Publications by Author

 You bought the training with the software.  Maybe the software company threw it in.  You believe you have what you need to get the system into production... MORE

Shared Services have proven to reduce costs and improve processing efficiencies by up to 40%. Lack of knowledge or fear of customer dissatisfaction should not be reasons to avoid the shared services approach. Jeitosa's approach focuses on identifying new business requirements for the enterprise, finding economies of scale, and selecting appropriate functions to consolidate that align with the company's strategic direction. Download this datasheet to learn more about our Shared Services expertise.

No single product can ever hope to deliver a 100% fit with a company’s functional requirements, especially if specific business unit and local country needs are part of the global solution. Today's business world functions in an environment of mashups, composite applications, component assembly, and multi-tenant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) systems. Jeitosa has some of the best integration consultants to assist you in that area. Download this datasheet to learn more.

A presentation of raw data about Jeitosa. The Corporate Fact Sheet introduces our people, lists our values, and presents our focus on Business Strategy Services, Global Systems Deployment and Communities. It also presents our commitment to our clients and shows a list of some of our former and current clients. Download this datasheet and see what differentiates us.

 Articles and regional updates for the modern, global HR professional

We assumed that we, like most other people in business, knew exactly what strategy was all about. After all, books about strategy fill our bookshelves at work and at home, and the magazines we read usually feature an article about one strategic technology or another. What’s more, we used the term every day: strategic decision-making, strategic impact, strategic partnerships, strategic alignment, strategic outsourcing – and new variations are cropping up on a daily basis. In fact, we discovered that we used the term differently in talking with each other and with our colleagues. Sometimes, we meant “big.” In other instances, we used “strategy” or “strategic” as a synonym for “important.” When we looked back over memos, emails, and articles we had written or received, we found other meanings too: strategy meant bottom line, long-range or executive level. The term often carried with it a suggestion of planning, but sometimes we meant “visioning” rather than detailed step-by-step directions. Some of our communications seemed to imply a need for resource specifications, critical path diagrams or milestones and measurements – but others studiously avoided such tools as too constraining. It didn’t take us long to realize that it meant all of the things we had encountered and more: like the frustrating search for a single definition of headcount a generation ago, it dawned on us that both the definition of strategy and what we decide to do to be “strategic” vary according to context. When we see HR and HRIT as support for the corporation, our strategies focus on support; when we see HR as leaders, then our strategic contribution has a visionary and “enabling” flavor. Likewise, who we define as primary clients – stakeholders, shareholders, employees, management, government regulators, for example – changes what strategy entails.

Saving manager time with a Manager Self-Service application has become a new area of cost savings, unattainable with earlier systems since Web applications, portals and related technologies were not available in usable form prior to a few years ago. This approach to determining the tangible cost benefits of implementing a new or improved human resource technology solution is meant to supplement other areas of possible savings wherever possible since a stronger business case can be made with multiple areas of savings.

If the shifts in the workplace demographics over the last 40 years or so haven't changed most managers' behavior, one wonders what will. Civil rights legislation was passed in the 1960's; females now account for almost half of all workers; the workforce is graying and baby boomers are retiring from the workplace and being replaced by younger techno-savvy workers; and immigration is altering the ethnic makeup of the American citizen. These forces have also changed neighborhoods, people's buying habits, approaches to media, as well as the expectations and interests of the newer workers.

This article is a collaborative effort between CedarCrestone and Jeitosa Group International to look at the role of Human Resources (HR) technologies and the value achieved by different types of global organizations. Specifically, this article evaluates different global organizational models and some of their key characteristics, such as their strategy, service delivery structures, and HR application adoption and the value achieved. As a result of our many years working with all types of global organizations (Multinational, Global, International, and Transnational), we wanted to explore the effectiveness of HR technologies across different organizational models – from the highly centralized to the highly decentralized organization, from the highly innovative to the highly collaborative organization. We wanted to test our assumptions that based on their overall mission, vision, culture, and strategic direction, different organization types leverage technology differently and hence achieve different value. Our hypotheses are that highly centralized organizations focus on achieving efficiency with their HR technology adoption. Highly decentralized ones promote flexibility and responsiveness to local market situations. Highly collaborative and innovative organizations cultivate learning and sharing environments across their diverse and disparate global operations. Our hypotheses were confirmed. While we are not suggesting causality, we will show strong linkage between HR technology adoption and efficiency, learning, and financial growth. As our analysis of HR strategies and HR technology adoption across four different organizational models shows: Multinationals support local operations, Globals save money, Internationals develop people, and Transnationals make money.

