Adoption Of Self-Service System At Wipro Technologies Boosts Efficiency.

Problem and opportunity faced by Wipro

Enterprise Resource Planning system is an effective set of tools which are necessary for organizations for enhancing performance. ERP software are effective in almost every field and with regards to this, organizations could easily perform their operations in an effective manner. This helps the organization to boost up their productivity along with gaining competitive advantage. In this report, Wipro Technologies have decided to adopt the Self-Service system with the objective of improving services for employee and managers in order to expand the services along with aligning HR activities with the business strategies. The rationale behind the adaptation of the self-service system is to retain key talent in the organization for supporting business direction. In relation with this system, Wipro has formed a strategy labelled as Channel [W]. This system has been adopted by the organization after analysing the requirements, demands and wants of their employees. The research conducted by the organization for analysing their employees’ requirements led them towards two patterns. One pattern is accompanied with pulled and sorted information known as infotainment and the other one is for pushed and thrust the information in relation with the employees by the organization and it is known as intellectual. Motive of adopting the Channel [W] was to develop effective bond between the employees through which they could be felt comfortable as well as encouraged to build relationships with each other to encourage collaboration for enhancing organizational productivity.

Wipro Technologies was facing various issues in different departments through which organizational performance was getting affected. Organization was lacking with the bonding amongst their members due to which organization was not able to accomplish its desired goals and objectives. Implementation of self-service system is directly influenced with the HR objectives because it is necessary for the HR department to analyse their employees’ requirements so that appropriate facilities could be provided to them. But HR department of Wipro Technologies were not able to execute its functionalities through which they were unable to retain its talented employees. Following issues and challenges were faced by the organization through which they felt the requirement of ERP system:

• Providing appropriate training and development sessions to its employees for matching the business requirements.
• Retention of key employees was another big challenge for the organization.
• Developing relationships with the HR's policies and the whole organizational strategies.
• High Administrative costs.
• Lack of services for managers and employees.

Opportunities for the organization in relation with adopting self-service system:

• Enhancing employees' capabilities for turning them into a valuable resource for the organization.
• Enhancing information access.
• Enabling strategies of the organization with HR.
• Reducing administrative costs for maintaining the cost of production.
• Developing collaboration amongst the HR and IT.
• Adopting appropriate intranet for the organization to encourage communication amongst the employees and management.
• Boosting organizational productivity along with the objective of enhancing its brand value.

Wipro’s self-service system Channel [W] is a web-based platform which is also a part of HTML, JavaScript, Oracle 8i, JSPs, etc. which are essential and effective for HR team of the organization in terms of attracting new employees, encouraging inward and outward branding along with enhancing the overall performance of the organization. Employees of the organization were facing various issues and challenges due to which company’s intranet could easily be affected.

Enterprise System adopted by Wipro Technologies is directly linked with their HR strategies and the primary purpose of adopting this system is to enable the link between HR strategies and organizational policies. HR department of the organization required an effective strategy through which the company's intranet could be strengthened. The two main drivers of this system are bonding and employees focus. With regards to these two objectives, the organization has decided to adopt a self-service system in order to encourage the collaboration at workplace along with setting up an effective communication network amongst the employees through which desired goals such as sustainable growth and overall development could be adopted.

Nature of enterprise system

Wipro’s Self-Service system i.e. Channel [W] is effective because organization executed research in order to determine their objectives of fulfilment of employees’ demands and wants. Along with this, this system is also being adopted on the basis of service factors such as adequate budgeting and funding, collaboration amongst HR and IT, high-level executive commitment, the strategic plan which prioritises applications, business case, corporate standards for technology solutions, reengineering, consistent interface media, etc. With the help of these factors, efficiency and success of the adopted system could be analysed. Along with this, the organization is seeking for expanding their services along with aligning HR activities with the organizational strategies. Thus, it could be said that the nature of self-service system adopted by Wipro positive as it is helpful in developing alignment between the organizational policies and HR policies for enhancing the effectiveness of employees as well as for the whole organization.

