We are a pharmaceutical company based out of Gurgaon. We have 250 employees, mostly in sales who are spread across the regions we operate in. We are looking at investing in a HRIS system but are quite confused on how to go about it. What is the best SaaS Talent Management Software available for SMEs? Can you share your thoughts on how to decide on the right product and what is needed to achieve a successful implementation?

It will be difficult for me to recommend any specific software for your company. In one of the previous issues, I did answer a similar question which you may refer to. It really depends on multiple factors. Some of them are illustrated below:

1. What are the objectives that you have in mind for making investments in HRIS?

2. You may be having only 250 people today; however, what are the manpower projections for next 4/5 years? The system that you buy today should be scalable.

3. What is your budget?

4. What is the current ERP in the company? Since most of the people that you engage are sales personnel, consider your sales management applications, if any, ERP and other relates applications. Look for the possibilities of integration.

Size, scale, expected functionalities, expected levels of automation, budgets, cost benefits analysis, etc., will be the major factors that will determine the type of HRIS platform that you should invest in.

Vivek is a Senior HR professional with over 35 years of experience, ranging several leadership positions, in India and abroad. He leads his consulting practice since 2003 and presently works as a Strategic HR Advisor to Reliance Industries, and is also an independent Director on the Board of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd. Prior to this, he was based at Singapore for several years where he was Director HR - Operations at Hewlett Packard for the Asia Pacific Region. Allow Vivek to clear your career and professional dilemmas by writing to us at ask@peoplematters.in