Online HR specialist theHRfiles upgrades database, enhances user experience, expands client base

theHRfiles organization is a unique online provider of human resource services including recruitment, training, employee development, performance reviews and termination procedures. theHRfiles offers on demand solutions to common management issues for growing companies, such as improving productivity, corporate visibility and employees’ efficiency, without having to invest in a sizeable HR department.

theHRfiles provided this online data collaboration and document service via a Microsoft® SQL Server® database. As user volumes increased, theHRfiles team became concerned that service levels would suffer. They determined that a more robust repository would be needed in order to continue to provide their comprehensive HR capabilities. Secure, easy to use and flexible data is a key proposition in their business offering, and falling short on this could jeopardize customer relationships and future growth potential.

Obtaining performance at the right price
Finding a long term solution and a trusted supplier to deliver it became an overriding priority for theHRfiles. They were looking for a highly scalable and secure platform that offered top performance at a price that would fit their budget. And they were looking for a supplier that would successfully convert and migrate all their data from various sources onto this new enterprise-wide solution.

They chose IBM Business Partner mLogica, an organization with considerable experience in designing and implementing mission-critical business applications, who proposed implementing the IBM DB2 data server using their own proprietary Migration Toolkit.

IBM DB2 is a cost effective database platform to build on demand business applications. This highly secure system offers deep compression to enable faster use of data, improving performance and reducing costs associated with ever increasing quantities of data. Advanced encryption controls use data to privileged users, minimizes the potential for unintended access.

Enterprise-wide information transformed into business value
theHRfiles current platform was restricting their ability to grow by not meeting their customers’ requirements and expectations. With increased business volumes, online system response was slowing, causing user frustration. The SQL Server database was no longer able to provide enterprise-wide full data lifecycle management. Data security and privacy levels, critical to theHRfiles clients, were questionable. The system’s ability to offer collaborative data on demand was no longer a given.

The on demand user experience, a keystone of theHRfiles service philosophy, was being compromised by the very thing theHRfiles was striving for — more users.

Previously, users were experiencing increasingly slower response times, as the system was struggling to complete relatively simple tasks. mLogica updated theHRfiles application and environment. Through this re-engineering they discovered and consolidated more than 300 stored procedures and ten modules. With the IBM DB2 platform installed and fully integrated, system performance was now dramatically enhanced.

mLogica underwent a three phase implementation. After a complete application re-build, the IBM DB2 platform was installed and all theHRfiles information was transferred from the old SQL Server platform.

All documents were subjected to stringent data cleansing and quality checks before being uploaded to the new server. This search and retrieval process involved multiple sources and formats across the organization, including hard copy documents.
“Migrating our application to DB2 has helped the company market our application to our clients, providing real-time information in a scalable and secure environment,” says Lee Cory, president and CEO, theHRfiles.

Business expansion built on strong foundation
mLogica’s delivery of DB2 has met and exceeded theHRfiles requirements. The solution offers architectural flexibility for expansion, satisfying greater client volumes. Data across the enterprise is now fully consolidated, resident and secure on a high performance server and available on demand. This performance benefit combined with a favorable cost model offers theHRfiles rapid ROI.

Their new highly scalable, robust and enterprise-wide IBM DB2 platform gives theHRfiles the foundation for future success. The knowledge that their clients are now accessing secure, collaborative real-time data gives theHRfiles team the confidence to concentrate on marketing their online HR product to a greater audience, and widening the service offering to enhance their clients HR experience.

“theHRfiles was looking for an enterprise solution, whereas they could provide their customers a real-time and collaborative application with flexibility, security, data privacy and performance,” says Peter Burney, vice president, mLogica. “The migration to DB2 was a large part of this solution, balancing scalability, security, high performance and price.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Contact your IBM sales representative or IBM Business Partner. Visit us at:
ibm.com/software/data/db2

You can get even more out of Information Management software by participating in independently run Information Management User Groups around the world. Learn about opportunities near you at: ibm.com/software/data/usergroup

For more information on mLogica, visit: www.mlogica.com

For more information on theHRfiles visit: www.thehrfiles.com

Additionally, IBM Global Financing can tailor financing solutions to your specific IT needs. For more information on great rates, flexible payment plans and loans, and asset buyback and disposal, visit: ibm.com/financing