Roc - Roc news

Slides from the webcast: 'Online and Mobile SAP HCM Processes & Forms'

tHRive — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A copy of the slides presented on 20 March 2013 webcast 'Online and Mobile SAP HCM Processes & Forms'

Guide to HR Reports and Dashboards

Paul Hammond — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Thomas Meis is speaking at HR2013 Las Vegas on "A Guide to HR Reports and Dashboards that Support Decision Making."

http://hr2013.wispubs.com/US/Search/?u=&s=&q=thomas+meis&x=0&y=0

ROC Employee selected as SAP Community Network Member of the Month

Stephen Burr — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The SAP Community Network (SCN) is the premier online network for SAP professionals with well over two and a half million members[1] and a dedicated team at SAP who develop and maintain it both from a technical and administrative perspective. Each month a community member is recognised for exemplary community engagement. This month (Jan 2013) ROC employee Stephen Millard was selected as the SCN Member of the Month.

The selection criteria used in selecting the SCN member of the month are:

Exemplifies a willing attitude to help others achieve their goals.
Openly shares knowledge with the community at large.
Takes on additional tasks to support community engagement.
Participates in (virtual or face-to-face) events to help make them more successful.
Proactively and regularly contributes to community-based programs and day-to-day interactions.
Encourages others to be active in the community.

Stephen is described on SCN as being "an excellent writer who posts deep thoughts on SCN and contributes with technical content in his personal blog; he knows how to engage the community".

The majority of Stephen’s time is spent working with Visualization Solutions by Nakisa and it is in this space on SCN that he is most active. ROC in fact has several active contributers in this space including Solution Architect Stephen Burr and Senior HCM & Netweaver Consultant Ibrahim Nagy.

Congratulations Stephen!

Stephen Millard can be found on Twitter: @SAP_Stephen

[1] Shaughnessy, Haydn. "Marching to the Customers' Drum Beat. Creating A Social Business at SAP". Forbes. Retrieved 11 April 2012.

Visualization Solutions by Nakisa – 4.0 Release

Stephen Burr — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

In November 2012, following the passing of SAP’s Premium Qualification, SAP released version 4.0 of SAP Visualization Solutions by Nakisa onto the SAP Service Market Place (SMP) making it available for customers to download. The certification covers all Nakisa 4.0 applications in 18 languages including “right-to-left” and double-byte character support.

Within SAP Org Visualization by Nakisa (SOVN) product set there are minor improvements in OrgManager and their flagship product OrgChart. The big changes are in OrgModeler which now contains features to keep your model in “sync” and once finalised, to write back the changes to SAP HCM. DataQualityConsole has been updated and renamed OrgAudit and there is a new addition to the SOVN suite with the introduction of OrgHub for Mobile; which allows for OrgChart to be viewed on an iPad.

SAP Talent Visualization by Nakisa (STVN) has been re-structured to align the products to the roles of the end users. The re-branded products are now known as TalentHub for HR and Executives, TalentHub for Managers and TalentHub for Employees. New across the STVN suite is the introduction of the Development Planning module that enables employees to scope out their career aspirations, plan their next move, share their aspirations and carve out a development plan to get them where they want to go.

ROC has been a long established and trusted global partner of Nakisa’s, and recently accepted Nakisa’s invitation to their first ever Partner Forum. Stephen Burr, Solution Architect from ROC UK, attended where he gained insight into the 4.0 release and helped to re-design their partner training and certification programme. You can read more about Stephen’s visit in this popular SCN blog post and learn more about training by watching the Nakisa Education Services video on Nakisa 4.0 delta training.

VSN 4.0 Launch site: http://www.nakisa.com/4.0/

ROC Website on VSN 4.0 functionality: www.roc-group.com/nakisa

Stephen Burr can be found on Twitter: @BurrStephen

ROC attends Nakisa Partner Forum 2012

Stephen Burr — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

ROC were delighted to attend the first ever Nakisa Partner Forum last month in Montreal.

ROC and Nakisa have been partners since 2006, and are currently one of only eight global service partners. ROC has consistently invested in training their own people to enable us to deliver both SAP Org and Talent Visualization by Nakisa solutions to our customers globally.

Stephen Burr, widely recognised subject matter expert in Nakisa’s solutions, was invited to Nakisa’s global headquarters by James Fabbi, VP Alliances at Nakisa. The forum was set up to both provide insight into the recently announced 4.0 release, and give a chance for ROC to feedback on Nakisa’s products, support and approach to services. In addition, a new approach to partner training and certification was proposed that should benefit all the partner community.

ROC's participation reaffirms their partnership with Nakisa. Having delivered dozens of successful implementations, ROC is a trusted partner and collaborator.

You can read more about Stephen’s visit in our blog. To learn more about Nakisa's solutions for SAP Organisational and Talent Management, including free video demos, follow this link.

Stephen will be the guest speaker at the upcoming Nakisa webinar “Organizational Transformation & Modelling” – register now here for free.

ROC News Webcast Invite - APAC 31 July 2012

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 04:49:33 +0000

JOIN ROC when we streamline SAP HR with fully integrated online form processing.

SEVEN great reasons to automate your HR processes now:

Faster more efficient HR processing
Fewer errors and associated costs
Alerts save time wasted monitoring and chasing
Full audit trails of approvals for compliance
Respond quickly to business change
KPI’s for on-going HR process improvement
Less paper handling, lower environmental impact

Join ROC, global SAP HCM Specialists, when we look at how complex manual HR processes are easily streamlined with tHRive. Webcast includes demonstrations and live Q&A.

Online form processing just got even easier in SAP

the tHRive team — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

webcast slides from 27 June 2012

Upgrading Visualization Solutions by Nakisa

Stephen Burr — Mon, 28 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

ROC is pleased to announce a unique approach to upgrading Visualization Solutions by Nakisa (VSN) which enables customers to upgrade quickly and safely.

The reasons and considerations to upgrading VSN applications were recently discussed during a series of SAP Community Network (SCN) blogs by Stephen Burr. This three part series on upgrading VSN covered:

Click on any of the links to view in a new window.

In summary, the blogs highlight not only the advantages to upgrading, but also the considerations that should be made. In particular the third blog discusses the pitfalls of blindly re-applying configuration from a previous version into the latest product build version; even when it is within the same product and service pack level!

To combat the risks, ROC has utilised its world leading experience in this area to offer a fixed priced service that removes the risks inherent in upgrading. Depending on your current installation, we can provide you with an upgraded copy of your current configuration that has been reviewed and prepared uniquely for you for use in your newly upgraded application. This “Compare and Resolve” service costs only £600.

For more details on the benefits and impact of upgrading, please see our “Upgrading Visualization Solutions by Nakisa” information sheet attached.

ROC is a global partner of Nakisa and trusted implementor for deploying SAP Org and Talent Visualization by Nakisa (SOVN and STVN), based on our experience with over 25 customers since 2006.

Learn more about Visualization Solutions by Nakisa in the dedicated section of our website, which includes free video demonstration of all SAP Org and Talent Visualization applications.

Streamlining HR with Online Form Processing

ROC — Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Many organisations have yet to fully automate HR processes such as on-boarding, employee transfers and other work-life events. These organisations are missing out on significant efficiency savings and are also potentially exposing themselves to compliance issues. Many believe that automating HR processes is costly or requires third party technology such as Adobe or SharePoint. This is not the case.

For a copy of the full white paper please email thrive@roc-group.com

ROC Group establishes ROC CONSULTING France S.A.S

Jerry Chilvers — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Leading SAP Human Capital Management (HCM) specialist ROC, has today announced the incorporation and establishment of a business for the French market. The company will be known as ROC CONSULTING France S.A.S.

