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Human capital management systems are critical to business success
Tue, 7th Nov 2017
FYI, this story is more than a year old

People dimension has gained prominence as a critical factor for achieving business success in Australia, driving modernisation of human capital management (HCM) systems.

The HCM market in Australia recorded a 5.2% of YoY growth, reaching US$129 million in 2016 and set to maintain its growth trajectory in 2017 and beyond.

Traditionally, HCM has been considered as a cost center and as a general record keeping system, however, rapidly evolving market landscape, war for talent and digital skills shortage, as well as evolving customer and employee expectations in Australia, is forcing organisations of all sizes to start embracing modern HCM practices and intelligent systems to be able to succeed in the digital transformation (DX) economy.

The “people dimension” has witnessed an increased attention and importance within the Australian market and is considered as the most critical component for achieving business success.

This has been supported by results from IDC's 2017 Asia/Pacific Software study, which revealed that employee productivity and profitability is the most critical business priority for organisations across Australia in the next 18 months, while focus on employee satisfaction and experience is the number one initiative Australian organisations endeavour to undertake in order to improve customer experience.

Today's multi-generational workforce has different drivers and incentives for better employee performance.

Maintaining old archaic HR systems is no longer an option for organisations considering themselves as top market performers.

Business leaders are being forced to undertake WorkSource DX and modernise the way their enterprises acquire, manage, and leverage talent among different generations for achieving business success.

According to IDC's 2017 Asia/Pacific Software study, 83% of Australian businesses plan to upgrade and modernise their current ERP (Enterprise Resource Management) systems, as those existing systems are unable to support current and future business needs and are too cumbersome to maintain.

3rd platform technologies (cloud, mobility, big data and analytics, and social workflow), along with innovation accelerators (artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive computing, machine learning, etc.) will have a profound impact on HR organisations across the globe and Australia is no different.

The application of disruptive technologies creates new opportunities to support and accelerate WorkSource transformation, help organisations to enhance maturity and empower employees to create business success, but also eliminate growth inhibitors - lack of suitable talent, high talent churn, managing contingent workforce.

Looking into 2018 and beyond, Australian businesses place big data and analytics on top of the list of the most important technologies to enhancing companies' competitive advantage.

Big data and analytics (including predictive and prescriptive analytics), data-driven insights and a robust end-to-end HR/talent management platform are making headlines across Australia, as 78% of businesses in Australia have either already deployed or planning to deploy workforce analytics solutions to increase visibility and improve employee engagement.