5 Top HR Modules for ERP Systems

1. Infor HCM (Human Capital Management): Designed for use with Infor's ERP, Infor HCM is a
Web-enabled offering that brings a variety of capabilities to the table perhaps even more
features than the average business needs. The module has support for multiple languages,
currencies, tax definitions, benefits, security configurations and platforms. It consists of three
basic components:

Resource Management: Features here include benefits

administration, payroll, FSAs (flexible spending accounts) and compensation.

Work-Force Management: This component aims to help HR departments costeffectively handle complex work-force management challenges. It includes scheduling, time
and attendance, absence handling and performance support.

Talent Management: This part of the module provides work-force development

capabilities that are focused on recruitment, learning, employee performance and competency
management. Succession-planning capabilities are also provided.
Verdict: This is a well-rounded, highly capable module that's suitable for just about any
business. Infor HCM takes advantage of Web technology to provide an ERP HR module that can
be instantly updated and easily scaled.
2. Sage Accpac HRMS (Human Resource Management System): As a part of Sage Software
Inc.'s Sage Pro ERP, Sage Accpac HRMS provides support for a variety of HR tasks, including
benefits, training, recruiting and compliance. The module offers a flexible design that lets users
select their own database platform, including SQL or MSDE (Microsoft Desktop Engine).
Sage Accpac HRMS also includes powerful reporting and analysis tools that provide customized
insight on almost any HR issue. Hundreds of standard report templates are included. An
integrated database is designed to feed a steady flow of information to managers and staff.
Verdict: This solution is a good choice that gives users a voice in its design and operation. Its
tailored for midsize manufacturing businesses.
3. SAP ERP HCM: SAP AG's highly regarded ERP offers SAP ERP HCM, a versatile and
extremely scalable HR module. The solution is designed to give companies in virtually all
industries a full selection of HR tools.
The software can automate virtually all fundamental, and most advanced, HR processes,
including employee administration, payroll and reporting. The product supports compliance with
both global and local regulations. Other features include talent management, performance
measurements and real-time insight into just about any HR trend.
Verdict: SAP ERP Human Capital Management sets a goal to which other ERP HR module
vendors can only aspire. On the other hand, the product is overkill for most SMBs (small- to
medium-sized businesses). In any event, it's truly the Rolls-Royce of ERP HR modules.

4. Oracle HRMS: Oracle Corp.'s HRMS is designed to automate practically every HRdepartment function. The company described its mission as, "The complete recruit-to-retire
process." A single integrated data model aims to supply a fast, immediate and accurate view of
HR-related activities, including recruiting, payroll, benefits, performance management, learning,
compensation, time management and real-time analytics.
Oracle's HR product is comparable in many ways to SAP's module in scope and breadth,
although Oracle advocates would claim that their favorite software is more flexible and easier to
use.
Verdict: Oracle HRMS is thorough and highly capable, but not suitable for smaller businesses.
5. Microsoft Axapta Human Resource Management III: Compatible with the Microsoft
Dynamics AX ERP and building on HR support provided by Axapta versions I and II, this
module supplies features that support thecareer development of individual employees a
capability overlooked by many other HR modules.
The software aims to help businesses create professional development plans focused on
employee's goals and skills. Features include a "competence framework" with a development
process that incorporates personal interviews, training curriculums, skills matching, skill-gap
analysis and other components. The software's various processes are collaborative and allow
follow-up from employees and managers to improve dialogue between the two groups.
Verdict: Microsoft Corp. isn't exactly renowned for its innovative application software, but
Microsoft Axapta Human Resource Management III is a pleasing exception to the rule.
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Orange HRM is one of the most powerful of the open source HRM tools. Orange is a flexible,
modular system that can handle all of your human resources needs. If your organization has five
or 5,000 employees, Orange HRM can easily meet your needs. Modules include:

Administration

Leave

Personal Information Management

Time, Employee Self Service

Recruitment/Applicant Tracking

Performance

Audit Trail

Even better, you can visit the Orange Marketplace and purchase tailored modules such as:

Training

Budgets

Enterprise Leave Management

Job and Salary History

Document Management

Advanced Reporting

Insurance Benefits

Orange HRM is actually quite simple to install (over a pre-existing LAMP stack) and has one of
the finest interfaces of all the HRM tools. Orange can be used by associations, freelancers, large
enterprises, midsize business, non-profits, public administrations, small businesses, and more.
Waypoint HR is all about managing information about employees and doing so easily. With an
intuitive five-step wizard, you can quickly have a new employee added and ready to manage.
Waypoint HR features:

Personal details and emergency contact information

Holiday, sickness and absence history

Employment, contract, job and salary details

Discipline and grievance records

Performance appraisal records

Exit interviews and employment termination

Current and historical data

Retain similar information on all employees

Interchangeable screen grid or table view

Company multi-site layering facility

Interchangeable record view

Multi-tier departmental layering facility

Interchangeable employee or department view

Expandable department onscreen view

Create company reports on staff data

Print company and individual employee reports

Export reports to PDF

Instant search facility for employees by name

and much more

Like Orange HRM, Waypoint HR can be quickly set up on an existing LAMP server and can
store unlimited resources.
SimpleHRM is targeted to small and medium enterprise organizations and focuses on ease of use
and pares down the modules to just those necessary to manage human resources. Modules
include:

Employee information management

Leave

Travel

Expense Management

Employee Daily Reporting

Benefits Management

Reports and Statistics

Letter template designer

SimpleHRM is used in over 180 countries and is one of the fastest growing HRM tools on the
market. It doesn't have the power or community as does either Orange HRM or Waypoint HR,
but that doesn't detract from how solid and simple a solution SimpleHRM is for your human
resources department.

Human Resource Management ERP

The Human Resource Module in eresource ERP has a set of rich features and integrates
seamlessly with other module. Eresource ERP HR module offers you wide solutions for HR

department making it possible for other department to access specific employee data. The HR
modules covers all the function required in business practice and is flexible enough to optimize
the business processes by configuring to suit customer's requirement.
Human Resource module streamlines the management of human resources and human capitals. It
comprises of four broad sections, mainly Training, Recruitment, Payroll and Attendance. HR
module in eresource ERP routinely maintains a complete employee database including contact
information, salary details, attendance, performance evaluation and promotion of all employees.
eresource ERP Human resource Management is a suite of integrated solution, designed to
facilitate HR operations by reducing time-intensive administrative tasks and lowering costs by
deploying self-service applications. Eresource ERP solution offers many different sub-systems
under the HR module. Listed below are some of the most common sub systems.

Personnel Management: The personnel management comprises of HR master-data,

personnel administration, recruitment and salary administration.

Organizational Management: Organizational management includes, organizational

structure, staffing schedules & job description.

Payroll System: Salary management, statutory reporting, attendance management for

salary calculation.

Time Management: Time management includes shift planning, time recording, absence
& leave management.

Personal Development: This section comprises of training and event management,

additional training determination and training assessment.

Critical failure factors of ERP

(CASE STUDY)
ERP Software misfit
Due to poor ERP selection and evaluation process, ERP software was found to be ill-fitting with
the business requirements. For example, the ERP was inefficiently managing a high volume of
product master files, and unable to design complicated bills of materials and production planning
formulation). Our research results indicate the ERP system was utilized in a very limited way
due to the problem of misfit. Project teams relied on heavy customization (for example, changing
the system program, or writing many management reports, or conducting data transfer as
workarounds) to solve problems.

High turnover rate of project team members

As project team members suffered from high work stress and tremendous workload when coping
with the implementation, some members resigned from their jobs. This contributed to the
insufficient ERP knowledge and skill transfer among project team members during the ERP
implementation life cycle. In the end, users and project team members had insufficient ERP
knowledge for performing their daily tasks when using the ERP system.

Over-reliance on heavy customization

Due to software mismatch, heavy customization was required in the areas of program
customization and report customization. Customization could cause project delays, overspent
budget and an unreliable system (due to poor quality of customization, unresolved system bugs
and insufficient testing). Customizing the ERP to fit with business processes might lead to
sacrificing "best practices" embedded in the ERP system.

Poor lT Infrastructure
Due to top managements insufficient financial resource provided for the implementation budget,
a low performance IT infrastructure hardware was proposed by the consultants and project
manager so as to reduce the costs of ERP implementation. The poor IT infrastructure contributed
to the slow processing capability of the ERP system.