ROC CONSULTING France will aim to enter the French markets to help organisations in the region implement the full range of SAP’s HCM offering. ROC CONSULTING France is another major step towards ROC’s business objective of becoming the largest global SAP HCM specialist.

Patrick Chanterel, Managing Director of France enthused: “I am very enthusiastic about taking a leading role in the development of the ROC Group in France. My priority will be to ensure that the French market, clients and partners alike, will come to recognise our world-renowned values and expertise in SAP HCM".

Editors’ Notes

ROC is the leading global SAP Human Capital Management (HCM) specialist consultancy.

ROC is a global Human Capital Management (HCM) specialist, delivering solutions across the end to end employee lifecycle, underpinned by SAP technology. We have helped large and complex organisations harmonise processes, streamline operations and improve employee engagement. We deliver: On-Demand, On-Premise, On-Device solutions combined with insightful HCM analytics to meet the needs of our clients.

100% HCM 100% SAP.

www.roc-group.com

Press Contacts

Stephanie Rubb

ROC Communications

Tel: +44 (0) 1932 213250

Email: info@roc-group.com

ROC News UK Webinar 29 March 2012

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:37:59 +0000

Want to save time and money by processing UK Maternity absences more efficiently?

JOIN US on this webinar to see how you can streamline your UK Maternity, Paternity and Adoption leave processing with tHRive. We will show you how easily...

Employees can submit and update Maternity requests through ESS, be directed to relevant guidance information about statutory and company rules, and attach MATB1 information and send onto HR.

HR and Payroll Administrators can validate and update Maternity requests, update both statutory data (IT0088) and absence details (IT2001) in one step, and retain and report on all data and documents across the full end to end process.

ROC News tHRive events Feb/Mar 2012

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 01:57:37 +0000

ROC is committed to streamlining SAP HCM for all users. Globally, our customers maximize SAP HCM usability and automation with tHRive.

Join us at SAP Cloud2012 or HR2012 in Las Vegas. Our solution experts will be on-hand to answer your questions.

OR Register today for our upcoming webcasts: "Streamlining SAP with tHRive HCM forms" on Feb 22 and "UK Maternity Pay Processing Made Easy with tHRive" on Mar 28.

Start Streamlining SAP HCM today...

ROC News Time to tHRive February 2012

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:45:49 +0000

We guarantee tHRive HCM Forms will improve HR efficiency in your organization, utilizing your existing SAP technology and our catalog of ready-to-run SAP HR online forms that can easily be deployed by your own team.

As an HR Executive, Manager or Administrator we know you would like to see HR operations carried out more efficiently. Many organizations using SAP are now streamlining HR processes further by deploying fully integrated online HR forms. The business benefits are well understood and include: reduced HR cycle times, efficient administration, minimalizing errors, better compliance and KPI reporting.

ROC News Webcast Invite 22 February 2012

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:45:12 +0000

JOIN ROC when we streamline SAP HR with tHRive HCM Forms – automating HR processes with online forms.

SEVEN great reasons to automate your HR processes with online forms:

1. Automated processes have less errors and associated costs
2. Faster process cycles enable HR to be more efficient
3. Auto-alerts save time wasted monitoring HR processes
4. Audit trails provide evidence of approvals and compliance
5. Respond faster to business process change
6. KPI’s lay the foundation for on-going HR process improvement
7. Reduce paper handling costs and lower environmental impact

Steelcase leverages tHRive HCM Forms to streamline Tuition Reimbursement Process

the tHRive team — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Steelcase Inc. has deployed an innovative e-forms solution to streamline and automate its Tuition Reimbursement process, engaging directly with its employees to reinforce a solid foundation in efficient, decentralized Self Service HCM.

A multi-user process was required that could handle electronic attachments

At Steelcase, employees undertaking relevant external tuition or training may be eligible for reimbursement of some or all the costs they incur. The process requires an initial request from the employee, notification to their line manager and approval from a HR Shared Service Center team. Automated follow up at the end of a period of approved training is also vital to ensure that the employee submits receipts and evidence of their qualifications gained, as is a smooth integration with payroll processing for timely payment of the reimbursed amounts. See pdf link for full case study.

New tHRive HCM Forms Catalogue Published

tHRive — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

A revised catalogue of processes and forms has been published for tHRive HCM Forms. Over 30 forms are now pre-delivered with the full product making the task of removing HR paperwork and streamlining HR even easier.

ROC wins 2010 SAP UKI Partner of the Year – Line of Business Award

ROC UK — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

ROC recognised for its contributions in support of SAP ERP Human Capital Management application; Innovation key to ROC’s recent success with tHRive, its on-demand and on-premise usability suite

London, UK – 17th June 2011 – ROC Systems Consulting Limited today announced it has been awarded a 2010 SAP UKI Partner Award in the category ‘Partner of the Year – Line of Business’. Awards were presented by SAP UKI on May 26, 2011, at the Soho Hotel in London. Twelve awards were given to the top-performing SAP partners in UKI for outstanding contributions in revenue growth, marketing and customer service.

The Partner of the Year - Line of Business award specifically recognises ROC for its close working relationship with SAP in support of customer engagements involving the SAP® ERP Human Capital Management (SAP ERP HCM) application. The award was presented to ROC by Lizzy Squires, alliances director, SAP UKI.

“ROC is a significant and committed contributor to SAP’s line of business,” said Squires. “Over the last 18 months, ROC has launched its tHRive on-demand offering, which provides customers a flexible deployment of SAP ERP HCM, quick time-to-benefits realisation, and mobile capabilities.”

“We are extremely proud of this achievement,” said Jerry Chilvers, global CEO of ROC. “As an SAP services partner and an on-demand solution provider, we spend all of our time helping customers get the most from their implementations of the powerful SAP ERP HCM application, in ways that best suit the organisations’ needs. A lot of hard work has gone into creating our tHRive usability suite, which now underpins most of our self-service deployments, as every organisation knows how important it is to maximise the reach and adoption of SAP software. tHRive makes life easy for all users: HR administrators, line managers and employees. This award is a direct result of all the hard work that has been invested by our solution architects and consultants.

“We are looking forward to the next few years, as cloud availability and ease of adoption become increasingly important key factors in an organisation’s software decisions,” added Chilvers. “tHRive caters to these requirements, so we are well prepared to meet customers’ expectations. It’s an exciting time for SAP, ROC and our joint customers.”

ROC launches new tHRive SAP Performance & Goal Management Solution

The tHRive Team — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

ROC has launched the latest application from the tHRive Usability Suite; a highly intuitive web-based solution for Performance & Goal Management that replaces the need for costly, time consuming enhancement of SAP templates. Choose from a selection of pre-delivered appraisal forms or simply create your own. Engage your employees and improve productivity.

tHRive Self Service HCM for On Premise users has been launched

The tHRive Team — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

ROC launches tHRive Self Service HCM; a ready to run Self Service application leveraging the very latest SAP Webdynpro technology to simplify work-life for employees and managers. Intuitive usability ensures high user take up. Drive down your HR costs with tHRive Self Service HCM.

tHRive SAP HCM Usability Solutions now available to On Premise customers…

tHRive — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

After the successful launch last year of tHRive, ROC’s SAP HCM On Demand Platform, ROC has released a tHRive On Premise Usability Suite for existing SAP customers who also need to improve Usability for Employees, Line Managers and HR Administrators.

“It was becoming increasingly evident that the Usability and Adoption of Software were key challenges for existing On Premise SAP HCM users as well. There are many SAP customers who need to widen the reach of their SAP HCM footprint within the organisation” says Damian Williams, VP of tHRive On Premise Solutions. “The tHRive Usability components underpinning our SAP HCM On Demand platform are built in the latest version (EC6), it was a logical step to release tHRive as an On Premise Usability Suite. We are also seeing lots of interest for tHRive On Premise from organisations implementing SAP HCM for the first time as well, as they really need to maximise employee adoption in order to drive out the business benefits that support the investment case.”

