New OneForce-branded Application Portfolio and Technology Platform, Including Next Release of Company's Market-Leading Enterprise Compensation Management Solution, Are Designed for the Workforce, Adapt to Company Business Processes, Deliver Value for Employees, Managers, HR, and IT
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. and SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (January 20, 2004) - Workscape, Inc., a proven provider of benefits and workforce management solutions, today launched OneForce™, the company's next-generation product portfolio of self-service and workforce management applications, including its award-winning enterprise compensation management solution OneForce/Compensation (formerly Compensation Planner). The newly released products, supported by a new corporate identity, will be unveiled in a series of presentations at the company's inaugural User Conference now underway in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The OneForce applications, enabled by the OneForce 5 technology platform, are designed to generate high rates of workforce adoption with integrated and highly intuitive user interfaces, role-based presentation of content and transactions, contextualized reports and decision support tools, and a centralized workbox with views of required HR actions for employees and managers across all Workscape applications. With enhanced and configurable workflow capabilities, the OneForce applications allow HR executives to design and execute the business processes that best support their workforce, then easily reconfigure those processes and workflows as business requirements change, without costly vendor or IT support. The OneForce product line is also based on industry-standard XML and J2EE technologies, and leverages a web services-ready architecture to ensure that all applications can be easily and cost-effectively integrated within a customer's multi-vendor enterprise environment.
Generally available beginning this week, the OneForce 5 platform and self-service suite includes applications for online execution and maintenance of employees' personal and payroll data, total compensation statements and employee surveys, as well as workforce management applications enabling organizational reporting and work events changes. Available in June 2004, Workscape's OneForce/Compensation solution will take advantage of the OneForce 5 platform to deliver an enhanced user interface and significantly expanded reporting and budget modeling capabilities powered by a custom version of Crystal Enterprise™, the industry-leading enterprise reporting solution from Business Objects.
"The launch of the OneForce 5 platform and application portfolio represents not just an important company milestone, but what we believe to be a powerful intersection of our company's unique strengths in designing HR solutions and some of the key business issues facing HR leaders today," said Workscape President and CEO Tim Clifford. "What we've heard again and again is that successful HR technology solutions are not just about the HR department. They must empower and enable the entire workforce, all employees and managers, in order to deliver the promised benefits. The functional and architectural features of the OneForce platform and product line have been constructed to address the concerns of each key enterprise constituency - managers, employees, HR, and IT - and to deliver the value and ease-of-use required by each."
"Unlike the HR modules offered by ERP vendors or point solution providers, Workscape's applications are readily adopted by the workforce, are configurable to support an organization's existing business process workflow, and are based on an open and scalable architecture that adheres to corporate IT standards and utilizes readily available skill sets," added Clifford. "We're confident that HR professionals seeking to deploy solutions which can truly raise the performance of their workforce will rapidly identify Workscape's OneForce platform and application suite as their system of choice."
Configurable Interface and Workflow Promote High Adoption Rates, Increased ROI
For employees and line managers around the globe, Workscape's OneForce applications provide user interface improvements including embedded content, reports, alerts, and decision support tools that put more control and information into the hands of employees and line managers, while a role-based architecture assures that employees and managers view only the applications, tools and information they need. Supported by the use of web templates and style-sheets, the user interface itself can also be configured to map to a company's existing corporate standards and brand image.
Central to the enhanced capabilities of the OneForce platform and application portfolio is the ability to create and modify business process workflows with a new Workflow Designer and Workflow Manager tools. HR managers can now directly configure their own workflows with these graphical tools, reducing dependency on internal IT resources. Using the Monitoring Console, HR can also track the progress of users against a workflow and create reports from workflow data. A new category of "observer" has also been added as a role within the workflow designer to enable non-participants to view workflow details and notifications.
Services-Based Architecture, Industry-Standard Technologies Extend Application Integration and Customization Capabilities
With OneForce 5, Workscape's solutions can be easily integrated within a customer's existing IT infrastructure, including multiple ERP systems or other third-party HR applications. An open and scalable J2EE services-based architecture reduces deployment risks and overall implementation costs. Customization of OneForce applications is done using familiar industry standards, such as XML and Java, with a design model to specifically preserve custom builds and ease future system upgrades.
"From an IT group's point of view, the HR organization uses a significant number of systems that have to be integrated with one another, as well as with other installed enterprise software applications," said Mike Gioja, executive vice president, products and technologies for Workscape. "HR applications that don't adhere to industry standards result in higher implementation and training costs. The architecture and business services inherent in the OneForce 5 platform allow customers to preserve their existing technology investments and make future purchases with the confidence that their HR solutions can be successfully integrated as their IT infrastructure evolves."
The Force Behind a High-Performance Workforce
"The OneForce brand is really an encapsulation of our business philosophy and the way we deliver value to customers," said Betsy Zikakis, Workscape's senior vice president for marketing and product strategy. "To effectively drive higher business performance, organizations must present a unified front - they must act as 'one force.' For all of us at Workscape, it is first a reflection of our promise to truly partner with customers and together create 'OneForce' to solve their problems. Second, in order to drive higher performance across their organizations, our customers must also be 'OneForce' with their internal constituencies, understanding their needs and delivering the right tools and information to support them. It's a truly collaborative, results-oriented approach that is woven throughout our products and our service delivery model."
Workscape's OneForce applications are available as either premise or hosted solutions. For more information on the OneForce application suite and the OneForce 5 technology platform, visit www.workscape.com, or contact Workscape via email at info@workscape.com.
About Workscape
Designed for the workforce, Workscape's solutions transform the delivery and adoption of HR services across the enterprise to enable a higher performing organization. An innovator in HR self-service, Workscape provides a full range of online benefits and workforce management applications including employee self-service, manager self-service, compensation planning, and benefits administration, as well as an employee portal. Workscape's applications and services are configurable to support each client's unique business processes, easily integrated into multi-vendor environments to ensure protection of existing technology investments, and are available in multiple deployment options to enable rapid implementation and ROI. Workscape's award-winning solutions have been embraced by millions of employees worldwide at 180 major corporations. For more information, visit www.workscape.com or call (888) 605-9620.
Workscape and OneForce are trademarks or registered trademarks of Workscape, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Crystal Enterprise is a trademark of Business Objects S.A. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.