EE/MGR Self Service

We have been running ESS since about 2001 and have found it to be fairly scalable as we have increased utilization. There are a few core features that account for most the "cost benefits" that Self Service systems provide- Personel Actions, Direct Reports, Benefit Enrollment, Direct Deposit, Pay Checks, Exemptions, Emergency Contacts, Life Events. There are other add ons such as Career Management, etc. that might work for your organization with some HR back end setup work if you are flexible on your business rules. I have heard of companies shying away from Lawson's ESS/MSS because it did not have the look and feel or functionality that they required or because it overlapped with an existing solution they already owned (IE: Online Benefit Enrollment through a service provider). Most of this boiled down to their inflexibility could have been overcome with some tweaking of the code (provided you are willing to change Lawson source and you have some HTML/XML coding skills). BEWARE of Lawson's licensing policies with this product!!! Unlike all their other modules, this one is licensed by NAMED USER and cost of ownership can become expensive in comparison to other solutions if you are not utilizing enough of it's capabilities. As usual with Lawson licensing and maintenance number are not made public so it depends on what kind of a deal you can ink with your AE. To make matters worse there is no metering on the product, so could find yourself in a situation where you have exceeded your limit and are in voliation of your license agreement without even knowing it. The integration to Lawson data and apps remains a big plus for this product. Implementation time and duration ar based on how much you roll out. Some things require only a little tech setup, others require some work from HR. The good news is it can be done gradually as new features are turned on. Good Luck with your decision!

You may want to consider looking at the SHCM (Landmark) offering too, I believe it is goal of Lawson in the long term to replace ESS/MSS with this.

It is much easier to configure and gives the functional side much more control over look, feel and functionality of the product without needing to customize delivered code.

Gary, I did not know a Landmark version of ESS existed. Can you share any more info with us? I'd like to know how long it's been around, the underlying architecture, if it has all the functionality of ESS and how the cost compares. Thanks.