| HR professionals are becoming more and more | | | | requirements and functions, such delays hamper the |
| familiar with modern software applications and | | | | ability of employers to manage their human capital |
| solutions that streamline workforce management. | | | | effectively. It also makes it difficult to fully comply with |
| However, the underlying hardware/software structure | | | | government regulations. Having the ability to install and |
| that houses and administers these functions is not | | | | integrate off-the-shelf products with minimal |
| something HR professionals generally think about. | | | | complications is critical. This is where open system |
| That’s not surprising. | | | | architectures like the Microsoft.Net come into play. |
| Until fairly recently, companies had limited infrastructure | | | | The .Net Revolution |
| choices. Centralized mainframes run by industry giants | | | | With the decentralization, breadth of functionality, |
| like IBM were the only viable option for reliably handling | | | | reliability, and scalability provided by the .Net platform, |
| complex processes involving massive volumes of | | | | employers can choose to stop paying exorbitant |
| data. As with any case of severely restricted | | | | support costs associated with proprietary platforms. |
| competition, these companies have charged whatever | | | | Today’s distributed .Net infrastructure now has the |
| the market will bear in terms of license, service, and | | | | capacity (and scalability) to handle the same data |
| maintenance fees for access to their proprietary | | | | volume, batch processes, and complex functions as a |
| systems. | | | | mainframe. |
| Since no sizeable corporation can afford to forgo | | | | Is it safe to decentralize critical business applications in |
| access to such services, employers have (until now) | | | | this way? Most companies are already doing this with |
| paid whatever price demanded by these few | | | | many of their HR functions from payroll to benefits |
| providers. Unfortunately, this has often limited the | | | | management. What about outsourcing HR functionality |
| amount of capital available for upgrading HR systems | | | | (infrastructure and/or applications) to a .Net |
| and processes to make them more efficient and user | | | | infrastructure service provider, or even the |
| friendly. Instead, a significant ongoing investment was | | | | “cloud”? Today’s shift toward SaaS |
| required to simply maintain existing capabilities. | | | | (Software as a Service) applications clearly |
| Additional Drawbacks of Traditional Mainframes | | | | demonstrates that enterprises are comfortable with |
| There are a number of problems posed by legacy | | | | this type of partnership. |
| mainframes. These are custom systems that have | | | | Reliability, security, trouble free maintenance/upgrades, |
| become increasingly complex and unwieldy over time. | | | | and lack of down time are all of paramount |
| The underlying structure has been built upon and | | | | importance to providers that offer these alternative |
| modified over many years. The original programmers | | | | servers. They have to be in order to compete with |
| are now in retirement or even long since deceased. | | | | mainframe companies. Their track record so far is |
| Now, even expert IT developers can no longer fully | | | | impressive. |
| comprehend how these systems work. Attempting to | | | | Can HR Make The Switch? |
| make modifications under these circumstances is a | | | | Migrating from a legacy mainframe to a .Net platform |
| task fraught with the potential for disaster. Mainframes | | | | doesn’t have to occur all at once across an entire |
| also frequently use obsolete coding languages that are | | | | corporation. Human Resources applications can be |
| not platform-neutral and cannot be easily interfaced | | | | switched over in a series of separate modules if |
| with more modern software. | | | | necessary. Certain functionality can be migrated or |
| In addition, today’s SOA (Service-Oriented | | | | translated, while other functionality might be replaced |
| Architecture) software models tend to loosely couple | | | | with newer off-the-shelf applications that didn’t |
| data and processing functions rather than building them | | | | exist more than a few years ago. This means HR |
| together as a single unified feature. This allows greater | | | | executives don’t have to wait for IT to decide that |
| flexibility, extensibility, and compatibility across multiple | | | | it is time to make a single, monolithic migration. They |
| applications. Traditional mainframes are not designed | | | | simply need to make the case for transitioning their |
| using this concept, so integrating new software into a | | | | own departmental processes as business needs and |
| legacy system requires many additional steps. | | | | efficiency dictate. |
| How This Impacts HR | | | | However, having an understanding of the potential ROI |
| Because of these complications, requesting IT to | | | | for a full migration doesn’t hurt. The costs |
| create a custom HR workflow application in-house is | | | | associated with implementing and maintaining a .Net |
| usually met with great resistance. Often, it can take | | | | infrastructure are a tiny fraction of that required for |
| months for even a simple change to be put into effect | | | | traditional mainframes. The more completely a |
| if it involves any programming modifications with code | | | | company reduces its reliance on legacy systems, the |
| running on the mainframe. | | | | greater the savings. |
| With the increasingly rapid changes to HR | | | | |