“ROC has been implementing SAP HCM for more than 12 years now and in that time we have seen what works and what doesn’t.” says Williams. “SAP is great technology and version EC6 gives customers a real opportunity to embrace the whole organisation which has a huge positive effect on business performance. Filling in paper forms is time consuming and a thing of the past. And there is no need for employees, managers or administrators to struggle with technology. Our tHRive On Premise Usability Solutions address these issues right now for customers who already own the underlying SAP technology, for minimal investment”.

A number of customers are operational with both tHRive On Premise and tHRive On Demand solutions. ROC continues its global expansion from its European and US headquarters with Damian Williams moving to the Asia Pacific region where the ROC sees exciting growth opportunities.

To read the full press release click here

ROC News ROC News Oct/Nov 2010

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 10:16:07 +0000

Welcome to the latest edition of ROC News. We have a Usability theme running through this whole edition as we are seeing this play a significant part in client decision making as ease of adoption by employees becomes ever more critical.

With Usability in mind, ROC is really proud to announce the release of tHRive-mobile, which allows employees to access Self Services through mobile technology (currently iPhone). Readers can now download this app which includes an offline demo application as well as live access to one of ROC’s tHRive systems. The application is available to all SAP users.

ROC has also released the tHRive onPremise solution suite which addresses many of the issues faced by users of in-house SAP systems. There is a webcast running next week for readers interested in finding out more about one of the solution components - the HR Admin Console.

A new industry spotlight section has now been included and in this issue we focus on Food & Beverage and some of the challenges faced by companies in this sector. There is an update on SAP Visualization Solutions by Nakisa from our renowned Subject Matter Expert, Stephen Burr, and our Chairman, Les Hayman, is now a regular blogger on the HR scene (see below for details).

Finally, we are really proud to have made it into the Tech Track 100 list for a 2nd year running and would like to thank our customers for continuing to choose ROC as their SAP HCM solution provider.

Oh, and if you are at any of the SAP HCM events below, then please come by our booth and say hello…

Damian Williams

Founder, ROC

ROC Stars - Stephen Burr

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Specialism:

SAP Visualization by Nakisa

Stephen Burr started with ROC in December 1998 and is our principle Solution Architect for SAP Visualization Solutions by Nakisa (VSN). He has extensive SAP experience in technical areas and Portal technologies. Stephen is also a certified PRINCE2 Practitioner.

“The visualisation projects are much shorter in nature than full HCM projects, allowing me to deliver benefit quickly to organisations. This suits me, both in giving a sense of a job well done, but also in giving me time to work with a range of clients. I always look forward to the initial client discovery meetings to learn about their business; what they do well or why they do things differently from others.”

New HR Process & Forms Solution

Damian Williams — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

ROC is pleased to announce the launch of its new HR Process & Forms solution (see attachment). This innovative application built using standard SAP technology reduces HR cycle times, reduces HR administration effort, ensures compliance, requires no 3rd party software and comes complete with a pre-delivered process catalogue. For more information, contact your ROC account manager or email info@roc-group.com

Tech Track 100

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

It is 10 years since the first Sunday Times Tech Track 100 revealed Britain’s fastest-growing private technology, telecoms and digital media companies. Since then, successive annual league tables have uncovered several firms that have gone on to become well-known brands and stock-market stars. The tables have also charted changing trends in the knowledge economy as broadband and 3G transform the way companies operate and consumers spend their time and money.

The financial website Moneysuper-market.com, semiconductor business Wolfson Microelectronics and online grocer Ocado are among 23 firms that have floated since appearing in the Tech Track 100. A further 139 have released wealth for their founders and backers through trade sales. For example, the online map provider Multimap was acquired by Microsoft for £24m in 2007; the anti-virus software group MessageLabs was snapped up by Symantec for £400m the following year; and the fashion retailer Net-a-Porter.com was acquired by the Swiss luxury-goods company Richemont for £350m in April.

Over the years, several sectors have stepped into the limelight thanks to technological breakthroughs and market trends. The inaugural Tech Track 100, originally slated for 2000, was postponed for 12 months after the dotcom bubble burst, wiping out thousands of start-ups. But in the following year, dotcoms were eclipsed by telecoms companies, thanks to the effects of deregulation in the 1990s. Since then, the emergence of internet shopping, online gaming, price-comparison websites and, this year, cloud computing, have all been reflected in the rankings.

Many of these companies have become household names. Bet365, at No31 in the league table, is appearing for the fourth time, as is the DVD rental service Lovefilm (No51). Charity fundraising website Just Giving (No 82) is listed for the second year running, while the price comparison web- site Cheapflights Media (No100) is listed for a record seventh consecutive year.

Many more on the tenth anniversary rankings are emerging brands that are transforming our everyday consumer experience. Shazam (No 36) allows people to identify tunes by using their mobile phone to capture the sound. The business is also driving traffic to online music stores, such as iTunes and Amazon, where it claims 8% of users go to download the song that has been identified.

Meanwhile, Skyscanner.net (No 21), one of several price-comparison websites in this year’s league table, is helping cost-conscious holidaymakers find flights, hotels and car hire. Opta Sports Data (No 85) collates and distributes results and other statistics from 30 sports in 70 countries for media outlets, including the BBC and News International, owner of The Sunday Times.

Entrepreneurs at the helm of this year’s Tech Track 100 companies are creating greater wealth and more jobs in the know- ledge economy than at almost any other time in the past decade. Their success is a testament, perhaps, to Britain’s world leading technology and design skills. Together, the 100 companies have combined sales of £2.8 billion, against £429m in 2001, although the league table criteria have changed slightly. As many larger businesses continue to shed jobs, the 2010 league table firms have added 10,564 in the past three years — some the result of acquisitions — bringing their combined workforce to 17,265 staff, compared with 5,270 ten years ago.
Tech Track 100 firms are not required to be in profit as many are backed by venture capital and business angels, but a full four- fifths of this year’s ventures have reported pre-tax profits in their latest accounts. Of the 10 most profitable firms, three are in the online gaming sector, including Bet 365, which recorded the largest profits, at £101m. The healthcare software business Datix (No 86) had the biggest profit margins, at 54%.

This year’s No 1 company, PKR, is another web-based betting business, reflecting consumers’ growing appetite for home entertainment. The company, which operates a 3D poker table allowing players to create their own avatars, was launched six years ago by Jez San, who also founded the games developer Argonaut at the age of 16. Some 100,000 people a month in Europe, Canada and Australia are said to be signing up to the site, powering sales growth of 356% a year from £347,000 in 2006 to £33m in 2009, with good profits.

But perhaps the most notable trend to emerge this year is a sharp rise in the number of companies that provide out- sourced computer services, including cloud computing and managed hosting. Sixteen firms cite this as their main activity, with a further five offering it alongside their main products and services. After businesses slashed their IT budgets during the downturn, many are now opting to outsource server capacity and share IT infrastructure. For example, DediPower (No 41) provides Virgin and Sony with hosting services, while 850 firms have turned to Adapt (No 42) for computer services. Microsoft’s Scott Dodds assesses the rise of cloud computing on page 3. Internet and network service providers account for a further 15 firms.

A broad category of digital media and entertainment companies — including online gaming firms — have also performed strongly this year, with 14 slots on the league table. For example, Monu- mental Games (No 6) develops games that can be played online by thousands of partic- ipants at the same time. BDO’s Julian Frost looks at how technology is shaping con- sumer behaviour on page 6.
Venture-capital, business-angel or private-equity investors have backed 37 of this year’s companies. Encouragingly, six firms raised funding in the 12 months to July, double the number that secured backing in last year’s table. These include Cybit (No 94), a GPS tracking business that was taken private by the American private equity house Francisco Partners in January. On page 4, Sean Duffy of Barclays Corporate evaluates the prospects of bank funding for high-growth firms.

