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It is funny how languages work and how they shape concepts in our minds. Although in most, the word cloud and heaven usually have positive connotations, probably because the archetypes that surface in turn relate to transcendence. Why did we choose this title? In the English language, the state of ultimate happiness of course isn’t experienced anywhere other than a very specific place, on cloud nine. However in the Spanish language we’d have to go somewhere a little higher, elevating in spirit to seventh heaven.

In technology, we have used the term cloud as a way of expressing delocalization and resource optimization. But is this the term that leads to happiness within our organization? It all depends on how we focus our goal. Indeed the cloud is depicted as a promising innovation brimming with benefits, but also myths, and some—why not say so—unknowns.

The best way of overcoming the fear of the unknown is precisely through knowledge. That’s why we walk alongside you through the different stages of adopting this new technology. We lend you a guiding hand in a world that has been reinvented to bring out the best in all fields of technology. Throughout this e-book, several of our experts give us their views on confronting the different stages along the path. Let’s embark right away on a thrilling adventure that we are really excited about. We hope our enthusiasm is contagious, because one thing is for sure, “There is a cloud for you.”

By Susana Mozo Weisz, Global SaaS Client Manager at Meta4

FROM CLOUD NINE TO SEVENTH HEAVEN

IMAGININGCLOUDS

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5 FALSE MYTHS OF CLOUD COMPUTINGIN THE HR SECTOR

Edu Fernandes, Multitenant Systems Architecture at Meta4

Misgivings about the cloud model are common among people management professionals who are thinking of acquiring or migrating their HR system to the cloud. In most cases these are founded on myths and fears that don’t match the reality behind this technology:

An HR solution in the cloud mode is as safe as the in-house mode. What’s important is that the provider ensures compliance with all safety protocols and the applicable law in each case and country, just as for solutions in other modes. That’s why it’s necessary to check with the provider where the servers are housed geographically and what security measures are applied.

Today’s cloud servers are located in data centers with high security and availability: backups, constant cooling, load balancers, emergency power sources, etc. Stringent measures ensure no information is lost.

MYTH 1IT’S NOT SAFE

MYTH 2IF THE SERVER GOES DOWN, I LOSE ALL MY

INFORMATION

CLOUD MYTHS

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On the contrary, the functionality and availability of a cloud solution is contractually guaranteed by the provider, together with constant innovation and development. Cloud computing implies constant updates to the solution which benefits from the improvements made to each of the provider’s various clients which are managed on this multi-client platform.

MYTH 3MY SYSTEM DOESN’T WORK AS WELL AS IF I WERE TO

HAVE IT IN-HOUSE

Quite the contrary, one of the great advantages of cloud solutions is the conversion of costs into OPEX. The “pay per use” mode typical of a cloud solution, besides providing considerable cost savings, can transform fixed costs into variable costs and enables planning for each technology infrastructure cost in the HR field.

MYTH 4IT’S GOING TO BE MORE EXPENSIVE

Going live in the cloud is extremely fast compared to other projects undertaken with another kind of technology. No local deployment and installation is required; anyone can access it with just an Internet connection. What’s more, HR becomes far less dependent on IT.

MYTH 5CLOUD SOLUTIONS IMPLY

LONG PROJECTS

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SECURITY AND CLOUD

MY MONEY IS IN THE CLOUD(AND SO SHOULD MY HR TECHNOLOGY)

Carlos Castellanos, Global SaaS HR Operations Director at Meta4

“Today I made a decision. I am going to the bank, take out my money and keep it at home. I am thinking of putting all of it into a safe box hidden between books, or maybe divide it into smaller lots and hide it in different rooms. But maybe the best solution is to hide it under the mattress, in the good old fashioned way. I just don’t trust anymore. I am not sure that my money is safe in the bank. Who has it? Where is it kept? Who has access to it? The more I think about it, the more overwhelmed I feel! Right now I am going to take everything out of the bank.”

