"Previously, all personnel changes required HR to process transactions manually on numerous handwritten, carbon-copied forms," said Blue Shield of California Senior Vice President for Human Resources Marianne Jackson. "This resulted in a highly inefficient, slow process, with frequently lost forms, illegible documentation and department-wide confusion. Automating and consolidating our business processes with the PeopleSoft solution has cut through the operational 'red tape' that used to suffocate Blue Shield's HR function."

As California's third largest statewide health plan, San Francisco-based Blue Shield helps to ensure all state residents have access to high-quality, affordable healthcare. The new system is allowing Blue Shield to begin to establish best-practice HR processes, automate and consolidate key HR-related data and improve the consistency and accuracy of critical information for HR reporting and compliance requirements.

"Just one year ago, our HR transactions were completely decentralized, which made it challenging to consistently enforce policies and documentation standards," said Jackson. "In addition to a complete process redesign, we knew we needed a complementary investment in appropriate technology to improve our operational efficiency. Oracle allowed us to reduce HR costs and create a powerful, logical workflow with an out-of-the-box, self-service HR solution. The robust capabilities in the 8.9 release of PeopleSoft allowed us to achieve our HR goals through the use of standard features in the product - accelerating deployment and reducing implementation and IT management costs. Our HR department is now able to focus on its core mission of optimizing the performance of Blue Shield with best-in-class HR practices."

HR as Vehicle for Streamlined Operations
Blue Shield recognized the need to modernize its HR operations, committing to a department-wide transformation to be completed in just two years. Prior to the Oracle implementation, the department restructured its personnel to reflect multiple channels of HR delivery, dividing it into teams of overall HR architects (those who serve as enterprise-wide centers of expertise), line HR/organizational development personnel (those who are assigned to clients) and field/employee relations personnel. Blue Shield simultaneously implemented a comprehensive shared services capability using state-of-the-art, call-center strategies. The self-service aspects of PeopleSoft HCM complemented this approach, increasing efficiencies between employees and managers, while requiring almost no administrative intervention from the HR department. The self-service capabilities enable Blue Shield's authorized workforce to update and view their own personal information via a secure Web browser. Creating a paperless environment, Blue Shield leveraged this feature to grant managers access to not only their personal data, but also their subordinates' data, allowing secure, seamless transactions and a single source of information across the department.

By streamlining HR systems and business processes under one consolidated system, Blue Shield reduced operational costs and increased efficiencies, connected employees to business processes and automated common administrative tasks, such as making a name or address change or promoting, transferring or terminating an employee. Through the PeopleSoft HCM deployment, Blue Shield documented more than 150 workflows, which enabled the department to cut cycle times dramatically - in some instances from two weeks to seconds.

"Oracle developed PeopleSoft HCM 8.9 to empower organizations to unlock the full value of their workforce," said Oracle Vice President of Global Services Industries Mychelle Mowry. "PeopleSoft HCM enables organizations to increase efficiency and operating performance throughout an organization, while simultaneously reducing costs. These factors are essential to healthcare payors for balancing both increasing regulations and rising service expectations."

Blue Shield and its integration partner, DuMonde Solutions, rolled out the Oracle applications in September 2005. "The speed, accuracy and smoothness of the HCM implementation is now a model for additional software deployments across the entire organization," said Jackson. "We could not be more pleased with our transformed HR department, and we are excited for Blue Shield - and its customers - to continue to reap the benefits of our streamlined operations."

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