Over the past decade, the Tech Track 100 has showcased the strength and depth of Britain’s knowledge economy. The quality of this year’s fast-growing technology, telecoms and media firms bodes well for Britain’s future.

ROC News ROC News May 2010

Fri, 21 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to May's Newsletter. There is so much happening in the world of SAP HCM that I am struggling to fit it all in.

The most exciting news is that ROC has launched tHRive, a Global SAP HR On Demand Solution. With 30 years of SAP at its core, our Global HR Framework underpinning the processes, Usability Enhancements based on the latest SAP Portal functionality as well as Executive Dashboards it is no wonder that interest is so high. Global compliance is now available - as a service!

SpinifexIT - Payroll Reconciliation

Sat, 01 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

This paper, written by our partner SpinifexIT, presents methods adopted by many other SAP HR/Payroll customers to streamline the often tedious and time-consuming process of Payroll to Finance reconciliation. The effect is to dramatically reduce this manual process. If your organization is struggling to reconcile payroll on a monthly basis then you might want to read more

ARCO Award

Damian Williams — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000

ECMOD was founded back in 1990 and is the most highly regarded annual conference for executives engaged in the catalogue & home shopping sector through online and multi-channel retailing. Last night Arco won the Outstanding Website Innovation and Performance Award in the B2B sector.

Their website which is based upon Broadvision technology & is integrated into a SAP landscape has been developed and continually enhanced by a dedicated ROC team over the last 5 years.

“I am sure you will join me in congratulating Iain Millar and his team for this outstanding achievement and well deserved recognition of the developments they have achieved with the excellent support of ROC” Arco Sales & Marketing Director

So many congratulations to Stephen, Malcolm, Tom and Ian from ROC and to Iain of Arco and his team for this outstanding achievement and well deserved recognition of the developments they have achieved

Thanks

Damian

ROC News ROC News Jan/Feb 2010

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the latest issue of ROC’s Newsletter. With the dawn of the new decade, many organizations are once again looking at the value they are getting from their IT budgets. At ROC, we are assisting our clients maximize their return on this investment and position themselves to deliver outstanding HR service to their employees. From helping build a strategic roadmap to applications support, ROC is adding value to their SAP investment. In each issue of our Newsletter we share some of these highlights.

In February's Newsletter, we focus on Analytics, SAP WSO (the new Workforce Scheduling & Optimization solution from SAP, powered by Click Software) as well as the latest release of SAP TVN. I am also really proud to see that Sandy Eastman, CEO of ROC ANZ has been named as one of the top ten most influential people in ANZ region. Sandy has helped literally hundreds of organizations make the most of their SAP HCM solutions and she deserves this recognition. Finally, in the interest of refining our newsletter to meet more of your needs we have included a reader feedback section at the end.

Inside SAP - Top 10 most influential People

SAP — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

We are really proud to announce that Sandy Eastman, CEO of ROC ANZ, has been recognized by ‘Inside SAP’ as one of the ten most influential people in the SAP Australia & New Zealand region.

Poland: e-declarations in SAP

Ryszard Wysocki — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

ROC Poland has a new solution, e-Deklaracje, allowing SAP customers to send tax forms PIT-11, PIT-8C & PIT-40 electronically to the Ministry of Finance, saving time and effort.

Visualize even more with SAP TVN Release 2.1

Damian Williams — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Last month saw SAP release SAP Talent Visualization by Nakisa version 2.1.

The latest enhancements for this fast evolving product further adopt leading talent management best practices and allow customers to visualise more data and relationships within their organisation.

Southwark County Council & SpinifexIT Payroll Reporting Tools

Damian Williams — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Says Lynn Farrell, SAP HR & Payroll Manager of London Borough of Southwark: “We are really excited with the opportunity that the deployment of SpinifexIT Payroll Reporting tools presents to us at Southwark County Council. Finally, there is a product that can bridge the gap between SAP’s Ad-hoc Query and Business Intelligence (BI)”

“Without having to go to the incredible expense of a full blown BI project, we and our users are now able to extract management information simply and efficiently without the need for IT involvement - ROC and SpinifexIT have provided us with a step change in SAP HR/Payroll Reporting”.

SAP Upgrade - Sussex Police

Damian Williams — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Sussex Police realised, in late 2007, that it needed to upgrade its existing SAP systems

to increase efficiency of HR management and meet legislative requirements. Both finance and procurement departments also benefited and the organisation gained both new functionality and future expansion options. One regulatory change, affecting public sector pensions, was impending during the implementation phase, constraining the project tightly by the fiscal year.

ROC News ROC News Nov/Dec 09

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

November has been a busy month and with December already upon us we have combined the last two issues of the year to bring you a packed Christmas edition. This issue is all about Performance Management with links to a recent article published by ROC on the importance of Performance Management in today’s economic climate. On ROC TV we have a recording of October's webcast with guest speakers from Towers Perrin and a customer that
implemented Performance Management in under 2 months.

In tune with the festive period we have included a case study on Hasbro Inc., a worldwide leader in children’s and family leisure time products and services, who will no doubt be very busy at this time of year. With ROC's help, Hasbro implemented a global
Compensation Management solution to simplify the annual pay review process.

Finally, I would like to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a prosperous year in 2010 wherever you are in the world.

Fully integrated Performance Management from SAP

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

SAP Performance Management is fully integrated with other SAP HCM modules and provides a whole range of functionality. And best of all, it can implemented in less than 2 months !

SAP World Tour Event, New York City

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

ROC, the leading global SAP HCM consultancy, today announced it continues to strengthen its commitment to SAP (NYSE: SAP) as a sponsor for the SAP World Tour in New York City, being held on Wednesday, October 21, 2009, at the Marriott Marquis hotel. Les Hayman, ROC Group Chairman of the Board and former global Board Member of SAP, will be a featured keynote speaker. Hayman’s presentation, “4 Ps of HR: Polite to Police to Partner to Player,” will review the critical elements that separate great companies from average companies, and how great companies drive innovation and utilize technology as a strategic weapon. Click here to read more.

ROC News ROC News September 09

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to September’s edition of ROC News, the newsletter designed to keep you in the picture of what’s happening around the world at ROC and all things SAP HCM. September’s issue has a Talent Management theme with links to our last webinar on Succession Planning and a client Case Study on SAP TVN, along with information on future events, webinars and much more…..

With Best Wishes,

Accelerated Solution for SAP HCM Processes & Forms

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

ROC is pleased to announce the launch of its accelerated approach to SAP HCM Processes & Forms, one of the latest technology components available on the SAP HCM platform. This SAP technology allows organizations to replace many manual form based processes with interactive Adobe Form technology to reduce HR cycle times, improve accuracy and compliance with approval requirements. ROC’s accelerated solution delivers 10 forms out of the box and reduces implementation time significantly.

ROC joins the Sunday Times Tech Track 100

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

As a reflection of ROC’s rapid growth over the last three years, ROC was ranked number 54 in the Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100.

We would like to thank our employees for all their hard work and dedication in helping make this happen. Full details are included in the attached 8 page report and on the Tech Track website www.fasttrack.co.uk.

Nakisa Announces Global Integration Partnership with ROC Group

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Nakisa® Inc., the pioneer provider of truly-integrated talent and organization management solutions for SAP®, today announced it has added ROC to its ecosystem of solution integration partners. Under this agreement, ROC, a leading global SAP Human Capital Management (HCM) consultancy, will implement SAP® Talent Visualization by Nakisa (SAP TVN) worldwide.

To view the full article please click here.

