ALBA developed a new central employee portal – 'Blue Portal' – in just three months based on its SAP HCM apps and Neptune DXP. Blue Portal simplifies and optimizes employee communication, quickly offsetting its own costs through savings in paper and postage expenses. The previously fragmented processes and IT infrastructure were also successfully streamlined thanks to the creation of Blue Portal.

In a little over a year, most of the workforce is already extensively using the eight new apps, with the number of users steadily increasing.

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Challenge: The digitization of manual work processes and employee communication within the HR department

The garbage collectors from ALBA are easily recognizable by their blue trucks. However, there is much more behind them: numerous processes, employees, and commercial partners must harmonize effectively to ensure efficient waste management.

One of the most significant pain points in the industry is the narrow profit margins and the reliance on energy costs. Hence, many objectives are centered on optimizing processes at critical junctures. ALBA's HR department has acknowledged the necessity of enhancing inefficient workflows and communication through digitalization. Even minor alterations already substantially impact the company and its business model. This laid the foundation for the 'Blue Portal' - ALBA's new digital employee portal.

With a workforce exceeding 5,400 employees, including 3,500 potential commercial users, the company confronted the challenge of making a diverse IT landscape accessible to numerous users across different locations, all without incurring unnecessary high expenses.

The task of devising uniformly structured processes such as holiday requests, devoid of additional effort, proved exceedingly complex due to the various user groups with disparate requirements.

Additionally, employee communication still relied on paper and postal methods.

Due to a lack of time and resources and an 80% outsourced IT team, ALBA had to bring external partners on board to implement the project. Thanks to an earlier recommendation within the SAP environment, ALBA turned to Neptune Software and mindsquare to implement its vision of its central HR portal.

With the no-code/low-code app development platform Neptune DXP, mindsquare was ultimately empowered to efficiently support internal project management and develop tailored apps that seamlessly align with the business model, all while utilizing minimal internal IT resources.

The internal communication of the new portal's implementation using no-code/low-code tools became crucial. Neptune Software's proven references and swift outcomes significantly increased user acceptance.

Understanding that existing application building blocks, pre-designed app templates, and standards were already operational, the ALBA project team partnered with Neptune and mindsquare as collaborative consultants. This collaboration enabled ALBA to address specific challenges and enhance its business processes quickly.

Transparent communication, adaptable solutions, secure data usage, and modular development emerged as pivotal factors in discerning the priority functions through which improvement was sought.

"Especially for companies with a high outsourcing and a focus on business processes, adopting a no-code/low-code app development platform such as Neptune DXP for digitization proves highly advantageous," states Peter Rick, Head of Governance & IT Service Management at ALBA.

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Solution: Implementing a digital employee portal built upon SAP HCM, featuring eight applications, all within just three month

A precise starting point is crucial for the acceptance and success of a project. Therefore, ALBA started with the leave request and the certification center, two established, labor-intensive and paper-heavy processes to be digitally transformed.

The goal was not to eliminate jobs in the departments but to decrease their workload and make the benefits of digitalization tangible for the employees.

Thanks to the user-friendly design of the apps, which were oriented towards the private usage habits of the employees, there was no resistance to their use within the workforce.

The apps are fully functional even at locations without a reliable internet connection, so they are also ready for use in offline mode.

When developing a portal, it is important to keep in mind that each company has individual processes and systems. In the course of this, the biggest challenge is to find out where the data used in the app comes from and where it should be stored. So, customizing had to be understood before it could be integrated and utilized optimally.  

But even with an optimal design for the users, the issue of SAP licenses could not be disregarded from the company's point of view. Otherwise, high costs can quickly arise, especially with portals for an entire workforce.

The portal was developed with Neptune DXP, which forms the actual core of the Blue Portal.

Because the features are so complex during registration, the required SAP module is triggered in the background to create a registration key. This key is then returned to the Blue Portal, enabling individual, data-sensitive and secure access.

This makes the Blue Portal secure and low-licensed, allowing the portal to be continually expanded.

On the first day, the data of 1,500 employees was pulled from the script and created at the touch of a button. The 'Blue Portal' thus opened its doors.

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Results: Modern, digital solution gives employees central access to all relevant information and applications

The HR department quickly adopted the' Blue Portal' and around 50 % of the office staff and external commercial users.

This is an impressive accomplishment, considering the wide range of users in the community. Especially in the first days, ALBA measured how much support the users needed when using the portal. Due to the familiarity of the applications with what users were already accustomed to, there was minimal need for feedback or support.

Satisfaction was quickly reflected in the fact that no additional work was required.

Users often expressed how the portal had noticeably streamlined their daily tasks, contributing to an overall sense of ease in their work routine.

Among other things, leave requests could be processed much faster than before and personal salary documents are available anytime and anywhere. This shift brought about a noticeable reduction in the workload for the HR department and proved particularly invaluable due to the unique company regulations in place. Without the portal, managing such regulations would have entailed significant extra effort.

Eight applications were created in 90 development days. This period was within the project's planned scope, and the initial outcomes became evident quickly during the creation phase.

Minor errors were identified but corrected quickly, with the implementation of the secure login function for commercial users taking the most time.

However, this effort was worth it, as it resulted in significant overall paper and postage savings.

In addition, employees can now access all important information, such as training, the recruiting portal, the employee evaluation app or the address book, from one central location.

Depending on an employee's role and function in the company, this information can be shown or hidden. These adjustments are made automatically based on the SAP master data.

In the end, everything worked together perfectly: From the decision for Neptune as a development platform and solution partner to the comprehensive process know-how and framework conditions provided by the client ALBA to the effective project management and support by mindsquare, every step was seamless and goal-oriented.  

This successful outcome serves as motivation for the upcoming applications that are already in the works.

“I have never experienced such a well-rounded project. If someone had told me beforehand that I, as a non-SAP expert, would carry out such a project, I would not have thought it possible. But thanks to mindsquare's project management, I always knew where we stood in the project. Problems came to the table in good time, were explained in an understandable way, and were quickly solved. This was not least due to Neptune's easy-to-understand development platform. Ultimately, all those involved, from the specialist departments and the developers, got everything under one hat without having to think their way into a code or a technical problem. It was a technical project that was not technical for me. That's the beauty of it," says Peter Rick, Head of Governance & IT Service Management at ALBA, summing up the project experience.