Article -1 HUMAN RESOURCES SOFTWARE HISTORY AND EVOLUTION

Human Resource management can be traced back to prehistoric times, when tribal members were given specific jobs of hunting or gathering. The households of ancient Chinese emperors had employment tests to identify servants with special talents for special jobs. Then there were the apprentice system and artisan guilds, formed to train new workers. In more modern times, the discipline of human resource management (HRM) has become a sophisticated science with theories, experiments and studies that seek to help managers and organizations recruit, retain, and maximize staff productivity. In the 1960s and 1970s, large companies felt a need to centralize their personnel data in large part to facilitate record keeping and meet regulatory needs. Programs were written on large mainframe computers that acted as a central data repository with little transactional processing, usually only for payroll. The Human Resource Information System (HRIS) became prevalent in the 1980s with the popularity of Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) applications and the move from mainframe systems to client server technology. This trend was based on a new school of thinking, one that saw the transformation of transactions into business processes and data into information. HR information can empower companies with intelligence enabling management to make timelier and more informed decisions. All the tier One ERP software vendors such as Oracle, PeopleSoft, and SAP included some flavour of human resource management in their suite of applications providing their users with a single, holistic view of their workforce. At the same time, the 1980s saw a shortage in skilled workers, especially in the technology sector. Human Resource Management had long evolved from the basis of a skills management discipline to more of an employee satisfaction and productivity tool. However, by the 1980s, HRIS systems now included a host of feature sets and functional capabilities aimed at attracting, retaining and properly compensating the workforce. By 2000, the human resource software industry saw HRIS grow to include recruitment, benefits management, time management, payroll, compensation management, learning management, expense reporting and reimbursements, and performance management. Selfservice applications built on top of the underlining data empowered employees to manage their own data and make timely changes. Online employee portals further consolidated disparate systems, documents and information into one place. As computer hardware prices fell and computing power simultaneously grew, more and more companies were able to afford enterprise software systems and vendors saw a market for standalone HRIS software. Data connectors and application programming interfaces empowered customers with HR systems that need not be delivered with their financial accounting software. They now have an a la carte option and can leverage a higher fit system that better fulfils their HRIS needs and can integrate information such as payroll and headcount to their financial system. Vendors such as Sage Software and Ultimate Software saw a niche in the midmarket sector for their HRIS offerings. However, Software as a Service (SaaS) found significant adoption in a downsizing economy. Companies can now have all the advantages of an HRIS that fits their specific needs and requirements, integrate relevant information with their financial applications, massage the data with a business intelligence (BI) reporting suite and make management decisions based on facts, figures and trends. And they need not incur the burden or cost of managing the hardware or software environment themselves. Not to be left behind, the Tier One ERP software vendors follow the pack by providing their ERP solutions, packaged with HRIS, as a SaaS option. This offering usually benefits small to midsized companies. However, organizations looking for a SaaS option for their HRIS will have a host of choices. The future of HRIS lies in SaaS and cloud computing. However, as more and more companies outsource their HR departments functionalities, outsourcing organizations such as Randstad and ADP are adding technology to their menus. HR outsourcing services such as TriNet and Achilles Group all offer HRIS tools and solutions for their clients. As the human resources outsourcing market is

predicted by Gartner to reach $1.102 billion worldwide by 2012, outsource companies will provide the majority of HRIS processes and management. The immediate future of HRIS is a marriage between outsourced functions and outsourced technology. After that, the pendulum could swing either direction further, whereby all workers are outsourced, not just in HR; or it could swing the other way, where organizations take back control of their workforce, workforce management but probably not the technology. Source - http://www.erp.asia.asp

