Monday, December 19, 2005

TAS Vendor Scorecard

Well, I've done talent management scorecards a few times, but never talent acquisition. This is not really a scorecard or vendor functionality comparison. Here are my top 4 vendors and a few notes about them. This is not a review of functionality, just a purely subjective view on who I like and why.

Taleo and Virtual Edge were really a tie with Taleo coming in stronger on the app side, but I'm more excited about watching Virtual Edge right now. Taleo has a slight margin on the functionality side with absurd amounts of flexibility for the end users (managers and recruiters). Virtual Edge is much better in technology architecture. Basically this means easier deployment of web services and accessible API's (if that means anything to you). We'll see if Taleo can pull through some promised technology in their next release. If they don't VE will easily dominate the market - not having web services in 2005 is sinful. Not having it in 2006 is unforgivable.

1) Taleo: Slowed down their R&D processes while preparing for IPO. Still the leader with Virtual Edge creeping up.

1) Virtual Edge: Good technology creeping up on Taleo. This is probably the company to watch and is really the biggest competition for Taleo in the near future.

3) RecruitMax: Poor infrastructure. Installations for each client are separate instances. This is very difficult to manage and support for upgrades and service. Next release of software is supposed to support multi-tenet architecture

4) Brassring: Starting to become a serious mid market play. They are not driving in toward the large employer space. Could not capitalize on early market excitement.