I'm just asking.
From EvolvOnDemand on twitter: The Benefits of Global Consolidation is the topic and I just responded to his blog. It made me think of the last truly global SAP HR project I worked on. It was painful having to abide by the corporate guidelines for the roll-out. Thus my response below.
"You've just hit the tip of the iceberg when it comes to global systems... Even so called 'global' HR systems such as SAP and PeopleSoft, or the aspiring ones such as Kronos Workforce Central and others, typically aren't well implemented and the disjointed systems you speak of are all to common. I believe this mess comes from both the following scenarios.
1) BIG CORP says we are rolling out global HR. Reports are going to roll up and everything will be fine. However, the suits that do the implementation know nothing about Tokyo and even though they diligently perform "Analysis" they don't really understand those needs. Thus the system fails.
2) BIG CORP doesn't roll out global HR. The individual systems that are used work reasonably well for the local needs but the data they extract to roll up to the corporate reporting has different 'base' information and understanding of that information. Thus the data corporate uses to make decisions is not inaccurate, but wrong!
Neither scenario is pretty. And although I often say about systems implementation, "Like it's hard!", global HR implementations of any kind, are.