With the regards to the ERP software, Wipro is one of the behemoth players of the Information Technology industry. Its headquarters is situated in Bengaluru, India and founded in 1945. Since then, the organization has expanded its operations in various other parts of the globe and in relation to the expansion of business; the organization has also demerged with several non-IT businesses with separate companies. The major objective of the organization for enhancing their performance was to build or adopt an effective platform where employees could feel motivated as well as satisfied through which the organizational performance could be enhanced. In relation with this, the organization adopted Channel [W] in consideration to the development of alignment between HR policies and organizational strategies and to attain key objectives set up by the Human Resource Management. In order to implement this system in an effective manner, the organization also executed research on the basis of identifying the needs and requirements of their employees and that research led the organization towards patterns accompanied with different types of information. For the objective of successful implementation of the self-service system, the organization used their internal systems for evaluating the demand of their employees through which relevant strategies could be implemented. Apart from this, the organization also used Web-based platforms, JavaScript, Netscape Servers 4.0 and 4.1 for implementing their Channel [W] system.

With the help of Channel [W], the organization has been able to accomplish its desired goals and objectives along with uplifting organizational efficiency along with promoting the culture of collaboration at workplace. Apart from this, enterprise resource planning software has also helped the organization to minimise their unnecessary overheads, retention of key employees, providing the appropriate training and development sessions which has ultimately resulted in boosting organizational performance. Primary benefits attained by Wipro with regards to the implementation of the self-service system are:

• Enhancing efficiency
• Collaboration
• Reduced overhead costs
• Determining forecasts
• Enhances the security for the data and information stored in the organizational system
• It helps in complying with the regulations.

In terms of adaptation of the ERP system, a number of obstacles and challenges needs to be confronted from different aspects for the objective of enhancing organizational performance. Wipro Technologies facing certain challenges in terms of managing their human resources and retaining key talent with the organization. Employees and managers were not getting any appropriate services due to which labour turnover of the organization was increasing rapidly. This made the organization realise the requirement of ERP system through which they could be able to fulfil their desired goals and objectives along with the objective of attaining competitive advantage.

Selection and implementation process

Following challenges and issues were faced by Wipro while adopting Channel [W]:

• Analysing employees' requirements because the major concern for adopting self-service system was to enable to the HR strategies with the organizational strategies. Apart from this, the organization was lacking with the appropriate strategy for retaining its key employees due to which organizational performance was getting affected.
• The organization also faced resistance from employees with regards to the adaptation of ERP system because they were not aware of the new technology.
• Lack of bonding became the major issue for the organization due to which organization was not able to perform their tasks in the desired manner and this made the organization to adopt a self-service system in order to enhance organizational performance.

In order to facilitate the implementation of the system adopted by an organization to fulfil the objectives set up by the HR managers, they engaged the employees in the decision-making process. Apart from this, organizational objectives in relation to the new system are improving services for the employees and managers. The organization also executed research for analysing their employees' requirements, demands and wants so that relevant model could be adopted as well as implemented for gaining positive outcomes. The research conducted helped the organization to determine two patterns which are essential in terms of the internal flow of information for the organization. One pattern was pulled and sorted information which is also known as infotainment and the other pattern is pushed and the thrust the information on the employees by the organization itself and it is known as intellectual.

The primary objective behind adaptation and implementation of a self-service system for the organization are developing bonding between the employees so that the tasks could be accomplished in a more effective manner. This is also helpful in terms of building brand image along with generating more opportunities for the purpose of enhancing the organization. Following steps were taken by Wipro for successful implementation of ERP system:

• Identify issues: Wipro analysed the issues through which organizational performance was getting affected. In relevance with the functionalities of Wipro, the major issues faced by the organization are the alignment of HR strategies with the organizational overall strategies. Apart from this, retention of the employees was another big concern for the organization.
• Scope:After implementation of ERP system, organization forecasted the results in order to adopt an appropriate system. This helps the organization to adopt Channel [W] along with the self-service system to provide relevant services to their employees and managers.
• Customisation:Organization has also adopted customised ERP for the objective of successful implementation of the system along with resolving all the challenges and issues faced by the organization.
• Change management:Before implementation of the ERP system, it is required for the organization to obtain consent from the employees so that resistance towards adaptation of new system could be avoided.

