HRchitect Welcomes our New Client, Stream Global Services

We are pleased to welcome Stream Global Services to our family of over 600 clients who have chosen HRchitect to help with their HRtechnology related projects.

Stream Global Services is a premium, global business process outsource (BPO) service provider specializing in customer relationship management services. Our broad portfolio of sales, customer care and technical support services enable Fortune 1000 companies to increase revenue generation, operational efficiencies and brand loyalty. We are a trusted partner to some of the world’s leading technology, computing, telecommunications, retail, entertainment/media, and financial services companies.

Stream’s multi-channel support solutions leverage a robust global footprint, operational expertise and proven contact center technology to deliver superior sales, support and back-office solutions around the world. And, because of our proven, scalable deliver methods, clients can be assured that the level of support and service they receive will be consistent in every Stream solution center worldwide. Stream offers a full suite of outsourcing services such as revenue generation, inbound and outbound sales, customer retention and recovery services, and warranty support.

Creating maximum value for our clients and building customer brand loyalty keeps Stream at the forefront of the industry. Year after year, companies choose Stream for their outsourcing partner for:

• Customer lifecycle services that enhance brand loyalty
• Diverse global footprint and extensive language support
• Quick ramp for complex projects
• A highly skilled and technical workforce
• Consistency in delivery of service excellence
• Growth potential with a proven industry leader

Welcome, Stream Global Services, we look forward to helping you solve The Puzzling World of HRtechnology!

HRchitect Welcomes Our Newest Client, Cognizant Technology Solutions!

Cognizant Technology Solutions joins HRchitect’s growing list of top companies worldwide who rely on Frisco-based HRchitect, when they need HR technology and HR strategy consulting assistance.

Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a global IT services and business process outsourcing solutions provider headquartered in Teaneck, N.J.  Cognizant was founded in 1994 as an IT development and maintenance services arm of The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation.  The company was spunoff as an independent organization two years later.  Since 1996, Cognizant has worked closely with large organizations to help them build stronger, more efficient and more agile businesses.

By leveraging highly flexible business processes, a seamless global delivery network and deep domain expertise, Cognizant delivers a better “return on outsourcing.”  Cognizant was one of the first India-centric IT services companies to organize around key industry verticals and horizontals.  This enables Cognizant to establish extremely close partnerships that foster continuous operational improvements and better bottom-line results for clients. 

From its founding, Cognizant was built with a global mindset.  With headquarters in the U.S. and a rapidly expanding delivery footprint which extends from India and China to Europe, North and South America and the Middle East, Cognizant has the geographic presence and mix of onsite and offshore resources to be the preferred global services partner acrossthe industry.  Because clients see globalization as a key element to their success, Cognizant’s “born global” heritage is viewed as a significant market advantage.

Welcome, Cognizant, we look forward to helping you solve The Puzzling World of HRtechnology!

Don’t Miss This Week’s HRchitect WebMingle with Grant Gordon from EnticeLabs

The weekly HRchitect WebMingle is designed to give you some insight into the puzzling world of HR technology, discuss news from around the world that we find interesting, talk about upcoming events in our industry, and provide insightful interviews with people of our industry – who they are, what they do and why you should care. The WebMingle has become the most popular live weekly Internet show in the HR technology industry!

This week’s guests will be Grant Gordon, Product Director with EnticeLabs.

EnticeLabs designs technology to empower HR departments to recruit top talent. TalentSeekr, the flagship product, is an automated one-stop platform that is redefining the recruiting industry, using targeted ads and advanced artificial intelligence to engage active and passive job seekers in the websites and communities where they spend time. TalentSeekr provides dramatically better results at lower costs than traditional methods, making EnticeLabs the new standard for a growing list of Fortune 1000 companies.

Grant works at the intersection of business, technology, and art. His broad range of skills and talents, ranging from software engineering to graphic design and business strategy, make him uniquely effective in his current role. Grant manages the development of our brand and the creation of our company’s face to the world.

Visit www.HRchitect.com/Knowledge/WebMingle to listen live on Friday, November 20th at 1pm CST to the 45th show in our WebMingle series. If you missed any of our previous WebMingles, you can also access them from that page.

Below is a list of some of our upcoming guests: 

Dec 4 – Kevin Grossman, President of HRmarketer.com

Dec 11 – Joel Passen, Co-Founder and VP of Marketing with Newton Software, a Talent Acquisition Systems vendor

Dec 18 – Rick Fletcher, President of HRchitect, the leading HR Systems Consulting firm

Jan 29 – Tim Giehll, CEO of Bond Talent, a Talent Management Systems vendor and Author of “Human Capital Supply Chains”

We look forward to welcoming Grant Gordon from EnticeLabs to the HRchitect WebMingle this Friday and hope to have you join us as well.