Maybe a few years ago there were still people who thought like that about depositing their money in a bank, using plastic money, or electronic banking now widespread. It’s the fear of the unknown, of what we don’t see and cannot control. But really it is possible for our money to be safer at home than in a bank? I guess not. For good reason, by law banks are equipped according to regulated security measures (embedded concrete safe boxes, electronic detectors, connection to the alert switchboard, etc…) which most homes don’t cover.

Similarly electronic money management is legally regulated; such that anyone can be assured that their transactions with plastic money or e-banking movements are perfectly safe, even if done virtually. What’s more, e-commerce and internet shopping have increasingly become something common, overcoming early fears. Money is in the cloud, our money is in the cloud and this had brought us undeniable advantages (easy access to our information, immediacy in activities, internet transactions, saving time, etc…); something that’s become so totally standard today.

And if we’re used to something so important to us in the cloud, then why are some still afraid to take business management systems to the cloud?

Just as it happened with virtual money, little by little companies are corroborating the benefits of the cloud. But nonetheless, it is true that by setting up this for people, we are inevitably entering your personal data and obviously these require special handling, my reason for this article—like very stringent security measures that must also satisfy geographical peculiarities. But precisely because of this, having a good HR management system that can cover all peculiarities may be very favorable for our management.

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And how can we know if an HR technology system is safe? How do we know if it meets all the requirements for safeguarding information on my employees, while ensuring legal compliance with each specific region? To find out, it is imperative that before making a decision to buy we ask ourselves the questions below:

A Cloud or SaaS system requires no installation by the buyer, as the system is hosted on a provider’s server. But it is very important to know in which country this server is, as this will determine the security measures that apply to the data stored which vary by geographic regions. For example, if the server is in Spain, the customer can remain calm concerning his data security, because the legislation that applies in this country, and in many European countries, is most demanding with respect to data security issues. For instance, a Swiss company can be reassured that this server will meet the security standards required for its information.

These safety measures depend on the provider, who is required to ensure compliance with security standards as stipulated by the customer’s nationality. Therefore, when the provider’s server is hosted in a country with less severe security measures, it must sign an agreement with the client guaranteeing extra security which isn’t actually required by law where the server is hosted. But for obvious reasons, the latter is always less desirable/safe than the previous case.

And that’s without mentioning those cases where information migrates from server to server, from country to country, and you never know where the information is being kept. Here it is more difficult to ensure complete data security. As this is all about managing personal information, I wouldn’t risk it.

WHERE IS MY DATA STORED?

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In this case, we refer primarily to the nationalities of the employees whose information we are keeping. While the previous point depended on the provider, here the customer is responsible for making sure the legal requirements needed are met in each geographic area where employees are managed. For example, an American company that has data on French, English and Spanish employees must know what security standards it is obliged to meet in the respective countries concerning the security and confidentiality of their citizens’ information.

However, if the provider already knows of these needs, and has experience managing global human resources, he can directly meet the needs of the client in this regard, ensuring full compliance with the legislation in force in each country. Moreover, in this case the cloud model is particularly advantageous: each time there is a change in legislation concerning this, it will be updated in the system in real-time and globally across all branches of the company, which makes it difficult for there to be legal holes.

WHAT DATA AM I SAVING?

Actually, this question is implied from the previous two. It logically follows to take a closer look at what data I am saving and where. Before choosing a solution, one must know the region or regions of the servers where your data will be kept, whether they will be permanent or change over time, and demand that legal requirements for the country are met at each location, while anticipating additional agreements to cover the shortcomings, if any. Or perhaps prefer providers who offer servers hosted in countries with stricter legislation. One must also know how experienced the provider is on global issues, that is to say, how many nationalities it has managed and is managing. In fact to be able to do this, there must have been months of prior contact with the country in question, pooling procedures and best practices that not every provider can claim. An example of this is data retention: how long can or must certain data be stored by geography is a kind of knowledge that not all providers can deliver.

DOES THE SYSTEM COVER ME?

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FIRST STEPS…HEAD IN THE CLOUDS,

BUT FEET ON THE GROUNDSusana Mozo Weisz, Global SaaS Client Manager at Meta4

The cloud is not as ethereal as we might think or believe. It is true that it is in vogue, it’s true it has many advantages, but obviously we have to demand guarantees and know how it will change the way we operate.

