Hewlett-Packard’s HR initiative connects 88,000 employees in 150 countries
There’s a lot of industry buzz about HR portals as the next big thing, but Hewlett-Packard already has one foot firmly planted in the future.
The technology company’s business-to-employee (b2e) portal — an enterprise-wide portal called @hp — went live late in 2000 as part of an internal transformation aimed at simplification, and is now being offered as a business solution by HP Consulting.
A portal is “a single point of access to Internet resources,” which can simplify information technology requirements and improve access to resources, whether that’s information or transactions, says Bill Dupley, director of strategy and business development for Hewlett-Packard Consulting Canada. “Its primary role, if done well, is to reduce the cycle time of tasks that an employee does, or to eliminate the work altogether.”
A byproduct of the @hp implementation was to slash the work of the human resources department in half. A lot of the tasks are no longer necessary, because the portal eliminated the work and about half the jobs, although the personnel were redeployed, Dupley says.
“Those who remain in HR found the work was much more satisfying, because instead of just being data entry clerks, they were doing HR-related work. They’re doing what they really like to do, which is not data entry.”
HP is known for being on the leading edge of Internet technology. “At one time, our personal internal Internet traffic was equal to one-third of the total global Internet traffic,” he says. That was long before browsers like Netscape offered user-friendly Internet access.
Introduced in October 2000, the HP enterprise-wide portal offers a standardized look and feel to all corporate information, while offering the ability to perform 150 different automated transactions in eight languages to HP’s 88,000 employees in 150 countries, 24 hours a day. The company says it achieved $50 million (U.S.) in savings within six months, equivalent to a six-month return on investment.
HP and its business units had a total of 4,400 Web sites before the portal was created. Now there’s just one. Having 4,400 different looks and feels and navigation and then going to a single one streamlines processes and makes finding information considerably easier, he says.
In addition to eliminating all the different Web sites, HP was able to eliminate literally thousands of servers. A portal also allows consolidation and streamlining of software. In the next two years, HP plans to standardize its software and go from 12,000 applications to 200.
“A portal becomes more and more effective as you start to have commonality across your environment,” Dupley says. What makes a portal work “can be summed up as changes in the governance of your IT,” moving away from the traditional autonomy of individual business units regarding their applications of choice and their Web sites.
Business units are obliged to conform with corporate templates for navigation and appearance. “The content is still yours, but the look and feel is not. I know that doesn’t necessarily sound like a lot, but believe me, it can be a real cultural shift in some companies,” Dupley says.
The biggest hurdle is the same one facing any simplification project, which is that people in different business units have to compromise on what is best for the organization as a whole. The common good takes precedence over the benefit to an individual, says Dupley.
“That saves an enormous amount of money and simplifies the environment dramatically. That’s what HP has done, but most corporations find it extremely difficult to do.”
Many former functions of the HR department “were data entry functions.” E-mails and forms were filled out and sent to HR, where the data, like banking information, address changes, information about dependents or benefits changes, was moved into the HR software, which was only accessible by HR personnel. The portal now provides a point of entry for direct transactions by employees who input the data into the same HR software.
The portal was originally intended to improve HR’s ability to deliver services to employees around the world. There were also cost containment goals, which supported the move to Web-based transactions. Once that functionality began to add up, it was clear that HP was moving toward an enterprise-wide portal, and the decision to do so was made in March 2000. The goal of having it up and running in October was driven by the company’s annual window for open enrolment in health, insurance and benefits plans.
Other administrative transactions range from ordering pencils and paper to setting up a new employee with what she needs. The portal also supports performance management and employee development activities, by offering standardized access to information. “We save a lot of time related to these administrative and HR functions,” Dupley says.
HP Consulting is talking to potential clients about the @hp concept, but it may be ahead of its time. “Even though you show a customer that there are millions of dollars to be gained, they’re looking at what it means to their corporation in terms of commonality of process and commonality of infrastructure. That’s not an easy sell,” Dupley says.
“People are starting to toy with HR portals, but very few are willing to go where HP has gone, to an enterprise-wide portal, because of the cultural changes that are required. They are not trivial,” Dupley says.
Dupley, who is also on the North American knowledge management (KM) committee for HP, says the enterprise-wide portal is a valuable tool to support that competency. He says resistance to KM is often based on the same concerns that are obstacles to enterprise-wide portals, or for that matter, customer relations management systems.
