Softscape Announces New Workforce Planning Suite - Complete Platform for Resource Demand Planning, Project Portfolio Management, Expense Management, Time & Attendance, and Position Management

Business Wire, Feb 7, 2005

WAYLAND, Mass. -- Softscape, an industry leader in strategic people management technology and services, announces its new Workforce Planning suite to provide organizations a complete platform for enterprise time and labor management including resource demand planning, project portfolio management, expense management, time & attendance, and position management. Softscape's Workforce Planning suite closes the loop between demand planning and human capital management to give managers greater insight into the resources and skill sets available across the organization, as well as the commitments, efficiencies, and costs associated with different initiatives. This integrated view provides a more strategic approach to sourcing workers, and a more comprehensive decision framework for whether workers should be salaried, hourly, contingent, or fully outsourced.

According to Gartner, Demand Planning is a proactive, mid-to longer term view of the demand for resources in a company. Ideally this demand will come from planning exercises conducted by all parts of the business. The demand for resources should include the demand for contingent workers as well full- and part-time employees.(1)

Softscape's Workforce Planning provides organizations with the tools to more effectively plan, schedule, budget, manage, and allocate resources to specific initiatives. Rather than waiting until after a plan has been developed, the comprehensive system provides the collaborative framework that allows project teams to identify and source the resources with accurate skill sets in real-time. This leads to a more efficient workforce as underutilized workers in one area can be shifted across projects, high performers are given new opportunities, and the right mix of salaried or contingent workers are hired.

Linked with other suites in the new Softscape Apex platform (See Related Release) such as Talent Acquisition, Workforce Performance, Learning & Development, Enterprise Compensation, Workforce Collaboration, Workforce Analysis, and HR Management, organizations have a complete view into resource requirements, capabilities, development needs, associated costs, and overall workforce effectiveness. Key modules of the Workforce Planning suite include:

Resource Demand Planning: Provides the ability to forecast and schedule resource needs based on projected efforts and availability to promise. Needs can be compared against current available resources to identify shortages and hiring requirements. Integration into the human capital management process provides the added benefit of identifying skill gaps in the existing workforce, firming up resource needs and potentially reducing the need to hire additional workers. The comprehensive system automates time-consuming planning processes and provides greater control over labor costs and employee productivity.

Project Portfolio Management: Full-featured project planning creates a detailed plan for both external and internally driven engagements. Project owners can create detailed project plans, assign tasks, allocate resources, and control costs. Resources can be drawn into the project by scanning the workforce for appropriate skills, education, and experience. Document Management provides for a centralized knowledge repository of all project related information with comprehensive version control and security. Improved project visibility prevents budget overruns or scope creep, while facilitating real-time communications and decision-making between project members.

Expense Management: Provides complete expense management with the ability to associate budgets, resource rates, contracts, and expenses to specific initiatives. Resources can be associated with a transfer cost to help facilitate activity based costing across an organization and streamline allocation of work to projects. The system provides real-time tracking and budget analysis of chargeable time and expense to help eliminate lost hours and inaccurate charge backs.

Time & Attendance: Provides a streamlined interface that is integrated into project planning and enables real-time budget tracking and reconciliations to identify initiatives at risk or gauge workforce utilization. Integrated workflows provide multiple, configurable approval levels for time, vacation, and absence reporting. The system enables real-time tracking of activity data by employee or team, and ensures accuracy in the critical labor data used to drive strategic labor decisions.

Position Management: Provides the ability to define job templates and position profiles across the organization. Both job templates and position profiles are comprised of the required skills, experience, competencies, education, responsibilities and other details. These serve as the foundation of Hiring Management, Succession Planning, and Resource Demand Planning to match employee profiles with position profiles and find the best talent for a given position. Position Management also features integrated routing and approval to facilitate the control of job titles and their meaning across the organization.