Thursday, September 29, 2005

SoftScape gets thumbs up from Gartner

Having gotten some (light) criticism in the past about not including SoftScape in my talent management roundup, here’s some good thoughts on them:

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2005/sep/1180540.htm

“Softscape, an industry leader in strategic people management technology and services, today announced that Softscape received the highest rating of "Strong Positive" in Gartner's 2005 MarketScope for Employee Performance Management (EPM) Software(1). The Gartner "Strong Positive" rating is only provided to a vendor who is considered a solid provider of strategic products, services or solutions. Gartner recommends that existing customers continue investments while potential customers consider the vendor a strong strategic choice. “

http://hrtech.blogspot.com/2005/06/talent-management-scorecard-updated.html

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

SAP Safe Passage

http://www.sap.com/Company/Press/Press.epx?PressID=4964

SAP has been offering (and has now extended) a Safe Harbor program for PeopleSoft, JDE and Oracle customers wanting to convert off their platforms to SAP. The program has been allowing customers to access SAP technical resources.

I’m not so sure this has been as successful as they think it has been. While they have announced quite a few program participants, the majority of these were probably just organizations which were moving away from Oracle products anyway. SAP has given them free resources and promotions they otherwise would not have gotten. True, there will be some market movement due to uncertainty, but I doubt there’s much of that. Few organizations will invest the huge fixed cost to migrate when Oracle has announced their product roadmap.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Workday.com - Hidden truths and everything else I know

So I've been following Dave Duffield for a while now, but have not written about him in some time. For those of you who do not know of Dave, he's the founder of PeopleSoft and has launched a new venture. He also has an incredibly loyal following among other software CEO's, but I'll talk more about that in a minute.

Here's what's going on that I can tell:

  • About 2 years ago, a couple of guys split from PeopleSoft to form a mid-market venture. The software they were producing would be an ASP ERP only. This company was called NetYourWork.com. NetYourWork.com is ready for release for Financials (mostly AP and Purchasing). From various sources, it seems that Dave may have seen the Oracle writing on the wall. He was already heading towards doing an ASP ERP as the future of PeopleSoft, but seeing a possible acquisition attempt, he may have wanted to keep this venture under his control. Therefore he spun it off.
  • Dave announces "DavesNextMove.com" at IHRIM.
  • DavesNextMove.com acquires NetYourWork.com
  • DavesNextMove.com re-brands as WorkDay.com
  • WorkDay.com is looking for a general release of initial software in Spring 2005. I think they will try and launch in Spring of 2006 at IHRIM. WorkDay will not have payroll in the first release. Some HR functionality should be available. However, the market will be primarily for financials first.


The business model will be Salesforce.com (CRM). They will start as a hosted (ASP) only to the small market (1000 to 5000 employees). However, as Salesforce has grown to some very large accounts, WorkDay will look to do the same.


I’m guessing that it will be about 5 years before WorkDay gets to that kind of market penetration. However, there are exPeopleSoft employees standing in line to go back to work for Dave.


Dave has an incredible network of software CEO’s that are committed to his success. He has an abundance of potential partnerships that he can use to hook up ancilliary software modules to WorkDay. Look for my next post when I’ll project what ERP’s look like in 5 years.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

2006 Technoloy Outlook

HR.com has a new HR Technology Outlook for 2006. As usual, I don't completely agree with their outlook. My responses in blue. It's an interesting article though.

1. HR technology software applications will continue to increase in functionality. Applications must address the changing demographics and needs of the aging workforce and the global workforce.
I actually don't see HR applications addressing this to a large extent. I do see employers becoming smarter about this topic.

2. Vendors who were in “best of breed” or application “niches” will seek to expand their offerings.
Yes - this is a current trend and will continue. The "talent" suite will get better and continue to expand.

3. Mid Market organizations will be a major target of all vendors including the traditional ERP vendors who will down market, and best of breed vendors who will seek to offer new one-stop bundled solutions.
The traditional ERP's (Oracle and SAP) will not be looking down market. SAP will not care to compete for the mid HR market, and Oracle is biding it's time until Fusion comes out. If you consider Lawson a real ERP vendor in the upper end market, then you're nicer than I am. The major HRO organizations however will be looking at mid market organizations (5-10K employees).

4. HRO as a strategy will continue in its wide acceptance, now considered a mainstream approach with clear cost benefits.
The clear cost benefits part is questionable, but over the next couple of years, HRO vendors will provide opportunities to significantly lower process costs. I think the cost benefits will be clearer in 2007.

5. HRO vendor activity such as mergers and acquisitions will level off or cease in 2006. Alliances between multiple providers, though, will continue.
There are simply too many HRO vendors. 2006 and 2007 will be major years for HRO consolidation. Profits are not stable yet and processing efficiencies have not been perfected. Until this happens, and only a few major vendors remain, the market cannot sustain having a dozen major players.

6. Organizations will increase their HR Technology spend budget for 2006/7.
Yes - this is a current trend and will continue.

7. HR executives will firmly grasp the need for performance metrics and other measurements to preserve their worth and to gain credence as a strategic business partner in organizations. Driven by that desire, HR executives will seek software applications that make such metrics user friendly and easy to calculate and present.
Yes - this is a current trend and will continue.

8. Off shore deals by companies headquartered in American companies will be limited and possibly legislated against at the state level. Although mostly pertaining to IT support, HRO with off shore support will not be readily accepted by American workers.
This is very debatable. Offshoring is already widely accepted for ITO, call center support, and HRO by the public. This trend will continue to grow.

9. Privacy and Internet communications standards such as XML consortium standards will continue to be issues and will be embraced by more organizations, especially those in a global marketplace with global structures.
Technology providers will continue embracing open web standards. This is not new.

10. “Web Services” as the next new thing or wave in technology and service delivery will emerge and make a very visible initial impact on HR software delivery.
Web services is the current wave in HR service delivery. It's been in process for several years. Employers will continue to become more strategic over the use of communication tools including the web.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

And Kenexa too

This is more of a surprise than Authoria (last post before this). Kenexa was voted the top RPO. While I'm not sure who the competition was, I'm betting it includes the likes of Brassring and Recruitmax. Kenexa has not (to me) shown a great depth in product functionality, breadth in their product suite, or the marketing capability and penetration into the Fortune 1000 as Authoria has. I think other vendors have put all the components of Talent Management better than Kenexa has.

My top picks for Talent Management suites are still Recruitmax and Authoria.

Authoria is Kicking Some A$$!!!

I've written a lot about talent management suites and vendors in the past. However, Authoria has grown over the last few years from being the leader in knowledgebase applications to being a clear leader in overall talent management. With a clear market penetration into the Fortune 1000, great strategic partnerships with HRMS vendors and consultants, and a product that sizzles, Authoria is poised to become the TM suite to beat.

Authoria on Demand is driving new business and even though this article states over half of their business is driving from AOD, they are projecting that over 2/3rds of future sales will be on AOD. Combine this with startling growth and Authoria is in a healthy place to leverage their amazing investment in product.