Once you arrive at a short list of vendors, it is time to see some demonstrations and run some scenarios.
An HRIS is a melting pot of technologies of very different roots and deep vertical knowledge from all areas of an organization. Having all internal experts in the same room for a demonstration will probably end in mass confusion.
There is a good chance the I.S. expert will be satisfied in his field and walk away with the impression that the approach to payroll is too complicated. The paymaster may be pleased, but worried about all the philosophy in HR.
Clerical personnel normally exposed to only a small slice of the HRIS reality may be overwhelmed. And the vice-president of finance may leave the meeting thinking that all these experts are going to cost him too great a fortune.
Experts in each field need to go deeply into the subject, and risk putting their peers to sleep, spreading fear and confusion in the process. Therefore, demonstrations should be broken up by areas of interest.
Splitting the demo into parts will actually save you time and allow for more examination with the same investment.
Give vendors some scenarios your user experts would like to see demonstrated, and give the vendors a certain period of time (two weeks) to come back and show the system in action dealing with real cases extracted from the client’s real life.
No generic system will be able to perfectly meet the needs of a large organization to the last detail. A good system should meet most, and allow the actual running of a payroll based on the scenarios, with explanations of the differences.
This step involves considerable work for the suppliers. But this is not unreasonable considering the high stakes for the client and the value of a good long-term relationship with a new client.
An HRIS is a melting pot of technologies of very different roots and deep vertical knowledge from all areas of an organization. Having all internal experts in the same room for a demonstration will probably end in mass confusion.
There is a good chance the I.S. expert will be satisfied in his field and walk away with the impression that the approach to payroll is too complicated. The paymaster may be pleased, but worried about all the philosophy in HR.
Clerical personnel normally exposed to only a small slice of the HRIS reality may be overwhelmed. And the vice-president of finance may leave the meeting thinking that all these experts are going to cost him too great a fortune.
Experts in each field need to go deeply into the subject, and risk putting their peers to sleep, spreading fear and confusion in the process. Therefore, demonstrations should be broken up by areas of interest.
Splitting the demo into parts will actually save you time and allow for more examination with the same investment.
Give vendors some scenarios your user experts would like to see demonstrated, and give the vendors a certain period of time (two weeks) to come back and show the system in action dealing with real cases extracted from the client’s real life.
No generic system will be able to perfectly meet the needs of a large organization to the last detail. A good system should meet most, and allow the actual running of a payroll based on the scenarios, with explanations of the differences.
This step involves considerable work for the suppliers. But this is not unreasonable considering the high stakes for the client and the value of a good long-term relationship with a new client.