Matt Lafata, HRchitect

Change Management and User Adoption of an HR or Talent Management System

HRchitect understands that any human capital management system is not fully implemented until the target audience understands and is utilizing the new system to the company’s expectations. Vendors using an ASP (Application Service Provider) or SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) model, will encourage clients to get the new system up and running quickly so they can begin collecting recurring monthly subscription fees. Although it is possible to get these hosted systems up and running very quickly, be careful not to declare victory too early! Some companies begin to revert back to their old way of doing things over time and never achieve company-wide utilization of the new system. As a result, these companies may not obtain the anticipated ROI.

HRchitect has implemented dozens of systems in this hosted deployment model and has a unique understanding of what it takes to be successful. As a result, HRchitect provides the following adoption services, which can occur before, during or after system implementation:

Management Expectations
Understanding up front what management is expecting from your system is critical to your success.  Oftentimes, particularly with hosted systems which can be implemented quickly with less up-front investment, this process is eliminated to expedite the implementation process.  If management expectations are unclear and executive sponsors are not identified, projects can flounder in search of direction.

As part of HRchitect’s Strategic Planning services, our senior-level management consultants interview upper and middle management to understand and document their expectations for the new system.  We will then work with the project team to ensure that communications are directed toward management to assure that their expectations are being met.  Through our Business Process Redesign and Optimization, we work with the project team to identify key metrics and success factors and to demonstrate the ROI to management.

Communications
A key area that is often overlooked is the communication plan for the project. Many new systems do not produce the anticipated ROI due to the poor internal marketing of the system prior to, during, and following the system go-live date. Our consultants can provide you with template emails, letters and publications that help to peak user enthusiasm as well as market the benefits of the new system. Launching new self-service applications (such as employee self-service and benefit enrollment applications) to a wide casual user population can be thought of like a consumer product launch. Effective marketing collateral is critical along with tried and proven techniques like brown bag lunches, training sessions and Web-based FAQs to familiarize your users with the system.

Manager and End-User Training
While excellent training is available through most software vendors, the standard training often does not fully meet the corporate need. This can be for a variety of reasons, but mostly it is due to the lack of customization of the training. HRchitect provides additional training, which is customized to reflect your actual data and specific processes. Since we have consultants located throughout North America, we can provide on-site training services in the United States and Canada.

Please do yourself a favor and if you are implementing HR or Talent Management Software, or planning on doing so in the future, let’s have a conversation.

And remember, while we didn’t invent HR and Talent Management related software, we do make it better, more efficient, and ultimately a stronger asset to your organization and your people.

Helping you solve another piece of the puzzling world of HR Technology…

Matt Lafata, HRchitect

Nov 13 HRchitect WebMingle Featured Aquire; Next Up is EnticeLabs

Our weekly WebMingle is designed to give you some insight into the puzzling world of HR technology, discuss news from around the world that we find interesting, talk about upcoming events in our industry, and provide insightful interviews with people of our industry – who they are, what they do and why you should care. The WebMingle has become the most popular live weekly Internet show in the HR technology industry!

So what is a WebMingle? It is a meeting over the web where we do some business, socialize and yes, we mingle over the web. Thus, a WebMingle.

The 60-minute WebMingle on November 13th, the 44th in our WebMingle series, featured Lois Melbourne, CEO and Co-Founder for Aquire. Lois has tremendous passion and knowledge around workforce planning, succession planning, workforce analytics, organizational structures, and more. She also is a great example of giving back by mentoring others on careers. We touched on a bunch of issues related to all of that including: 

• Why most succession planning solutions may be overkill
• How mergers and reorganization activity impacts succession plans
• How organizations are using automated organizational charting solutions to more effectively manage their workforce
• Why it is critical to maintain the most effective organizational structure and how it translates to better talent management
• Why more HR professionals are turning to Workforce Analytics
• How companies can use modeling solutions to improve workforce productivity and profitability
• Recommendations to HR professionals who are formulating their workforce planning strategies for 2010
• …and more

About Aquire

Aquire is a privately-held, woman-owned company that was founded in 1994. Today, more than 2,700 organizations in 125 countries have selected Aquire solutions to manage data for 10 million working professionals worldwide. From organizational charting and reporting to workforce analytics, reorganizations, mergers and succession planning, Aquire provides easy-to-use tools that increase information visibility, expedite decision making and streamline HR activities.

