SAP SuccessFactors helps EY to transform HR structure

16 January 2020 Consultancy.uk

Having doubled its headcount in five years, Big Four firm EY needed to overhaul its internal human resources systems to on-board and support its 290,000 global staff. SAP SuccessFactors supported EY in the transformation of its HR operations, boosting the ability of employees to access vital compliance training within the organisation.

Many businesses purchase enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to manage various business processes within the organisation – including accounting, human resources and purchasing – in one integrated system. SAP is a computer programme that many businesses select as their ERP system, and includes features for nearly all business operations. If implemented well, the system has various analytical features which allow for business flexibility and efficiency gains. If implemented poorly, however, companies can soon find themselves trapped in a seemingly endless ERP hell, which can be extremely costly.

In order to get the most out of SAP systems, many companies are turning to the consulting industry for support with transformation. In order to tap into this heightened demand, the end of 2019 saw EY acquire AgilityWorks, deepening its SAP consulting capabilities in the UK, as well as in Portugal and India. That purchase came half a year after the Big Four firm bolstered its SAP consulting division in Asia with the bolt-on of Plaut IT, in a move that added 130 technology and ERP experts to its footprint.

However, on the flipside is also dependent on SAP transformations to keep up with its buoyant demand. Recently this saw EY respond to the fact that it had doubled in size over the last five years by partnering with SAP SuccessFactors. SAP SuccessFactors is a US multinational company headquartered in San Francisco, California, providing cloud-based software for human capital management using the software-as-a-service model. The firm worked with EY to completely transform its HR services.

Nathalie Nunn said of the move, “EY is a global multidisciplinary professional services organisation with about 290,000 people working in 728 offices… Our growth coincided with a global revolution in the way people consume information and services. Expectations have radically changed, and for HR services to be able to attract and retain the right people, we decided to transform our system… SuccessFactors was able to do everything our strategy required, at the scale it was required.”

With SAP SuccessFactors solutions, EY was able to meet speed and scale requirements across their HR operations globally, while catering to its global, diverse workforce by delivering the solution in 14 languages. At the same time, it was able to improve its on-boarding by offering a mobile-enabled user experience, and develop a learning culture in the firm driven by the EY badges reward scheme. 50,000 badges have been handed out in the first two years, helping to boost regulatory compliance at the firm, and achieving better outcomes for clients.

The new offering also sees the consolidation of all learning assets into a single, global system, with a constant interface. It leverages chatbots, virtual reality and AI to deliver a seamless personal experience.

“Fostering a culture of self-driven, continuous development simply wouldn't have been possible without a platform which provides global access to learning,” Nunn concluded.

More on: EY
United Kingdom
Company profile
EY
EY is not a United Kingdom partner of Consultancy.org
Partnership information »
Partnership information

Consultancy.org works with three partnership levels: Local, Regional and Global.

EY is a Local partner of Consultancy.org in Netherlands.

Upgrade or more information? Get in touch with our team for details.