A Human Resource and Management (HRM) department or business with which you are familiar feels that it needs to consider using computers for the first time but it has little idea about the application packages available, their relevance to its HRM services/business and what benefits they might bring. Identify four different types of popular software application packages used in HRM and describe their features and how they can prove of benefit to the department/business. There are many different computer solutions available to businesses today allowing a bespoke package or packages for each business and its area of specialisation.

There are, however, four software application packages that I would recommend to the HRM department. I shall list each of these separately along with their features and the benefits they will bring to your HRM department. All of the packages compliment one another and are designed to work alongside each other for the ease of the user, as well as the administrator. The packages are components of MS Office 2000. This is the equivalent of a word processor or a typewriter. Currently, your HRM department has a traditional typing pool for any information that is to be typed.

Features: Spell/Grammar check, automating tasks, auto format/manual format, huge range of fonts/styles, quick editing, proofing tools, creating tables, borders and shading, creating graphics/importing graphics, creating web pages, MS word as an email editor, ability to select language to be used. Benefits: The immediate benefits to your department and to all the employees within it are enormous. Once all staff are trained, there will be little or no need for the typing pool. This represents a huge potential saving for the HRM Dept.

Documents could easily be typed to a higher standard and for those not typing their own documents/reports, approval for the document can be sought without the need to print the document. After the introduction of this software, many individuals will be typing their own reports/documents thus reducing the duplication and possible misinterpretation of work. Documents and reports can be sent electronically to clients immediately thus reducing response times and allowing the business to move along at a faster pace Storage space of all documents and reports is greatly reduced.

All data can be saved on to a hard drive taking up virtually no space. This can be transferred periodically (say every month) to a CD for storage. This is the tool to allow electronic mail (email) to be sent to any equipped destination in the world. It can be a useful tool interdepartmentally as well as for external clients. Features: Allows files, presentations, graphics, sounds or just plain text to be sent to any other email address in the world. All for the cost of a local phone call. Calendar feature enables easy organisation of daily/weekly/one off tasks.

Reminders can be set for any task both regular and one off. Spell/grammar check. Can be sent to as many addressees as required, polling/reply yes/no, reply function. ‘Read’ function, ‘received’ function. Ability to easily organise both sent and received mail. Even deleted mail can be retrieved. Your dept will be able to set a size limit on each employee to suit your server size. Benefits: The possibility of a ‘paperless office’ creating a more pleasant and ‘greener’ working environmentNo need for the large post room you currently have. 99% of companies have email facilities and can receive any email you send.

The cost of sending an email is much less than sending a letter/package, particularly if the destination is overseas. Furthermore the client receives the email a few seconds after you have sent it. This allows for business to move faster and decisions to be made sooner. The cost savings of this are huge; no post room means that your company will be able to reduce staff costs in this area. There will also be significant savings on paper and envelopes. Your client’s perception of you will be enhanced as they will finally be able to send you documents and files on email as you embrace the technology of the 21st Century.

The communication aspect of MS Outlook 2000 cannot be underestimated. Within a few seconds the whole of your department or company can be informed of a major change or event. For example, a change in Annual Leave entitlement can be typed on to an MS Word 2000 document and sent by email (using MS Outlook 2000) to all employees. This means that as fare as possible all employees have been informed simultaneously of any changes. This ‘information sharing’ aspect of MS Outlook 2000 will result in an enhanced service of the HRM team when it comes to dissemination of company/personnel information.

As all sent emails can be stored on the hard drive, there will be less storage space needed of individual communication. The HRM department can set up an email service whereby employees and line managers can email the department for information or with queries. This could be set up in preference to a telephone consultancy service and thus produce further savings. It would allow a smaller number of specialists deal with queries in a timely manner without the internal cost of employees and line managers using phone lines.