Case Summary

This case depicts a subsidiary of Hitachi conglomerate, Hitachi Consulting Corporation (founded
in November 2000), and its journey towards cloud computing by adopting proper MIS based
decisions. Headed at Dallas, Texas it had employed more than 6500 highly talented people from
all over the world. Hitachi Consulting take prides itself on positioning its talented people at the
heart of its success. After achieving massive growth in consulting business, Hitachi decided to
update its human resource systems from typical it based systems to cloud-based systems. From
once having just 450 U.S. based professionals to more than 6,500 global employees across more
than 22 countries and seeing its revenue-boosting from $80 million to $600 million, Hitachi
Consulting deployed Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) Cloud to understand its talent
capacity across the organization and improve mobility, which is central to its mission to deliver
innovation. This new centralized system has been also able to make the HR department more
efficient by adopting up-to-date standardized practices and enhancing the ability to strategically
analyze employee data and also able to reduce significant amounts of costs.

Questions-Answers
1. Analyze Hitachi Consulting’s problems with its legacy human resources
system. What management, organization, and technology factors were
responsible for these problems? What was the business impact of these
problems?
 Hitachi Consulting Corporation consisted a very independent legacy system in which
every department worked independently of the opposite systems. This is why employees
struggled to provide quick solution when the authority asked an enterprise-view of the
workforce. It had been much complicated to integrate all the systems within the
organization to assemble/aggregate the needed data as each department was working
independently unlikely to each other’s. The core problem caused because of elongated
use of traditional systems like spreadsheets and also the management didn't align its
operations with dynamic technology. As a result, their organizational culture built a
workforce used to the legacy systems and did not realize any other ways or better ways
of accomplishing their tasks. These problems hampered the corporation to incur tons of
costs in their day-to-day operations. Besides, the authority also needed many workers
to accomplish the task in several parts of the corporate which could be solved by
collaborative work.

2. List and describe the major information requirements for Hitachi’s new
HR system.
 For the new HR system of Hitachi, there were two major information required. Such as-
I. At first, they have one system to act as a central repository for HR data in the
least HCC’s regions. This requirement would help solve the matter caused by
irrelevant data. The centralized data repository ensures quick access to data to
employees. However, the organization would control their access supported
 roles responsibilities. Lastly, Hitachi Consulting Corporation required a system
that might allow collaborations to figure everywhere its branches.
II. The second requirement is to improve the Hitachi’s processes of acquiring and
effectiveness of this poem top talent faster and cheaper. The new system should
facilitate easy and faster identification of potential top candidates through
effective social networks and employee referrals. Again, Hitachi Consulting
Corporation required a system that would allow collaborations to work all over
its branches.

