ADP Globalview Blueprinting
Posted July 16th, 2009 by jfreeland
My company has recently decided to switch to ADP Globalview and we're coming up on the blueprinting phase. I've been trying to find out the kinds of things you should make sure are part of the blueprinting phase and things to avoid. Obviously we know what we want out of the system, but we just want to make sure we don't miss anything because it'll be an added cost. So, what are things to make sure are put in the blueprint and things we should avoid (pitfalls..etc)?
Also, any other advice or experience you can share with an ADP Globalview implementation would be greatly appreciated.
Commentary
It may be too late for this commentary as it sounds like the contract has already been signed but maybe it will help others. ADP is most definitely the 800 lbs gorilla in organizations with less than 15k employee with over 50% market share but in orgs over 15k they drop to under 10% market share. There is a reason for that, they implement a one size fits all system, advocating their 'best practice' approach that works very well for smaller orgs that do not have mature HR processes and/or do not require flexibility that is inherent in such processes or that may be required for growth. This ‘one to many’ approach gives them economies of scale and thus they can offer a product at a lower price (also a lower margin, that they make up with volume), which is the reason they do so well in the mid/small market. But there is a trade-off, ‘one to many’ means there inflexibility, anything outside of the presented box requires customization or in other words, cost and if there is anything not defined upfront before the contract is signed, even more cost as the vendor now has to readjust while still maintaining their small margin. This inflexibility is why orgs that foresee a signification maturity of their HR processes or more specifically know that their process are going to change as they grow, look at vendors with more flexibility. Flexibility used to mean customization which meant a high price. Recently some vendors are moving to highly configurable, multitenant, SasS applications that allow them to offer a better price than the customization approach, although not as low as the ‘one to many’ approach. Keep in mind the SaaS approach is new and there are always risks with anything new. What it comes down to is fully understanding the requirements/drivers of the org, if cost is the main driver ‘one to many’ is a great solution, if flexibility is the driver than a SaaS solution may be the way to go, although the risk needs to be taken into consideration, if flexibility and risk aversion are the drivers then a customized approach may be the best solution.
Just my two cents. We have a white paper on this subject ‘Missing the Mark in Middle Market Outsourcing’ at http://bit.ly/xsvme. Feel free to reach out to me if you questions.
Best Regards,
Olen
Take Real Care During Your Blue Print Phase
My company has implemented Global View for years now and we are still facing problems with them in 2 countries.
Blue Printing phase is crucial as ADP will always refer to the blue print even years after the implementation.
Think about your specific payroll rules (different from Legal ones), reports (Legal / Management) you need on a regular basis as well as interfaces. SLA is crucial including Key Performance Indicators. Include Finance for accrual rules (even the basic ones) in order to obtain what you want.
ADP is not flexible so everything out of your blueprint / SLA / contract will not be considered and you will spend huge energy to work on improvement.
If you need paper payslip I would advise you to ask for a sample as you could be surprised by the fact you have a specific ADP paper with their logo and not your company one. Sort this out quickly or you won't be able to manage this later on (idem if you need double-sided page printing).
Feel free to contat me if you need more info.
Regards and have fun!
Patrick (pseudo)