ROC announces the launch of ROC Italy

Vicky Burr — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

ROC, the leading global SAP HCM consultancy, today announced the launch of its Italian subsidiary, ROC Consulting Italia. The launch of ROC in Italy propels ROC into the central Mediterranean region. Taking advantage of the growing SAP market, ROC Italy will bring ROC’s wealth of SAP HCM specialist knowledge to its local customers.

Les Hayman, chairman of ROC and former SAP Board member, championed the launch, “This is an important move for ROC and for our customers. ROC Italy provides a vital European platform for many of our clients. This latest expansion across Europe is a natural progression of our business strategy and reinforces our commitment to become the largest global SAP HCM consultancy.”

The Milan-based arm of ROC will be headed up by Enrico Repossi, who has extensive management experience, both international and local, and brings over ten years of SAP and HCM experience to ROC.

Repossi comments, “Our strong team is well-placed to bring their local experience to ROC. With the Italian market heavily focused on Talent Management, ROC Italy will help our customers to visualise their talented players and see real benefits from their workforce.”

This news comes alongside a period of rapid growth for ROC, with partnerships across all the major geographies around the world. ROC employs over 300 SAP HCM experts.

Getting the Best Future for Your Company

Stephen Burr — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Early May saw SAP release the latest “Enhancement Package” (EhP4); these packages are SAP’s way of deploying new software functionality to customers without disruption. Although there are notable improvements in the core HCM module, this enhancement package delivers major improvements in the area of Talent Management.

But in the current global downturn, is this important right now?

Firstly, I’d echo Damian William’s thoughts in the previous article “Investing in the future” that continual progression of your organisation’s capability, by managing your talented employees, is key to your company’s growth. Les Hayman (ROC Chairman) has previously spoken about how almost every company, via corporate mission statements, tells us that their employees are key to their business. But how many act on this corporate statement? Talent Management is a process that helps deliver on that goal.

It is crucial to realise that Talent Management is a business process that I.T. can help enable. It is about joining up processes across recruiting, learning, performance management, succession planning and compensation management to ensure the right data is collated and available to key decision makers. SAP EhP4 ensures a common data model is used to ensure data is accessible to the right people at the right time using specific roles that are defined for each person in the talent management process; recruiter, learning administrator, managers, etc.

While technology can provide a mechanism to the business to achieve its aims, it needs the business to embrace the process as well as the corporate strategy to re-enforce that commitment.

Talent Management is about getting the best future for your company.

ROC Acquires Towers Watson SAP HCM Practice in North America

Vicky Burr — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

ROC, the leading global SAP HCM consultancy, today announced that it has entered the North American market via its acquisition of Towers Watson’s SAP HCM Practice. ROC Americas Inc. forms a crucial element within ROC’s global business strategy.

ROC brings over 10 years of experience and a global capability to the SAP HCM services market in the US. The combination of ROC’s global reach and local expertise, together with the ability to provide cost effective offshore delivery, provides a compelling proposition and a genuine alternative to the established players within the North American market.

ROC and Towers Watson have announced a strategic alliance, positioning ROC as Towers Watson’s preferred partner for SAP related services. ROC and Towers Watson have a history of collaboration, having worked together on a number of previous occasions. We believe that this move will further benefit customers by leveraging the best aspects of both organisations.

Les Hayman, ROC Chairman and ex global Board Member of SAP, champions the deal: “This is an exciting move both for ROC and for SAP customers. The reputation and experience this acquisition brings to us will strengthen our position in the global marketplace, as well as provide a strong foothold for ROC in North America, a key market for us. For customers, it provides access to a greater depth and breadth of knowledge and a larger scope of services, from a truly global provider, to help them address their HCM challenges.”

“We are pleased to be partnering with ROC, an organization that brings the right focus, experience, expertise and culture for our employee and our customers,” commented Thomas Keebler, practice leader for the global HR Function Effectiveness practice at Towers Watson. “The pairing of Towers Watson’s deep consulting expertise across the breadth of the HR function, and ROC’s singular focus on SAP HCM, will provide clients with a unique and robust combination to best serve their needs and drive business performance.”

Jerry Chilvers, ROC CEO, said: “I am thrilled by the prospect of this acquisition. ROC and Towers Watson are both great organisations and I believe that customers in the US will be extremely well served by this unique blend of HCM business and technology expertise. In today’s challenging economic environment, organisations more than ever before require specialists that can deliver tangible business benefit cost effectively."

Investing in the future

Damian Williams — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Employers are not willing to let their talent suffer, according to the latest research from Ochre House. Some 67% of surveyed employers are planning on rewarding their top performers with a pay rise this year, despite the current economic climate.

With so many tales of redundancies, the concern would be that valuable employees are lost during the process. As we know, not every company has a robust talent management process in place. Successfully managing talent is vital to the future success of every organisation and it’s refreshing to see that managers are recognising the need to invest in their key players. Keeping staff motivated and secure will ensure that business will flourish and the future leaders are in place to steer the ship.

With reports of headcounts on the increase, it is clear to see that companies are investing in the present as well as the future.

ROC UK announces exclusive partnership with SpinifexIT

Vicky Burr — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

ROC, the leading global SAP HCM consultancy, today announced an exclusive partnership for the UK market with SpinifexIT, a company specialising in the production of SAP R/3 software specifically for the HR/Payroll module.

ROC is the sole UK provider of the SpinifexIT SAP products, Generic Reporting Toolkit©, Payslip Analyser© and Dataport©. SpinifexIT has built a strong customer base in the Asia-Pacific region, the US and Europe and has partnered with ROC for its expansion into the UK SAP payroll market. As the leading HCM SAP specialist in the UK, ROC will have a significant positive impact on bringing SpinifexIT’s products to market. The SpinifexIT products increase the accuracy and efficiency of the Payroll query process; those sites who have implemented the products have benefited from a reduction in trouble shooting time for Payroll support teams of up to 80%.

Damian Williams, ROC Group Founder and UK Managing Director said, “The partnership offers SAP customers in the UK the opportunity to streamline their payroll operations. Already successfully deployed across many countries, our partnership cements the penetration of SpinifexIT into the UK HCM payroll market. ROC and Spinifex IT have tailored the product to the specific needs of UK customers. ROC Group has many successful partnerships with SAP specialists around the globe and we are pleased to be able to welcome SpinifexIT into the UK HCM market.”

Jeremy Reilly, UK Manager at SpinifexIT commented, “We chose to make our sole UK partnership with ROC Group as it is a well-established, successful consultancy with a large client base in the UK payroll market. Our companies have a shared vision for excellence and business process improvement for customers using SAP HR and Payroll.”

This is the latest in a series of partnerships for ROC Group. Previous partnerships with companies including Kaba and Nakisa have enabled ROC Group customers to enhance their SAP product by offering additional functionality.

Shared service centres: widening the skill gap

Damian Williams — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

According to a report in Personnel Today, over 56% of HR executives and CEOs believe that shared service centres are killing off the skills of our HR professionals, through lack of exposure to key working practices.

It’s a worrying thought that the next generation of HR professionals might be missing out on vital skills and experience, simply from a lack of exposure. The report expects this to lead to skill gaps further down the line.

I don’t believe for one minute that shared services is the sole cause of this; let’s not forget the many benefits it can bring, through streamlining resource and cost. But there’s clearly a balance to be struck between processes that are shipped out and those kept in-house, so that ‘core’ HR skills are passed on to future HR executives.

We are all aware that,HR faces the challenge of having to prove its value, especially in the current climate. However, HR should be viewed as a ‘business change’ function, rather than simply an admin department churning out expense claims and holiday forms. To help to make that move to establish itself as a legitimate decision-maker in the boardroom, managers need more time to invest in thinking strategically.

So, the time saved through the effective distribution of processes through shared services means that there is now more time available to strategise and start planning for the upturn.

