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Likewise, these electronic interfaces allow e-mailing among the departments, branches and other clients all done at the click of a button. Most software systems try not to make most operations mandatory on the part of the user so that minimum data-entry can be done wherever required.
Most systems today provide a default database server, but it can be connected to any of the other database servers as per the availability at the user's location. In short, the HR manager already has extensive available software that features user-friendly data entry, extensive querying, attractive report generation and adequate security are provided by the system. Integrity is well maintained throughout most systems, and many utilities needed like calendar, clock, writepad, diary, calculator are readily available (Lapointe, 1998,
A great deal of discussion is being devoted to the idea of just how important HR is, making it a field which has been much maligned. As Lapointe suggests "studies have repeatedly revealed that more than 60 percent of the activity in most HR functions is administrative, adding little value, and generating a wide gap between the HR function and the strategic and tactical objectives of the business" (Lapointe, 1998, 22). To first determine the usefulness of the HR function, then, it is essential to determining the impact of the Internet on this same function.
It would be helpful, therefore, to examine in detail the HR function in a large multinational which would have the ability and the financial resources to outsource all of its HR functions, if, as Lapointe suggests, the HR is nothing more than "data police" (Lapointe, 1998, 22).
The company chosen to study is Viacom, a diversified entertainment and publishing company, that owns numerous entertainment companies and does business through these companies in 300 countries, that employ 83,500 people, of which approximately 33,000 are full-time salaried empl...