When we choose to go cloud in a way we are outsourcing some of the functions that we normally handle. So the first question we should ask ourselves is: are we partially or completely outsourcing our company’s business? Or are we outsourcing just a facility? Of course, both options may be valid, but we should always be aware of the consequences and guarantees that we can and should demand.

What are the offers we can find as users in the cloud? There are various options:

This option is quite comfortable, at the end of the day we use the storage and processing capacity we need, without worrying about obsolescence and many of the onerous administrative tasks.

In this case, we have taken a further step, as we now include in the package certain services for building our own applications.

If we have chosen this option, we have bought the use of software for a given use of time, free of the worries over any of the administrative tasks that come in such applications.

INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE (IAAS)

PLATFORM AS ASERVICE (PAAS)

SOFTWARE AS ASERVICE (SAAS)

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Let focus on SaaS, on the one hand it is more “avant-garde”, but on the other it’s the most comfortable option. Typically, SaaS is cheaper than purchasing a short-term license and we are relieved of buying computer hardware and maintenance tasks, including backups. However, indeed there are tasks that we are responsible for: software configuration and the initial uploading of our data.

In addition, these solutions are ready to go with specific functionality and well-defined evolutions indicated by the vendor. The initial investment for adapting to our company processes is generally low, but keep in mind that not only will it lower the initial financial outlay, but also the resources in the implicated departments. Only we know what we want, what we need, and where our organization is headed.

Depending on the nature of the application high in the sky which we have chosen, there are two things that we have to be especially tough on:

• OUR DATA SECURITY • PLATFORM SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT (ANS OR SLA)

In the case of an HR application, these factors are critical, as much of the data used has a high degree of confidentiality, and although these are platforms that need not be active 24x7, there are specific peak periods throughout the year of heavy use for both employees and managers. Such that a halt in the service may disrupt activities in the company, spur a widespread complaint from employees as well as impact very negatively on the reputation of the HR department within the company.

It is at this point when we should become familiar with several terms before confronting the immensity of the sky encoded in zeros and ones: DPA, SLA and ISO / IEC 27001. Are you ready to go? In the next article we go deeper into what we must demand of our service provider, so as not to compromise quality, while obtaining the maximum benefit from our investment in the cloud.

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THE CLOUD AND YOUI BOUGHT A CLOUD, AND NOW WHAT?

Susana Mozo Weisz, Global SaaS Client Manager at Meta4

If we’ve bought a small piece in the sky and we think that from this moment onwards we have nothing else to do, we’re very mistaken. Outsourcing certain activities is very beneficial, but in almost no case can we leave it unattended. What’s more, the process of care begins right from when we started talks with various service providers.

Three or four months earlier...

Indeed this starts like any B-list movie with the special feature that it can become a Hollywood blockbuster, if you bear in mind some details. When the procurement committee evaluates different providers of the same service, it is obviously important to compare features and price. But there are other factors to consider, such as:

A cloud service may o may not adjust completely to our needs and it is essential to consider whether there will be convergence in the near future or at least, in the mid-term.

ROADMAP

The provider’s intention to implement some of our requirements which are at present not included in the platform. Is this a closed environment or will it continue to evolve?

FLEXIBILITY

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Together with the service offer and contract, the SLA (Service Level Agreement) must be included. This document must describe the liabilities of the provider and the customer under the service, the definition of the priority of incidences and resolution times in relation to these priorities. Yes, you read that right. The customer also has responsibilities and we must make sure that as an organization we have the structure needed to support the new scenario.

SERVICE LEVEL

HR solutions are very demanding of security levels. This happens in two ways: on one hand we have to be sure that there will always be suitable contingency set aside in the face of a potential disaster, like the Twin Towers in 2011 or the Haiti Earthquake in 2010, or a specific incidence of data loss. This point must be reflected in the SLA.

