Microsoft is undergoing a digital transformation of its human resources systems by upgrading its analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities. The company has revamped its core processes to include self-service portals for employees and powerful tools for HR using SAP SuccessFactors. To revolutionize HR data, Microsoft has chosen Microsoft Azure Data Lake as its architecture.
The goal is to provide agility, insights, and advanced analytics through AI, which are essential in the modern world of big data and predictive intelligence. A unified and accessible data estate is crucial for driving talent conversations, workforce planning, and improving the employee experience.
Microsoft’s MDEE team faced challenges with outdated data architectures, leading to tedious processes, high costs, and limited accessibility to HR insights. By implementing SAP SuccessFactors for core HR processes, they laid the foundation for streamlining data and focusing on data transformation.
The journey to data transformation involved using Microsoft Azure Data Lake as a modern analytics platform. This platform enables data ingestion, storage, transformation, and analysis, along with data security and compliance.
MDEE unified data from various HR systems, providing an end-to-end view of the employee lifecycle and reducing redundant data copies. The team leveraged Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 and Azure Data Factory for data storage and ingestion. Key metrics were tracked using Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Analysis Services, and Power BI Shared Datasets, facilitating complex analytics and insights across the HR ecosystem.
Data governance was a priority for ensuring data access compliance and security, achieved through column-level security on the Data Lake. Modern engineering capabilities were developed to ensure high-quality data, drive engineering efficiency, and save costs.
The platform’s capabilities enabled HR teams to access data more quickly, leading to faster data processing and self-service access. Combining qualitative and quantitative data provided deep insights for HR leaders, driving human-centered innovations and improvements in employee experience.
Looking ahead, Microsoft is focused on predictive and prescriptive analytics through AI and machine learning. The goal is to provide a world-class experience for all employees by leveraging high-quality, accessible data. Ultimately, the platform is set up to support future requirements and advancements in HR analytics and AI.
The transformation at Microsoft showcases the importance of unity between transactional and data tools, grounding work in human-centered approaches, and collaborating early and often for successful digital transformation. The platform’s success lies in combining data to drive deeper insights and innovations, leading to a transformative HR ecosystem.
Article Source
https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/enabling-advanced-hr-analytics-and-ai-with-microsoft-azure-data-lake/