Switzerland | Telecommunication

sunrise

Swiss full-service provider optimizes HR management with IMG's support

The telecommunications service providers diAx and sunrise merged on January 23, 2001 to form TDC Switzerland AG, operating under the new joint brand name «sunrise». At present, just under 2.2 million customers enjoy the benefits of sunrise mobile, fixed network, and internet services. The nationwide GSM dualband network provides cuttingedge mobile services to over 99 percent of the population. A wide range of top-quality voice and data services are provided via a high-performance fiber optic network with a total length of more than 7500 kilometers. As a founder member of the Starmap Mobile Alliance, a partnership of leading European mobile radio carriers, sunrise provides its customers with access to first-class services – even when they travel abroad.
The Swiss-based full-service provider of telecommunications services, sunrise, has bidden farewell to the mountains of paperwork which its HR operations invariably entailed. In their place, the service provider has recently introduced an SAP-based cross-company portal – a professional tool for the management of all HR-related business processes. The aim: to optimize all processes, from master data administration and time management to reporting which meets the company's specific requirements. The Information Management Group (IMG) provided sunrise with support and assistance during the planning and implementation stages of the project.

By introducing a portal for so-called «Employee Self Service» (ESS) and «Manager Self Service» (MSS) last year, the group had paved the way for the restructuring of its internal HR business processes. Thomas Flammer, the full-service provider's HR Project Manager, explains the reasons behind the large-scale reengineering project: «sunrise came into being as the result of various acquisitions. In the course of time, this development resulted in corporate processes which were neither transparent nor efficient.»

In view of the company's history, the problem was not difficult to pinpoint. Particularly affected by the mergers and restructurings of the past six years was the group's Human Resources (HR) department, which had been plagued by time-consuming processes, uncontrolled growth, and unsatisfactory checks and balances for a wide range of inhouse HR processes. Besides which, company personnel had no tools with which to manage their own data or the services that were subject to surcharges. And the company's management required a platform for efficient HR management. Thomas Flammer's response: «It was high time to reengineer these processes.»

In order to undertake a project on this scale, sunrise enlisted the services of The Information Management Group (IMG), St. Gallen, as its strategic partner for the development of the concept and the implementation of the portal strategy. Project Manager Thomas Flammer comments as follows: «With its attractive offer and its wide-ranging technical and strategic know-how, IMG was the ideal choice for us.»

What convinced management of the telecommunications service provider was the fact that IMG «ticked all the boxes» in a questionnaire which contained individual wishes and requirements with regard to the functionality of the portal and which sunrise had submitted to all prospective consultancies during the call-for-bids phase.

The portal offers management not only different functions and views but also extensive reporting. In this way, information of relevance for decision-making on employee, team and organizational level can be retrieved from the portal easily and speedily. For example, managers can keep track of internal departmental matters relating to the business units of individual employees, including their position in the corporate structure – or even borrowings of notebooks, mobile phones and work equipment for technicians and engineers. Thomas Flammer concludes: «All users are assigned a role according to their function and as soon as they log on with their individual passwords they receive a specific view of the information and functions that are relevant to them. Future expansion of the portal capabilities is planned, so that transparent data relating to individual employees can be obtained.

The portal offers management not only different functions and views but also extensive reporting. In this way, information of relevance for decision-making on employee, team and organizational level can be retrieved from the portal easily and speedily. For example, managers can keep track of internal departmental matters relating to the business units of individual employees, including their position in the corporate structure – or even borrowings of notebooks, mobile phones and work equipment for technicians and engineers. Thomas Flammer concludes: «All users are assigned a role according to their function and as soon as they log on with their individual passwords they receive a specific view of the information and functions that are relevant to them. Future expansion of the portal capabilities is planned, so that transparent data relating to individual employees can be obtained.
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