PKN Orlen SA: Group implementation of mySAP HR
Orlen calculates payroll in SAP
CASE STUDY | Authors: Grażyna Kowalczyk (Kierownik Projektu SAP HR ze strony Orlenu), Michał Szymaczek (BCC)
Prepared in 2004 r. | Hits: 4260 | Average rating: 4
What is necessary for a successful implementation of a HR system on a very wide range in a complex organization that employs thousands of people in over dozen units?
For a project on such a scale, regardless if it concerns HR or other areas, the final success depends on many factors. Let’s take a closer look at a few among them, those that were deemed priorities in one ot the biggest HR projects in Poland, namely in BCC-supported mySAP HR implementation in PKN Orlen.
Since January 2004 Orlen has been using mySAP HR. The eight-month implementation was a real success, all the wide range of functionalitites started within planned terms.
In January Orlen started the following areas: personnel administration, work time management, payroll management, organization and traning management and career planning. In April the users got access to the functinoalities of settling business trips, recruitment, personal cost planning, salaries management and manager’s pulpit.
Over 300 people use mySAP HR, processing personnel and payroll data of 5700 employees of PKN Orlen SA and 2600 employed in 12 controlled units.
It’s impossible to imagine a success of such a project without methodical approach both on the part of the implementation company, and first of all on the part of a client. Success factors worth mentioning are: clear definition of implementation objectives, management support, active participation of employees and the transfer of knowledge.
Clear definition of implementation objectives
The lack of defined business objectives may adversely affect the implementation progress, especially it can demotivate the implementation team (‘why are we doing this?’) and make it impossible to measure results (‘what should be measured if there are no objectives?’).
Orlen os a target-oriented organization, so defining objectives was a starting point for mySAP HR project. The management specified general and detailed objectives that were easy to measure. Thanks to that the project had a clear destination, it was possible to set priorities and efficiently take decisions during the implementation. The measurability of objectives also helps in evaluation of implementation effects.
Main objectives of mySAP HR implementation in Orlen:
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Cutting the operational cost of servicing personnel
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Optimizing costs of personnel managment
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Cutting costs of development and maintenance of HR system
Management support
A project that involves a few dozens od people from various departments must be actively supported by the management. The most important implementation factor for the board of Orlen was connected with the awareness that mySAP HR may have a strong influence on increasing efficiency of the whole company.
The project chart, its ‘constitution’, that defines also business objectives, was signed by the representaties of Orlen top mananagement. The project sponsor was vice-president of the board for HR and management systems, Mr Andrzej Macenowicz. Representatives of the board and key directors responsible for the areas of HR, finance and IT took part in the steering committee works that supervised the project.
Grażyna Kowalczyk, project manager for Orlen, says: ‘Thanks to such support and active participation of management there was no problem of delegating employees to implementation works or middle-level managers distancing themselves from the project’.
Active employees’ participation
If the solution is to meet real needs of a company, it is necessary that the end users and employees be actively involved. In this sense BCC task as an implementation company was not only to implement (‘thy will implement us a system’), but rather support the project (‘they have done it so many times so they will help us do it well’).
mySAP HR implementation was actively supported by almost 50 key PKN Orlen employees. The participation of key users of the HR system used so far was very important, as the future system users are the only people who can clearly characterise processes that are to be supported by the system that is being implemented. By participating in creation of a concept of the future solution, the employees of personnel and payroll departments as well as Orlen IT specialists became co-authors of the system.
Orlen employees were also involved in other phases of the project: they configured the system, tested the processes, prepared data migration, created manuals and trained end users. Work teams managers together with BCC consultants prepare status reports for the project management.
Thanks to such an active participation in the works in all phases of mySAP HR implementation our employees identified themselves with the project objectives. The knowledge that together we are working on a tool that will make our work more effective and satisfying, we have deemed to be one of the main factors of success’, estimates Grażyna Kowalczyk.
Knowledge transfer
If a company does not decide on outsourcing of administration of the implemented solution, the implementation method must guarantee a transfer of knowledge to the client’s employees who in future will be system administrators. That is to be done in order to make them real system owners, to give them qualifications necessary for independent maintenance and development of the system.
The best way to gain these qualifications is participation in implementation works. That is why in Orlen every one of 7 work teams included also at least two IT specialists apart from future mySAP HR users.
Their task was supporting current works but also taking over the competencies from BCC consultants. The consultants started configuration and programming and the final system owners and performers were Orlen IT specialists.
Such an approach enabled to create a competence center that would manage the started mySAP HR system. IT specialists were the authors of the HR-payroll application used so far, so they brought in the knowledge on HR processes, which is not often the case in such projects.
Jerzy Bielec, IT director in PKN Orlen, adds:
‘The skillls collected in the competence center thanks to the knowledge transfer help us gather independence from outside providers in supporting and developing mySAP HR system. Such an approach, an element of Orlen IT strategy, helps reduce the costs of maintenace of the used IT solutions.’
If a company is internally well prepared to such a project, then the only other factor to guarantee succes is ‘only’ a good implementation company.
It should be the implementation company providing methodology that on one side will enable smooth running of works and on the other one will enable transfer of knowledge to the client’s employees.
In case of Orlen an approproate preparation of the project and cooperation between a client and an implementation company resulted in starting the system in much shorter time then other HR projects in Poland on a comparable scale. Orlen became a real owner of the most advanced IT solution supporting HR area.
Opinions about the project:
Grażyna Kowalczyk, project manager for Orlen:
‘I want to stress the commitment of the members of the project team and their efficient cooperation which finally decides about the product quality. The scale of the project was really enormous, as it covered the whole functional scope of mySAP HR. In one homogenous solution we have gathered the rules of payment in 4 collective job agreements, over 700 salary elements, 12 social funds, 15 saving and loan cooperatives, many systems and work timetables. Our challenge was all the bigger because we decided to move all the personnel and organizational structure history automatically from the old system to the new one. The preparation of the system for over 300 users was carried out by 47 people from PKN Orlen that had to unite their current work and the project duties and 9 BCC consultants. The smooth running of the project at a record speed of 8 months was possible only thanks to enormous commitment of the whole implementation team’.
Jerzy Bielec, IT director in PKN Orlen:
‘If you fail to plan, plan to fail’. Adopting the priorites that we are talking about is an answer to an unusally important questions from the time of project preparation: how to keep the limit of time and budget, and assert high quality, how to overcome difficulties avoiding risk and how to adjust to a dynamical changes in the project environment. We must also note that IT project execution is not only a successful one-time start of the system, but also using the product to improve the results of basic operations of the company. Such way of project estimation makes the project team focus not only on details of the IT solutions, but also on tailoring the product to the company’s strategy and firmy and active support of its operations. We have achieved all this mainly thanks to partner cooperation of all the people involved in the project: business specialists, IT specialists, consultants and project managers and strong support from the company management. mySAP HR implementation in PKN Orlen is an example of a fantastic team work and partner cooperation between client and an implementation company: PKN and BCC’
Polish Petrol Concern Orlen SA is the biggest producer and distributor of fuels in Poland. The refinery and petrochemical complex in Płock is counted among the most modern of such plants in Europe. Orlen owns or controls the widest net of petrol stations in Poland, composed of about 2000 stations. The concern with a capital group Orlen consisting of over 200 units is one of the largest oil corporations in Central Europe.
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