Oracle HCM Cloud Reviews

I am a consultant. We use this solution sometimes, as projects with our customers, and they use Oracle.

From the feedback that I get, the functional side of the payroll could be improved. 

Customers need an additional solution to run their core HR, and cloud coverage is not extensive enough.

I have been dealing with this solution on and off for 15 years.

I think that it's stable. I don't believe that there are any issues.

This solution is scalable.

I didn't complete the setup initially, but I feel that it is straightforward.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

For me personally, the most valuable is the account management suite. They're constantly developing it.

Oracle moved the solution to the cloud from on-site. This is more cost-effective for us as a subscription service rather than as a licence-based solution.

The mobile capabilities need to be improved. It would be good for our workforce to be able to access the information from mobile devices and respond to requests. The product is still in development, but the mobile capabilities are still better than their eBusiness suite, and we are happy with it for now.

We're still finding some issues, and third-party apps that need using with our systems. There's still a lot of development to be done, but they are constantly adding new features and modules. Currently, if Oracle doesn't have a solution, we can find a vendor who does.

I've used it for about three years.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered yet.

We're scaling up on the cloud, and it's getting there.

They're fairly quick with their responses, 8/10. Every time we need a modification done, we need to speak to them.

They're on top of things, 8/10 as there's always room for improvement.

We previously used several different Oracle solutions, mainly converged systems. We wanted to have everything in one system, and are currently planning on importing our accounting into it.

It was complex because we have several systems that needed integrating into the cloud system. With the API we use, this was done and it works well. There was also a lot of process change, because instead of tailoring the system to fit the process, we had to tailor the processes to the system.

Most of the development was controlled by Oracle. The implementation itself though was done in-house with help here and there from a consultant.

Work the best price you can, and tailor the product for your company to get the best price.

We didn't as we already had experience with Oracle, and wanted to move to their subscription service.

Now there's a couple of other companies have it, as well as some consulting companies that do, so get advice from them.

• Business intelligence is integrated with the product.
• Gives real time information about employees and processes for managers.
• A self-service BI to key business users.
• Managers can have their analysis delivered in any way: Dashboard, table reports, analysis, charts, etc. with no development cost.

• Talent review (Nine Box) online: An HR specialist can manage their talent review meetings entirely within the system. This includes meeting planning, execution to management of action plans post-meeting.
• It is possible to change a person, add comments, add developments or performance goals, tasks, do a promotion, transfer, manage a salary or even perform termination. All this is done with no extra documents, Excel spreadsheets, or reports.
• All information is on one screen, available to the HR specialist or managers at the meeting to review and take the necessary action.

• Best fit analysis feature: Helps you to identify the correct position for the correct employee. You can visualize all gaps that you have in the current position or for the next level in your career. You can also compare two employees to see the difference between them or compare them to a specific position or job.
• If you are planning your succession plan, you can use this feature to check who is the most suitable for the position, comparing requirements for the position or comparing competencies, and skills and qualifications of the current employee in the position. All information that you gather in the sub-processes of HR goals, performance management, and development plan is available.

• Mobile and Social: This solution has a social network for your company where you can manage knowledge sharing and collaboration. Communities, chats, kudos, etc., can all be used to support your HR processes, such as goals and performance management. This can be done on your mobile device.

Before the solution implementation, our bonus compensation policy was based only on profit and loss results.

We believe that this approach is not the best. In the end, you put all your employees at the same level, increasing the difficulty in identifying talents and paying for performance.

We decided to implement a goals and competencies evaluation process. This will adjust bonuses according to performance. We define all relevant organization goals, give them a weight, and then design a process.

The recruiting process needs work. This is the only module that is provided by other applications and it is not integrated. You need to ask Oracle to "integrate" both applications. This is done with no additional cost, but it is still an outside application.

Although you can turn on the integration between them, it is a different application. You lose all the benefits provided by the integrated modules in Oracle HCM Cloud.

The recruiting solution standalone is a great tool for the recruiting processes. However, when you use it with the entire solution, you may experience some problems. This is the case, especially if you have a process that is a little bit more complex than the usual process.

