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240 Chapter 8 • Program and Project Management

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
Human resources provide recruiting, compensation and recognition, planning and consult-
ing, employee and labor relations, and training services. The legacy system did not have the
ability to capture data at the source and use it for multiple purposes, resulting in errors and
delays. The integrated HR management system (HRMS) that replaced the legacy system
provided information, immediately delivering the services required, and it replaced current
labor-intensive paperbound processes.
The project to implement the PeopleSoft HRMS took three years and was delivered
in phases. The system was in full production and stable in a relatively short time frame.

Benefits
The HRMS ERP investment supports and modernized the institute’s HR management
systems. In addition, the IT infrastructure was state of the art. The approach had three
critical success factors:
•Implementation team was involved in all aspects of the implementation from the
hardware configuration to the “fit-gap” analysis.
•All changes were evaluated based on the original set of requirements.
•This involved the functional users from the beginning all the way through testing and
stabilization.

CONCLUSION
This is a good example of setting up an ERP system implementation effectively from the
beginning: It had the support of senior management, the reason for change was developed and
conveyed to the organization, and an overall vision for the institution was incorporated into
the IT strategic plan. The organization developed measurable goals for the HRMS project
(see Appendix A) with actual results documented as each component was implemented to
determine the level of success.

CASE QUESTIONS
1. What were the key strategies or success factors for HRMS ERP implementation?
2. Why was the governance so important to the project?
3. In setting up goals for each system component, what did the institute do that many
businesses or institutions do not with an ERP implementation?