 I think we all agree that the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model is a great opportunity for corporations to adopt new HR functionality, such as Performance Management... 

Shouldn’t the holidays be a time when you sit back for awhile, relax, spend some time with your family and think about the year that is almost over? So, why is it that so many European...

In the March issue of our HRinsights, we asked the question “Global Payroll, Dream or Reality?” Even if there is not a real Global Payroll System available, there are a small number of Payroll vendors, who provide a consolidated view to International Payroll data. The main model in that area is to provide a data warehouse for Payroll data and link it to local Payroll gross-to-net provider. Additionally, some of the vendor provides capabilities to enter data centrally into their system and send it to the local Payroll partners.

I am often asked by clients and prospects what is the best way to deliver HR services across the Europe, Middle-East and Africa (EMEA) region when employing a shared service center model, either internally or externally. Is an off-shoring or an in-region delivery model better?

April is the month of the changing weather in a lot of Central European countries. At one moment it rains a lot, and at the next moment, the sun shines bright from above. One thing is clear in this month: you cannot count on the weather forecast. There is a saying in Germany: “Im April, da macht das Wetter was es will” – “In April the weather does what it wants.”

Two of the world’s largest and most influential Internet companies, Facebook and Google, experienced extraordinary privacy melt-downs in May, arguably the most severe in their corporate history. Facebook’s involved a global tsunami of backlash against its most recent changes in privacy policy and settings, while Google’s was an international firestorm ignited by the revelation that the company had surreptitiously collected personal data from unsecured wireless networks around the world.

European Commission Updates Model Contract for Processors. The European Commission has issued new standard contractual...

Massachusetts Finalizes Data Security Regulations: On November 4th the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation announced...

FTC Takes Enforcement Action over Safe Harbor
The Federal Trade Commission secured a temporary injunction against a California-based company, Balls of Kryptonite, for deceptively making a claim that it was a participant in the US/EU Safe Harbor Program. According to the FTC, the company copied Amazon.com’s privacy policy and posted it on its own website. While the FTC is known to investigate potential breaches of Safe Harbor commitments, this is the first time in the nine-year history of the program that such investigations have led to a public enforcement action. The case, which involved other issues as well, will be heard in federal court unless a settlement is reached.

On the national scene, the US Supreme Court issued the most significant Fourth Amendment decision in decades, ruling in Arizona v. Gant that police may not automatically search a vehicle when arresting an occupant. Data breaches were top stories in May, with the National Archives and Records Administration reporting the loss of an external hard drive with personally identifiable information from the office of President Clinton and an extortionist demanding $10 million for eight million prescription drug records hacked from a state government website in Virginia.

EEOC Issues Draft Regulations for GINA. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has proposed new rules to implement the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) that prohibit discrimination on the basis of "genetic information" by insurers and employers.

For years the human resources function has been struggling to define its relevance. This struggle has gone on with increasing intensity since Stewart published his article in Fortune challenging the utility of the whole function. The significance of the criticisms has not diminished over time. The administrative aspects of HR are being automated or outsourced, while the control and risk reduction components are increasingly seen as costly obstacles in the way of change and competitive flexibility. The demands for a flexible and variable workforce that arise from the need for rapid adjustment to changing competition, technology, and global consumer and financial markets have made the traditional role of not only HR as an advocate for the employee peripheral. In this article, we argue that HR can and must play a significant role in the corporation, even while shrinking in size and budget. To accomplish this, HR must think and act in fundamentally different ways.

Uruguay, officially called the Eastern Republic of the Uruguay, is located in the southeastern part of South America, with Montevideo as the capital and largest city, and has an estimated population of 3.5 million people.

 In 2011 Turkey will host the 19th World Congress on Safety and Health at Work, to be held in the country’s largest city, Istanbul. The event is organized every three years and the last one was held in Seoul in 2008. It’s an excellent opportunity to exchange information about new ideas for prevention of occupational diseases and accidents at work... 

The second largest country in Latin America (the first is Brazil), Argentina declared its independence from Spain on July 9th, 1816, and today is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world (in terms of land area).
Argentina has not yet completely recovered from the 2001 economic and political crisis, which was the most serious in the country’s history. In 2008/2009...

A small island city-state in the southeast of Asia, Singapore is considered one of the world’s top business locations. Having declared its independency from Britain in 1963, Sihngapore has built a modern economy focused on industry, education and urban planning, and today it is the fifth country in the world in terms of GDP (gross domestic product) per capita.

People living and working abroad are brought into intimate contact with differences in culture, language and social practice. Individuals interact with and react to these differences in a variety of ways. Often the initial response of individuals to contact with different cultures is one of alienation: in the words of A. E. Housman, “I, a stranger and afraid, in a world I never made.” Many individuals find the experience educational and rewarding, which shows that attitudes change as connections with the new culture are achieved. What are the determinants of such outcomes? What factors of the individual or situation facilitate accommodation, adaptation, and success in an international experience? Based on a study of over 100 individuals who have lived and worked away from their home country, this article presents a multi-factorial model of the international work experience. We identify four clusters of factors that influence the performance and subjective experience of individuals in international settings. First, people bring their own individual attitudes, experiences, and personalities to the encounter. One key factor here is a person’s global mindset – a cognitive construct of individual beliefs and attitudes to the international experience. Second, there are cultural factors arising from the practices and attitudes prevalent in the home culture and in the destination culture. Third are identity factors relating to the social role or identity that individuals construct in interacting with the community around them. Finally, there are factors specific to the context or situation of a given individual or experience, such as the kind of job held or the person’s family circumstances.

Encounters with the 'Other' – including strangers, foreigners, and speakers of other languages – are an ancient feature of the social and psychological reality of human beings and an ancient topic for humanistic research. But the march of time and technology has greatly accelerated the rate at which we have such experiences. The set of social, commercial, and communicative phenomena that is subsumed under the term globalization constitutes a qualitative change in the human environment; there now exists a growing population of people who live, work, converse, and interact in multiple cultures, countries, continents, and communicative contexts. They travel internationally, live outside their home countries for extended periods, speak more than one language, and function within multiple cultural settings. Of course, such experiences vary tremendously from individual to individual, in terms of duration, intensity, the countries and languages involved, and so on. This entails varying levels of acculturation, accommodation and assimilation.

On January 1, 2004, Canada’s Federal privacy law – The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) – took general effect across the country. At the same time, the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia each introduced a Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA-Alberta and PIPA-BC, respectively), joining Quebec – which has had a similar law for many years. These three provincial laws have all been declared as “substantially similar” to the federal legislation – that means that they take precedence over the federal law except in matters of moving personal information (PI) across provincial or federal borders for purposes of commercial activity.

Life’s reality in a Web 2.0 SaaS economy is one of perpetual projects with constant feature functionality enhancements. Understanding business requirements are never static due to business environment changes, new regulatory requirement, and system stakeholders constantly coming and going, we view this as a positive sign.

Don’t let new technology fool you into thinking that strong project management fundamentals have changed. The move towards SaaS solutions is the latest technology tidal wave cascading upon our workstations, laptops, and hand-held communication devices promising better business decisions across the corporate landscape. And while the reasons to migrate to a SaaS solution can be a logical business choice, the idea that the implementation of these applications throughout the corporate community is “different” or “easier” than previous technology solutions is leading many companies down a primed-rose path of disappointment.

 Articles and regional updates for the modern, global HR professional

 Articles and regional updates for the modern, global HR professional

 Articles and regional updates for the modern, global HR professional

Everyone has been talking about succession planning lately. Pre-recession, it was the fear of baby boomers walking out the door and flocking to Florida for a warm and restful retirement...

We last introduced Global Disaster Relief (GDR), Inc., a 75 year old organization with over 10,000 employees and volunteers in 120 countries who provide first level...

 In previous installments of this series I discussed the importance of strong systems as a key foundation for organizations who desire to create market differientiators...

The LIVE phase of the LIVE-THRIVE-DRIVE approach to SaaS systems deployment focuses on meeting current functionality, integrations, and report requirements while replacing current systems and manual processes used to meet these business needs. This sets the foundation for the THRIVE and DRIVE phases when the emphasis turns to deploying additional features and functionality where business efficiencies can be recognized and ultimately enhance business performance.

Consistent with the distributed nature of the SaaS (Software-as-a-Service model, the requirement to recruit specialized skills and the desire to minimize deployment costs with tight travel budgets, SaaS deployment projects are good candiates for remote and virtual teams.