I have been using this solution since Version 5, in 2013.

So far, no stability issues have been experienced.

So far, no scalability issues have been experienced.

I would give technical support a rating of 2/5. Despite having an SLA contract, the technical support is still terrible.

We have experienced some cases when implementing the solution for our customers, where a service request was created with Priority Level 1, Production. The problem took more than a month to be fixed. This is a service that definitely must be improved by Oracle.

Some examples that we experienced with technical support:

• Dumb questions such as "Did you press the button X to confirm?"
• Same requisitions by different people
• "Provide me with the 'how to' for the issue," but the 'how to' was already attached to the SR
• A conference call was scheduled and then cancelled 30 minutes before it was supposed to start.

We didn't use other solutions previously. We went straight to the Oracle HCM Cloud Solution.

The initial setup is pretty easy to do. It takes no more than a day to do it. If you have a simple process that fits with the solution proposition, then you can implement it pretty fast. Almost the whole setup is performed with step-by-step pages, which reduces the complexity. Day-by-day changes can be performed by a key user from the business with minimum training.

Of course, if your process is complex, the setup will be more complex.

Don't forget to include the implementation cost of an Oracle partner, and not only the subscription, in your cost benefits analysis. (Business plan, ROI, payback.)

On the other hand, the cost of maintenance, upgrade, infrastructure, and support is already included in your subscription.

We had the opportunity to work as a project manager of a SAP SuccessFactors projects for one of our customers. This introduced us to more details about the SAP Solution, not only as a competitor, but with customer’s eyes.

Forget about customization. If you are looking for a solution that can be changed and tailored according your company business rules, don't go with this solution. Overall, this solution provides Human Resources sub-processes best practices and a large amount of flexibility to attend to a lot of business process requirements.

It allows us to consolidate all of our HR functions onto one platform. That's really the big selling point and value proposition for us -- the consolidation.

We have just one platform from which to work instead of multiple vendors for HCR. This increases the overall ease of maintaining the HCR system.

One of the challenges that we've discovered is that for some things like report modifications, whenever Oracle provides a new release, they will overlay certain customizations that you have. And then it becomes a real hassle to re-customize for our needs. There's got to be a better way.

We've been using Golds and just started using Compensation. We're about to roll into a project to implement HCM. So we've used it for about a year now.

We've had no issues with deployment.

In terms of instability, we've had issues with the application being unavailable a few times, especially during our end-of-year cycle.

We haven't had to scale it yet, but it sounds like it would be easy.

It seems to me that Oracle prefers to deal with clients completely through their SR management system and sometimes avoid personal contact. Sometimes you need a phone call. As a customer, you need to know that you can get a phone call if you need a phone call.

We use SuccessFactor's product for goals, succession, and performance, so we're coming off of those products. We wanted to consolidate everything into one.

I was involved with some of the initial requirements, but I don't have much to do with the modules that we're currently using in production.

Think long and hard about it, and consider a product that will integrate with payroll easily. I think the advantages are the consolidation of the HCM and functionality. So far the challenges have been more along the lines of support.

The best feature of the product is the middleware where it allows you to create a project and all the required and the optional tasks come pre-configured. So, you don't have to look for, "What do I need to do?" You can follow a step by step from the bottom up or top down approach. You will know that you have done the tasks that you need to do before the whole configuration or the testing process happens.

I am starting the implementation of benefits today of HCM Cloud. I have done EBS, full scale implementation of eight modules on my own for a smaller organization. Another advanced feature is the user interface, it is so smooth. I always say to people that PeopleSoft, is love at first sight, and Oracle EBS is an arranged marriage, because you will learn to love. Whereas, I think Oracle Cloud is also love at first sight, because it does the screens so smooth, things are very accessible.

I think the customer experience, especially with the process flows at the top, where it takes you through the five steps, it has a nice navigation path at the top. So you know where you are at any point of the configuration.

