Allstate enhances and streamlines HR

management with SuccessFactors

and IBM

Overview
Challenge
Allstate Insurance Company

The Allstate Corporation of Northbrook,

fully integrated with core SAP ERP

wanted to maximize personal and

IL, is the largest publicly held personal

business management applications.

corporate performance. Feedback

indicated that existing systems

lines property and casualty insurer

in the U.S. Allstate was founded in

Brett Winchell, HR Director of

were not simple and intuitive, and

1931 and became a publicly traded

Workforce Insights & Technology,

Allstate could not enable new

company in 1993, listed on the New

Allstate, elaborates, Over time,

services in a timely, efficient way.

York Stock Exchange. In 2013, Allstate

extensions and customizations to the

achieved revenues of USD 34.5 billion

software had produced very powerful

Solution

and had USD 123.5 billion in total

functionality. The penalty was that we

The company selected cloud-

assets. In 2014, Allstate was number

were relatively slow to introduce new

based SuccessFactors,

92 on the Fortune 500 list of largest

services and processes. We found

an SAP company, offering

companies in America, with four

that there was too much duplication of

comprehensive HR capabilities,

operations centers, and 14 regional

effort, such as carrying over information

that could be integrated with an

offices in the US, Canada, UK and India.

from one place to another. We wanted

on-premise SAP ERP Human

The company encompasses more

to be able to complete HR tasks

Capital Management solution.

than 39,000 employees and 11,000,

more quickly and reliably than before,

agencies totaling 70,000 professionals.

have access to consistent global

Key benefits

information, and raise productivity.

Intuitive and integrated HR

applications; technical tasks

As a highly regulated industry, insurance

providers must be certain that every

We wanted to capitalize on the

cut by up to 60 percent; savings

element of their human resources

ability to have a single central

allow Allstate to re-invest

and general business processes

system of record, integrated with the

20-30 percent of the IT budget;

are fully compliant. To manage

core SAP business management

about 20 percent cut in annual

the workforce, the Allstate human

solutions, and introduce flexible, user-

expenses after five years.

resources team relies on SAP ERP

friendly new functionality such as

Human Capital Management software,

compensation management, talent

Case study

management, integrated analytics

and more. How could Allstate enable
the newest HR solutions, introduce
a faster enhancements cycle, and
keep operational costs low?

Technical support
tasks that previously
took more than
50 percent of
time now occupy
20-30 percent.

Business Challenge

Selecting cloud-based
SuccessFactors

HR staff, leaders and employees

Allstate reviewed multiple on-premise

at Allstate Insurance Company

and cloud-based systems, and

Brett Winchell

found existing human resources

was particularly attracted by

HR Director of Workforce Insights

applications hard to use. Extensive

SuccessFactors, an SAP company.

& Technology

customization had resulted in very

The cloud model mitigated many of

Allstate

powerful software, but introducing

Allstates concerns about traditional

new functionality took time,

software development costs,

was often cost prohibitive, and

with quarterly scheduled updates

enhancements to existing systems

and continual product evolution.

were slow in arriving.

Additionally, the minimal-footprint

potentially successful option for Allstate.

IT infrastructure eliminated capital

Coincidentally, while Allstate was

How could the company enable

expenditure on servers and systems,

evaluating the SuccessFactors HCM

the newest talent management

and reduced steady-state maintenance

Suite, SAP acquired SuccessFactors

solutions, at a more rapid pace, and

and administration workload for

Inc., joining it to the SAP global partner

keep operational costs low?

the internal technical team.

ecosystem and bringing the experience

and commitment of SAP, an existing

IBM had started working on various

Allstate strategic partner, to the table.

human resources projects with Allstate

since 2006, including managing the

Brett Winchell continues, A key

core SAP HCM applications and

component of the project was

providing support on day-to-day

integrating SuccessFactors with the

issues, system administration and

SAP Human Capital Management

more. During the discussions about

solutions already in place. For that,

SuccessFactors and cloud-based

we turned to our long-term partner

services, IBM provided useful external

IBM for advice and implementation

perspective and feedback, concluding

support, to ensure that we enabled

that SuccessFactors would be a

a seamless hybrid-cloud solution.

