolling out Ciphr Net, Computers in Personnel’s self-service system, which allows managers and employees to access and update data in the HR system. But it was also interested in changing the way it used the software, abandoning the traditional approach of buying software and running it in-house in favour of a hosted services set-up.

Fast emerging as a standard form of service delivery in HR, hosted services – sometimes known as ‘software as a service’ – is a form of IT outsourcing where the supplier runs the software on its own systems and users simply access it over the internet, a set-up that minimises the need for in-house IT infrastructure investment. While some customers are initially nervous about a shift to a hosted model, Kiberd says the business case for making the move was compelling for the charity, and included:

• Greater system uptime. “We would know for sure that we would always have access to the system,” says Kiberd. “Our [in-house] IT service sometimes wasn’t as good as you’d like it to be.”
• Improved support. Kiberd argues that because the service provider runs and maintains the system for Livability, it’s easier for it to log in and analyse any problems
• Reduced IT and data management overhead. Maintaining data accuracy in a relatively complex 1700-employee environment is time-consuming in its own right, so offloading tasks such as system maintenance removes part of the overall workload

Computers in Personnel managed the transition to Ciphr, carrying out preparation work for several weeks prior to taking control of Shaftebury’s existing system to do a five-day data migration. It also made some minor customisations to meet Livability’s specialist needs, such as managing term-time teacher pay, and has built direct integration links with the charity’s payroll system.

Additional system development work was temporarily put on hold when the merger with John Grooms took place, and the decision was subsequently taken to consolidate the newly-named Livability’s HR systems on Ciphr. For Kiberd’s team, this has presented another set of challenges. John Grooms used a payroll application with limited HR functionality, and a lot of information – including basic data such as job titles and salary levels – has had to be cleaned up.

With the data cleansing operation nearing completion, however, Livability now plans to push ahead with its original system plans. It will go live with the payroll integration in September, and then expects to roll out manager self-service on a pilot basis in schools and colleges through Ciphr Net, allowing managers to see all relevant information about their employees such as salaries and training details. Once a level of comfort has been established, it will extend the rollout to employees, who will be able to access and change data such as their home address and bank details, as well as see their basic salary details.

Now back on track with the system rollout, Kiberd is also starting to look to the long-term, where self-service capability could be further extended to allow managers to carry out a range of additional tasks such as booking employees onto courses.