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Moving to the cloud gives HR more power: Gretchen Alarcon, Oracle

Moving to the cloud gives HR more power: Gretchen Alarcon, Oracle

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"There is so much happening from technology standpoint that innovation is happening faster than people can keep up with it."
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Moving to the cloud gives human resources more power and spells a lot of value for chief financial officers, as it means built-in cost, said Gretchen Alarcon, Oracle’s group vice president for human capital management strategy. In an exclusive interview to ET on the sidelines of the company’s annual global conclave held in Boston recently, she said that organisations based in India are also now moving beyond the traditional focus on core HR and payroll. Edited excerpts:

How is technology impacting human resources in corporate organisations?
A couple of things are changing in terms of how organisations can use technology and what they expect it to do for HR. In the past there used to be so much focus on business process, but now we are seeing much more focus on how the HR system gives us guidance. One of the biggest transitions that has happened in the last 10 years is the rise of mobile and when you get to the fact that technology is in your pocket and what the tools allow you to do, it changes HR from record-keeping and process management to information. One of the biggest shifts we see happening right now is that as companies think about the digital experience, there is a question about whether this is only mobile or could it be done on any device. Among the things I am exploring is better mobile applications. We are also focusing a lot on the idea of chatbots.

How prepared is the Indian market for this transition?
One of the things that I see in our India-based companies is that traditionally you would see a big focus on core HR and payroll. Now they are focusing a lot more on employee experience – what it’s like for the employee to use the system, how employee is empowered through the system... The emphasis is more on better information and better access for the employees.

Why should companies shift HR to the cloud?
The first thing is access to technology. In the on-premise world, HR is dependent on IT to do everything – whether I want to do an upgrade or configuration, etc, all this has to go through IT. And IT kind of looks at HR as you are cost centres for the business, you are not profit centres. Moving to the cloud gives HR the power to say I update when I choose because that’s part of the cloud. It gives HR access to newer technology and not wait for permission from IT. From the CFOs standpoint, it has a lot of value because of the predictive nature of the cost. You know how cost is going to be, you know your first implementation, you know your subscription, you can plan for it in advance. You don’t have to wait for or budget for, you don’t have to think of expenditure because it is a built-in cost and hence better from a planning standpoint.

How would you address the issue of data security when so much data is put on the cloud?
When we were in on-premise world we were still sending third-party content, we were still sending HR data to places where we had no idea about security. The question is more visibility and with that comes more responsibility. This is where Oracle has significant advantage. Our history is focused on security. Our emphasis on having our own data centres, maintaining the process all the way through significantly helps with that.

What are the leadership challenges that the rapid advancement of technology pose?
There is so much happening from technology standpoint that innovation is happening faster than people can keep up with it. It’s important to prioritise and choose the things that could be done right now, and technologies that are most aligned to drive the business. It may not be the one getting the most attention or the most hyped in the marketplace, but it must be the one that is most impactful for the organisation. The second piece is thinking about the business drivers of technology. Very frequently technology is presented as an end. But the question to be asked here is: What value is it bringing to my business?

(The reporter was in Boston at the invitation of Oracle)
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