Oracle should make sure all their partners are well trained, so that they can go to the client site and make themselves truly valuable. Instead of just, "Oh, it works this way," that is not. They need to be trained, and I think Oracle is already going in the direction, I think they are making sure that implementations are done in a certain standard way and so on.

There is always room for improvement, and I met with an Oracle HCM person, and he and I are going to work together. He is going to pick my brain on some future release testing, and my HCM expertise, because I have all the credentials and I have worked with the product for 20 years, and in HR as well.

We've been using it since February, so around three months now, but I am doing a lot of research, a lot of studying and I am working with a client. We have actually already configured the HCM Core and the Talent Management, just the goals and the performance.

It seems like it is stable. Well, it is not EBS because I have been working in EBS for 15 years. This is a new product, I think it has been in the market for a few years I believe, but I am glad that Oracle is going in the right direction of making it more end user friendly, functional friendly and adopting into the new technology. We are not bogged down with DBAs and copies and patches and gruel regression testing. All of those thing we don't need to worry in the cloud is much simpler and much more organized. It makes it easier.

It's been able to scale for our needs.

With regard to EBS payroll, the support is phenomenal. With HCM Cloud, I have only created two or three SRs, and so far, not bad, but I wouldn't go to phenomenal yet. They need to earn my trust and respect. You already have a benchmark with the new organization. If you want to find, Why did I give them exceptional for Oracle payroll? Go find out from them, what they are doing that is so good, because the people who support Oracle EBS payroll, they know what they are doing. They call the client, they don't wait, and they don't say, "Go do this, go do that." A lot of support people think that we have to give more information. Yes, it is true in some cases, because if a weird error happens, which is so peculiar to your that no one has heard of, granted, you need to go dig deeper, but for each and every question, support cannot say, "I have to give like 10 hours worth of information," before they can even figure out what the hell I am asking.

So, that is my feedback to support. You have your own people, go talk to them. Your Oracle Colorado Payroll Support Group. I know all of their names, first name basis.

It has many use case like HR administration, recruitment management, performance management, learning, ...

It is very user-friendly. Most of the UI is very intuitive so you don't need to follow a course to use it. Of course you have one single UI regardless of your roles, so you don't have to log into separate applications depending on whether you're HR or just a normal employee. The solution evolves quickly (4 major updates per year)

Sometimes implementation documentation is a bit behind. Some customers like to manage things themselves after the initial implementation and they find that a bit difficult.

Also -but I think that this is the case for all solutions with such a functional extent- you feel that different teams are working on the different modules, but this is normal because everybody has their own specialization.

In the next release, I would like to see a some further updates to the recruitment module. I would like to see the preboarding extended so that it sends out notifications through personal email. That would be very useful.

It's fairly stable.

it's very scalable. You can request more users to be added. You don't have to pay extra for scalability, but of course, you pay for a number of users that are using this system. If you're having a tremendous increase in the users, then, of course, you end up by paying more. (If you would have an on premise solution you might need to have your servers expanded in this case so that would cost you too).

The technical support depends. Overall, they're good. You've got some that are really, really good and you've got some that are less good. It depends on who you get and how well you describe your issue. If your issue gets to the wrong team, then, of course, then it seems like the team isn't helping but it's because you didn't describe it properly. 

The initial setup is straightforward. Some customers make it complex. Every customer thinks they're something special and some customers realize in the end that the most basic features would have been better for them than all the complex things they wanted initially. They're used to telling the developer, "We want this that way" and that's not the way it works in the cloud. This tends to make things more complicated. It is not that difficult. You do need some technical background for formulas and stuff, but it's not rocket science. Some customers make it more difficult than it should be.

The time it takes to deploy depends on how many modules and special cases you want. Typically things differ from country to country, different sites have different rules behind it. The time it takes to deploy all depends on how complicated you make it, how many countries you want to do, and how many modules you want to implement.

My advice would be: Keep it simple. Make sure that your customer is aware of the processes in the solution and show them those before asking them what they want.

Make sure that the customer understands what there already is so they don't start freewheeling. 

I would rate it a nine out of ten.

