Kurt Salmon GoalPost Labor Management Review

An HR Software Vendor Solution Brief

Kurt Salmon Company Overview

Established in 1935, Kurt Salmon Associates was one of the first consulting firms in the U.S.—with a bulk of its early solutions dedicated to supply chain management. Since that time, the company has expanded its scope to the larger labor management arena, adding feature sets and capabilities through the decades, and eventually merging (January 2011) with the Ineum Consulting firm (a Deloitte-France spin-off) to create a global management and strategy firm simply called Kurt Salmon. During this evolution, the company built an impressive labor management software solution (that was separately branded) called GoalPost (though prior iterations have existed called SiteView and CP2)—reviewed in further detail below.

GoalPost Labor Management Application Purpose

Though suffering from a somewhat disjointed software offering in the 1990s, GoalPost's latest solution offers a robust incentive calculation engine (capable of linking to payroll systems), powerful data integration tools, and automated time tracking. Additionally, the comprehensive reporting capabilities include subscription dashboards, configurable alerts, analytics and customizable reports – all designed to effectively communicate the critical information needed to increase productivity; drive down operating costs; and optimize labor management software spend. GoalPost software also supports a continuous-improvement approach using built-in training curves as well as coaching and mentoring tools. The capabilities of the five core modules are as follows:

Labor Management Software

• Increase throughput and decrease cost per unit
• Enable real-time decision-making in the areas of staff productivity, quality, training, safety, and overall facility performance
• Identify and address employee coaching needs
• Reduce labor costs via increased performance and productivity

Incentive Calculation

• Configure incentive rules to support individual, team, training, and indirect performance calculations
• Define compensation plans and pay curves using an unlimited number of pay points
• Create metrics for determining an employee's performance and pay
• Use the graphical formula builder to create performance factor equations
• Set rules at various desired levels (e.g. facility, shift, operation, employee)

Timekeeper

• Eliminate paper timesheets and manual business and HR processes
• Enable supervisors to identify and address clocking mistakes
• Empower supervisors with real-time employee visibility and information

Reporting and Analysis

• Subscription-based dashboards provide critical KPI's for effective decision making
• Create customized alerts to call attention to exceptions that require action
• Facility versus Facility cost, performance, and productivity comparisons
• Early identification of HR and labor trends in performance and productivity

Coaching and Mentoring

• Define criteria to identify coaching candidates based on performance, accuracy, and time spent on-standard
• View coaching statistics and performance by facility, department, operation, employee
• Utilize coaching data to evaluate coaching practices
• Consistently capture coaching session details
• Track supervisors' coaching performance

GoalPost Labor Management Software Customer Target Market

With a claim that businesses who implement GoalPost labor management software typically boost labor productivity 30% to 50% in the first year, this software solution is aimed at mid-market organizations that have significant workforces (especially hourly/contingent) to manage. Ideally suited to warehouse and distribution center set ups, GoalPost labor software provides labor management functionality to clients in over 200 locations. The 2011 launch of GoalPost's partnership programs marks a new push for business expansion.

GoalPost's Perfect Prospect Profile (PPP)

GoalPost labor management software is suited to mid to large firms looking for a well-tested labor management system from an experienced and secure provider who can also offer related consulting and support services, such as implementation, data integration, training, technical support and custom software development.

GoalPost Labor Software Technical Specs

Developed in .NET C#, ASP.Net and some Java, GoalPost labor management software has a Windows front-end for on-site installations. However, the company also cites "flexible deployment options" and GoalPost is available through a hosted option via the company's hosting partners. In reality, the hosted option is more of a managed services scenario, and not equivalent to native Software as a Service labor management systems which leverage multi-tenant architectures, extremely thin-client presentation layers, flexible subscription-based pricing models, multiple (active/active) redundant data centers backed with independent (SAS70 and ISO 27001) certifications and comprehensive Service Level Agreements backed with financial guarantees.

GoalPost's Primary Competitors

There is no shortage of labor and warehouse labor management system solutions on the market; few however are as long-standing as GoalPost. Examples of well-established direct software competitors include: Manhattan Associates, Inc., Infor's Workbrain, and Workplace Systems.

Strengths of the GoalPost Labor Management System
 

• A functionally rich labor management system that has developed and matured over many years.
• A software vendor with an established reputation, and particularly strong expertise in the retail and consumer products industries.
• Strong strategic partners and alliances (including IBM and Microsoft).
• The coaching tools functionality is uniquely strong among labor management systems.

Weaknesses of the GoalPost Labor Management System
 

• A current lack of social media integration or mobile applications.
• A Software-as-a-Service offering that is limited to only hosted partner solutions.
• Kurt Salmon is a relatively small company with multiple types of software solutions—which may result in limited focus, resources, investments and R&D in any particular product. This could pose a challenge in a labor management software market that is witnessing increased investments from direct competitors.

Bottom-line for Kurt Salmon's GoalPost Labor Management Software

GoalPost offers to meet standard labor management software requirements via a platform with considerable experience in a specialized market (their first solution, DPACCS, was written in BASIC and ran on Radio Shack TRS-80 computers). Further, with the newer offering of the coaching and mentoring module, Kurt Salmon shows that this familiar software system can still deliver innovation; a fact that could serve the company well if similarly applied to the target of social media and social technologies in the future. What is difficult to say with the company's current trajectory however is whether this labor management software solution will continue its tenure, or whether the consulting arm will fully supplant any technology offerings that the company produces. Indeed, the labor management software market has changed to the point that a lack of social and mobile functionality could signal this software's demise if Kurt Salmon isn't able to invest heavily in its support.

  Categories: Labor Management Software

  Tags: Warehouse LMS

  Permalink: www.hrlab.com/kurt-salmon-labor-system.php

 Author: Dave Foxall

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