Clients 
Novell Inc.
About Novell Inc.
Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) is the leading provider of Net business solutions designed to secure and power the networked world. Novell and its eServices division, Cambridge Technology Partners, help organizations solve complex business challenges, simplify their systems and processes, and capture new opportunities with one Net solutions. Novell provides worldwide channel, consulting, education and developer programs to support its offerings.
Challenge: New Hire Setup
The first day on the job: filling out forms for Human Resources, reading manuals and company collateral, and perhaps figuring out the directory and email system. Not exactly a productive start, and one that costs that company a lot of time and money. In fact, it often takes up to four weeks for new staff to get fully acclimatised when factoring in the processes for getting set up with an office, network account, email, telephone and pager, computer, business cards, badge, security access and car parking spaces.
These workforce management issues are a top challenge according to three of five CEOs in the Corporate Executive Board's New HR Executive survey). Management of these issues was something Novell aimed to master. Viewing its employees as internal customers, Novell sought to automate and streamline the "provisioning" of employees. This would make recruitment more efficient, and it would help attract the right candidates.
Novell
There were several point solutions on the market, but the Business Process Management (BPM) platform from Metastorm enabled Novell to build applications for each specific workforce issue, and to integrate them together across an enterprise. This approach would allow the company to reduce the delay between the signing of a new employee and the time when they have the tools they require.
Among the approximately 100 processes that required automation with Metastorm's software were:
Novell Inc. About Novell Inc.
Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) is the leading provider of Net business solutions designed to secure and power the networked world. Novell and its eServices division, Cambridge Technology Partners, help organizations solve complex business challenges, simplify their systems and processes, and capture new opportunities with one Net solutions. Novell provides worldwide channel, consulting, education and developer programs to support its offerings.
Challenge: New Hire Setup
The first day on the job: filling out forms for Human Resources, reading manuals and company collateral, and perhaps figuring out the directory and email system. Not exactly a productive start, and one that costs that company a lot of time and money. In fact, it often takes up to four weeks for new staff to get fully acclimatised when factoring in the processes for getting set up with an office, network account, email, telephone and pager, computer, business cards, badge, security access and car parking spaces.
These workforce management issues are a top challenge according to three of five CEOs in the Corporate Executive Board's New HR Executive survey). Management of these issues was something Novell aimed to master. Viewing its employees as internal customers, Novell sought to automate and streamline the "provisioning" of employees. This would make recruitment more efficient, and it would help attract the right candidates.
Novell
There were several point solutions on the market, but the Business Process Management (BPM) platform from Metastorm enabled Novell to build applications for each specific workforce issue, and to integrate them together across an enterprise. This approach would allow the company to reduce the delay between the signing of a new employee and the time when they have the tools they require.
Among the approximately 100 processes that required automation with Metastorm's software were:
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Job requisition |
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Offer approval |
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Offer acceptance |
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Background check |
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Account creation on employee directory |
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Desktop phone installation |
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Security account creation |
Novell's solution used Metastorm BPM to connect 1,500 staff at all levels from the finance and Human Resources department, to IT and security technicians. And it integrated seamlessly with the corporate directory, Peoplesoft, Oracle database, Groupwise and all the other systems and applications involved.
With the Metastorm BPM based system, it takes less than a day for a new employee to become fully set up in their working environment at Novell. The process begins even before their arrival: once an offer is accepted, the individual can access Novell's online training system to become familiar with the company's culture, and the systems and applications they will need.
Moreover, Metastorm BPM links directly to the PBX system, so an account is created and the phone switched on automatically. Requests for a security account is sent direct to the appropriate outsourced firm so that badges are made, and all codes, passwords and levels of access are recorded and logged in the central directory.
And there's the corollary: for employees who leave, Novell uses e-Work to enhance automatic access to a person's assets, data security and access privileges.
Results
In the days of manual processing, Novell spent more than $3,000 per person with employee provisioning. By automating such a manual process, the HR department has saved approximately $237,000. It has also cut the amount of new hire data entry by 87%, minimizing the risk of error and work duplication. Total return with the new system: more than $4 million over the course of a year.
In the IT department alone, savings are estimated at around $1.5 million. Help desk calls have dropped by 35% as people no longer lose passwords or find themselves without a security code, which has freed up over half the staff for other tasks. And with the automation in the telecommunications department, there is an 85% reduction in workload relating to new hire activity.
"We really see this as just the tip of the iceberg, in terms of return," said Dave Preece, ISIT director at Novell. "Metastorm BPM gives us a platform to keep building applications where we want to automate paper-based procedures, and allows us to keep saving money. The platform is flexible enough to give us lenience in developing processes after they have gone live, which is core to its success in this and future projects at Novell, as things never stay the same for long."