Social networks have expanded access to global talent and now project managers can secure expertise that may have been previously unvailable. Whether it’s an internal subject matter expert from a remote facility or international product expert from across the globe, SaaS project team membership increasingly include part-time associates with other assignments.

In the LIVE phase of the LIVE-THRIVE-DRIVE approach to SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) systems deployment, the focus is on deploying current functionality, critical integrations, and required reports to replace the company’s current systems and manual processes. The key objective of the LIVE phase is to set the foundation for the THRIVE and DRIVE phases when the emphasis turns to deploying additional features and functionality where business efficiencies can be recognized that will subsequently enhance business performance.

Strong foundations are the building blocks for creating future market differentiators. It’s the market differentiators that allow organizations to survive the tough times and separate themselves from the competition in better times. Research tells us that individual core values such as integrity, work ethic, and goal achievement are established by the second grade and are predictors of success years later in the work place. Physical structures without a strong foundation have a limit on how much growth they can support.

There was a time in Australia when you would have to take a calculator to the supermarket to compare product prices and know if you were getting a good deal. For example, if one product was 350 grams and cost $4.50 was that better than the 500 gram product charging $6.80?

 HCM software vendors are in business to make money:  that is no secret.  The development dollar goes where the market leads it and that is where the most common... MORE

NorthgateArinso continued its acquisition strategy last month by acquiring the mid to large company payroll provider Neller Software...

 It is very safe to say that Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is here to stay. It is no longer viewed with skepticism as a possible hyped up marketing strategy. It has established its credentials as a cost effective delivery mechanism that benefits everyone associated with business application development, deployment and usage. The total cost of ownership models can now be verified with use case examples. Hence now is the right time to evaluate what’s next and our focus shifts to Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). Let’s examine potential of PaaS for HCM. 

According to numerous published reports and statistics, the Asia Pacific region has been a major contributor to greenhouse gas emission. The failure of the...

The ambition of every HR department is to be seen as a strategic partner within the organization: yet, if executive leadership does not view HR as administratively efficient, then they are...

In a room full of technology visionaries you would not get much of an argument if you stated that ERP vendors have given up trying to be the best in every HR functional area, software integration was the focus of most R&D budgets, that Software-as-a-Service was the most popular delivery platform, that cloud computing as a development platform was becoming the preferred option, and mashups or composite applications are the best way to extend a business application. We have seen companies implement all of these strategies over the last couple of years but what they lack is a means of integrating everything into a cohesive operational platform.

Only a couple of months ago all the talk in business circles was about a recession and whether the Asia Pacific region along with the rest of the world were going to plummet into economic turmoil. The China driven mineral resource boom had slowed down and everyone was expecting a prolonged recession and maybe even a depression. In Australia, many of the workers who had travelled west to make their fortune in the minefields of West Australia were returning home with limited prospects of finding employment. Things were looking pretty grim.

In 2008 the Australian Government launched an initiative to reduce the red tape associated with compliance reporting to government departments. The vehicle they chose to facilitate reporting was the XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) and formed an SBR (Standard Business Reporting) working group to look at the number and type of reports that businesses were required to submit to government agencies. HCM software vendors were encouraged to make their products SBR/XBRL enabled.

On the 1st of July 2009 the new Fair Work Bill 2008 will go into effect. The new legislation replaces the current Workplace Relations Act 1996 and fulfils a promise made by the Labor Government during the 2007 election campaign. The Workplace Relations Act was always controversial and issues, such as unfair dismissal, were constantly raised, argued and eventually became an election issue, which many consider was largely responsible for toppling the previous government. It now remains to be seen whether the new legislation will be accepted by employees and employers alike and won’t end up changing every time Australia has a change of government.

Software as a Service (SaaS) was doing well before the global recession. The new delivery method was redefining the HR software industry and changing the way companies viewed their technology acquisitions and deployment strategies. The business case for renting rather than purchasing technology appealed to just about everyone in the organization. Advances in the way applications were designed and delivered meant new economies of scale could be introduced to make software much cheaper to operate. Initiatives such as multi-tenant architecture meant hardware could be hosted by a third party and infrastructure cost avoidance could be achieved with no loss of service quality or security concern.

Evaluating HRMS software products to find the right solution for an organization has always been time consuming and difficult. Often the users were uncertain of what they really wanted, the scope of the project was global and regions were excluded from the process, the infrastructure limitations were not well understood and the requirements obtained by well-intended but inexperienced internal staff.

When times are good, the business community will pay anything for technology that can cost-justify itself and contribute to process improvement and competitive advantage. It does not matter if the technology could cost less or if the benefits could be greater, once the right return on investment (ROI) or total cost of ownership (TCO) threshold has been reached the maximization of cost/benefit is not really important. There is a perception that information technology is just a cost of doing business and whatever the going price for Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS) is then that is what we must pay. Or do we? With the worldwide recession in full force, industry no longer has the ability to pay more than is absolutely necessary for its means of doing business. Companies are looking for new and innovative ways to reduce costs and make the difference between surviving and going under. The software industry must re-invent itself if it is going to help companies through the rough times instead of dragging them down. This White Paper describes the maturing component assembly technology that is now able to change the traditional HRMS model and focuses on the different approaches to DEVELOPMENT, DISCOVERY and DEPLOYMENT that will ultimately provide a solution and contribute to the cost reduction and improved benefits companies are looking for. The technology is based on a set of technical specification assembled using the SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) framework and includes the SCA (Service Component Architecture) for component development and deployment and the business standard HR-CSAS (Human Resource Component Software Application Standard) for component discovery based on HR business function and process.

As the digital age accelerates, the traditional software landscape is fading away. Legacy systems are being replaced by modern, agile software components that can be combined and consolidated into best-fit, best-of-breed solutions to meet companies' specific business needs. The emerging world of open standards, cloud computing, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) are changing the nature of application software selection in multiple ways.

There are major changes taking place in the Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS) landscape. Web services, Services Oriented Architecture (SOA), component development, and new software delivery methods are all contributing to substantial change. On-demand HRMS business solutions are gaining popularity every month. Present indications are that the uptake will continue to increase and, by 2010, the option will become mainstream. On-demand is not just a new technology stack, but rather it is a whole new business platform that will throw down a challenge to the conventional on-premise model that has dominated for so long. The players are still the same but the playing field has moved to a new level. The acceptance of the new platform will cause some dramatic changes to HRMS and the way software needs are specified, products are built, components are sold and solutions assembled and deployed. Although the rules may have changed, the issues, such as integration, are still the same irrespective of the platform.

Component-based software is a relatively new paradigm changing the way business applications are developed and deployed. It is defining a new era of component architecture. As it evolves it enters new territory and there is no roadmap to help navigate through the many issues that will be encountered along the way to universal acceptance by the information technology and business communities. Other industries have encountered similar evolutionary problems and there is a lot to learn from their experiences. The automobile industry is one such industry. This article takes a look at similarities between the automobile industry and the software industry and the various stages of development, including innovation, production, and the way they are marketed, packaged and sold to the public. The packaging and marketing techniques are of particular interest because they may provide an indication of the future model for component-based human resource information system (HRIS) products and the marketplace operation.

There is a saying that when life hands you a lemon, make lemonade. Well this year HR folks are definitely dealing with plenty of lemons: pay freezes, no bonuses, hiring freezes, RIFs (reductions in force), and pay cuts. So how do you turn all these negatives (lemons) into a positive (lemonade) for your company and its employees?

In the last issue of HRinsights I talked about the Role of Global Mindset and described the three types: Ethnocentric, Polycentric, and Geocentric.

 Considerable previous work has shown that international success is highly dependent on “Global Mindset,” that is, an individual’s orientation and perspective of the international experience (Guy & Beaman 2003, 2004).

 The beginning of a new year is always a time to look back and reflect on what we accomplished (or didn't!) last year and look forward to what will be different (we hope!) in the coming year. So here are three things that I think have changed for HR and HR systems during this rough, recessionary year -- the worse economic year for business since the Great Depression

We have just completed the preliminary analysis of our second annual Going Global Readiness Survey. Over 100 global organizations responded to the survey with companies ranging from 500 employees to over 200,000 employees and covering a broad range of industries. Three-quarters of the organizations are North American multinationals and 14% are based in Europe, Middle East and Africa... MORE

I am often asked about solutions for global payroll and of course there’s no easy answer -- no silver bullet -- as Christian Adlung my colleague in Europe wrote about in the March issue of Jeitosa’s HRInsights. What most companies mean by “global payroll” is the ability to handle payroll processing “in countries other than their home country.” The platform is not as important to most as is assurance that the payroll is on-time, accurate, and locally compliant (e.g., taxes, legislation, reporting). The reason that global payroll is such a complex problem is that there are many countries to cover and many options to consider. The graphic depicts four different organizational, processing, and technology structures that must be considered with determining your path forward with global payroll.