Article 2 The Evolution of HRIS

Rapid retirement rates, a shrinking pool of talent and more transience among workers are just some of the factors that have HR shops struggling to make the most of traditional HR silos. In the face of these changes, the more progressive HR departments are now hustling to convince upper management that HR needs a seat at the technology planning table and deserves a stake in the ERP and CRM decisionmaking process. In response to fundamental changes on the HR landscape, larger ERP and CRM vendors are doing more to accommodate HR applications, paying special attention to the HR needs of larger corporate clients. Meanwhile, numerous industry players are offering more options to smaller HR shops . Large or small, HR departments are just waking up to the seriousness of the "war for talent and the simultaneous brain drain both of which have triggered new challenges for HR offices, observed Kevin Oakes, CEO of i4cp (Institute for Corporate Productivity) Inc., a Seattle-based private organization that strives to offer a peer community and research to its member corporations. As the CEO and other senior executives embrace the importance of human capital in their quest to achieve the organizations strategic goals, the very need for existing HR silos is being called into question," Oakes said. "Its clear that the recruiting function needs to work more cooperatively with the performance-management function." Executives at business intelligence and performance-management vendor SAS Institute Inc . agree that enterprises are now rushing to include HR systems in broader IT efforts. What HR is looking for today is a single, holistic or organization wide view of their work force, said Becca Goren, product marketing manager of SAS Institute's Performance Management and Human Capital Management Division. SAS Institute's answer is the companys Human Capital Management solution, an analytical tool designed to detect employment patterns and understand the way talent is tied to the mission of corporations. The software integrates work-force and third-party data to help HR departments gain a comprehensive work force view, Goren added. The need for a more complete view of how HR functions blend into the bigger picture has more enterprises looking to integrate these applications into larger IT efforts, such as the purchase of a new CRM or ERP system, agreed Tim Padva, president and co-founder of CheckPoint HR , an Edison, N.J.-based outsourcer of HR, payroll and other administrative services. HR functions such as benefits administration, payroll service, recruiting, HR administration, training and organizational developments are all functions that can and should utilize CRM systems," Pavda attested. "While some may argue that the return on investment for these capabilities is difficult to track, the benefit of a more productive, responsive and knowledgeable HR department is clear.

From stalwart ERP vendors such as SAS Institute, to new-breed SaaS (software-as-a-service) companies including CheckPoint HR, HR departments now have a variety of options. For instance, Coghead, based in Redwood City, Calif., offers Business Essentials, a bundled solution that includes a recruiting-manager application with human-asset tracking capabilities and an HR application that helps automate employee provisioning. Sage Software aims its Accpac HRMS solution at midsize businesses looking for applications to reside on database platforms, such as Microsofts SQL Server or MSDE (Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine). Accpac wraps in Crystal Report Writer templates and other features designed to improve workflow and records management as well as the ability to convert routine tasks into employee self-service functions. To reach the increasing needs of midsize corporate HR offices, Microsoft pushes its Dynamics GP business-management software. Dynamics GP is designed to let HR departments better manage personnel-related tasks, such as benefits programs, payroll and HR business-analytics tasks. Meanwhile, Oracle Corp . bills its E-Business Suite Human Resources Management System as a recruit-to-retire application that gives HR departments immediate snapshots of traditional activities, as well as the ability to turn these snapshots into strategic analytics. Oracles HR suite plugs into the database behemoths trademark products, including Oracle Financials and Oracle Projects. In its most recent release version 12 Oracles E-Business HR application includes enhancements such as better interfaces that let managers more effectively track employee absences, salary- administration tasks and other key HR functions. Now that there are abundant new and varied options on the market, HR officials are wise to tread carefully when making IT-related decisions. In general, HR departments are not particularly adept at the elements that go into selecting technology platforms decision that involve sourcing, negotiating and implementing sometimes complex platforms, observed i4cps Oakes. Therefore, HR departments should strive for closer internal teaming opportunities when it comes to making purchasing decisions, HR departments really should not be expected to have these competencies. Partnering ahead of time with IT and purchasing departments is critical to ensuring that not only is the right platform selected, but also the terms are favorable and the implementation is ultimately successful, Oakes advised. Source - http://www.focus.com

Article 3 Historical Evolution of HRM and HRIS

One can analyze the historical trends of the HR function from different viewpoints: the evolution of HRM as a professional and scientific discipline, as an aid to management, as a political and economic conflict between management and employees, and as a growing movement of employee involvement influenced by developments in industrial/organizational and social psychology. This historical analysis will demonstrate the growing importance of employees from being just one of the means of production in the 20th-century industrial economy to being a key source of sustainable competitive advantage in the 21st-century knowledge economy. Since this is a book on HRIS, we will examine the development of the fields of both HR and IT in terms of their evolution since the early 20th century. This means examining the evolution of HRM intertwined with developments in IT and describing