With the help of implementation of ERP system, the organization becomes able to eliminate steps, approvals, forms and other relevant issues for the objective of enhancing employees' efficiency and to develop bond amongst them. This is essential for every organization because the implementation of ERP helps the organizations to move towards automation system from the traditional systems which are ultimately helpful for attaining sustainable growth and development. The business environment is considered as dynamic in nature and with regards to the fulfilment of organizational desired goals and objectives. With regards to the implementation of ERP self-service system, the organization has set several objectives such as decreasing process steps, approvals, and forms, increasing information access, enabling strategic HR policies with the organizational strategies, eliminating administrative costs along with improving services for managers and employees. Thus, Wipro’s Channel [W] and self-service system has been considered as successful due to factors such as building collaboration between HR and IT team, support from top-level management, building bonding amongst the employees as well as amongst the employers so that flow of communication amongst them could be enhanced so that organizational performance could be enhanced.

ERP system is beneficial for every type and scale of the organization as it helps the organization to move towards automation. Majorly, it has been used by the large-scale companies because of the use of hardware at different workstations. Due to complexity in maintaining hardware system, organizations are required to upgrade their system on a regular basis which ultimately enhances maintenance costs and it directly affects the production cost. With regards to the bring improvement in organizational functionalities along with the objective of enhancing organizational performance, appropriate and relevant strategies are being adopted through which desired goals and objectives could be attained.

Difficulties faced by the organization in terms of adaptation of the system

It is required for every organization to upgrade their system in order to match up with requirements of the dynamic business conditions as well as to cope up with the expectations of their target and potential customers. Regular updating system is also beneficial in terms of developing as well as retaining its effective position in the competitive business environment. Wipro Limited is engaged in the Information Technology industry where regular improvements and upgrading their systems are their basic and primary tasks through which they could attain their desired goals and objectives. Apart from this, Wipro was facing certain issues in relation with retaining their key employees and managing bond amongst them due to which, the organization was not able to perform as per their expectations.

With the help self-service system aligning with the technical Channel [W], Wipro has been able to overcome from all the challenges faced by them in the HR department. The organization has been able to expand their services which have made their HR policies aligned with the overall policies and strategies of the organization. Apart from this, the organization has also attained success in retaining its key and talented employees by fulfilling their demands and wants along with providing them the safe workplace. Before implementation of Channel [W] system along with the self-service solution within workplace, organization executed research for the objective of analysing their employees’ demands and wants from the organization. This helped the Wipro to adopt and add appropriate systems in their new ERP system through which the organization has been able to attain their desired goals and objectives.

Apart from fulfilling employees' needs, the organization was struggling with the bond between the employees. The organization was lacking with the collaboration amongst the teams and the employees which is one of the biggest factors for organizational success and growth. With regards to this, the organization moulded its strategies on the basis of the weaknesses in the strategies along with analysing employees' requirements for the attainment of desired goals and objectives. With regards to these issues and challenges, the organization formed their strategies for making an effective system for promoting bonding atmosphere amongst the employees along with providing them comfortable work environment to strengthen their relationships with the management as well as amongst each other. In relation to the implementation of inputs, Wipro has devised a solution with Channel [W] which is a television-like desktop program for encouraging employee self-service, collaboration, and community framework. The self-service solution of the organization includes six aspects i.e. magnet, neural networks, inward-outward branding, outward-inward branding, Channel W and Camp W. With regards to these strategies of the organizational unique self-service system, employees have been served with various personal and organizational programs which are the essential part of the organizational intranet. This helped the organization to focus towards two solutions i.e. developing bonding amongst the employees and focusing on employees’ performance in order to grab the opportunity to become the leader of the global Information Technology industry. 

Conclusion

From the aforesaid information, it can be concluded that every organization is required to adopt ERP software in order to enhance their performance in terms of productivity as well as in terms of managing different tasks in an appropriate manner. Along with this, there are numerous benefits linked with the adaptation of the ERP system which is essential for organizational sustainable growth and overall development. With regards to the implementation of ERP system, this report has covered the scenario of adaptation of ERP system by Wipro in relevance with resolving the issues and challenges faced by them along with the objective of uplifting their position in the list of top companies in the global Information Technology industry. Major issues faced by the organization which makes them realise the adaptation of the ERP system was bonding and collaboration amongst the employees and with the top level management. This enhanced the labour turnover for the organization because they were unable to retain their key and talented employees within the organization. With regards to these issues, the organization adopted a set of strategies in self-service solution along with Channel [W] for resolving these issues along with attaining their desired goals and objectives. 

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