One of my key tasks as a strategic architect is to find mid-term and long-term trends for the industries I am responsible for. This year SAP HR is one of the cornerstones of my attention as 2010 has been an exciting year for SAP HR all over the world. With the huge economic recovery and the clear signs of the demographic shift which includes a short supply of skilled workers in many countries around the world HR is now at the center of many discussions in the corporate world.
Therefore I was keen waiting for some HR predictions for 2011 and read the predictions from the business of HR and the HR bartender with great interest.
Reading these and other blogs I realized that I can share some predictions on my own based on a lot of discussions with customer and colleagues, reading a lot of studies etc. As always these predictions are my own and do not represent SAP’s official view.
More KPI driven SAP HR projects
More and more SAP HR projects will have clear KPIs as specifications for the project. This is a clear result of the increased importance of SAP HR in many organizations due to the developments described above. The time to fill a vacant position (e.g. a surgeon, an engineer) is a prominent example of these KPIs. This tendency offers very good possibilities for SAP HR experts to develop new skills in the area of HR analytics.
Strong growth for Talent Management projects will stay
Attracting people with the right qualifications and retaining them has become a major task for many HR departments. Therefore the strong number of projects for SAP eRecruiting and also SAP Enterprise Learning will even increase in 2011.
Organizational management and other redesign project activities will grow
With the need to implement Talent Management solutions many responsible for SAP HR systems realize that they need to redesign some of their SAP HR functions, especially the organizational management. As the primary focus often was at payroll and time management in the past SAP OM was not used to the full extent and now has to be revisited in order to lay the foundation for the new applications. The first redesign activities have been started in 2011 but we will see much more in 2011.
Second Wave of ESS/ MSS projects will stay
After the first wave of ESS/ MSS we have seen a huge coverage of ESS/ MSS projects in the last two years. This trend will remain intact in 2011.
HCM processes and forms will take off
Many customers who have already implemented ESS/ MSS-scenarios (especially the leave request scenario) are now willing to go one step further and implement a broader approach based on HCM processes and forms. The huge demand for ESS-/ MSS-consultants will remain and will offer good opportunities for payroll consultants to develop their skills.
Quick adoption of SWP based on HANA
With the strong emphasis of HR analytics we will see a wave of quick adopters of the strategic workforce planning based on SAP HANA in 2011. SAP experts who offer a clear process model for redesigning the workforce planning processes will have a great advantage in the market in 2011 and beyond.
Huge growth of HR for healthcare projects will remain intact
I have stated this in former blogs: HR for healthcare is a very hot area for SAP HR experts as the need for qualified workers (physicians, surgeons, nurses) and a hot competition about these experts is driving many SAP HR projects. This trend will remain intact in 2011 and beyond.
Mobile HR scenarios will be created beyond the scope of existing ESS-/ MSS-scenarios
With the new possibilities of the Sybase platform a lot of innovations will be created in 2011 in the area of mobile scenarios for SAP HR. If the adoption pattern for the mobile scenarios as a whole will be valid for the SAP HR scenarios as well the new scenarios will not be just a repetition of the traditional ESS-/ MSS-scenarios on mobile scenarios. Rather new scenarios will emerge with a strong focus on mobile learning.
Many SAP HR installations will enter the area of EH&S
As the number of older employees is growing within many organizations occupational health management is becoming more and more important in order to keep their fitness. Therefore many SAP HR projects were already looking at the SAP EH&S solution in 2011 in this area. This trend will become stronger in 2011 and beyond and we will see a lot of projects in this area.
A prediction can always be just a snapshot and there are lot of aspects which could have been mentioned alternatively. But now I am waiting and observing in order to see how many of my predictions will become true. Just wait for the end of 2011…