It is crucial, though, that HR managers must also find the balance between utilising resources effectively through shared service centres and not letting the skill set of their colleagues suffer through lack of experience in HR admin and procedures.

ROC reports rapid global growth.

Vicky Burr — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Company expands footprint and revenue towards goal of becoming largest global SAP HCM consultancy. ROC, the leading global SAP HCM consultancy, has announced exceptional financial growth for 2008 expanding revenues to approximately £10 million a year. The company has also expanded its global footprint across all major geographies boasting over 250 percent year-on-year growth, against an industry standard believed to be around 20-25 percent. The company has achieved this without taking on debt or drawing on VC investment.

Throughout 2008 ROC has seen a rapid expansion in its global footprint, including the addition of three more strategic countries: Benelux, South Africa and Australia & New Zealand. ROC now has an employee base of over 300 Business Transformation and SAP HCM experts across the globe, which is set to continue growing during 2009.

Les Hayman, chairman of ROC and ex-CEO of SAP EMEA commented: “Our ongoing partnership programme has been central to ROC’s success this year. Our global clients are now able to access ROC’s knowledge and expertise in every major geography around the world. This allows us to create globally joined-up SAP thinking for large enterprises, whilst spreading ROC’s in-depth SAP understanding to locally operating players. 2009 will provide many possibilities for ROC to continue its growth, seeking out new areas for expansion and taking advantage of every new opportunity.”

ROC Global CEO, Jerry Chilvers, said, “It is great to see our business succeeding despite the economic challenges. I’m very proud of the ROC team’s performance over the past 12 months and am confident we can continue and expand upon our successes throughout 2009. Our rapid growth is a testament to ROC’s strong business strategy and reinforces our commitment to become the largest global SAP HCM consultancy.”

ROC ANZ launches into Asia Pacific market

Vicky Burr — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

ROC, the leading global SAP HCM consultancy, today announced that Azenkai, a leading SAP Service Partner in Australia and New Zealand, will become part of the ROC Group, forming a strategic element of ROC’s global business.

Les Hayman, chairman of ROC and ex-CEO of SAP Asia Pacific, championed the deal: “Our partnership with Azenkai and the Asia Pacific initiatives is an exciting move for ROC and for our customers. Asia Pacific is a crucial market for many of our clients and this will give them access to a full complement of SAP services from one, stable, global provider. Azenkai was the right fit for ROC, given its culture, the depth of experience of the executive team and local and regional knowledge”.

This announcement is one of several this year, following ROC’s expansion across South Africa, France and Benelux.

ROC Global CEO, Jerry Chilvers, said, “This exciting deal is a natural progression of our business strategy and reinforces our commitment to become the largest global SAP HCM consultancy by the end of 2008. Azenkai shares both the ROC dedication to HCM and the approach to exceeding customer expectations.”

ROC now operates in all the major geographies around the world, employing over 300 HCM Business Transformation and SAP HCM experts.

Equality Bill, Diversity Management

Damian Williams — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Diversity management is one of the largest challenges organisations will face over the next decade. Making sure an organisation has a successful mix of staff from different genders, races, ages and ability levels is not only becoming a legal requirement but is also crucial to ensuring staff satisfaction and positive career outlook. Staff diversity also brings a varied skill set and a valuable range of experience to the company. Skilfully implemented diversity management can have a large impact on a company’s future competitive success. But what are the key challenges and opportunities and how can an organisation effectively tackle this highly complicated task?

The UK job market is constantly evolving thanks to the thriving EU-wide staff pool, increasing globalisation, a growth in outsourcing and the development of UK-based multinational companies. Alongside the cultural, racial and religious-based issues that must be considered with new staff coming into the country, ever-changing diversity legislation helps to keep managers on their toes.

Global workforce issues, discrimination, gender pay gaps, glass ceilings and providing appropriate opportunities and working environments for disabled staff, ensure the onus is on modern companies to develop extensive and well-planned diversity policies. Managers must then make sure their policies are implemented properly to avoid the various legal consequences.

The days of legislation driving diversity are fading. This year’s Equality Bill tasks public sector companies and their private sector partners to assess their diversity policies and get their houses in order. Attention must be paid to this new legislation to avoid possible employee litigation and hefty governmental fines. Companies are now scrambling to define their policies, establish effective audit procedures and manage their information to adhere to the new rules. Transparency is the key to the Equality Bill. Ensuring companies face up to their responsibilities and be seen doing so, can only bring benefit to the UK’s workforce as a whole.

Developing and adhering to diversity policies does not only benefit an organisation by protecting it from legal risk. Diversity can breed a thriving and profitable company whilst increasing its wellbeing and ambition. A positive atmosphere of equality and fair play, with opportunities clearly available for all, will make the organisation a pleasure to work in and attract new desirable talent. Motivated, fairly-treated staff are more likely to strive to be the best they can be, providing benefits to both the organisation and the individual.

But it’s easy to talk about diversity; implementing diversity policies can be more complicated, especially in larger companies. The execution of new diversity plans and their corresponding results can take some time to appear. For example, simply reporting a snapshot of the current employee makeup may reveal diversity issues but these can take over a year to fix from instigation to impact. Creating and rolling out procedures, assessing their current workforce and predicting future trends all have significant time and cost implications for managers and HR that cannot be overlooked. For this reason, it’s important that organisations start their diversity management as soon as possible.

A good diversity management plan should be quite straightforward and centre on the core topics of gender, race, disability, age and religion. The various issues emanating from each topic are complicated and far too extensive to be covered in one article. However, there are certain all-encompassing areas that can be addressed to put your organisation on the right path.

Firstly, putting the right systems and technology in place will help a company effectively manage diversity. The analysis of existing staff makeup, the tracking and projection of trends and most importantly the logging of documents, communications and other collateral relating to these actions can and should be implemented through an interlinked diversity system. Larger companies will find the size of their task comparative to the size of their organisation, and enlist the support and technology appropriate to their needs.

Secondly, put in place plans and systems for the whole recruitment process, such as advertising, short-listing, interviewing and selecting should be an initial step. Companies can start looking at their existing staff and implement systems for checking staff makeup to ensure that going forward, all groups are represented appropriately. The appraisal system of an organisation should be rigorously over-hauled if necessary. Fair and honest measurement, achievable objectives, appropriate promotion and remuneration should all be provided under an umbrella of accountability and transparency.

Internal harassment, grievance and disciplinary procedures are also of paramount importance to the company. All employees have the right to work in a pleasant environment, free from discrimination and bullying. The Disability Discrimination Act also forced companies to sit up and respond to any potential problems for disabled employees. Companies may think that they already comply well with these aspects of employment law – but is their workforce really able to cope in a sensitive and professional manner with a colleague undergoing gender transformation? Is the line management currently able to adapt to a new team member who needs completely bespoke training due to a physical disability?

There are also likely to be many other processes and actions to monitor and control that are specific to a particular organisation. It’s important that HR professionals pick apart all internal processes for their own organisations that could influence diversity and adjust their own plans and policies accordingly.

Another major part of organisational diversity is being as prepared as possible to counteract criticism. A core benefit of effective diversity management is the creation of clear and interlinked audit trails. Once implemented, these should then be able to help protect against alleged legal breaches whilst also improving the administrative burden of diversity management. Companies can then easily demonstrate their compliance with diversity and anti-discriminatory legislation. They will have access to appropriate and coherent documentation should an employee or union complaint reach a legal stage. The monitoring and recording of information relating to diversity should then become a simple, routine process and thus a way of life for an organisation.