2

IBM Global Business Services was

tasked with designing the interfaces

Compared with
prior estimates
of extending
on-premise solutions
to another country,
we completed the
India deployment
at 10 percent of the
cost, maybe less.

and business processes, working

closely with the SuccessFactors
implementation partner 3D Results.
In partnership with Allstates HR

Solution

Workforce Technology team, IBM

team was responsible for managing

Allstate chose SuccessFactors, an

the SAP applications and the

SAP company. The cloud solution

relationships with the Allstate IT team

offers comprehensive, intuitive

and with Allstates business users.

and integrated talent management

Brett Winchell

IBM was responsible for integration

capabilities, with regular quarterly

HR Director of Workforce Insights

between the existing SAP on-premise

upgrades, updates to support global

& Technology

applications and the SuccessFactors

compliance, and new features at

Allstate

solutions, both inbound and outbound,

very low per-user costs.

alongside project management and

Working with the best

deployment partner

planning. IBM provided subject matter

Working with IBM Global Business

expertise for the SAP solutions,

Services, Allstate has integrated

business process consultancy and

SuccessFactors with on-premise

technical expertise and integration.

SAP ERP systems, operating a

hybrid cloud HCM environment.

The challenge was to deploy

SuccessFactors successfully and

IBM Global Business Services

gain all the benefits of cloud-based

and the partners established clear

solutions while ensuring that Allstate

project roles in an open manner that

continued to retain a single integrated

led directly to the positive results we

system of record. In turn, this lead

achieved, says Brett Winchell.

to questions concerning integration

with the Allstate on-premise SAP

We established clear meeting

ERP and SAP ERP Human Capital

cadences, with project managers

Management solutions, which are

assigned from each partner. IBM

managed and maintained by IBM

managed IT integration, enabling

Global Business Services. To ensure

data to flow between SuccessFactors

that the two solutions would deliver

and SAP ERP Human Capital

the expected integrated operations,

Management to ensure that the result

3

was a single solution that provides

the functionality we want combined
with the system of record we need.

Reducing costs per user

Allstate, partnered closely with IBM
Key Solution Components

Global Business Services, deployed

a new solution for its global human

With assistance
from IBM Global
Business Services,
SuccessFactors
cloud-based
software has enabled
rapid creation of
Allstates first global
HCM capability,
aligned to our goal of
reducing long-term
operating costs.

Industry

resources management based on

Insurance

SuccessFactors cloud-based software.

Applications

This includes SuccessFactors BizX,

SuccessFactors BizX,

Learning, and Workforce Analytics

SuccessFactors Learning and

solutions, with additional Talent

SuccessFactors Analytics and

Solutions including Employee Profile,

Workforce Planning, SAP ERP

Performance & Goals, Succession

Brett Winchell

including Financials, Controlling, and

& Development, Competency/Skills

HR Director of Workforce Insights

SAP Human Capital Management.

Management and Compensation.

& Technology
Allstate

Services

The SuccessFactors solutions deliver a

IBM Global Business Services

simple interface, supported by shared

data from the core SAP solutions,
greatly enhancing the user experience.

management processes in a way that

IBM Global Business Services

would allow us to take full advantage of

provided key assistance with project

SuccessFactors cloud technologies.

management, subject matter expertise,

and business process management.

Part of the changeover to the

cloud-based solution was learning

As part of the transformation it

the difference between customizable

is important not to simply lift and

and configurable software.

shift existing business processes

to SuccessFactors, comments

In exchange for some limitations

Brett Winchell. With IBM Global

on customizability, Allstate gains

Business Services we designed

agility, speed of deployment and

new or enhanced existing talent

greatly reduced costs per user.

