0610_Spectrum S&T

iVantage^® Helps Engineer and Structure HR

S

aturn Electronics & Engineering, Inc. (Saturn) is a global supplier to original equipment manufacturers and their suppliers. Saturn’s highly innovative products are designed, engineered and manufactured worldwide for the automotive, appliance and communications industries. Headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, Saturn operates 9 locations in Michigan, Texas, Mexico, China and Philippines. It has 1,300 full-time and 700 temporary employees.

Saturn works closely with its customers to provide integrated solutions that address complex design, engineering and manufacturing problems. Similarly, SPECTRUM has worked closely with Saturn to tailor iVantage® to meet their HR needs. “SPECTRUM does a phenomenal job supporting their clients and making them feel that they are number one. They are not happy until you are. Having worked with many SPECTRUM people over the years, they are consistently pleasant and truly dedicated to an exceptional product,” says Pam Glowacz, Saturn’s Human Resource Manager.

Interface or Integrate

Before iVantage, Saturn had an HR system through their payroll vendor. The system was never implemented because it did not transmit data over their wide area network (WAN) and it was difficult to integrate payroll and HR data. Even though they had integration issues, they initially wanted a new system that was fully integrated with one vendor.

SPECTRUM showed Saturn that it is possible to have a cohesive HR and payroll system with two different specialized vendors using an interface. Expert sourcing and best of breed are the philosophies behind interfacing an HR system with other needed applications. As a best of breed HR system vendor, SPECTRUM’s HR expertise is apparent in iVantage’s features and functionality. iVantage provides the essential tools HR departments need to track, filter and report employee data from application through retirement. It captures personal information, such as address, emergency contacts, background, and employment information, such as position, status, job history and compensation. Glowacz comments that, “iVantage is truly designed for HR professionals.”

Understanding that communication between Saturn’s HR data and payroll was imperative, SPECTRUM introduced iVantage Link™. Link impressed Saturn with its ability to take information stored within iVantage and share it with a multitude of systems — payroll, time and attendance, accounting and benefit carriers.

“iVantage Link has allowed us to streamline our processes and become the control center,” said Glowacz. She likes that all of Saturn’s employee data is housed and controlled in iVantage so that data integrity is maintained.

A Timely Installation

SPECTRUM’s Client Services team worked quickly and thoroughly with Saturn to have iVantage functional three months after the initial installation. This included the conversion of basic data, benefit plan set-up and implementing iVantage Link to communicate with Saturn’s payroll vendor. In addition, areas were tailored to meet the unique needs of their business. Five years later Glowacz remarks that iVantage is “truly the best system I have worked with, it has everything we need.”

Manager Self-Service

Since 2001, Saturn’s demands from their HR system have grown and SPECTRUM has provided the solutions. In the first half of 2006, they will implement the Manager Self-Service portion of iVantage for performance and salary review. Saturn’s current process is paper intensive and time consuming. HR sends forms and worksheets electronically to supervisors, who return hard copies of the completed paperwork. HR then keys the performance review scores and salary plans into the system. “Once Manager Self-Service is running, supervisors will key information themselves, which should be a wash on time for them. HR will benefit from the time saved by not re-keying all the data. The supervisors will also have so much more information at their fingertips,” said Glowacz.

Employee Self-Service

Looking forward, Saturn plans to add Employee Self-Service capabilities to streamline the benefit open enrollment process. Glowacz sees future opportunities with time tracking and time-off requests.

Lean Manufacturing — Lean HR

Saturn Electronics & Engineering continues to grow and adapt to the dynamic electronics, engineering and manufacturing markets. They have embraced a manufacturing concept, TPS, which simplistically means all activities add value or waste. The goal of TPS is to maximize value by eliminating waste. Glowacz feels that, “Administratively, HR has much to eliminate and iVantage, along with our partnership with SPECTRUM, will be the key to accomplishing that goal within our department.”

To learn more about SPECTRUM and how its fully functional HRIS, iVantage, can help meet your HR goals, please call 800.477.3287 or visit www.spectrumhr.com and sign-up for a free web-seminar.