Pankaj Ghemawat, global strategist and Harvard professor says too many people are spouting off about the flattening of the world, the death of distance, and the disappearance of differences across countries. He calls such rantings “globaloney” -- the illusion of a borderless, flat world and hence the tendency to overestimate the extent of and process of globalization. Ghemawat maintains that the world is NOT flat: the fact is that most economic activity, including direct investment, tourism, and communication, happens locally, not internationally. Ghemawat considers the world "semi-globalized."

We are in the midst of the most tumultuous and precarious business times of our careers. Looking to others for advice and guidance is one way to shed some light on our dilemmas. Few luminaries are more often quoted than Albert Einstein, the 20th century German mathematician and theoretical physicist. And much of what he said 75 years ago still rings true today. Here are a few of Einstein’s most illuminating observations and how they can be applied to the modern world of human resources.

The impact of the global economy on local operations is impacting all areas of business today. The ability to operate globally is a reality that requires careful planning and execution. This presentation provides a standard definition, global model, and the specific components for shared services. It discusses the global considerations that must be understood when taking shared services operations globally and provides a global methodology along with risks to be aware of and mitigation strategies that can be followed to help companies avoid common pitfalls and increase the likelihood of successful deployment.

Business today isn’t the business of just a few years ago. A new business operating environment is emerging, and amidst the shifting borders and changing boundaries, HR and HRIT are moving to a new frontier. The goal of this book is to push the framework of HR and HRIT thinking beyond traditional business strategies and tactics to reveal a new way of working for HR. The 24 chapters in this volume address different aspects of the new HR frontier from strategy, organizational, and people issues to technology, measurement, and compliance.

This volume is a collection of articles by well-known, highly experienced professionals in the field. Its goal is to provide a comprehensive, inside view of HR outsourcing -- from defining a strategic vision, developing a business plan, and redesigning the organization, to deploying new business processes, transitioning to a new delivery model, and managing people and change. It also provides an overview of regional outsourcing trends, with chapters on Europe, Latin America, and Asia/Pacific. Finally, to ensure a balanced perspective, Out of Site includes a discussion of the case "against" outsourcing and why outsourcing may not always be the best strategy for everyone. It is a "must read" for all HR professionals, regardless of industry or company size. As companies grapple with how to "do more with less," outsourcing will continue to be an important strategy.

Wherever in the world your company has operations and employees, you need reliable economic indicators and compensation planning information in order to make equitable, competitive, and cost-effective business decisions that align with your global workforce strategy as well as corporate goals, policies, and practices. Knowing the right market-driven questions to ask anywhere in the world regarding salary trends, unemployment rates, inflation outlook, and anticipated GDP is critical to the success and profitability of your global organizations.

Adroit human resource (HR) professionals are continually striving for ways to improve HR service delivery and demonstrate greater value of the human capital function to their enterprise. As a result, many organisations are beginning to take advantage of emerging and maturing Web services technology. While Information Technology (IT) units are the initial beneficiaries of Web services applications resulting from lower cost of technology ownership and improved infrastructure management, business units also benefit through greater business agility and improved business process management. Human resource units, in particular, are able to do their jobs better and improve service delivery to their clients (e.g., employees, company management, business partners) through the deployment of applications that enable HR professionals to easily configure, orchestrate, and modify company business processes in line with changes in business strategy, economic/ political environment, and/or regulatory and compliance requirements. One key dilemma facing organisations embarking on a Web services initiative is which delivery model should they consider for the company's Human Capital Management Suite (HCMS): the Software as a Service (SaaS) model or the owner-maintained model -- both can make effective use of the same Web services technology.

As Charles Handy observes in his book, The Age of Paradox, we are entering the 'age of unreason'. We are no longer in the position of being able to choose between various opposing business strategies; we have to develop multiple strategic competencies that may at times appear to be in conflict. According to Handy, today's organizations need to be like both the 'elephant' and the 'flea': they need the size, the reach, and the power of an elephant, but, at the same time, they must remain small, agile, and quick like a flea. To be competitive today, organizations have to be both large and small, both global and local, both centralized and decentralized, sensitive to the needs of local units, and simultaneously responsive to the demands of head office. Instead of choosing one or the other, organizations must learn how to reconcile what were formerly considered 'opposites'. They must find a way to combine multiple contrasting strategies and avoid situations where they have to neglect one for the other.