“Knowledge is power,” he says. Sharing and putting the interests of the corporation ahead of those of the individual are difficult cultural challenges.
The technology company’s business-to-employee (b2e) portal — an enterprise-wide portal called @hp — went live late in 2000 as part of an internal transformation aimed at simplification, and is now being offered as a business solution by HP Consulting.
A portal is “a single point of access to Internet resources,” which can simplify information technology requirements and improve access to resources, whether that’s information or transactions, says Bill Dupley, director of strategy and business development for Hewlett-Packard Consulting Canada. “Its primary role, if done well, is to reduce the cycle time of tasks that an employee does, or to eliminate the work altogether.”
A byproduct of the @hp implementation was to slash the work of the human resources department in half. A lot of the tasks are no longer necessary, because the portal eliminated the work and about half the jobs, although the personnel were redeployed, Dupley says.
“Those who remain in HR found the work was much more satisfying, because instead of just being data entry clerks, they were doing HR-related work. They’re doing what they really like to do, which is not data entry.”
HP is known for being on the leading edge of Internet technology. “At one time, our personal internal Internet traffic was equal to one-third of the total global Internet traffic,” he says. That was long before browsers like Netscape offered user-friendly Internet access.
Introduced in October 2000, the HP enterprise-wide portal offers a standardized look and feel to all corporate information, while offering the ability to perform 150 different automated transactions in eight languages to HP’s 88,000 employees in 150 countries, 24 hours a day. The company says it achieved $50 million (U.S.) in savings within six months, equivalent to a six-month return on investment.
HP and its business units had a total of 4,400 Web sites before the portal was created. Now there’s just one. Having 4,400 different looks and feels and navigation and then going to a single one streamlines processes and makes finding information considerably easier, he says.
In addition to eliminating all the different Web sites, HP was able to eliminate literally thousands of servers. A portal also allows consolidation and streamlining of software. In the next two years, HP plans to standardize its software and go from 12,000 applications to 200.
“A portal becomes more and more effective as you start to have commonality across your environment,” Dupley says. What makes a portal work “can be summed up as changes in the governance of your IT,” moving away from the traditional autonomy of individual business units regarding their applications of choice and their Web sites.
Business units are obliged to conform with corporate templates for navigation and appearance. “The content is still yours, but the look and feel is not. I know that doesn’t necessarily sound like a lot, but believe me, it can be a real cultural shift in some companies,” Dupley says.
The biggest hurdle is the same one facing any simplification project, which is that people in different business units have to compromise on what is best for the organization as a whole. The common good takes precedence over the benefit to an individual, says Dupley.
“That saves an enormous amount of money and simplifies the environment dramatically. That’s what HP has done, but most corporations find it extremely difficult to do.”
Many former functions of the HR department “were data entry functions.” E-mails and forms were filled out and sent to HR, where the data, like banking information, address changes, information about dependents or benefits changes, was moved into the HR software, which was only accessible by HR personnel. The portal now provides a point of entry for direct transactions by employees who input the data into the same HR software.
The portal was originally intended to improve HR’s ability to deliver services to employees around the world. There were also cost containment goals, which supported the move to Web-based transactions. Once that functionality began to add up, it was clear that HP was moving toward an enterprise-wide portal, and the decision to do so was made in March 2000. The goal of having it up and running in October was driven by the company’s annual window for open enrolment in health, insurance and benefits plans.
Other administrative transactions range from ordering pencils and paper to setting up a new employee with what she needs. The portal also supports performance management and employee development activities, by offering standardized access to information. “We save a lot of time related to these administrative and HR functions,” Dupley says.
HP Consulting is talking to potential clients about the @hp concept, but it may be ahead of its time. “Even though you show a customer that there are millions of dollars to be gained, they’re looking at what it means to their corporation in terms of commonality of process and commonality of infrastructure. That’s not an easy sell,” Dupley says.
“People are starting to toy with HR portals, but very few are willing to go where HP has gone, to an enterprise-wide portal, because of the cultural changes that are required. They are not trivial,” Dupley says.
Dupley, who is also on the North American knowledge management (KM) committee for HP, says the enterprise-wide portal is a valuable tool to support that competency. He says resistance to KM is often based on the same concerns that are obstacles to enterprise-wide portals, or for that matter, customer relations management systems.
“Knowledge is power,” he says. Sharing and putting the interests of the corporation ahead of those of the individual are difficult cultural challenges.
