Indian enterprises adopting HCM in a big way

BANGALORE, INDIA: For any enterprise, managing human resource is a critical issue. In order to align its employees into the vision of the company, it needs to communicate the organizational goals and should know how the employees are performing on those goals. All of these processes, today, are possible through human capital management (HCM) software.

As organizations grow in multiple locations, both horizontally and in the head count, there is a need for an HCM solution, which can bring them all together. HCM helps users across the company to access critical information, work processes and knowledge to work more effectively.

According to Forrester, the HR/HCM market globally is at $5.9 billion in license, maintenance, and subscriptions, and is expected to grow at 9 percent rate through 2011, with the highest growth coming from performance and compensation solutions.

Adrenalin e-Systems Ltd., a Polaris Group company, has emerged leader in the HCM software space by developing Adrenalin, a strategic HR management software. Adrenalin, a business-critical HR suite, is available as web-based software over the Internet or on the intranet within the office. It provides critical tools, work flow and information that help companies drive business results from HR.

“In any company, HCM is a critical affair and Adrenalin talks about managing those affairs, in terms of providing services which the customers can solve on their own so that the administrative hassles are removed. It ensures transparency and uniform policies across the organization, which is a clear benefit. It enables speed of decision making. Employees can feel more confident about ensuring that their requirements are handled the same way as somebody else's requirements are,” explains Balaji Ganesh, CEO, Adrenalin eSystems.

Giving more details, he says: “Adrenalin automates the entire employee life cycle within the organization. It helps companies drive business results from HR. It provides tools and services that helps build cohesive teams, and aligns them to a single corporate mission. It provides role-appropriate information, knowledge and action tools that motivate teams to perform beyond their potential and thereby contribute to outstanding business results.”

With over 300 customers from 14 key industry verticals, Adrenalin is present in the Middle East, Far East, Africa and London, and is poised to capture a large portion of the burgeoning HCM market. This year alone, it has acquired 110 customers. “Initially, when we started the company in 2003, we had to convince the people to understand the need for a solution like this. Today, it is taken for granted and they understand the need for it,” he adds.

“In earlier times, when you take ERP as an example, ERP talked about people as one of the resources. In that context, HR was considered as an aid in manufacturing to meet the manufacturing requirements. HCM at this time was thought of an ERP module, and it became important in terms of making it as an enterprise solution,” Ganesh explains.

Market for HCM

Globally, Gartner talks about a market size of $1.6 million. In India, there is no report available on the market size. But if you look at it differently, considering the number of employee count, obviously the market is much bigger. Every organization requires this system, says Ganesh. In all, it has 325 customers, with 300 in India. The focus this year is to strengthen its presence in markets outside India.

Road ahead for Adrenalin

“We have launched the product on a SAP mode, which is available for companies to start off very easily. We have chalked out a road map in terms of functionality of the product. Today, our product in the current version requires a Windows desktop to work. We are actually moving away from that as most companies are adopting Linux desktops. We are ensuring that our product also works on non-Windows desktops,” he says.

With mobile phone browsing becoming very popular, Adrenalin on Mobile is something that will be available soon, where employees as well as organizations are able to do any of their transactions through the mobile itself. This service, which has already been launched on a beta mode, will be available for public from April.