The secret to Cloud HR success? Happy apps.

At NGA HR, we have completed over 300 cloud HCM deployments on 3 technology platforms in the last 10 years.

Based on that, we have built various methodologies, accelerators, integration approaches, and extensions. As a result of these innovations we deploy cloud HCM faster and cheaper.

But for cloud HCM solutions to provide continued value for organizations and get ‘happy apps’, organizations need to go beyond successful deployment.

Above all they need an approach that takes advantage of the ongoing innovation cloud HR offers. By doing so they can take advantage of the full functionality, multiple releases and ongoing innovation the Cloud brings.

Such an approach combines change and release management. In addition to integration monitoring and compliance updates. Therefore ensuring that cloud HCM systems are up to date, properly connected and compliant.

The secret to create such ‘happy apps’ is in having a thought-through, proactive focus on application management.

Unfortunately, the benefits of these post-deployment services in the cloud are not always clear to HR practitioners.

Application Management Services (AMS)

AMS allow organizations to quickly deploy the latest innovation and releases. It avoids integration interruptions and ensures continued compliance with legal changes.

A post-deployment service like AMS is a ‘lights-out’ service. It’s an insurance policy. That means HR leaders need not worry about maintenance, patches, integrations and service interruption. It just happens, even when nobody’s watching.

This blog post written by Pete Tiliakos, a Principal Analyst at NelsonHall, outlines how application management services are the gateway to HR BPaaS. They combine in-house oversight of cloud HR applications with ongoing expert support.

This ensures compliance, user adoption, ongoing change management, and integration. Everything you need to get ‘happy apps’ in the cloud.

App maintenance

In particular, Pete calls out that “cloud technology has become far more dynamic and intelligent than its legacy predecessors”. Every year multiple releases both large and small, require ongoing attention to compliance and integration.

The skills required to keep apps happy go beyond mere administration skills. More importantly, not every organization has these skills and resources in house.

As Pete points out in his blog: “buyers need to optimize the configuration of cloud systems to achieve the full value of their investment, as well as maintaining the system for peak performance.”