“In the workshops, I found Turnkey very engaging in the discussions. Not only did they provide detailed feedback about experiences in the area of reporting specifically for HR, but also highlighted the risks that we were potentially facing."
— Jan Born, Project Manager
Swiss Re had already chosen SAP as their implementation partner for a new information management solution that would re-engineer its current IT environment. To complement this work stream they were also looking to take on a partner to help engineer authorisation concepts and design a solution around their HR practices.
However, with tight deadlines on the project implementation, the IT department had their work cut out to get everyone involved in the project from SAP to Swiss Re up to speed. Jan Born, Project manager at Swiss Re, says “With due diligence underway, we had a limited opportunity to get all our resources in place for the blueprinting process. It was a challenge to get the right people on board, and this involved sifting through CVs to review those members of staff we considered as potential employees to be part of the project team. We needed IT, HR consultants and other staff.”
It was at this stage that Jan Born brought Turnkey Consulting on board to advise on authorisation concepts and design solutions around the integration of HR within the information management solution as a whole. Turnkey Consulting had been recommended by IT Lead Carlos Caceres-Heinz, who had worked with Turnkey previously.
Turnkey Consulting was seconded into the team as a key resource for the blueprint and consulting phase of the implementation, with a focus on the integration between HR and information management.
Jan Born explains “Turnkey slotted into the project team to advise us on the integral HR reporting requirements of the solution. This part involved many workshops and they acted as a key participant in ensuring we were going in the right direction.”
He adds “In the workshops, I found Turnkey very engaging in the discussions. Not only did they provide detailed feedback about experiences in the area of reporting specifically for HR, but also highlighted the risks that we were potentially facing.”
A key HR topic was around restrictions on accessing confidential data on members of staff within the organisation and more specifically on colleagues in the HR department. Turnkey Consulting was instrumental in the discussions about making these key potential changes in the core systems to accommodate restrictions and about how accurate these would be.
Their practical experience meant Turnkey was able to make relevant recommendations and suggestions for the HR component of the implementation. Jan Born elaborates “These were very valuable discussion points because most of us were unaware of what other companies had been through and were going through. The team found this aspect very supportive and it offered them good guidance.”
Although the implementation was halted due to political reasons, the work that Turnkey was involved in around HR authorisations and concepts is still very relevant to the business because it is from a strategic and design rather than a technical implementation point of view.
As Jan Born comments “The work we carried out with Turnkey and the resulting documentation is still valid and useable. What we do have is proof of concept for a potential new solution. Also, it is related to the SAP capabilities for authorisation. We have the core requirements and this is still valid.”
Jan Born states “The project was stopped for political reasons before the implementation stage and this was not very motivating for the team because they had done a lot of work on the blueprint process. However Turnkey was very professional during this time.” He adds “Their contribution was very motivating to the other staff which was appreciated by the team members.”
Working with Turnkey Consulting at the pre-implementation phase gave Swiss Re a lot of benefits including: