I & Sheila will be discussing Oracle's HR Technology in this Blog. The first half of the conversation is explained by me and I have included Sheila's Blog here with a link for the second half ( Thanks Sheila).
Bill Kutik had a conversation with Gretchen Alarcon (Vice President of Global HCM Strategy, Oracle) on different technologies out in open right now and some expected soon.
Gretchen A's Blog : human-strategies.blogspot.com
Gretchen A talks about integration of Web 2.0 technology in Social-networking ( Group Space, Wiki, Blog), Oracle, People Soft HCM etc. An example discussed is Tagging - Indexing document with a word or label to bring it up with it. Oracle will enable HR to use their technology how they want it and where they want it through their Web centre Product - part of Server Technology or Portal Technology - EDS & People Soft.
Gretchen mentioned that in Oracle Open World - Larry Elison said that Fusion HCM is bringing the best from Oracle and is expected at the end of 2008. Moving to Fusion HCM can a new implementation or an upgrade for the customers, EDS & People Soft will be upgraded as asked by the users. For E.g. In People Soft 8.9, New Talent Management will be a possible Integration option.
Gretchen discussed the three steps :
1. Emphasizing the need of timing the market to release the product when customers will need it and with the right complexities.
2. Involving the HR to regulate their reporting structure with it.
3. Discussion with Software Development Group on after doing the research - what needs to be built and why is it important.
The product management part decides what technology will be used, what to build and how will that look , an inbound look at the bound. The Strategic side looks at the outbound view of the product determining what is required and when will it be needed.
Here is a link to Oracle Website for their Hr Technologies http://www.oracle.com/applications/human_resources/intro.html
*** Sheila's Blog *** http://techlesslyhopeful.blogspot.com/2008/12/oracle.html
Kutik interviews Gretchen Alarcon, VP of Global HCM Strategy for Oracle. She talks about what Oracle is currently up to - which I will let Sapna handle. The interview then turns to her background and philosophies. Alarcon has a BA from Stanford and an MBA from the University of Michigan. Prior to pursuing her MBA, she was inspired by a professor who teaches at UofM. She came to understand that to be an effective human resources manager, she needed to become savvy in business, as well. I for one, agree completely! How can you manage a company's resources when you don't understand how the business works? This is what was meant by "HR not being the sharpest tacks in the box." Alarcon talks about her move from an HR practitioner to a strategist. She acknowledges her depth of domain experience has helped her but as a strategist, but broad skills are also necessary. She advocates research and the need to be analytical. She says one must be aware of how companies work in order to time what Oracle is investing (development) in and when the demand for those products will be. She says one of the first lessons she learned as a strategist is she cannot build software for herself, it must solve the client's needs. The interview ends with her discussion about mutual mentoring noted in my previous blog.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Six Steps to Company-Wide Adoption
Michael Idinopulos's Blog on Social Software in the Enterprise
Micheal has good explanation and a very realistic view about organization-wide integration and implementation of social software. He clearly explains why not one size fits all every time. As we have discussed before in this blog - technology is not the solution to our challenges, utilizing the technology in the best manner is.Technology is evolving as we talk right now. Micheal tell us that the focus was on individual technologies (wikis, blogs, RSS, etc.) a year ago. However, the system is bending towards technology revamp as a whole in an organization. But this " Big Step" demands big efforts and a lot of strategic planning. Micheal gave us a brilliant example of US Presidential campaign - you're not really running one national campaign, you're running 50 state campaigns...or 5,000 regional campaigns. Each of those campaigns has its own local leadership, demographic profile, issues, and economics. The same line of thought applies to the change that comes with company wide adoption of technology.
Micheal's six pieces of advice to successfully implementing social software on a grand scale are :
1. Encourage a broad range of use cases.
2. Recruit energetic champions across the organization.
3. Launch the tools with hands-on experiences for new users.
4. Route repeated activities through social software.
5. Integrate with existing systems of record.
6. Leverage public communities.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Class 4 & 5
As I said in the class - " I've started to enjoy this whole process of discovering new things".
When I start something new - I like it and I give my best to it. Then, there's another degree of " liking" to me - Where I make time for it and every spare second that I have goes to my new " gig ". I discovered this new level of my interest in things when I started reading Dan Brown's - Da Vinci Code :) . I finished that book in straight 32 hours.
The new things I learn in our class now have reached the level when home work is not homework - it's a new topic of research to feed my curiosity. And so I say - " I've started to enjoy this whole process of discovering new things".
When I start something new - I like it and I give my best to it. Then, there's another degree of " liking" to me - Where I make time for it and every spare second that I have goes to my new " gig ". I discovered this new level of my interest in things when I started reading Dan Brown's - Da Vinci Code :) . I finished that book in straight 32 hours.
The new things I learn in our class now have reached the level when home work is not homework - it's a new topic of research to feed my curiosity. And so I say - " I've started to enjoy this whole process of discovering new things".