About Lois Melbourne, CEO and Co-Founder of Aquire

Lois Melbourne, GPHR and co-founder of Aquire, is a regular blogger, speaker and author on industry trends and issues.  She is a member of the Young Presidents Organization, as well as many other HR and HR User Group Associations. She is an active career mentor and serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Dallas as part of the PRAXIS program.

If you missed this past week’s WebMingle, or any of our past WebMingles, please visit our web site or www.HRWebMingle.com. You will see a complete list of upcoming guests and will be able to listen to past shows.

Our next WebMingle will take place on November 20 with Grant Gordon, Product Director with sourcing vendor, EnticeLabs. We look forward to welcoming Grant to the HRchitect WebMingle next week.

We hope to have you join us!

Matt Lafata, HRchitect

HRchitect Welcomes our Newest Client, Shaw!

Shaw joins HRchitect’s growing list of top companies worldwide who rely on Frisco-based HRchitect, when they need HR technology and HR strategy consulting assistance.

Shaw got its start in 1946 as Star Dye Company, a small business that dyed tufted scatter rugs. The events that transformed the company into the world’s largest carpet manufacturer are too numerous to write…or even fully know. But the philosophy guiding those events meeting customers, determine their needs, and supplying those needs hasn’t changed much through the years.

In 1958, with $300,000 in sales, the company expanded dramatically and soon started finishing carpet as Star Finishing Company.

In 1967, a holding company was formed to acquire Philadelphia Carpet Company, founded in 1846. The holding company added Star Finishing to the fold one year later, marking the company’s first move into carpet manufacturing. The holding company went public as Shaw Industries, Inc. in 1971 with approximately $43 million in sales and 900 employees. In 1985, Shaw made its first appearance on the list of America’s largest corporations–the Fortune 500–with more than $500 million in sales and close to 5,000 employees.

Continually differentiating its service and adding value for customers motivated every major move in the company’s development, among them:

•  Generating its own yarn supply with the 1972 purchase of its first yarn plant
•  Seeing the potential of newly developed continuous dyeing processes and acquiring its first continuous dye plant in 1973
• Creating its own trucking subsidiary, dramatically improving shipments nationwide
• Significantly expanding direct sales to retailers beginning in 1982
• Establishing regional distribution centers across the United States
• Modernizing plants and equipment in the early 1980s, allowing it to respond quickly to such breakthroughs as stain resistant carpet
• Decreasing the consumption of fuel, water, and electricity in the manufacturing process and finding innovative recycling solutions for manufacturing waste
• Acquiring Amoco’s polypropylene fiber production facilities in 1992 and providing consumers popular Berber styles
• Starting the rug division in 1993 and the hard surfaces division in 1998 with the launch of Shaw Ceramics

The desire to be the industry’s low-cost provider was also a determining factor in Shaw’s decisions, namely the acquisitions that brought such respected names as Cabin Crafts and Sutton under the Shaw umbrella. It also played a role in one of the largest and most significant moves in the company’s history: the merger of Shaw and Queen Carpets.

On January 4, 2001, Shaw began a new chapter in its long and varied history with the completion of its sale to Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the holding company of renowned investor Warren E. Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway is known for buying and holding businesses that have a dominant market share, have strong management teams, and are considered undervalued in the stock market. With the move, Shaw ended its tenure as a public company.

Today, with the leadership of Vance Bell, CEO, and Randy Merritt, President, Shaw is a full-service flooring company with more than $5 billion in annual sales and approximately 26,000 employees. The employees’ daily efforts illustrate their commitment and their determination to stay on top in an ever-changing and highly competitive marketplace.

Welcome, Shaw, we look forward to helping you solve The Puzzling World of HRtechnology!

Don’t Miss This Week’s HRchitect WebMingle with Lois Melbourne of Aquire

The weekly HRchitect WebMingle is designed to give you some insight into the puzzling world of HR technology, discuss news from around the world that we find interesting, talk about upcoming events in our industry, and provide insightful interviews with people of our industry – who they are, what they do and why you should care. The WebMingle has become the most popular live weekly Internet show in the HR technology industry!

This week’s guests will be Lois Melbourne, CEO and Co-Founder of Aquire.

Aquire is a privately-held, woman-owned company that was founded in 1994. Today, more than 2,700 organizations in 125 countries have selected Aquire solutions to manage data for 10 million working professionals worldwide. From organizational charting and reporting to workforce analytics, reorganizations, mergers and succession planning, Aquire provides easy-to-use tools that increase information visibility, expedite decision making and streamline HR activities.

