One of the largest employers in the world has embraced cloud computing for HR in a way so big that Siemens AG will have one of the largest, if not the largest, enterprise cloud computing deployments in the world.
The lucky beneficiary of the German electronics and electrical engineering giant’s decision to replace its multiple talent systems globally is SuccessFactors, which will see most of its performance and talent management modules deployed to Siemens’ 430,000 employees in 80 countries and 20 languages.
Dr. Norbert Kleinjohann, head of corporate information technology for Siemens, says in the press release announcing the deal, “The enterprise cloud computing business model is a strategic direction for us. It not only lowers IT costs, and creates faster end-to-end processes, but can also grow with our requirements both globally and locally.”
SuccessFactors says the Siemens deployment will include its compensation, goal, performance, and recruiting management, career development planning, variable pay, and succession planning tools. SuccessFactors willl replace Siemens’ existing multiple talent systems globally.
The deal — the value wasn’t released — is not only noteworthy for the size of the SaaS deployment, but also that it is one of the largest single-vendor HR selections of its kind. While Oracle/PeopleSoft and SAS have equally large employers as customers, they are sellers of enterprise, on-premises systems. So signficant a deal is this for the still-developing cloud computing approach that tech site Zdnet says “this company wide rollout really draws attention to the maturity of cloud computing.”
Based in San Mateo, Calif. in Silicon Valley, SuccessFactors was founded in 2001 providing HR services over the web. The company today, before the Siemens deployment, serves 2,700 customers and 4.7 million users in 31 languages and 185 countries.
Before it settled on SuccessFactors, Siemens evaluated nearly 40 vendors and system providers. We conducted an in-depth market evaluation of 30 leading vendors and seven system providers Siemens already had over five months, with our end-users stress testing the software quality, global scalability, and innovation potential,” explains Marion Horstmanm, who heads corporate HR for the company. She says in a press release that, “SuccessFactors was the clear winner by a significant margin based on its usability, ease of integration, and rich functionality.”
The delight in being selected by so large an employer as Siemens, which last year did (US) $107.4 billion in business, is evident in the SuccessFactors press release and the comment by its CEO, Lars Daalgard. “For such an amazing company as Siemens to decide to eliminate so many systems and standardize on SuccessFactors in the cloud is obviously a testimony to SuccessFactors delivering more large business clients over the web than anyone else.”