Enate and Capgemini upgrading for the future

Overview

Capgemini is a global leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation, with more than a quarter of a million employees across the world. In North America (NA), its human resources function supports the comprehensive people needs of 11,000 employees in the US and Canada, covering 50 states and seven Canadian provinces. To manage core HR operations in the region, Capgemini relied on the Enate platform. However, a previous team had allowed the platform to fall out of date, so the NA Core HR team needed to introduce a new version of the system, implementing it as COVID-19 struck.

The challenge

Capgemini’s North American Core HR operations oversees the people-support needs of 11,000 employees across the US and Canada, covering all business lines outside of financial services. As well as internal systems and processes, it also manages a large, outsourced payroll function run by Automatic Data Processing (ADP).

To cover all that, NA Core HR uses the Enate process orchestration platform to automate and standardise processes to drive efficiency and reduce errors. However, a previous owner of the Enate platform had failed to update the system, meaning that many of the new features and services were unavailable to Capgemini. It blocked workflows, and, in the words of Denise Tauriello Allison, Sr. Director Capgemini, “it was pretty much a complete mess, and so we were very limited for several years.”

In addition, the server it was based on was  no longer compliant with Capgemini security minimum standards, increasing the risk of costly errors that could expose the company to penalties and reputational damage.

“We have a complex organisational structure, covering thousands of employees in different geographies, with nuanced differences in HR regulation and compliance. Without a proper tool, we cannot meet the needs of the business, both across the region and at a local level.”
<div class="case-study_inline-quote-name">Denise Tauriello Allison, Sr. Director</div>

While Capgemini knew that it needed to update the Enate platform, it was also clear that any changes had to be done with minimal disruption and no employee impact. Denise said, “the Enate platform is the technology backbone to our services delivery model working as the bridge to an outsourced ADP US PeopleSource service center and driving critical operations across leaves administration, payroll  notifications, etc. The environment is highly complex, regulatory and compliance driven. The imperative for this upgrade was driven by both a platform security risk as well as a highly visible and costly legal compliance risk creating an exposure loop for Capgemini that needed to be updated and closed. Leave payment delays impact employees directly; separation payments are controlled by differing multiple state regulations creating a compliance nightmare to navigate in any other way than an automated fashion. Penalties associated with those regulations are steep; not to mention the broader corporate exposure.”

On top of this, it all had to be conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. “These are complex issues,” said Denise. “It would have been hard enough on-site, but we also had to accommodate the challenge that we were all, by and large, working from home during the pandemic.”

Solution

To upgrade the platform the NA Core HR team had to develop a business case for internal approval. The team worked with Enate to pull out the key benefits, both on the cost-savings of updating the platform, but also on the longer-term value some of the new features would introduce. These included being able to introduce rules that would adjust automatically depending on where the employee was based – for instance, if they were in California the options available to them would be different to someone based in Canada.

Once the business case was approved, the two teams moved on to implementation. This was made easier by not having to move or convert data from the old system to the new,

with the focus more on getting the new platform online. Prior to full migration, the Capgemini team conducted two rounds of testing to ensure workflows were working effectively that communication from the system was appearing at the right time and going to the right place.

Once that was confirmed, and stakeholders had what they needed, the system went live.

Training was also developed, using both existing Enate coursework material and learnings from the implementation to create specialist upskilling programs that met the specific needs of Capgemini’s teams and stakeholders. This was all completed within 30 days of implementation.

Result

Key to the success of the implementation was the teamwork between the Capgemini and Enate teams. “The partnership and collaboration that we got from Enate from the very beginning was everything we could have asked for. It was hand-in-hand all the way through, and we were very much a combined team,” said Denise.

“The result was that whenever anything came up, we were able to make changes that ultimately saved everybody a lot of time. Because we acted as one, we knew what was achievable and what wasn’t, and we didn’t lose time focusing on things that weren’t possible. By being that collaborative, we got the best solution available.”
<span class="case-study_inline-quote-name">Denise Tauriello Allison, Sr. Director</span>

This was all achieved despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We thought it would be a barrier, but as with a lot of organisations both us and the Enate team quickly got on board with virtual working,” said Denise.

“In some ways, because people weren’t travelling, parts of the project were faster than they might otherwise have been and we were able to be very efficient with everyone’s time.”
<div class="case-study_inline-quote-name">Denise Tauriello Allison, Sr. Director</div>

The new Enate platform has created new efficiencies, allowing changes to laws, regulations and systems to be automatically implemented. At the same time, it allowed workflows to be adjusted and amended and, in some cases, discontinued thanks to the increased effectiveness enabled by the platform. “Before, a lot of work was manual,” said Denise. “We’re a small team, so it takes a lot of time to make changes. Now, we’re much faster, we’re more efficient and more effective. We’ve been able to bring in better reporting and visibility, which means we can spot issues and fix them very quickly, ensuring comprehensive compliance and significantly less corporate compliance exposure.”

Yet beyond the need to protect Capgemini from a legal standpoint, there is also the focus on the employee experience. “As a business we want to support our employees, and part of the contract is that in exchange for their labour, we as a business provide benefits and financial compensation. If we don’t fulfil our end of the bargain, our relationship with our employees is damaged. That’s why it’s so important that our systems, processes and platforms provide a seamless experience. Our workers don’t care if we’ve outsourced payroll or if we’ve got a new approach to automating core HR functions. It just needs to work, and that’s what the new Enate platform does.”