Get sorted behind the scenes
By Leslie Faughnan
Strandum is an Irish software company which has specialised in the development of HR and related systems since 2001. It originally worked on employee and manager self-service front-end applications for existing legacy systems, notably SAP and Oracle enterprise systems, and for clients such as AIB Capital Markets and EBS.
“The web front-end is essential for usability and flexibility, but what really counts is the functionality behind the scenes,” said Brendan Carney, managing director of Strandum. “We have developed comprehensive back-office administration systems with MyTeam and MyProfile applications for managers and individuals.”
Strandum sees the whole broad area as human capital management, with specific functionality needed for overall corporate administration and the individual users. The systems are web-based, integrated with each client’s existing systems and IT platforms.
The combination of 24×7 web self-service and automated workflow cut costs in a big way, and ensured a return on investment that could be as much as 100 per cent cost recovery in a year, said Carney.
The challenges were not so much in the technology, Carney said, as the fact that each organisation was different and had specific business rules and procedures. Some might come from the sector, such as the requirement in the financial services sector to monitor employee training and development in line with IFSRA regulation for all staff dealing with consumers.
Other business rules will be based on corporate policy; for example, how much of an employee’s personal information is to be available to a manager using the MyTeam system. “In all of the self-service applications, the client has to decide how much of our functionality is to be delivered to each user or class of user, and how it should conform to internal procedures and rules.”
The overall objectives, Carney said, were to make HR administration as automated and paperless as possible for the business, and to offer easy-to-use and familiar tools for staff needs.
Meanwhile, the Access Group, which includes the award-winning Access Accounts software, has entered the HR market with its acquisition of Select Software and its HR and payroll solutions. Initially, Access Select will be of interest to the current client base of several hundred Access Accounts sites in Ireland. It will offer a high performance web-based set of HR applications that will integrate immediately with their financials.
“This complements our growing portfolio of smart applications for the mid-market,” said Alex Reeves, managing director of Access in Ireland. “There is plenty of choice in the market for business, with 250 or more employees and perhaps €50,000 and more to spend on HR software. But we want to serve enterprises from a few dozen employees up to hundreds with the same quality and functionality.”
Equally important, he said, was that the HR administration functionality could be gained on a pay-as-you-use or rental model, rather than a capital purchase.
“The way employment legislation has been going, across Europe and in these islands, the burden on mid-sized enterprises has become very significant. Very few companies in this range have the resources for a HR manager, let alone a team,” he said.
Access Select would quickly be tailored to the Irish regulatory environment, Reeves said. “The functionality is all there and well proven by a wide range of users. Any adaptation will be more a question of tuning for specific local requirements.”
