Hawaii rebuilds HR systems with cloud upgrade
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Hawaii launches its cloud-based human resources management and disaster recovery systems just as time was running out on vendor support for its legacy systems.
The state of Hawaii passed a major milestone last month in rebuilding its Human Resources Management System (HRMS), which state officials describe as a critical piece of their long term plan to streamline the Aloha State’s government systems.
The $1.57 million cloud-oriented HRMS system is used by more than 200 human resource staffers across the state’s HR enterprise to support the recruitment, management and retention of over 16,000 state employees.
Hawaii Gov. David Ige called the HRMS upgrade a model of efficiency and productivity in “recognizing the security and cost benefits associated with shared cloud technology, while actively engaging state employees and supporting them throughout the process.”
The new system gives the state backup and disaster recovery services as well as updated enterprise resources management software via the Hawaii Government Private Cloud (GPC). The launch of the new platform and services on Jan. 20 occurred just in time, state officials allowed.
“The old system was no longer supported by our vendors, and we faced the risk of a complete system failure that would have jeopardized essential functions,” said Department of Human Resource Development Director James Nishimoto. “The upgrade provides a secure and reliable human resources system that will improve the way we conduct business.”
The HRMS upgrade project involved installing the latest version of PeopleSoft 9.2 in the secure Hawaii GPC, a private cloud environment and a key part of the modernization of Hawaii’s IT infrastructure. In addition, about 300 servers are now running on the GPC.
Both software and systems modernization is expected to keep operating costs down while improving the state’s service performance, according to state IT managers.
Cloud technology in particular will “help to reduce spending on infrastructure, increase system reliability and enhance the security of the state’s information resources,” said Keone Kali, the state’s chief information officer.
Hawaii IT officials called the project a significant collaboration whereby existing users assisted in developing new reference guides and online training materials.
While tending to its enterprise systems, Hawaii has also made a concerted effort to improve government online services. Last fall it became one of the first states to apply gamification techniques to engage users its site, which led to increases in web usage as high as 20 percent.