At the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), automation is not just meant to relieve its human resource department of the burden of manually doing its tasks -- it is meant to "empower" BSP"s entire workforce.
BSP recently embarked on automating its entire HR system after investing P20 million (US$357 million) in an application developed by German software firm SAP. It purchased eight modules of SAP"s HR Management System (HRMS) which is meant to automate specific processes like organizational management, recruitment, payroll, retirement benefits management, time management, training and events management, time management, and personnel administration.
"These modules cover the entire range of employee processes from hiring to retirement," described Orlando Cabanlig, managing director for IT at BSP.
Prior to using SAP, Cabanlig said BSP"s HR department had to do all the aforementioned processes manually, with the exception of a payroll application that was internally developed. But in time, the payroll application was not producing the exact results the HR department was expecting, leading Cabanlig and his team to search for a commercial solution.
The purchase of SAP provided "lifetime licenses" for 20 named users among BSP"s employees, Cabanlig told Computerworld Philippines in an interview.
Less customization
BSP created project management teams in its implementation of the various modules. These modules come in templates that follow global industry banking standards.
"As much as possible we wanted less customization unless covered by laws and regulations. We conducted user acceptance tests prior to rolling out these modules," Cabanlig said. "Nonetheless, we are very hands-on with the programming so we can learn to maintain the system on our own and not depend so much on SAP."
The BSP official expects implementation to finish in a period of six months. Like most computerization efforts, implementation pains stem from migrating data. It took BSP almost four months to "clean up" its records.
"What made it worse is that the implementation coincided with our reorganization, salary adjustments and ongoing job evaluations which had to be incorporated in our records," Cabanlig recalled. "One lesson we learned is to implement in stages and go for quick results."
Web-enabled
Cabanlig said BSP"s HR automation project is meant to empower its employees by giving them a clear view of their records, especially employee benefits. The retirement module, for example, allows employees to compute their retirement benefits on their own.
"It empowers our employees because they know exactly what their retirement options are," Cabanlig said.
BSP is also in the process of porting its HR system on to the Internet and creating a Web-enabled Bank Employee Information System. The system will allow employees to modify their personnel data online. More importantly, the system will also allow them to know the status of their company benefits such as medical subsidies and social security contributions.
"Our vision in the near future is, if our employees want to access their records, they can do it online or through kiosks without having to go to the HR department," Cabanlig said.