Naomi Lee Bloom Podcast
This Podcast is very informational and to the point. Naomi Lee Bloom has a deep understanding of what & how to ask & investigate when we are looking for a good product. Every point in this podcast made it's way to my checklist.
The most important factor to look for when looking into different products is the " Product Functionality & Architecture ".
In the middle of the podcast - Naomi has put a great emphasis on the importance of networking which strengthens my belief that we should keep our group together much after the class is over and keep learning from each other.
My favorite quote from the podcast - " Everyday is a process of discovery ".
The most important factor to look for when looking into different products is the " Product Functionality & Architecture ".
In the middle of the podcast - Naomi has put a great emphasis on the importance of networking which strengthens my belief that we should keep our group together much after the class is over and keep learning from each other.
My favorite quote from the podcast - " Everyday is a process of discovery ".
Sunday, November 23, 2008
HR's struggle with Web 2.0
HR's struggle with Web 2.0
This article seem to have been written keeping my workplace in mind. To add to it - we are a Web 2.0 technology company and 80% of our employees are engineers. Still, we are not a tech savvy company when it comes to HR.
We have planned a few projects in past to better facilitate the documentation process and information sharing for HR, however, it never materialized. After joining this class, I spoke with my manager about how using technology will save us cost (less paper & work hours) and improve the whole system. We are still storing every document in paper form in employee folders.
When employees or managers ask for a piece of information from these folders, HR is unable to respond back quickly. When we join all dots, we see how technology can benefit us.
On the other hand, technology is not the answer to any question. We need to use the technology & tools available to find the perfect solution. There are so many social networking sites mushrooming all over the internet and some of them are extremely successful. We need to learn from their models and learn to use our technology better.
This article seem to have been written keeping my workplace in mind. To add to it - we are a Web 2.0 technology company and 80% of our employees are engineers. Still, we are not a tech savvy company when it comes to HR.
We have planned a few projects in past to better facilitate the documentation process and information sharing for HR, however, it never materialized. After joining this class, I spoke with my manager about how using technology will save us cost (less paper & work hours) and improve the whole system. We are still storing every document in paper form in employee folders.
When employees or managers ask for a piece of information from these folders, HR is unable to respond back quickly. When we join all dots, we see how technology can benefit us.
On the other hand, technology is not the answer to any question. We need to use the technology & tools available to find the perfect solution. There are so many social networking sites mushrooming all over the internet and some of them are extremely successful. We need to learn from their models and learn to use our technology better.
The Machine is Us/ing Us
This video is very informative and on both practical and conceptual levels, it inspires me. It makes me think in a "Paradigm Shift" way. I totally agree that internet is among the best inventions made by mankind. However, I also think that in the process of simplifying things, we are making them simply complex. We've lost the track of small & big, everything now is big in small. We hear so often now - nano this - nano that.... and then we think. It all started simple and came so far. Books were how we shared information, social gatherings were how we made friends and a face to face conversation was how we interacted with people. Then came internet, we do all this in abundance by a single click of our mouse. The internet evolved over time ( as the video talks from html to Xml and so on) and is now too big to believe.
New 2008 Social Technographics data reveals rapid growth in adoption
I throughly enjoyed reading this article. I could see myself falling into multiple categories of creator, critics and collectors.
Technology is touching everybody life these days in ways we don't realize. Some of us are actively involved and a few contribute to it passively. If I compare myself with my partner, he will be an active participant, however, I've recently upgraded myself to being an active participant (creator) as well. Looking back, I can see my graph of graduating from being a spectator to creator over the years and every step has been a learning of its own kind.
All of these categories are so important as they are. The article says that social contents ranks high in searches now because it's always changing. The critics are like filters who are updating spectators everyday. The creators are keeping the internet alive, collectors keep it organized and the joiners are the new blood.
The need for information is growing as I'm putting my thoughts here and with that will increase the number of people looking for it and the ones sharing it. The inactive will become spectators and the spectators will become joiners, the joiners will be collectors, the collectors will become critics and the critics wil be creators too and all of us together will keep the circle going.
Technology is touching everybody life these days in ways we don't realize. Some of us are actively involved and a few contribute to it passively. If I compare myself with my partner, he will be an active participant, however, I've recently upgraded myself to being an active participant (creator) as well. Looking back, I can see my graph of graduating from being a spectator to creator over the years and every step has been a learning of its own kind.
All of these categories are so important as they are. The article says that social contents ranks high in searches now because it's always changing. The critics are like filters who are updating spectators everyday. The creators are keeping the internet alive, collectors keep it organized and the joiners are the new blood.
The need for information is growing as I'm putting my thoughts here and with that will increase the number of people looking for it and the ones sharing it. The inactive will become spectators and the spectators will become joiners, the joiners will be collectors, the collectors will become critics and the critics wil be creators too and all of us together will keep the circle going.
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