The consumerisation of business technology has made access to applications easy and has moved ownership away from IT departments and into individual business units. Chiefmartec.com's 2019 Martech 5000 report found that, in marketing technology alone, business applications grew from just 150 to more than 7,000 since 2011.
In another recent study, Deloitte found that 33% of companies use more than ten individual pieces of HR software. Inevitably, this leads to inefficiencies. Despite how clever each application is in isolation, by adopting different platforms, you create siloes, replacing one long process with many shorter ones and adding zero benefits to the business.
Organisations with an abundance of software should consider application rationalisation to inspect their application portfolio, identifying potential operational efficiency improvements.
The integration challenges
According to IDC, over 80% of executives who responded to a recent survey said most of their problems come from a lack of systems integration - meaning their disparate solutions don't talk to each other. In the same study, 43% of workers said they often have to double enter or rekey information, adding time and effort to the process rather than streamlining it.
We frequently see companies spending time and money moving information from one software to another, investing in the latest, greatest recruitment, HR and payroll software - but failing to consider integration. In the HR industry, controlling the flow of operations across every platform and channel is critical, and there is no easy way to achieve seamless interaction between tools and applications without a consolidated solution.
Using disparate sources across multiple platforms in any workflow presents a lot of risks. Data can be lost in legacy applications if not migrated appropriately. For example, information stored in Excel spreadsheets can be error-prone and excluded from business intelligence and analytics. Therefore, application consolidation projects need to consider legacy systems, the larger business process, and the entire application portfolio.
The solution
The same IDC study revealed executives across 1,500 different sectors and lines of business, including sales, HR, and procurement, estimated that resolving their inefficiency issues would generate 36% increased revenue, 30% lower costs, and a 23% reduction in compliance risks.
The ability to automate core recruitment, HR and payroll has enormous benefits. The earlier companies consolidate, the better equipped they can compete in a fast-moving business environment and become better companies to work for. In very few circumstances, it makes sense to have several applications doing the job of one consolidated solution.
Consolidating HR business tools into a single platform, you can effectively streamline your operation without shifting from one application to the next, inputting the same data repeatedly, or having to check system after system to find the correct information.
.svg)
