Background:

Technological advances in every sphere of life today have brought us to Industry 4.0, the Industrial Revolution driven by technology. To achieve our corporate vision to be a Globally Admired Energy Company, we at Indian Oil are adopting the latest and most impactful technological interventions in every business vertical.

Human Resource is the most important asset that we have. The 33000+ on roll workforce and over 3 Lakh stakeholders and channel partners, Human Capital at Indian Oil is rich and ready to take this great organization to newer heights.

Technological advancements in the field of HR therefore are as important as any other business vertical because HR is now a business partner. Traditional HR and people management is now completely transformed globally to a digitally assisted new age HR, which delivers services to its customers with speed, ease of use and partners business in keeping the people agile and adaptive.

HR is evolving into a more technology-based profession because we need to:

• Streamline HR processes and reduce administrative burdens.

• Reduce HR administration and compliance costs.

• Improve service and access to data for employees and leadership roles.

• Provide real-time data to allow HR Business Leaders to manage the workforce more effectively.

• Enable HR to transform so it can play a more strategic role in the business.

However, adopting modern technology is a very important decision that the HR Leadership has to take, as there are numerous solutions which are available, it is important to know some basic concepts of HR Technology while evaluating proposed solutions to take a very informed decision so that the Return on Investment (ROI) is fast and accurate

What is HRIS / HRMS:

The first concept that comes in every discussion of HR Technology is about what HRIS / HRMS is the Corporation using? Then what is HRIS/HRMS?

HRIS (Human Resource Information System) / HRMS (Human Resource Management System) is a software solution that maintains, manages, and processes detailed employee information and human resources-related policies and procedures. As an interactive system of information management, the HRIS standardizes human resources (HR) tasks and processes while facilitating accurate record keeping and reporting. —Oracle

Essentially HRIS means the technology platform on which the Human Resources Data is being maintained in the system, and for Indian Oil, our HRIS is SAP HCM (ERP), which is considered the mother data for all other related and connected HR Tech solutions.

Decision on going for an HRIS must therefore be very well thought of, as the investment is large and it becomes the foundation to adopting digital solutions for each process area, a large organization like Indian Oil has successfully implemented SAP HCM, however a small company with 1000+ workforce may find SAP HCM to be to cost heavy for their requirements.

Integrated or Best of Breed:

Once the decision on the HRIS is made by an organization, the immediate next question that comes to the HR Strategy team is whether to go for an Integrated Solution or “Best of Breed” approach

Integrated: As the name suggests integrated means one, that is a single platform or software that will cater to every HR Process Area. These are enterprise solutions and will have work areas from staffing, compensation management, employee services, compliances etc. all under one umbrella approach. Integrated HR Solutions typically have the following features:

1. A single interface to login for any HR Process Area

2. A single vendor which provides the complete solution

3. Very close integration among HR Verticals

Best of Breed: Best of Breed, popularly known as Bob is when an organization decides to bring the best applications in each HR Process Area as a solution. In this approach, an organization may work with one or more vendors to supply technology solutions. BoB typically have these common features

1. Unique applications for each process Area

2. Multiple vendors, typically the market leaders in their respective domain

3. All applications will take base data from the HRIS system

In Indian Oil we have gone with BoB , to bring the best solutions available in each of HR Process Area like elm’s, LMS (Swadhyaya), ESS, SBT (Quest2 Travel) etc