On the other hand, our data must be protected with a clear understanding of access flows. According to data prxotection regulations the data handled by an HR application are usually mid level, but in some environments like hospitals, they may be even of a higher level. This brings forth a series of extra measures from the provider which we should be aware of. The requirements of the data protection act affect us as a company and our providers. Data protection requirements affect us as a company and our providers, when handling our data.

CERTIFICATIONS AND SECURITY

Apart from compliance with legal data protection regulations, it is important to have security certification like ISO 27001. Why? Because it offers the following advantages for the customer:

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Demonstrates the provider’s real concern for the security of our data. Our information is not only important to us, but also to them.

It is an independent verification that the potential operational risks are being identified, evaluated and managed. Data protection is documented and managed through formal processes.

There is a regular assessment process that helps to establish continual improvement.

And of course, a very important point couldn’t be left out. Something we take for granted, but that is not always included in the service: quality.

It’s vital to understand how the provider ensures customer satisfaction, what is his standard of quality and the methodology used to define, process, and evolve the services we buy. It is difficult to ensure upfront a perfect fit between organizations. Surely it is a good start.

After signing the contract….

Now reality starts.

We need to start the project for adapting our current environment to our virtual environment. Data entry and the different stages of customization involve functional analysis. The responsibility for implementing each task will have been reflected in the service offering.

Once the environment is ready for production, we must demand from the provider a work and/or implementation plan. This is a document that details all service monitoring and operation tasks. Of course we will have

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to provide manuals on the tools to use. This point includes not just the software itself, but also the support and operational tools.

Ultimately tracking the service is essential, not only for the client but also the provider. For us, it’s crucial to understand that we are effectively receiving the service we pay for. For the provider it is vital to know our level of satisfaction, whether we can become a customer reference, and above all, whether we will contract the service again in the future.

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Outcome…

If we have taken these points into account, then we will have a happy ending. There will have been established a wonderful relationship between the provider and our organization which will lead to a beautiful love story. And best of all, it will be a serious, formal and lasting story in which all parties will have won. This isn’t the magic of cinema, but of things well done.

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INNOVATION IN THE CLOUD10 TIPS FOR INNOVATING IN THE CLOUD

Alfonso Mazariegos Villalonga, HR Consultant at Meta4

Cloud HR solutions are here to stay. Considering another scenario right now is very complicated, media bombardment is relentless and everything is already offered in the cloud. Innovators who started to work with the cloud some years ago have been left behind (and probably have already changed services at least once). We now find ourselves transiting between the Early Adopters and the Early Majority, in line with the Theory of Diffusion of Innovations by Everett Rogers.

Everett Roger’s Theory of Diffusion of Innovations

* Source: Wikipedia

In this scenario, while providers try to get as close as possible to pure cloud (everything standard for all, no customizations nor adaptations) to improve maintenance costs for customers and for their own development and evolution, we may get the impression that there is little room for innovation in our own HR processes.

So are we facing a future where we will all be guided by best practices in business that come pre-configured on a platform we share with many other companies? What happens when we need an innovative HR policy to attract and retain talent?

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If we don’t get a convincing answer to these questions and a one-size-fits-all HR solution in our hands, then perhaps it’s time to put to aside our concerns for improving processes and to be content with what we have, or seek out ways and shortcuts that let us incorporate our processes within the HR provider’s range of solutions offered.

Everyone has a little non-conformist inside; so if we’re reading this, it’s because we are in this second group and we want to know how we can develop our HR policies within a cloud solution. Here I give ten tips to go about this:

To be innovative in our HR processes, the first step is to choose a platform offering us a high level of adaptability within their own processes, configuration settings, different mandatory and optional steps for defining functionality, field configurations, easy to integrate with other platforms, etc.

The definition of a new innovative HR process cannot only be created as a great idea put to our platform provider for deployment. It must be well established in order to upload it to the cloud, to analyze the impact on organizational culture, the benefits it can bring, the internal cost of transmitting and incorporating it, etc.

