I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up. Here is the index to the growing list of interviews.
This time it is Brian Sommer, President of TechVentive which analyzes and advises on the ERP, HCM and Financial software markets. Here he discuss heroics as HCM executives deal with a slew of new demands.
He describes expectations of HR related to layoffs, getting people ready for work from home, site re-opening protocols, reacting to regulatory changes as government emergency programs like the Payroll Protection Plan (PPP) loans in the US. All this is in addition to their regular day jobs which is being done remotely. In addition, HR is squarely in the middle of corporate response to diversity issues and protests. He describes the risks as corporations re-open sites and re-hire employees. We also discuss impact on employer brands coming out of the crisis.
We discuss how cloud applications performed in support of work from home formats, and how HR can find justification to move to the cloud as enterprises try to optimize IT budgets and prioritize revenue-facilitating vertical applications. We also discuss moving legacy application to cloud infrastructure, and using third party maintenance to support those applications, and outsourcing opportunities.
As usual, Brian is entertaining and uses terms like "finding true love elsewhere". But most of it is serious stuff - a lot of empathy for the crushing load that HCM groups find themselves buried under.
