Established business technology partner and Human Capital Management (HCM) solution provider, Swicon360, held a press conference on Thursday, 4 March at Peermont’s Emperors Palace – a long standing client and inaugural beneficiary of Swicon360’s exciting new offering. The conference unveiled Swicon360’s new product, HCM Spectrum in the cloud, in association with multi-national software developers and consulting corporation, SAP AG, and hosting partner, Vodacom Business.

SAP AG reaches 35-million users through market leading analytic tools and complex processes across 25 industries. With 35 years of industry expertise, its clients include: consumer industries: Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Coca-Cola; trading industries: Harrods and Mont Blanc; financial services: Deutsche Bank and JPMorganChase; discrete manufacturing: BMW and Airbus; public services: United States Postal Service and NASA; services: DHL and The Times of India; and process manufacturing: Pfizer and De Beers.

Vodacom Business, the second partner for Swicon360’s new offering, in conjunction with SAP AG, has implemented a state-of-the-art hosting platform at its data-centre in Midrand. This is in line with the company’s strategic approach to reduce the total cost of its customers’ ownership; re-shuffle requirements and management infrastructure services; as well as enabling current and future customers to remove unnecessary administration burden and overhead, and in turn reducing dependency on key staff and mitigate risk.

“In association with industry leaders, SAP AG and Vodacom Business, we have introduced a solution that takes human resource management to a new level in making services available as a virtual and easily accessible platform. It is essentially offering as human resources as a service,” said Markus Bucher, CEO at Swicon360. This solution signals an innovative segment with offerings for both local and international business communities, and supports Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services in support of the SAP® Enterprise Resource Planning Human Capital Management (SAP ERP HCM) application. In addition to the certification of Swicon360, BasisOne, the company has successfully qualified as an SAP-certified provider of hosting services for South Africa, and has entered the market place as the only SAP-certified HCM BPO Solution Programme Provider operating in Africa.

With Swicon360’s HCM Spectrum in the cloud, benefits include: cost reduction (cost is a prerequisite for achieving quality; no initial capital outlay for hardware acquirement is needed, as it can be spread monthly over a three-year contract basis; and client-staff costs are reduced); risk reduction (sensitive information is inaccessible and therefore, legal compliance risks are reduced); efficient HR (administration is reduced, allowing for strategic processes to have more of a focus; there will be an ongoing knowledge transfer of best practice); and added expertise (Swicon360 offers both a payroll and full HR spectrum, and is always on top of legal and technological changes).

“Providing the SAP HCM Solution as a Service (SaaS) enables organisations large and small to access SAP HCM without making any upfront investment in either hardware or software. This flexibility allows customers’ SAP HCM Solution to grow and fluctuate in-line with their workforce, resulting in a fully scalable solution which is extremely cost-effective as a result,” said Marketing Executive for Vodacom Business, Ermano Quartero. “With our customers’ SAP ERP environment being managed and hosted within Vodacom Business’ data centre, our customer’s requirements for acquiring and retaining the necessary SAP skills and training is also greatly reduced,” said Quartero.

“By matching our understanding of what companies expect from a data and voice communications service provider, together with Swicon’s world class solutions, we are enabling companies to have the agility they need to compete in a challenging and changing world,” he said.

Quartero concluded by thanking Vodacom Business’ new partners for making this opportunity a reality. “May we continue to grow from strength to strength together.” He ended.

HCM Spectrum in the cloud will be distributed throughout Africa in association with business partners and payroll companies such as Deloitte.