Lois Melbourne, GPHR and co-founder of Aquire, is a regular blogger, speaker and author on industry trends and issues.  She is a member of the Young Presidents Organization, as well as many other HR and HR User Group Associations. She is an active career mentor and serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Dallas as part of the PRAXIS program.

Visit www.HRchitect.com/Knowledge/WebMingle to listen live on Friday, November 13th at 1pm CST to the 44th show in our WebMingle series. If you missed any of our previous WebMingles, you can also access them from that page.

Below is a list of some of our upcoming guests: 

Nov 20 – Grant Gordon, Product Director with sourcing vendor, EnticeLabs

Dec 4 – Kevin Grossman, President of HRmarketer.com

Dec 11 – Joel Passen, Co-Founder and VP of Marketing with Newton Software, a Talent Acquisition Systems vendor

Dec 18 – Rick Fletcher, President of HRchitect, the leading HR Systems Consulting firm

Jan 29 – Tim Giehll, CEO of Bond Talent, a Talent Management Systems vendor and Author of “Human Capital Supply Chains”

We look forward to welcoming Lois Melbourne from Aquire to the HRchitect WebMingle this Friday and hope to have you join us as well.

Matt Lafata, HRchitect

Nov 6 HRchitect WebMingle Featured Taleo; Next Up is Aquire

Our weekly WebMingle is designed to give you some insight into the puzzling world of HR technology, discuss news from around the world that we find interesting, talk about upcoming events in our industry, and provide insightful interviews with people of our industry – who they are, what they do and why you should care. The WebMingle has become the most popular live weekly Internet show in the HR technology industry!

So what is a WebMingle? It is a meeting over the web where we do some business, socialize and yes, we mingle over the web. Thus, a WebMingle.

The 60-minute WebMingle on November 6th, the 43rd in our WebMingle series, featured Kevin Marasco, VP of Brand Marketing for Taleo. Kevin has great passion around talent management, marketing, business trends, innovation, and more. You can hear the excitement in his voice and we touched on a bunch of issues related to all of that including: 

• Talent Management Trends
• Taleo 10
• Taleo World
• Taleo Talent Grid
• Macro Business Trends
• Social Networking and Innovation
• Global Talent Management
• …and more

About Taleo

Taleo provides talent management software that helps companies develop their most strategic asset… people.  Taleo’s web-based solutions span the entire employee lifecycle, including recruiting, performance management, employee development and compensation. Unlike complex enterprise software or legacy HR systems, Taleo’s software is fast, mobile, social and designed exclusively to track and empower people.  Over 4,100 companies of all sizes – including 46 of the Fortune 100 – rely on Taleo to improve quality of hire, increase employee engagement and retain their top performers

About Kevin Marasco, VP Brand Marketing for Taleo

Kevin Marasco is vice president of brand marketing for Taleo. He is responsible for identity and brand management, creative services, website marketing and various marketing communication initiatives.  Prior to Taleo, he was senior vice president of marketing and sales support for Vurv (acquired by Taleo). There he was responsible for worldwide corporate marketing, communications, public relations, brand management, presales activities and sales knowledge management.

If you missed this past week’s WebMingle, or any of our past WebMingles, please visit our web site or www.HRWebMingle.com. You will see a complete list of upcoming guests and will be able to listen to past shows.

Our next WebMingle will take place on November 13 with Lois Melbourne, CEO and Co-Founder with Aquire, a Workforce Planning and Management vendor. We look forward to welcoming Lois to the HRchitect WebMingle next week.

We hope to have you join us!

Matt Lafata, HRchitect

Don’t Miss This Week’s HRchitect WebMingle with Kevin Marasco of Taleo

The weekly HRchitect WebMingle is designed to give you some insight into the puzzling world of HR technology, discuss news from around the world that we find interesting, talk about upcoming events in our industry, and provide insightful interviews with people of our industry – who they are, what they do and why you should care. The WebMingle has become the most popular live weekly Internet show in the HR technology industry!

This week’s guests will be Kevin Marasco, Vice-President of Brand Marketing for Taleo.