Poor knowledge transfer

Consultants were found to be inexperienced in the use of the ERP system (as they tried to
practice during training sessions), and they could not deliver professional ERP training to the
users. Their training material and user documentation were found to be too brief and unhelpful
by the users. Project team members mentioned that the knowledge transfer process was
ineffective, and the project team members and project manager could not acquire sufficient
knowledge or skills to use, maintain and support the ERP system.

Unclear Concept of the Nature and Use of the ERP system from the Users
Perspective
Due to the poor quality of training provided by the consultants and insufficient education
delivered by the top management and project team, users were not given a clear idea of the
nature and use of the ERP system. They did not understand the rationale for implementing the
ERP system or the process of implementation. Thus, they were not prepared for the
implementation, and had high resistance to change, which led to political problems, poor quality
of BPR and a resistance to using the system.

Unrealistic expectations from top management concerning the ERP systems

Top management assumed that ERP implementation could provide great solutions without
considering the complexity of the ERP system, the possible implementation process
complications and the associated risks. This gave the whole project team and users unrealistic
expectations. This misconception also led to superficial project planning and an underestimation
of budget and resource allocation, and resulted in a failure of ERP implementation from a project
management perspective.

Too tight project schedule

Top management and the project manager would like to reduce the budget of the ERP project,
and thus they set too tight a project schedule. Implementation activities were conducted in a rush
(e.g., project planning, BPR, training, testing and so on) in order to meet the project deadline.
The project team and users were overloaded and thus they might have had higher resistance to
change. Some users were absent from training as they were too exhausted. It resulted in poor
knowledge transfer.

Users resistance to change

Due to a limited knowledge of formalized business processes and ERP systems, as well as work
overload during the implementation process, users were resistant to change. This contributed to
user resistance to participating in BPR, a lack of use of the ERP system, and poor quality of data
entered into the system.

Poor top management support

Top management is expected to provide support in the areas of committing to the ERP project,
sufficient financial and human resource, and the resolution of political problems if necessary.
Limited financial support contributed to a rushed ERP implementation process, project team
members were overloaded and thus high staff turnover rate, ineffective knowledge transfer, and
political problems occurred. Insufficient commitment could lead to political problems which
hindered the implementation process (causing poor BPR, widespread user resistance to change
and low user satisfaction).

Poor quality of testing

Due to the over-tight project schedule and insufficient knowledge in testing ERP systems, it was
conducted in a rush and was of low quality. It was agreed by the project team that the ERP
testing result was an indicator for revealing the readiness of the ERP system to go live (From
the perspectives of examining IT infrastructure capacity, correct configuration of ERP system,
people (including users and project team) were equipped with sufficient knowledge and skills,
and data was of good quality). They mentioned that they should not expect that all problems
could be resolved after the systems goes live, as problems had become more complicated than
they had predicted. They pointed out that workload of project team members and users had
increased tremendously in order to fix the problems and cope with daily operations.

ERP implementation failure

In spite all the benefits implementing ERP is a risky undertaking. The truth is that due to the
behavioral and management related challenges in the implementation process many ERP projects
have been terminated. The reasons being: end-user not being ready, resistance to change, lack of
user education and training, high turnover of key personnel, lack of communication and support
documentation, the layer of consultants in addition to pure technological problems such as
software bugs and configuration difficulties (Kumar et al 2003; Sumner 2000). In summary,
several studies agree that the biggest obstacles are people, organizational issues and change
management (Chen 2001; Gulla and Brasethvik 2000; Kumar et al 2003; Markus et al 2000).
Moreover, people challenges are considered to be more difficult to manage than the technical
problems (Kumar et al 2003; Skok and Legge 2001; Aladwani 2001).
In addition, ERP implementation usually requires an extensive level of BPR, which means
redesigning existing business processes in way that they are the best supported by the system.
The change BPR requires produces resistance from the employees side as they see it as a threat
to their job security. Many researchers (Evans 1994; Zucchi & Edwards 1999: Marjanovic 2002)
state that the major reason for failure of BPR is the lack of attention towards the human issues.
Olson (2004) lists the foremost reasons of BPR failure from Sutcliffes (1999) study:
Employee resistance to change
Inadequate attention to employee concerns
Inadequate and appropriate staffing
Inadequate developer and user tools
Mismatch of strategies used and goals
Lack of oversight
Failure of leadership commitment