3. Was a cloud-based system appropriate for Hitachi Consulting? Why or

why not?
 The New system developed by the Hitachi Consulting Corporation was highly successful
because it achieved all that was required. By using this system, they also realized several
unprecedented benefits and helped the company to grow at a new level. To me, it seems
like the cloud-based system was absolutely appropriate for Hitachi Consulting
Corporation. Even in the operational mode of this system, they were able to save nearly
$1 million in just 1 year and also improved efficiency level quite a lot. The reason behind
why I find the new cloud-based system is appropriate is given below:
I. Hitachi Consulting Corporation is a global organization and features a lot of
branches in 22 countries. The cloud-based system allows for straightforward
access to resources from any of the company’s locations. Quick access to cloud-
based resources like employee data reduces information asymmetries and helps
them to quickly determine their strategy among other benefits.
II. Next, Hitachi Consulting Corporation’s one of the most crucial resources is their
human resources. A highly successful global company like Hitachi Consulting
needs different and unique special skills at different places at different times.
Like- a special skill needed during a branch in Tokyo, for instance, might be
readily available in Texas. Thanks to the new HR system which allows them for
the use of those skills much efficiently through having employees work
collaboratively.
III. The new HR system allowed the management and therefore the employees within
the entire organization to specialize in the essential core competencies because
tons of tasks like system and data maintenance were cascaded to Oracle Cloud
management.
IV. Hitachi Consulting Corporation achieved a great reduction in costs incurred
during the hiring process. They redesigned the whole hiring process to
incorporate the necessary activities only, which reduced the huge cost of the
corporation. From the case study, Hitachi consulting Corporation was able to save
$ 1 million in the first year of the cloud-based system operation.
4. What steps did Hitachi take to make sure its new HR system was
successful?
 The new HR system developed Hitachi Consulting Corporation’s operational activities and
decision-making processes into a new sphere. It has replaced dozens of separate
processes effectively using standardized practices in every regional branch and also has
enabled the corporate to research the worker data more efficiently to facilitate the
strategic routine allocation of tasks. The workers with specialized skills are able to
receive works that are coming from outside their country or branch. These allocations
included temporary work, which they might do part-time while continuing with their
custom daily assignments. Previous HR system was mainly manually operated resource
systems managed by each department separately contained significant employee data.
These systems, which sometimes had only spreadsheets, required that the organization
makes a choice independently for each department in every region. When Hitachi
Consultation required a choice to affect the entire organization, the organization would
task several employees to assemble and aggregate data from all regions and
departments. However, the new HR system empowers the corporation to store all data
by utilizing equivalent terms and making them easy to conduct and develop. Besides,
outcomes of the new HR system is well-analyzed data that allows the mid-level
managers and top executives to develop well-informed strategic decisions supported by
trends and analytics. The choice of Oracle HCM played a pivotal role because it allowed
for scalability when the corporate was booming their business. The new HR system
became successful because the committee was able to determine the proper processes
to modify to cloud environments. For instance, data analysis and report generation
became Oracle's responsibility, and that they would augment the Corporation with
Routine data maintenance tasks.

5. What were the benefits of the new HR system? How did it change
operational activities and decision making at Hitachi Consulting? How
successful was this system solution?
 The New system developed by the Hitachi Consulting Corporation was highly
successful thanks to its achievement of efficiency and productivity all that was
required. Eventually, the corporation was ready to gain several unprecedented
benefits and helped the corporate to spice up its growth. There have been tons of
advantages from the new HR system as follows.
Firstly, it increased the utmost utilization of your time used during hiring processes
Legacy systems involved tons of processes and personnel which led to unnecessary
wastage of your time. Secondly, Hitachi Consulting Corporation achieved an excellent
reduction in costs Incurred during the hiring process. Hitachi Consulting Corporation
restructured the entire hiring process to incorporate the essential activities only,
which reduced the general costs. From the case study, Hitachi consulting Corporation
was ready to save millions within the past year of the cloud-based system operation.
Thirdly. Hitachi Consulting Corporation achieved easy identification development and
retention of top talent because the cloud-based system improved the tracking of
individual achievements the legacy systems also demoralized the staff members
because it had been very difficult to work out whether the Hitachi consulting
 organization implemented its employee referrals. However, it's effortless currently
to connect or associate successful Individual referrals to the individual employee in
order that the corporate can reward them and boost their morale. Lastly, the Hitachi
Consulting Corporation regional managers and therefore the senior executives got
access to the HCCS employees' data hence were ready to make a sound decision
regarding the corporation.
The new system replaced dozens of separate processes effectively using
standardized practices everywhere in its regional branches. The new standardized
process enabled the corporate to research the worker cats more efficiently to
facilitate the strategic routine allocation of tasks. The workers with specialized skills,
therefore, receive tasks that are outside the country they're operating from. These
allocations Included temporary work which they might do part-time while continuing
with the custom daily assignments. These systems which sometimes had only
spreadsheets required that the organization makes a choice independently for every
department in every region. When Hitachi Consultation required a choice to affect the
entire organization the organization would task several employees to assemble and
aggregate data from all regions and departments.

Reference
I. https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/602405Z:US
II. https://studygroom.com/hitachi-consulting-corporation-case-study/
III. http://www.hitachi.com/rev/archive/2018/r2018_06/06a01/index.html
IV. https://blogs.oracle.com/profit/hitachi-consulting-embraces-the-cloud-to-capitalize-
on-expanding-it-services-market