how IT has played an increasing role in the HRM function. In addition, this historical analysis will show how the role of HRM in the firm has changed over time from primarily being concerned with routine transactional HR activities to dealing with complex transformational ones. Transactional activities are the routine bookkeeping tasksfor example, changing an employees home address or health care provider whereas transformational activities are those actions of an organization that add value to the consumption of the firms product or service. An example of a transformational HR activity would be a training program for retail clerks to improve customer service behavior. Thus, transformational activities increase the strategic importance and visibility of the HR function in the firm. This general change over time is illustrated in Figure 1.1 and will become evident as we trace the historical evolution of HRM in terms of five broad phases of the historical development of industry in the United States INTRODUCTION TO HRM AND HRIS PreWorldWar II In the early 20th century and prior to World War II, the personnel function (the precursor of the term human resource management) was primarily involved in record keeping of employee information; in other words, it fulfilled a caretaker function. During this period of time, the prevailing management philosophy was called scientific management. The central thrust of scientific management was to maximize employee productivity. It was thought that there was one best way to do any work, and this best way was determined through time and motion studies that determined the most efficient use of human capabilities in the production process. Then, the work could be divided into pieces, and the number of tasks to be completed by a worker during an average workday could be computed. These findings formed the basis of piece-rate pay systems, which were seen as the most efficient way to motivate employees. At this point in history, there were very few government influences in employment relations, and thus, employment terms, practices, and conditions were left to the owners of the firm. As a result, employee abuses such as child labour and unsafe working conditions were common. Some employers set up labour welfare and administration departments to look after the interests of workers by maintaining records on health and safety as well as recording hours worked and payroll. It is interesting to note that record keeping is one of the major functions built into the design of an HRIS today; however, there was simply no computer technology to automate the records at this time in history. Of course, paper records were kept, and we can still see paper record HR systems in many smaller firms today.

Early 20th Century 21st Century Due to the need for classification of large numbers of individuals in military service during the war, systematic efforts began to classify workers around occupational categories in order to improve recruitment and selection procedures. The central aspect of these classification systems was the job description, which listed the tasks, duties, and responsibilities of any individual who held the job in question. These job description classification systems could also be used to design appropriate compensation programs, evaluate individual employee performance, and provide a basis for termination. Because of the abusive worker practices prior to the War, employees started forming trade unions, which played an important role in bargaining for better employment terms and conditions. There were a significant number of employment laws enacted that allowed the establishment of labor unions and defined their scope in relationship with management. Thus, personnel departments had to assume considerably more record keeping and reporting to governmental agencies. Because of these trends, the personnel department had to establish specialist divisions, such as recruitment, labor relations, training and benefits, and government relations. With its changing and expanding role, personnel departments started keeping

increasing numbers and types of employee records, and computer technology began to emerge as a possible way to store and retrieve employee information. In some cases in the defense industry, job analysis and classification data were inputted into computers to better understand, plan, and use employee skills against needs. For example, the U.S. Air Force conducted a thorough and systematic job analysis and classification through its Air Force Human Resources Laboratory (AFHRL), which resulted in a comprehensive occupational structure. The AFHRL collected data from thousands of airmen in jobs within the Air Force, and through the use of a computer software program called the Comprehensive Occupational Data Analysis Program (CODAP), it was able to more accurately establish a job description classification system for Air Force jobs. Personnel departments outside the defense industry were not using computers at this time. Computers were being used for billing and inventory control, and there was very little use in the personnel function except for payroll. The payroll function was the first to be automated. Large firms began harvesting the benefits of new computer technology to keep track of employee compensation, but this function was usually outsourced to vendors since it was still extremely expensive for a firm to acquire or develop the software for payroll. It is important to realize that computer technology was just beginning to be used at this time, and it was complex and costly. With increasing legislation on employment relations and employee unionization, industrial relations became one of the main foci of the department. Union-management bargaining over employment contracts dominated the activity of the personnel department, and these negotiations were not computer based. Record keeping was still done manually despite the growing use of computerized data processing in other departments, such as accounts and materials management. What resulted was an initial reluctance among personnel departments to acquire and use computer technology for their programs. This had a long-term effect in many firms when it came to adopting advancements in computer technology even though it got cheaper and easier to use. Social Issues Era (19631980) This period witnessed an unprecedented increase in the amount of labour legislation that governed various parts of the employment relationship, such as prohibition of discriminatory practices, occupational health and safety, retirement benefits, and tax regulation. As a result, the personnel department was burdened with the additional responsibility of legislative compliance that required collection, analysis, and reporting of voluminous data to statutory authorities. For example, to demonstrate that there was no unfair discrimination in employment practices, data pertaining to all employment functions, such as recruitment, training, compensation, and benefits, had to be diligently collected, analyzed, and stored. To avoid the threat of punitive damages for noncompliance, it was necessary to ensure that the data were comprehensive, accurate, and up-todate, which made it essential to automate the data collection, analysis, and report generation process. As you go through the chapters of this book, these varying laws and government guidelines will be covered within the specific HR topics. It was about this time that personnel departments were beginning to be called Human Resources Departments and the field of human resource management was born. The increasing need to be in compliance with numerous employee protection legislations or suffer significant monetary penalties made senior managers aware of the importance of the HRM function. In other words, effective and correct practices in HRM were starting to affect the bottom line of the firms, so there was a significant growth of HR departments, and computer technology had advanced to the point where it was beginning to be used. As a result, there was an increasing demand for HR departments to adopt computer technology to process employee information more effectively and efficiently. This trend resulted in an explosion in the number of vendors who could assist HR departments in automating their programs in terms of both hardware and software. Simultaneously, computer technology was evolving, and delivering better productivity at lower costs. These technology developments and increased vendor activity led to the development of a comprehensive management information system (MIS) for