Taleo provides talent management software that helps companies develop their most strategic asset… people.  Taleo’s web-based solutions span the entire employee lifecycle, including recruiting, performance management, employee development and compensation. Unlike complex enterprise software or legacy HR systems, Taleo’s software is fast, mobile, social and designed exclusively to track and empower people.  Over 4,100 companies of all sizes – including 46 of the Fortune 100 – rely on Taleo to improve quality of hire, increase employee engagement and retain their top performers

Kevin Marasco is vice president of brand marketing for Taleo. He is responsible for identity and brand management, creative services, website marketing and various marketing communication initiatives.  Prior to Taleo, he was senior vice president of marketing and sales support for Vurv (acquired by Taleo). There he was responsible for worldwide corporate marketing, communications, public relations, brand management, presales activities and sales knowledge management. Prior to this role, he served as director of marketing for Vurv, formerly Recruitmax.  His prior experience includes a variety of marketing, design and technology roles.  Prior to joining Vurv, Marasco spent several years as a successful entrepreneur and independent investor. Marasco has a bachelors degree in Marketing from the University of North Florida and has completed executive education courses at Harvard Business School. He is a member of the CMO Council and is on the advisory board of Recover Gear.

Visit www.HRchitect.com/Knowledge/WebMingle to listen live on Friday, November 6th at 1pm CST to the 43rd show in our WebMingle series. If you missed any of our previous WebMingles, you can also access them from that page.

Below is a list of some of our upcoming guests: 

Nov 13 – Lois Melbourne, CEO and Co-Founder with Aquire, a Workforce Planning and Management vendor

Nov 20 – Bob Tricarico, VP of Sales with HRsmart, a Talent Management Systems vendor

Dec 4 – Kevin Grossman, President of HRmarketer.com

Dec 11 – Joel Passen, Co-Founder and VP of Marketing with Newton Software, a Talent Acquisition Systems vendor

Dec 18 – Rick Fletcher, President of HRchitect, the leading HR Systems Consulting firm

Jan 29 – Tim Giehll, CEO of Bond Talent, a Talent Management Systems vendor and Author of “Human Capital Supply Chains”

We look forward to welcoming Kevin Marasco from Taleo to the HRchitect WebMingle this Friday and hope to have you join us as well.

Matt Lafata, HRchitect

Don’t Miss This Week’s HRchitect WebMingle with Fabrice de Carne of Jobpartners

The weekly HRchitect WebMingle is designed to give you some insight into the puzzling world of HR technology, discuss news from around the world that we find interesting, talk about upcoming events in our industry, and provide insightful interviews with people of our industry – who they are, what they do and why you should care. The WebMingle has become the most popular live weekly Internet show in the HR technology industry!

This week’s guests will be Fabrice de Carne, Vice President of U.S. Sales for Jobpartners.

Headquartered in the U.K. with nine offices in Europe and the U.S., Jobpartners was one of the first companies solely dedicated to providing comprehensive, global people and talent management solutions delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS). Jobpartners’ solutions help organizations effectively attract, connect, develop and retain the quality people they need to remain competitive in today’s global business environment.  Working for clients such as, Carrefour, Deutsche Post DHL, Nationwide, Nike, Rabobank Group and Xerox, Jobpartners provides talent and people management solutions in more than 50 countries across all industries and in 28 languages.

Fabrice has more than 18 years of experience in HR, HR consulting and HRIS. Following his graduation (MSc) and first experiences at IBM Consulting and KPMG Peat Marwick, in Paris, Madrid and London, he joined Jobpartners in 2003.  At that time the company was pioneering the ASP market in Talent Management. After a few successful years as a Sales Exec, he then managed the Professional Services team. His main mission was to increase the profitability of the Professional Services as Jobpartners was gaining ground in Europe. More recently, he moved to the US to reinforce Jobpartners activity in North America. He speaks French, English and Spanish.

Visit www.HRchitect.com/Knowledge/WebMingle to listen live on Friday, October 30^th at 1pm CST to the 42^nd show in our WebMingle series. If you missed any of our previous WebMingles, you can also access them from that page.

Below is a list of some of our upcoming guests: 

Nov 6 – Kevin Marasco, VP Brand Marketing with Taleo, a Talent Management Systems vendor

Nov 13 – Lois Melbourne, CEO and Co-Founder with Aquire, a Workforce Planning and Management vendor

Nov 20 – Bob Tricarico, VP of Sales with HRsmart, a Talent Management Systems vendor

Dec 4 – Kevin Grossman, President of HRmarketer.com

Dec 11 – Joel Passen, Co-Founder and VP of Marketing with Newton Software, a Talent Acquisition Systems vendor

Dec 18 – Rick Fletcher, President of HRchitect, the leading HR Systems Consulting firm

We look forward to welcoming Fabrice de Carne from Jobpartners to the HRchitect WebMingle this Friday and hope to have you join us as well.

Matt Lafata, HRchitect