The objectives of this presentation are to:

• Understand the leadership role that HR can play during these tumultuous times
• Provide a framework to create HR value covering the five key aspects of the organization
• Generate ideas and take-aways that you can bring back and immediately act on

The organizational demands in the era of globalization, digitization, expanding networks, and eroding boundaries provoke the perennial question as to whether we should organize our operations locally, regionally, or globally. In the past, a standard globalization strategy has been to take a global solution built by the headquarters office and roll it out locally, country by country. Yet, this approach goes about globalization completely the wrong way. The slogan, "Think Global, Act Local," originally created by Canadian futurist Hazel Henderson to describe how small local actions can have large global impact, is completely the inverse of what we should be doing to globalize our HR organization and supporting systems. Rather, we should first "Think Local" to truly understand the needs of our local business communities and then "Act Global" to seamlessly knit together diverse business functions and systems into a holistic approach if we want to build an effective, efficient, and competitive HR organization that will thrive in the 21st century.

Few would argue that we live in a global world. The fact is globalization is here and here to stay. Yet, exactly what we mean by “global” varies widely depending on whom you are talking with and what you are talking about. Globalization can mean simply that a company has offices outside their home country and sells their products and services in other countries. There may be little communication or sharing across these offices, but the company is operating globally nonetheless. On the other hand, globalization can mean that a company offers one global service or product to the world, and the country offices serve as pipelines to the local market. And, of course, global can also mean anything between these two extremes.

In order to better understand the differences and stages of globalization, Jeitosa Group International, in conjunction with the association of International Human Resource Information Management (IHRIM), conducted a survey to assess the readiness of the HR and HRIT function to “go global” – from the perspective of the companies’ global strategies and organizational structures, as well as with consideration of the people, processes, and supporting technologies. Specifically, the objectives of this survey have been to:

• Understand where HR/HRIT organizations are in the globalization life cycle;
• Assess the effectiveness and alignment of the global HR/HRIT function; and
• Uncover the value that HR/HRIT brings to today's global enterprise.

This article first provides a brief history of the modern organization and discusses the various types of global organizational models that are common today. The main tenet of this article is that HRIT needs to move to the collaborative transnational organization model in order to deliver services more effectively in the age of Web 2.0.

This lectures presents a model for understanding cultural differences and building awareness of the effects that culture has on language. It discuss the aspects of the international business environment and the role that culture and language play, and illustrates the application of various analytical perspectives and models from linguistics and the social sciences on international business communications with the goal of demonstrating the interdependence of the social science disciplines -- sociology, psychology, anthropology, and linguistics -- and to show their effects on various business situations.

With the ever-accelerating speed of change and the ever increasing demands placed on global business, our world is both expanding and shrinking – expanding by promoting broader, more extensive contacts among countries and individuals, and simultaneously, shrinking through faster and easier access to information and people from different cultures around the world. While these paradoxical forces provide increased business opportunities, they also create more occasions for cross-cultural conflict and misunderstanding.

This presentation provides an introduction to the issues of communicating in a multicultural environment. Different types cultures, direct and indirect language, agreement and disagreement, lexical differences, non-verbal communciation styles, facial expressions, and meeting etiquette all vary significantly across cultures, leading to potential miscommunications and even conflict. Some recommendations are provided for understanding and improving communications in a multicultural environment.

Managing across Borders: the Transnational Solution, by Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal, has been called one of the 50 most influential business books of the 20th century. The 1989 book, recently reissued in an updated edition, has shaped the way many HR professionals think about global management. Of course, Bartlett's work ranges further. When I interviewed him in December 2000, he had a good deal to say, for example, about the implications of his work for human resource management.

Much has been said and written about 'globalizing' HRIS over the years, but has much been achieved? If the answer is 'yes', what has been the nature of those achievements? Consider the following: What global or even pan-European compensation programs exist that pay managers on the same identifiable, quantifiable performance metrics across all countries (while of course not necessarily on the same scales due to the varying economic situations and standards of living)? How many global HRIS organizations exist that manage worldwide HRIS issues on an ongoing basis? (Think about how many global teams are broken up and redeployed into the local business units once the implementation is declared a success.) What truly global software solutions exist that can manage HR, benefits and payroll needs on an integrated (not 'interfaced') basis, for all countries (or even for the major economic powers) and handle all the different linguistic, cultural, financial, legislative and taxation requirements?