HRM. The decreasing costs of computer technology versus the increasing costs of employee compensation and benefits made acquisition of computer-based HR systems (HRIS) a necessary business decision. However, the personnel departments were still slow in adopting computer technology, even though it was inexpensive relative to the power it could deliver for the storage and retrieval of employee information in MIS reports. So, the major issue at this time in the historical development of HRIS was not the need or capabilities of technology but how to best implement it. Another factor was the booming economy in most industrialized countries. As a result, employee trade unions successfully bargained for better employment terms, such as health care and retirement benefits. As a result, labor costs increased, which put pressure on personnel managers to justify cost increases against productivity improvements. With the increased emphasis on employee participation and empowerment, the personnel function transformed into a protector rather than a caretaker function, shifting the focus away from maintenance to development of employees. Thus, the breadth and depth of HRM functions expanded, necessitating the need for strategic thinking and better delivery of HR services. Cost-Effectiveness Era (1980 to the Early 1990s) With increasing competition from emerging European and Asian economies, U.S. and other multinational firms increased their focus on cost reduction through automation and other productivity improvement measures. As regards HRM, the increased Evolution of HRM and HRIS administrative burden intensified the need to fulfil a growing number of legislative requirements, while the overall functional focus shifted from employee administration to employee development and involvement. To improve effectiveness and efficiency in service delivery, through cost reduction and value-added services, the HR departments came under pressure to harness technology that was becoming cheaper and more powerful. In addition, there was a growing realization within management that people costs were a very significant part of their budgets. Some companies estimated that personnel costs were as high as 80% of their operating costs. As a result, there was a growing demand on the HRM function to cost justify their employee programs and services. In one of the first books to address this growing need to cost justify the HRM function, Cascio (1984) indicated that the language of business is dollars and cents and HR managers need to realize this fact. In a later edition of his book, Cascio (1991) quotes Jacques Fitz-Enz (1980), who more accurately states the need for HRM to cost justify their function: Few human resources managerseven the most energetictake the time to analyse the return on the corporations personnel dollar. We feel we arent valued in our own organizations, that we cant get the resources we need.We complain that management wont buy our proposals and wonder why our advice is so often ignored until the crisis stage. But the human resources manager seldom stands back to look at the total business and ask: Why am I at the bottom looking up? The answer is painfully apparent. We dont act like business managerslike entrepreneurs whose business happens to be people. Even small and medium firms could afford computer-based HR systems that were run by increasingly user friendly microcomputers, and could be shown to be cost effective. The prevailing management thinking regarding the use of computers in HR was not a reduction in the number of employees needed in HR departments but that their activities and time could be shifted from the transactional record keeping to more transformational activities that would add value to the organization. This change in the function of HRM could then be clearly measured in terms of cost-benefit ratios to the bottom line of the company.