The government’s Equality Bill was specifically designed to create a wave of diversity in public sector and their private sector suppliers. The Equality Bill was initially proposed to cover every company and organisation without discrimination, if you’ll excuse the pun. But with many private sector companies behind the public sector in their diversity management, the Bill was reduced in scope. But this certainly isn’t the end of legally imposed diversity in the private sector and private-sector companies should not sit back and wait for diversity management to be legally forced upon them, especially if they are trading with public sector organisations.

Future legislative changes will only increase the pressure on companies to put diversity on their boardroom agenda. While many organisations will groan, the ramifications of a diversity ‘wave’ can be highly positive. The implementation will be difficult for some but now is the time that savvy companies can take the initiative, dominate diversity and come out better-suited to the needs of our multicultural society and their own respective markets. With diversity being managed properly, we’ll be left with a better environment for the public and private sectors and of course, for employees.

Damian Williams is MD of ROC UK

The Equality Bill – Time to Sit Up and Take Notice

Damian Williams — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The Government’s Equality Bill, announced by Deputy Labour leader and Equalities Minister Harriet Harman in July, has been long anticipated by public sector organisations and long dreaded by many of them. While the anticipation of the Bill and the implications it has for the sector have been heavily discussed, it appears that it may have caught many unawares. Data is yet to be released on the sector’s compliance with the bill but with a spate of new employee litigation filed shortly after its reading, it sends a clear message to organisations that aren’t ready that they need to get ready soon.

The first major implication of the Bill is the impact it will have on the private sector. The government hopes to use it to bring both public organisations and their private sector suppliers into line on diversity management. From now on, companies bidding for contracts worth £160bn a year can actually lose work if their competitors have a better record on equality in the workplace. Likewise existing suppliers may find themselves playing catch-up to compete with dynamic and diverse equality-ready suppliers as a wave of diversity compliance sweeps public sector procurement.

To the unprepared, bringing an organisation in line with the bill could be a difficult task and is definitely more than a box ticking exercise. The Bill is a real legal minefield, providing many potential stumbling blocks for unsure HR departments. Complying will require a step change in the way some those dealing with HR issues operate in order to avoid being taken to the cleaners by legally-wronged or, of course, underhanded employees.

The Equality bill brings together over 100 separate pieces of legislation covering areas of race, sex, age, religion, disability and more. Basically anything about a worker (that doesn’t obviously prevent them from doing a job) that could be classed as discriminatory, features. Examples of this include: removing gags on discussion of pay to eliminate gender pay differences and promoting provision of employment and appropriate working environments for older people.

One could be fooled into thinking that the Bill was a completely negative thing for the sector but it shouldn’t be viewed like this. In many ways the Bill is an opportunity – why? Well to start with, it brings together a heap of disparate legislation meaning it is now much easier for organisations to get their heads around what they should be doing and recording regarding diversity. The Bill also paves the way for a diversity code of practice to aid compliance, so it may yet become even easier to comply with the tenets of the bill and get organisational diversity on track. It should also help well-prepared organisations avoid possible legal trouble in our increasingly litigious culture.

A central tenet of the Bill is in encouraging transparency in diversity management. The law now allows the Equality Commission to set-up investigative tribunals who can then request and assess appropriate documentation to support an organisation’s diversity claims or of course claims against them. A lack of clear documentation could lead to court orders and hefty fines. The Bill also provides ample ammunition for critics and lawyers to hit an organisation with. So to avoid being caught out the onus is really on being as prepared as humanly possible to counteract criticism.

What this means for an organisation is a need to record all pieces of important information that relate to diversity and highly detailed audit trails demonstrating compliance with the Bill. The Bill calls this the public sector’s ‘Equality Duty’ and puts pressure on organisations to attend to the key areas of gender pay, ethnic minority, disability and age representation and religion.

The trouble is that the audit trails needed to back up an organisation’s diversity credentials can quickly become highly complex and highly admin-intensive. Consider having to log all background details on recruitment ads, interviews and recruitment decisions, promotions, pay rises, bonuses, disciplinaries and grievances – understandably this can become a real bottomless pit for man-hours. Having the right systems and technology in place can help an organisation create clear and interlinked audit trails which can then mitigate against alleged breaches of the bill and of course remove some of the administrative burden.

Some important areas of diversity that organisations should think about straight away are: employment advertising, dealings with recruitment agencies, communications on appointments, disciplinary actions, documents pertaining to promotions, demotions, position applications and so on. There are likely to be many other processes and actions to log that are specific to a particular organisation. So it’s important that HR execs pick apart all internal processes for their own organisations that could influence diversity and adjust how they comply with the Bill accordingly. And it makes sense to do this sooner rather than later. Compliance requires a lot of forward thinking and planning and cannot be carried out in a piecemeal fashion. For example, simply reporting a snapshot of the current employee makeup may reveal diversity issues but these can take over a year to fix from instigation to impact. So waiting until the law comes into effect could leave organisations exposed for some time while they wait for revised policies to flow through.

Some commentators have derided the bill for the fact it will not be imposed upon the private sector. However it’s likely that disastrous and costly consequences of being shut-out of public sector procurement will have a large effect on private companies. With the FT reporting the public sector outsourcing has doubled over the last ten years to £80bn this year, there is an even larger onus on the sector to sit up and take notice. As a long term-view the government has signalled its hope that private organisations will actually start reporting on diversity in company accounts and that shareholders will start using this as important indicator of a company’s investment prospects.

For public sector organisations to be able to enforce diversity checks in their own procurement it is vital that they first get their own houses in order. While in the long term it may more efficient for a company to bring in an HR consultant to overhaul policies, there are avenues that can be looked at right away. Putting in place plans for the whole recruitment process, such as advertising, vetting, interviewing, selection should be an initial step. After this companies can start looking at their existing staff and implement systems for checking staff makeup to ensure that going forward, all groups are represented appropriately. Once these systems, whether developed in-house or bought-in, are in place the monitoring and analysis of pay deals, new employees, promotions and as a result compliance with the Bill should become much more simple. Indeed, once the appropriate policies are in place diversity management should become a way of life for an organisation.

While many organisations will have groaned at the announcement of the Equality Bill, in the end the ramifications for both the public and private sectors should be broadly positive. The shakeup will be painful for some but now is the time that savvy companies can take the initiative, dominate diversity and come out better suited to the needs of our multicultural society. Hopefully, after the shakeup, we’ll be left with a better environment for the public sector, private companies and, of course, for employees.

Damian Williams is MD of ROC UK

ROC are Premier Sponsors of HR2008

Olivia Farry — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

As part of the Premier sponsorship, seven speakers from ROC will feature in the conference line-up, including a keynote address from Les Hayman, Chairman of ROC. ROC will also host an evening reception for delegates on the 6th of November.

Les will deliver a speech entitled “The future of HR — can it survive in your organisation?” The address, given on Wednesday 5th November, will cover numerous important challenges facing the modern HR organisation including: the global war for talent and the importance of tackling business issues through HR. He will also look at the other critical business challenges keeping the world's CEOs awake at night.

Alongside ROC, one of its most valued customers, Hampshire County Council will also speak about its own implementation of SAP Talent Visualisation (powered by Nakisa).

Trevor Stabb, of Hampshire County Council (HCC), will present a case study of the solution at the authority. The presentation will focus on the collection, management and organisation of HR-related data at HCC, the solution that was implemented, and how it was wielded to greatest effect. Trevor will also look at the how the visualisation and customisation of HCC's systems made the implementation even more rewarding.

Damian Williams, UK Managing Director of ROC, expressed his excitement about the event: "This is a really important time for ROC, which has seen very rapid growth over the last 12 months. This event is a great opportunity to share some of our experiences with the HR community, whilst looking at some of our clients' great SAP successes. We are really proud of our close relationship with SAP and being the Premier sponsor of HR 2008 only helps strengthen these ties."

