SunGard releases Talent Management Suite

BANGALORE, INDIA: SunGard Higher Education, an organization focused on helping higher education realize the benefits of technology, on Monday announced launch of its new Talent Management Suite, a fully integrated solution for managing learning, performance and succession planning across a higher education institution.

Delivered as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution, the suite helps institutions manage the complete employee lifecycle, from onboarding, learning, and performance management, through organizational and succession planning, said a press release.

“With higher education being outlined as one of the key priorities for the government, we believe that the sector is set to witness a massive transformation with a number of new institutes being set up and a growing number of students opting to pursue higher education in India. To fuel this transformation, there will be a large demand for high-quality faculty and staff — the greatest assets of a higher education institution,” said Vinod John, senior director sales, SunGard Higher Education.

He added that the Talent Management Suite is very relevant in the current environment and can help institutions cultivate and retain top talent, enabling institutions to grow and meet their objectives more effectively.

The company claimed that the new suite is designed to help institutions align employee training and performance with institutional goals, deliver institution-wide training initiatives on-demand and with measurable results, meet compliance and governance requirements and complete transparency around all processes: learning activities, readiness gaps, performance, goal management and succession planning.

According to a recent report released by Ernst and Young, spending on higher education in India is estimated to grow at an average of 18 per cent a year to cross Rs.232,000 crore by 2020. The report also states that higher education institutes will need to improve the quality of education and focus on faculty development.

Conservative estimates show that India needs around 8,000 additional faculty members holding doctoral degrees to meet the growing demand for higher education. In addition to offering competitive packages, incentives such as international exposure, career growth and research opportunities will also need to improve so that higher education institutes can attract and retain talent.