Panasonic Malaysia moves to cloud with HR management system

• Panasonic will lead its digital HR transformation strategy with a cloud-hosted Ramco HCM suite
• The objective is to free HR from day-to-day ops, so that they can spend more time with employees

In a sign of how Brick & Mortar companies are seeing the value of cloud based solutions versus their traditional client-server based model, Panasonic group of companies in Malaysia signed a multi-million ringgit deal with Ramco Systems Sdn Bhd in a strategic move to take its human resources management to the next level via digitalisation.

“We realised it was time to have a unified platform, we look forward to this collaboration bringing the HR (human resource) management system at Panasonic Malaysia to greater heights,” Cheng Chee Chung, managing director of Panasonic Management Malaysia Sdn Bhd and Panasonic Malaysia Sdn Bhd said during a media briefing on Jan 4 following a signing ceremony between the two companies.

“As our Malaysia operations expand, the complexity of managing human resources and talent also grow multi-fold. We wanted to be a forerunner in Malaysia in leveraging on technology to build a centralised HR and payroll system,” he added. Panasonic currently has 21 HR and payroll systems across its 21 corporate entities in Malaysia.

A cloud-hosted Ramco human capital management (HCM) suite covering core HR, time and attendance, talent management, recruitment, planning and analytics, as well as payroll will form the heart of Panasonic’s HR transformation strategy.

When asked why Panasonic decided to implement the cloud solution and why its existing system wasn’t sufficient, Hiroyuki Imizu, deputy managing director of Panasonic Management Malaysia said: “Frankly speaking, we have different types of systems currently. If we introduce the new system to the 21 companies, we can integrate the system and it will be easier for total management of human resources.

“For instance managing payroll, time management, training and many types of services can be centralised more easily,” he said. At the same time, Panasonic expects HR personnel duties to shift from more administrative and bureaucratic tasks to doing more strategic work. This is the main reason Panasonic is introducing the system, he said.

“The objective is to free HR from day-to-day operations, so that they can spend more time with employees,” said Virender Aggarwal, chief executive officer of Ramco Systems. He added that the HCM implementation at Panasonic is the single largest of its kind for Ramco in Malaysia.

“Ramco’s ability to comprehend and offer the solution to the complex needs of our operations, coupled with proven success stories and the ability to offer the power of cloud, mobility including analytics, all on a unified HR and payroll platform sealed the deal in their favour. We look forward to bringing our businesses closer together through this initiative,” said Cheng.

The HR management system developed by India-headquartered Ramco Systems will be implemented in Panasonic’s 21 entities in Malaysia, for nearly 20,000 employees nationwide on a unified platform, with the rollout to commence in April.

The implementation will take 21 months to complete and the intention is for the 21 entities to have a seamless HR experience.

 Ramco has two cloud infrastructure providers, namely Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. "All our global customers are hosted either on Microsoft Azure or on AWS," said Virender.

As for employees of Panasonic in Malaysia, the new system will allow them to apply for leave, manage claims and pull pay slips using self-service features across multiple platforms that include smart phones, tablets and desktops.

While he declined to share the cost savings Panasonic expects from implementing the new system, Hiroyuki did say that if they can centralise HR functions such as payroll, administrative costs can be reduced.

According to Virender, the company has close to 70 customers in Malaysia. Ramco’s other HCM clients in Malaysia include Columbia Asia, Finisar, Bank Simpanan Nasional, Nationwide Express and Schenker.

Globally, Ramco has a payroll footprint across more than 40 countries and in more than 70 countries through its partners. To a question on the company’s fastest-growing markets in Asia, Virender said that the markets currently growing the fastest are Malaysia, Philippines and Australia.

The company is already present in seven countries in the Asian region. “We recently set up an office in the Philippines, and last month in China. We have plans to set up offices in the very near future in Vietnam and Indonesia,” he said. 

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