The Computerworld Honors Program
Honoring those who use Information Technology to benefit society
Final Copy of Case Study
LOCATION:
Denver, CO, US

YEAR:
2009

STATUS:
Laureate

CATEGORY:
Business and Related Services

Technology Area:
Management of application development/performance and solutions delivery

ORGANIZATION:
Apartment Investment & Management Company (AIMCO)

ORGANIZATION URL:
http://www.aimco.com/

PROJECT NAME:
AIMCO HMS IT Transformation

Introductory Overview 
The following project goals were achieved through implementing Oracle eBusiness Suite implementation of HCM:
 Provide high application and infrastructure availability
 Provide high application performance
 Provide application and technical infrastructure upon which potential future HR and Payroll related features and functionality can be implemented
 Improve business process and efficiencies
 Reduce amount of customized code, reducing cost of ownership
 Improved reporting capability to respond to internal customer requests
 Standardized suite of reliable customer reports
 Provide the ability to easily and quickly generate ad hoc and standard reports
 Provide scaleable HCM applications to facilitate future growth

This solution has enabled the Core HR module users the ability to analyze and make changes to the hierarchy of the company, divisions, departments and employees, and support any organizational changes in these current economic times.


The Importance of Technology
How did the technology you used contribute to this project and why was it important?
The Oracle eBusiness Technology allowed AIMCO to incorporate Self Service functionality and deploy to our distributed employee base.

Employee Self Service (ESS) is now accessible to all AIMCO employees via Internet.  This enables our employees to self maintain the following: 
 personnel info view/update, 
 direct deposit account management, 
 payroll modeling, 
 view historical and YTD payroll information, 
 view tax withholding management

The deployment of Manager Self Service (MSS) functionality enables managers to perform actions such as:
 hires, 
 transfers, 
 terminations
 merit increases 
and other transactions for their direct report employees. 

The automated Workflow approvals allows multi-level approval and processing also aid with internal controls and SOX compliance.


Benefits
Has your project helped those it was designed to help?   
Yes


Has your project fundamentally changed how tasks are performed?   
Yes


What new advantage or opportunity does your project provide to people?
The opportunity to independently maintain their person data real time, using the Self Serfice Framework.


If possible, include an example of how the project has benefited a specific individual, enterprise or organization. Please include personal quotes from individuals who have directly benefited from your work.
The Benefits Open/Annual Enrollment process was done efficiently on line through Self Service, and was easily closed on time leveraging the new functionality.  Changes to the benefits plans was done in-house by the benefits administrator and functional staff.


Originality
Is it the first, the only, the best or the most effective application of its kind?   None of the above

What are the exceptional aspects of your project?
As part of the implementation of this new project system, AIMCO wanted to maintain all of our historical records from our legacy HR system.  Part of the solution included a creative solution to maintain our legacy historical data in a repository that is accessed through the Self Service Framework.


Difficulty
What were the most important obstacles that had to be overcome in order for your work to be successful? Technical problems? Resources? Expertise? Organizational problems?
Resources - New Skills / Training / becoming familiar with the new technology.


Often the most innovative projects encounter the greatest resistance when they are originally proposed. If you had to fight for approval or funding, please provide a summary of the objections you faced and how you overcame them.
The organization was ready for a new HCM technology solution.


Success
Has your project achieved or exceeded its goals?   
Achieved


Is it fully operational?   Yes

How do you see your project's innovation benefiting other applications, organizations, or global communities?
The Self Service Framework provides a great framework to extend to other self Service Applications for both Employees and Managers.


How quickly has your targeted audience of users embraced your innovation? Or, how rapidly do you predict they will?
The end-user base immediately adopted the new Self Service technical framework, and the professional users embraced the Core Applications.


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