FIND A FLEXIBLE AND CONFIGURABLE PLATFORM

2. HAVE CLEARLY IDENTIFIED THEHR PROCESSES YOU WANT TO IMPROVE

AND THE IMPACT WITHIN THEORGANIZATION

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This implies fully involving the solution deployment team to get the best out of the work sessions with the platform provider‘s consultants, the training sessions supporting deployment, manuals, additional support tools available from the provider. To do this, we have to think creatively, change the way we work based on the suggestions from the platform functionality, and use elements that were designed to do something for our greater benefit.

3. FAMILIARITY WITH THE FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES OF YOUR PLATFORM AND MAKE THE MOST OF THEM

We know that there is no perfect cloud HR platform; in fact, all are constantly evolving, such that our provider will be much more open to our suggestions and comments if the approach is positive rather than destructive or offensive. After all, at the end of the day, we chose them and not the other way around.

4. STUDY THE PROVIDER’S EVOLVING CYCLES AND METHODOLOGY

Finding out our platform provider’s focus for development, at what times and how often does it accept requirements from their customer base for platform improvements and the best language for communicating with customers, will give us more advantage. This enables the platform to evolve by incorporating our innovative HR processes.

5. PROVIDE CONSTRUCTIVE ALTERNATIVES AND SOLUTIONS WITHIN THE FUNCTIONAL FRAMEWORK OF THE PLATFORM

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Awareness of the latest news about the cloud and HR practices being implemented in other companies can help us keep an open mind and an innovative spirit within our team. You never know what piece of random information may provide us with the key to completing a process that we have half defined.

6. KEEP UP TO DATE ABOUT BEST PRACTICES THROUGH DIFFERENT KNOWLEDGE CENTERS: FORUMS, SOCIAL NETWORKS, VIRTUAL MEDIA, ETC...

Participate in events promoted by the provider, offer talks on the deployment we have done for other platform users. Stimulating dialogue with them may facilitate the identification of common problems and solutions. This way we can together put forward to our provider the best solution for everyone, while complying with the internal policy for platform evolution.

If we work directly with our provider to develop new functionality or adapt an existing one, we can contribute our best working practices for that particular functionality—even if it isn’t complete, we can still get some of it reflected in the platform.

7. BE AN ACTIVE MEMBER OF THE USER COMMUNITY OF YOUR PLATFORM

8. VOLUNTEER TO PARTICIPATE IN THEDEVELOPMENT OF NEW FUNCTIONALITY

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This is the most difficult point to cultivate, since we cannot all be in the top 500 of the most influential companies, nor have big budgets and policies for promoting human resources. Fortunately we live in times when it is much easier to reach people interested in specific content and self-publishing is the order of the day in social networks. Once people get talking about our HR policy, it’s far easier to convert it into a best practice in the market, and this is the way the HR platforms evolve.

9. BECOME A RECOGNIZED CREATOR ORPROMOTER OF NEW BEST HR PRACTICES

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10. CREATE CUSTOM FUNCTIONALITY LINKED TO YOUR PLATFORM

It’s an impossible task to find a platform that meets all our needs or in some way immediately fix what’s missing. This is not the ideal scenario; however we can choose creative solutions over specific needs. This also implies we must have the ability to develop functionality complementing the platform offering to cover our needs—and never replacing, because if it did, it wouldn’t make sense to contract the platform. Our IT department can use the surplus budget resulting from freeing up work teams and we can always give our provider a demo on how we supplement what is missing.

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TRAINING IN THE CLOUDTRAINING IN THE CLOUD ORHOW TO GUARANTEE ROI

María Dolores Lendínez, Senior Technical Consultant at Meta4

We know that SaaS (Software as a Service) is in vogue. It seems whoever does not buy one for its HR department is technologically outdated. On this we can discuss the pros and cons. The suit that fits one well might not look so good on someone else. Anyhow if I have finally taken the plunge and the decision to sign the contract, then let it bring guaranteed success to my organization.

Don’t forget that the success, or failure, of a new management tool also happens when approval is secured from the very end users who are sometimes reluctant to change. It is one thing to infer the positives of the service offered on the platform contracted, and quite another that users are capable of using it daily, adapting it to the internal processes of the company.

In this sense, for me it is very desirable to find a global HR platform which, at the same time offers me personalized training to let me to perform on the job successfully. As I really do not want to get lost in a sea of screens for hours on end, what I need is a flexible and easy to use solution.

Of course, there’s little time to train all my staff. So a good idea would be classroom-based training for key users. As they know the internal processes of the company inside out, they will assimilate training contents to in turn replicate to other users.

About the initial training of key users, it would be useful to have a webinar tool to complement sessions. This way, some attendees (or all) who cannot travel are able to be present via remote sessions, with the possibility of recording them for later use. These tools are very comfortable because they allow email use for scheduling the day and start time by sending an e-mail with the training content. Tracking is optimal, since not only are the desktops of the organizer and the attendees shared, but also integrated with the webcam allowing to put a face to all those present. The outcome is almost like a classroom-led session.

After the first training phase, key users are capable of replicating the sessions to the rest of the coworkers. For this purpose, they will need mixed material support:

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Complete product documentation in electronic format, both user guides and workbooks with practical examples. If the provider is flexible, he will give me the workbooks with adapted examples to facilitate learning.

A script and timetable with structured content adapted to my internal processes.

An e-learning platform for virtual courses, with multimedia training units: images, audio, video tutorials and training pills, and so on for individual and organization-wide online learning. This way I can track how each user makes the most of it. They also benefit from the flexibility of learning free of time-space limitations and the available assisted tutoring, online assessment and tracking.

It would also do me good if they’d let me access some content, like for instance, a training pill for every functional update of the platform. This way I can go on adding them to my own local environment for internal use.

In a nutshell I need personalized training, supported by a combination of techniques, tools and strategies that give me quality, flexibility, dynamism, and results.

This way I ensure complete satisfaction of my colleagues in their first contact with the new tool. Now indeed I am in a position to guarantee a return on my investment.

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EDITOR

Susana Mozo Weisz has developed her career of over 15 years in the IT sector in various multinational companies like HP and Air Liquide. She has broad experience as heads of departments and international business units, managing teams and multicultural clients worldwide steered firmly towards expansion and profit targets. Susana has always focused on the human side of technology as a key factor for honoring and improving the quality of life of people. Currently she is the Global SaaS Client Manager at Meta4. She holds a computer engineering degree from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

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Alfonso Mazariegos is specialized in Talent and Knowledge Management. He is an HR consultant at Meta4, where he has worked in customer projects covering recruitment, training, performance management, career development, benefits and time management, for both on premise and cloud solutions. He is interested primarily in helping people make the most of themselves, be it in consulting and programming, or even cooking. Alfonso is also devoted to finding clever solutions to complex problems in a variety of different fields.

Carlos Castellanos Isla is a computer engineer from the University of Deusto. He has spent his entire career at Meta4, having held management responsibilities in different areas of the company. Before creating the Global HR Operations Division in 2011 he was in charge of Presales and R&D in Spain for the private and public sectors.

AUTHORS

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Eduardo Fernandes received his PhD in Physics from the European Space Agency (ESA) / Complutense University of Madrid (1995). Currently the Head of Product Technology at Meta4, he is responsible for defining the strategic lines of the technology-based Meta4 products like the PeopleNet and KnowNet solutions. His main role is to analyze the market in search of new technology trends, studying these to see how to integrate these with the global product. Prior to Meta4 he was Head of the Software Department at the Scientific Operations Center for Minisat-01 (ESA), the first Spanish satellite. While undertaking his PhD studies, Dr. Fernandes was also responsible for building both the software and hardware for automating Brazil’s largest telescope (1992). Eduardo is a certified professional researcher through the Spanish Accreditation Agency for Technology Research, Development and Innovation (AIDIT).

M. Dolores Lendínez graduated in computing from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and holds a master’s degree in Human Resources and Organizational Development from the ESIC Business & Marketing School. Currently she is a senior technical consultant at Meta4 with 10 years of experience in the training and consulting sector. Her main areas of interest are talent management, technology applied to individual and organizational training and generally everything to do with promoting training in the business environment.