The term 'global HRIS' (human resource information system) has been used to denote many different types of organizations, systems and environments. Indeed, the word 'global' has become one of the hottest buzzwords of recent years. With the accelerating pace of change brought about by the Internet and by high-speed communications and transportation, distances are shrinking and borders are breaking down. Every organization is now running into so-called global issues. A direct outcome of the Digital Age, there are two major trends that are having a profound effect on the way we do business.

In the age of increased global mobility, falling trade barriers, and explosive growth in international business, global expansion is on the agenda of most large enterprises. The question on every global company's mind is (or should be) how can they best organize themselves for international operations. Can you do business around the world the same way you do business around the corner? Or are substantially different organizational and management approaches required to meet the demands of global business? When the company as a whole faces such questions, the HR organization needs to anticipate emergent human capital needs in order to meet the challenges created by the company's globalization goals.

Human resource functions have traditionally been candidates for outsourcing. While initially outsourcing concerned payroll, benefits and HR information technology, today companies outsource an average of a dozen HR processes, according to a recent survey by Towers Perrin of Fortune 500 U.S. companies. Communication technology allows the outsourcing of a large number of HR activities on a global level. The customer may selectively outsource various administrative back-office functions, potentially to several vendors and subject to different levels of relationship. For instance, a company may outsource a business function partially (e.g., performance management), a single business function fully (e.g., payroll processing), several functions of a business process (e.g., payroll, benefits and training), or all functions of a business process (e.g., the HR department). This article provides a framework for understanding HR outsourcing (HRO) services by discussing several business models that characterize today’s market. It concentrates on the core functions of Human Resources and Payroll from a global point of view of HRO, yet with particular focus on Europe. However, the observations are applicable to other multinational regions as well.

Why BPO is so hot in Latin America nowadays? Quite simply it is because it increases organizational flexibility and flexibility is critical to achieving effective operations. Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a form of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of a specific business function (or set of processes) to a third-party service provider. Originally this was associated with manufacturing firms, such as Coca Cola who outsourced large segments of its supply chain.

Outsourcing in Latin America is a nascent trend, and the anticipated boom has yet to occur. The political, social, and cultural situation in Latin America provides essential background for understanding the region's comparative lack of progress in outsourcing, as well as for its enormous future potential. Those that witnessed its birth and development in the region are convinced that the moment is propitious for the great wave of outsourcing to emerge in the southern hemisphere — and it will happen with much greater speed and with far broader impact than what took place with our northern neighbors. This trend has already been anticipated by various research firms who predict growth rates for technology-based outsourcing services in Latin America on the order of 30 to 35 percent. This article addresses the development of outsourcing in Latin America, in comparison to the northern hemisphere, especially the U.S. and Europe where outsourcing is more widely practiced. It sheds light on the hurdles that have slowed the expansion of outsourcing — indeed of all technology growth — in the region and examines the prospects for a rapid growth in the future. This article discusses the challenges that growth in outsourcing imposes on the companies and economies of the region. It concludes with an assessment on the prospects for outsourcing — how its development is taking place throughout the world and why its growth in Latin America as a whole, and in Brazil in particular, is expected to take place at rates considerably faster than those currently observed in the northern hemisphere.

Expanding into new markets can result in significant competitive advantages. Yet the roadmap to global expansion is not without challenges...

In this first edition of the newsletter, let’s start this column by defining what we mean by change management, since there are lots of definitions out there. When we talk about it, we mean the process by which any significant business change is affirmatively planned, communicated, monitored, implemented and measured. I say affirmatively because, in reality, any change incorporates these steps, but in many cases they are done informally, privately, reactively and even accidentally. The problem with that, except in the case of the most trivial changes, is that the chances of a quick and effective implementation are minimized. If all affected parties are not involved and kept informed, their acceptance will be slow or incomplete. They may even react to the point of subverting the change. Certainly the results will not be as envisioned and measures of success, if any, will not achieve planned levels.

In today’s business world, everything is changing; changing constantly and changing at an ever-increasing rate. When I went to business school, we were taught that the world of business is like a river. If your company is floating down the river and things are going well, sooner or later you will hit some rapids. When the industry or market or competition changes, something happens that causes rapids, but if you take what you learned in business school and apply it properly, and you are a good businessperson, you’ll navigate your way through the rapids and come out to calm water for a while. Sooner or later you will hit more rapids but there are periods of relative calm. Today, there is no longer any calm water. We are all in a state of “permanent white water.”