Several ROC consultants are also presenting and hosting sessions at HR2008. Tom Hallewell, Solution Architect, is delivering several conference breakout sessions on Talent Management as well as hosting a discussion forum on E-Recruitment. Richard Honnor, Practice Manager, is presenting 'An introduction to the SAP Workforce Planning and Optimisation solution. Stephen Burr, Solution Architect and Simon Humphreys, Practice Manager, are delivering Talent Visualisation and Talent Management presentations respectively. A member of ROC Nordic, the Norwegian arm of ROC, Jens Ejsing is also hosting a session for delegates, focusing on strategic design and delivery of a global deployment of SAP HCM.

Talent Management: Nothing to do with employee benefits?

Damian Williams — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Talent management is the current buzzword in HR. Talent management is the identification, recruitment, development and deployment of a company's most capable employees. It is a strategy used by employers to improve the retention ratio of their best staff, increase employee loyalty and boost productivity.

Talent management is focused on growing the individual; concentrating on their training and development within the company, while ensuring there are always successors in place that are suitable for key positions should someone leave.

Benefits have an important role to play in talent management. They form an intrinsic part of the value proposition that organisations offer new and existing employees. Flexible benefits can be worth their weight in gold in the employee retention stakes. Research published by the Economist this year, called Talent Wars - The struggle for tomorrow's workforce, discovered that salaries and employee benefits still rank extremely highly in designing a new value proposition for tomorrow's workforce (56%), second only to providing for a better work-life balance through offering flexible working arrangements in terms of hours and place of work (62%).

Structuring a flexible employee benefits programme so staff can select the incentives that are pertinent to their lifestyle is a key weapon in the arsenal of talent management and the retention of star employees. When an organisation is attracting new talent and a candidate is deciding between several offers, it can boil down to what an organisation can offer them. Flexible employee benefits allow the employer to appeal to a diverse range of applicants, and attract good quality candidates.

The ability to mix and match benefits, from pensions and childcare, to holiday allowances and gym memberships, performs a key role in organisations' approach to attracting talent. What appears to be a benefit for one employee may be less important to another, for example, pensions are often less attractive to the younger workforce but become important later on in life.

Although talent management is a corporate level strategy and benefits are ultimately employee incentives, the two are inherently linked. The return on investing time and money in attracting, training, nurturing and retaining key players in the company is diminished if a flexible approach to benefits is not offered as well.

Damian Williams is MD of ROC UK

ROC Announces 10th Anniversary Celebrations

Olivia Farry — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

ROC, a leading global SAP HCM specialist, has announced plans for its 10th anniversary with a day of celebration for all its employees around the world. The event, comprising speeches, team building and other motivational activities, will take place at The Grand Hotel in Brighton on the 2nd of October.

The celebration will be an opportunity for all staff to take stock of their achievements over the last ten years and contribute to, ROC’s strategic future. The event will be punctuated with speeches from ROC Chairman Les Hayman and SAP Ambasador, ROC Global CEO Jerry Chilvers and a motivational speaker. Staff will also participate in team building exercises, a gala dinner and a staff ball to end the event.

Jerry Chilvers, ROC Global CEO, commented, “ROC’s recent growth has been like a whirlwind, so it’s been a really exciting time for the company, especially over the last few years. Our staff numbers have grown from 40 to over 150 in under a year so we thought our 10th birthday would be a great opportunity to stop for a moment and consider the future of ROC as the global business it has become.

As HR professionals, we know how important it is to keep employees invested in the present and future of the company and that’s what this event is about. We couldn’t have got where we are today without them and we need their help to keep pushing ROC forward and to make it the success it deserves to be.”

The announcement marks an important milestone for ROC which has seen rapid growth to become one of the worlds leading SAP HCM specialists. ROC is now a truly global company with bases in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australasia and North America.

ROC’s growth has continued this year, with a joint venture with Benelux-based Quintysis, creating ROC France to serve the French and Swiss markets. ROC has also partnered with South Africa-based SAP HCM consultancy, SWICON in order to penetrate the sub-Saharan Africa market.

Prior to these announcements, ROC welcomed Les Hayman to the team as Chairman. Les was previously the Vice President for SAP in the EMEA and south-Asia regions and still works as an ambassador to SAP. The addition of Les to the team has provided ROC with extensive strategic knowledge and experience of the HR world, whilst strengthening its already firm relationship with SAP.

ROC launches SAP HCM Internship

Olivia Farry — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

ROC is pleased to launch its SAP HCM Internship, providing opportunities for candidates with an HR background and experience working in a SAP HCM project team. By joining ROC's SAP HCM Internship you can:

Become a SAP HCM consulting expert
Join a world class specialist SAP HCM consultancy
Train up in the latest SAP HCM technology
Learn how to configure SAP HCM modules
Experience the SAP HCM project lifecycle
Be mentored by one of the world's most experienced SAP HCM consultants

At the end of the program you will be given the opportunity to specialise in a SAP HCM module. If you are an enthusiastic hard worker who is keen to take your career to the next stage then contact us at careers@roc-group.com.

ROC provides enhanced SAP HCM demonstration capability

Olivia Farry — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

ROC has recently fully integrated its demonstration capabilities such that existing and potential customers can now view the full suite of SAP’s Human Capital Management (HCM) functionality on a single environment. Not only that, but this capability is also portable which allows ROC to bring all this functionality to life at your premises.

The demonstration scenarios follow a candidate through their application to the company via e Recruitment, their subsequent induction as an employee, and then follow them through the first year within the organisation including on-line appraisal reviews and performance based remuneration. Key Performance Indicators are reported to managers using SAP’s Business Warehouse.

The functionality is made available to users predominantly via SAP’s Self Service applications – Manager Self Service, Employee Self Service and the newly introduced HR Administrator Self Service delivered through an Internet Explorer Portal.

If your organisation is considering the implementation of an integrated HCM software application, then email us at enquiries@roc-group.com or telephone +44 (0)1932 268512.

Public Sector Qualifications Body Christmas Payroll delivered safely by ROC

Olivia Farry — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

A National Public Sector Body responsible for the development, accreditation, assessment and certification of qualifications can look forward to a festive Christmas thanks to ROC. The customer had confidence in ROC to deliver the project safely and on time at a very sensitive time of the year for employee’s pay packets.

ROC awarded ISO 9001 Quality Certification

Olivia Farry — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

ROC Systems Consulting Ltd has recently been awarded the ISO 9001:2000 certificate for quality assurance. This international certification lets ROC clients know that the Company is dedicated to delivering service that meets their expectations and has the management structures in place to ensure that a high quality of service is continually maintained.

The successful award of the certificate is the result of both an external audit of ROC’s quality management systems and the immediate implementation of its results. The importance that ROC places on the delivery of quality services can be seen by its choosing to submit itself to ISO 9001:2000 auditing.

ROC is now able to use the ISO 9001:2000 logo on all stationery, websites and indeed any promotional matter. The logo indicates to clients and prospective clients that ROC is committed to the continual improvement of its services for the benefit of its customers.

However, the ISO 9001:2000 certification is more than just a one-off award. It is dependent on ROC’s quality management systems being reviewed every quarter as well as being externally audited on a twice yearly basis. The review and audit process is an essential element of the certification which ensures that ROC continually looks to improve its service.

Peter Appleton, Business Development Director of ISO Quality Services Ltd, the company that carried out the certification process says “I am delighted to have been involved with ROC Systems Consulting during the implementation of the ISO 9001 Certification. I have been able to advise the company on how it can best structure its systems to deliver quality services. This ultimately benefits the customer as well as the business itself.”

Jerry Chilvers, Managing Director of ROC Systems Consulting Ltd says, “We are committed to offering a quality service from the start and we have already built in systems to maintain a high standard of customer service. All the team at ROC have worked really hard to achieve this certification which is an indication of how important quality is to us as a company.”