• Employee and manager self-service
• Online performance review
• Talent management capability
• Mobile capability

• The ability to update your information online from any device is invaluable
• Performing performance reviews online
• Removing the need to use paper
• Giving the data to produce the analytics

These weren't possible before we had this system.

Time Management solution. The native mobile application TAP is in great need of improvement. Apparently, a new version is coming in R12, so we look forward to seeing this.

I have been using this for four years.

In the early releases of the solution, we definitely experienced stability issues. But since R9, the stability has improved considerably. The mobile app TAP is still quite unstable and needs lots of improvement.

We have not encountered any scalability issues.

I would give technical support rating of 3.5/5.

In the beginning, it was poor. Over the last two years, support has improved greatly.

It still needs improvement. Often, it takes a long time for support to respond. They sometimes move issues between countries and shifts. Mostly, the support is good, though.

We had a paper-based system.

We implemented the solution for other customers, so it was straightforward. But it's not something that could be set up without an implementation partner.

Buy the product at Oracle year-end because you get bigger discounts.

We are closely linked to Oracle, so we chose Oracle.

Use the right implementation partner and ADOPT rather than ADAPT. Take the solution as it is delivered and don’t try to adapt it to your needs.

SaaS solution that reduces cost of ownership and maintenance

Offers free upgrades with the latest features and add-on capabilities for modules that we require

Oracle provides two upgrades for their cloud HCM solution each year. These upgrades include enhancements to existing functionality, new functionality, or introducing new modules that can manage business processes more efficiently.

For example, at the initial stage, we got core HCM modules that were helpful in managing employees and organizational details.

With subsequent free upgrades, we got the ability to use social connects like chats, group discussions, and online meetings.

With further upgrades, we kept on getting enhanced user experience with revised UI, mobile applications, and iPad-dedicated applications.

These upgrades are part of our service agreement. As long as we keep paying subscription fees, we keep on getting these upgrades for free.

Our organization covers three states in India and 4 in US. Employees are spread across these regions and need to access HCM system on-the-go. Oracle HCM Cloud offers subscription based services to system that includes web based interface, and mobile and ipad application. A simple net connections and credentials are enough for employees to access system and utilize HCM related services like time sheet, leave or personal information update.

In addition to this, inbuild chat system helps employee keep connected with each other and HR Representatives for day-to-day tasks and follow-ups if required.

Our organization is spread out over a wide geographic region. Using cloud-based technology, we assure that all employees and HR teams have a seamless experience from their desktop, on-the-go mobile application, or iPads. They can utilize functions like absences, timesheets, and expense management with a decent internet connection, anywhere and anytime.

As the product is cloud based, it is a heavily standardized system.

There is little or no option to customize business processes, features, or integrate the few exceptional business processes to work with the existing product.

The majority of HR functions are standardized in terms of transactions in the system. However, each organization has peculiar functions, such as their forms.

As of now, there is no functionality in the system to accommodate such exceptions. They do have functionality to incorporate some in other products. These are excluded, especially for cloud HCM.

I have been using this solution for over three years.

We faced stability issues during the nascent stage of implementation, but none after that.

As a part of our service agreement, we provide services to a number of users over a geographic spread and during peak usage times. This communication helped us manage scalability without any challenges.

Technical support, during some stages, was a bit of hassle. As the product is now stable, we have fewer instances that require support.

We used a customized system provided by a local vendor. As our organization grew, we needed a better solution that would work for us and across various geographies.

The initial setup was a bit of challenge. There were issues to take care of such as new terminology, functionality, and legislative requirements.

From our experience, we would recommend to go for a basic system and functionality at the initial stage. Switch to additional (non-essential) modules if, and when, the organization needs better functionality.

Implementing all modules or features in one go might increase implementation time and complicate the process.

We evaluated three other products. Two of them were from local vendors and the other was Workday. As Workday is officially not supported for India, we had to rule that out.

Owning to our past experience with local products, we chose to go with Oracle. The system is supported in all geographic locations that we operate in and has a good presence with clients to reference.

Definitely use it.