Leading Architecture & Engineering Firm Selects Epicor HCM

Gresham, Smith and Partners (GS&P) is one of the top architectural, engineering and interior design firms in the United States. The firm employs 800 professionals with specializations in aviation, healthcare, corporate and urban design, industrial, environmental compliance, transportation and water services. GS&P is one of the few design firms in the industry that offers professional services to such a wide range of markets.

Expanding operations create need for flexible, accessible HRIS solution

The firm operates from 15 nationwide offices and an office in Shanghai, China. Because employees are spread around the world, GS&P faced unique HR challenges. With HR centralized in GS&P’s Nashville headquarters, Gordon Vaughn, IT Manager, was frustrated by the firm’s existing HR software, UltiPro. He felt recurring maintenance costs were high and the software’s client server architecture made it difficult to perform modifications to the system.

“Mainly it was inflexibility in tailoring the system for GS&P,” Vaughn recalls. “We wanted to go to a straight web-based solution that offered integrated security with Microsoft Active Directory and the ability to interface seamlessly with our accounting system, Deltek Vision^®.”

Searching for a new solution and a referral, Vaughn contacted Deltek, Inc. who suggested he work with HRMS Solutions, a Washington D.C.-based consulting firm offering a portfolio of HRIS solutions with a large client base of Architectural, Engineering and Environmental firms. HRMS Solutions is also a certified Deltek Business Partner and has extensive domain expertise with Deltek Vision.

HRMS Solutions helped us evaluate several different HRIS vendors and provided the product presentations for us. They worked with us to narrow down our choices and we ultimately selected Epicor HCM by Epicor  Software Corporation.

Single source data entry via accounting integration

“GS&P wanted to improve their operational efficiency by implementing a solution which would allow a single-point of data entry to quickly and seamlessly transfer employee data to Deltek Vision,” explains Mike Maiorino, President of HRMS Solutions. GS&P’s requirement for integration with Deltek Vision was a “must-do for single source data entry”.  Using Deltek Visions Web Services API, HRMS worked collaboratively with Deltek and Epicor resources to provide GS&P with a seamless, real-time integration between Vision and Epicor HCM.

Self-Service tools empower employees and managers

Since Epicor HCM offers many self-service tools, such as paperless performance reviews, candidate self-service, salary planning and on-line benefit enrollment, GS&P will be able to eliminate the need for managers to hassle with paperwork and interoffice mail. “By leveraging personalized dashboards to empower their managers, GS&P was able to provide a fast and efficient way for them to access their data. This was a result of Epicor’s architecture which allowed GS&P to tailor their system to adapt to business and workflow processes without customization or risking future upgrades,” Maiorino says.

“We’ve been able to personalize Epicor HCM to match our existing workflows, which helped us reduce the time to track, process and complete compliance reporting,” asserts Vaughn. “We will be utilizing manager self-service to complete workflow cycles for routing and approvals for personal action notices (PAN’s), and employee performance evaluations. This functionality will allow GS&P to get people involved with the process while maintaining accountability and efficiency.”

“Using Epicor HCM self-service now allows our employees to update their profiles as a result of getting married, having children, or experiencing other life event changes. The feedback from all of our locations has been extremely positive with regards to self-service. We have centralized HR, and for the first time enabled employees to be able to review and update their own information. In addition, managers can actively take part in workforce tasks needing to be routed and approved without having to print out paper and send it through interoffice mail. This has really saved us an immense amount of time,” explains Vaughn.

Beyond convenience and improved accuracy, there are a couple of additional benefits of
going paperless: It’s good for the environment and saves money. “We can see that Epicor HCM is definitely going to bring us a tremendous cost savings,” Vaughn says. “Plus it supports our company-wide green initiative by cutting down on the amount of paper used to support our many HR processes that have now become paperless.”

Epicor HCM evolves to meet changing Workforce Management needs

Moving forward, Vaughn continues to personalize Epicor HCM and configure it to match the firm’s complex HR processes. “Epicor HCM offers tremendous flexibility in both personalization and reporting. The multiple reporting tools within Epicor HCM are so much more flexible than what had in Ultimate’s HR solution. The Analytical tool, Microsoft Analysis Services, leverages SQL Server functionality which allows our HR team to drag and drop data elements into an OLAP Cube for analysis on such data as benefit enrollments, EEO and applicant data.”

“Epicor HCM offers an excellent set of system tailoring tools”, added Gordon.  “With the training and experience gained from having both attended a training course for modifying Epicor HCM and using the system for a while, I am able to perform the majority of any changes we require without any assistance or added expense. Overall, we are very excited and pleased we selected Epicor HCM.”