4

changes ourselves using system

administration resources within HR.

We expect to
continue our build
of global HCM using
cloud, for example
to our Canadian and
Northern Ireland
operations, and
realize further costbenefit objectives.
Allstates strategic
partners IBM Global
Business Services
and SuccessFactors
will be central to our
journey forwards.

The effect is to cut the workload on

our internal IT department, and reduce
steady-state operational costs.
While the IT team continues to provide

Business Benefits

technical support related to data

security, network and single sign-on,

Friendly, modern applications help

for applications that have transitioned

HR staff and leaders easily manage

to cloud technology, IT support has

the Allstate global workforce

become largely consultative. Technical

effectively

support tasks that previously took

more than 50 percent of time now

Information-sharing across

occupy 20-30 percent, itself a saving

functional areas reduces the time

of up to 60 percent. The savings

and effort to complete tasks

generated have allowed us to re-invest

between 20-30 percent of the IT

Establishing HR services in new

Brett Winchell

budget into further expansion of the

locations is faster, and carries a

HR Director of Workforce Insights

cloud side of the hybrid model.

lower per-user cost

& Technology
Allstate

In total, the transition away from

Technical support tasks cut by up

the on-premise model to the hybrid

to 60 percent; the savings allow

model, with SuccessFactors providing

Allstate to re-invest 20-30 percent

the talent management, learning

of the IT budget

In the past, we tended to customize

and analytics solutions and SAP

the HR solutions at will, and we are

remaining as core human resources

coming to terms with configuration.

management including pay and time, is

We tended to think of cloud as

expected contribute to approximately

simply off-premise, but it offers much

20 percent reduction in steady-state

more than that. The cost of software

annual expenses after five years.

implementation is still a factor we need

to consider for larger changes that

Gaining speed and agility

require an implementation partner,

Deploying SuccessFactors has brought

but we are now able to make many

speed of execution to Allstates HR

5

 IBM Deutschland GmbH

D-71137 Ehningen
ibm.com/solutions/sap

department. Following implementation

Services, SuccessFactors cloud-

of SuccessFactors solutions in

based software has enabled rapid

the US, Allstate has extended goal

creation of Allstates first global HCM

and performance management as

capability, aligned to our goal of

well as learning to its operations in

reducing long-term operating costs.

Northern Ireland, and implemented

Though we still have more to do to

Employee Central and Recruiting

achieve a full global HCM capability,

Management in India, with IBM

we are now beginning to see the early

Global Business Services providing

benefits of integrated global talent

project planning, configuration

management processes combined

and deployment assistance.

with an intuitive user experience.

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Brett Winchell explains, The cloud

We expect to continue our build of

delivery model allowed extension

global HCM using cloud, for example

of capabilities internationally to

to our Canadian and Northern Ireland

be accomplished quickly, using

operations, and realize further cost-

more non-technical resources, at

benefit objectives. Allstates strategic

a significantly reduced cost when

partners IBM Global Business

2014 SAP SE. All rights reserved.

compared with an on-premise

Services and SuccessFactors will be

technology which would have taken

central to our journey forwards.

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ByDesign, SAP BusinessObjects Explorer,
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as well as their respective logos are
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considerably longer and required

many more technical resources.
Using an existing SuccessFactors
instance, we also implemented
Employee Central and Recruiting
Management in India as the HR
system of record in just a few months.
Compared with prior estimates of
extending on-premise solutions

These materials are provided by SAP SE or an SAP

affiliate company for informational purposes only,
without representation or warranty of any kind, and
SAP SE or its affiliated companies shall not be liable
for errors or omissions with respect to the materials.
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to another country, we completed

the India deployment at 10 percent
of the cost, maybe less.
Brett Winchell concludes, With
assistance from IBM Global Business

SPC03499-WWEN-00 (September 2014)