Emergence of Strategic HRIS (1990 to Present) Firms today realize that innovative and creative employees who hold the key to organizational knowledge provide a sustainable competitive advantage because unlike

other resources, intellectual capital is difficult to imitate by competitors. Accordingly, the people management function has become strategic in its importance and outlook and is geared to attract, retain, and engage talent. Source - http://www.sagepub.com

CONDENSED ANALYSIS OF THE ARTICLES

In the early 20th century and prior to World War II, the personnel function was primarily involved in record keeping of employee information; or in other words it was more of a data entry and maintaining job. Record keeping is still one of the major functions built into the design of an HRIS but that time there was no computer technology to automate the records unlike today. Paper records were kept, and still many small companies use paper record HR systems. Then slowly but surely managers realized that employee productivity and motivation had a significant impact on the profitability of the firm. The human relations movement after the War emphasized that employees were motivated not just by money but also by social and psychological factors, such as recognition of work achievements and work norms.

Prior to the ideation of HRIS, management didn't pay much attention to the data of its personnel. The data of people who worked under them. And there was a growing consciousness within the management that people costs were a very considerable part of their budgets. Some companies estimated that worker costs were as high as 75% of their operating costs. As a result, there was a growing demand on the Human Resource function to justify their employee programs and services with regards to cost. The prevailing management ideology regarding the use of computers in HR was now not to curtail the number of employees needed in HR departments but that their work time could be changed from the traditional record keeping to more transformational activities that would add value to the organization. This change in the function of HRM could then be clearly measured in terms of cost-benefit ratios to the bottom line of the company. Also one of the primary reasons that HRIS was developed was due to the government legislation and the implementation of initiatives such as EEO (Equal Employment Opportunities), OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and AAP (Affirmative Action Program). These initiatives were launched during the 1960's and 1970's and many organizations were then faced with the responsibility of maintaining statistics and records to provide evidence that they were in compliance with the newly implemented laws. And faced with the high volumes of employees within their organizations then came the need for a computer based system to provide aid in the completion of the tasks at hand. At the beginning management allocated the responsibilities to information personnel. Then information specialists then started to work with users from the Human Resources department to develop and enter data into large scale computers that where located in the company's information service department and with the implementation of the microcomputer HR personnel were able to process and implement HRIS information in their own area either in stand alone systems or connected by LAN to the company's network. There are also many HR depts. that have even implemented their own mainframes to simplify the process a bit. Then in 80s and 90s came a time when small or large, HR departments suddenly woke up to the seriousness of the talent war and the concurrent brain drain. Even the CEOs and other senior managers started understanding the importance of human capital in their pursuit of organizations strategic goals Corporate. Thus emerged ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) concepts and HR departments early on charged after these deployments in order to build huge repositories that would house employee data and improve personnel-related

decision-making. However, changes in the hiring and work-force climate are making clear the need to wrap HR systems into even larger corporate architectures as a way to give top officials a more holistic view of human capital.

The economic landscape has underwent radical changes throughout the 1990s with increasing globalization, technological breakthroughs (particularly Internet-enabled Web services), and hyper competition. Business process reengineering exercises became more common and frequent, with several initiatives, such as right sizing of employee numbers, reducing the layers of management, reducing the bureaucracy of organizational structures, autonomous work teams, and outsourcing. With falling computer prices and growing computing power more and more companies were able to afford enterprise software systems . So then a market for standalone HRIS software emerged.. Data connectors and application programming interfaces empowered customers with HR systems that need not be delivered with their financial accounting software. They can now leverage a fitter system that better fulfils their HRIS needs and can also integrate information such as payroll and headcount to their financial system. However, Software as a Service (SaaS) found significant adoption in a downsizing economy. Companies can now have all the advantages of an HRIS that fits their specific needs and requirements, integrate relevant information with their financial applications, massage the data with a business intelligence (BI) reporting suite and make management decisions based on facts, figures and trends. And they need not incur the burden or cost of managing the hardware or software environment themselves. Not to be left behind, the Tier One ERP software vendors follow the pack by providing their ERP solutions, packaged with HRIS, as a SaaS option. This offering usually benefits small to midsized companies. However, organizations looking for a SaaS option for their HRIS will have a host of choices. The articles suggest that the future of HRIS lies in SaaS and cloud computing.