Category: HR Technology

Time to Reduce Costs in Corporate Learning & Development

Time to Reduce Costs in Corporate Learning & Development

Our soon to be published research on corporate L&D spending in 2008 shows a definite slowdown in spending on corporate training.  (An 11% drop!)  This is certainly not a surprise – in August our research panel shows that today’s corporate talent managers cite “a need to reduce costs” as their #1 business challenge (54% of ... Read more»

Where is the Market for HR Software?

Where is the Market for HR Software?

One of the things we regularly do as an analyst firm is estimate the size and growth rate of various corporate software markets.  Without giving away our proprietary methodology, I’d like to point out something which should make software providers think twice about their business strategy.

In the United States, only 38% of all employees ... Read more»

SaaS will never Kill Licensed Software

SaaS will never Kill Licensed Software

I have to smile.  Today I read an interview with Harry Debes, the CEO of Lawson Software, discussing why he thinks the SaaS (Software as a Service) model will fade and die.  While I dont agree 100% with his discussion, I do agree with much of what he has to say.

I also have lived ... Read more»

Your “Incumbent” HR Systems Vendor – What to do?

Your “Incumbent” HR Systems Vendor – What to do?

I just completed a series of interviews with three organizations going through the important, challenging, and time consuming process of implementing a new performance management system.  In each case (a large healthcare provider, a global mining company, and a global call center operations company), the company is using the implementation of a performance management system ... Read more»

Social Networking in Talent Management:  Where are we?

Social Networking in Talent Management: Where are we?

Whew.  Earlier this year we embarked on a major research effort to understand the growing role of social networking in enterprise learning and talent management.  The results are amazing.   Let me give you a brief preview of some of our initial findings:

  1. Organizations are working mightily to figure out how to leverage social networking (blogs,
... Read more»
Talent Management in a Slowdown – Update

Talent Management in a Slowdown – Update

In the last few months we have read more and more about the global economic slowdown.  Jim Cramer, the Wall Street pundit, wrote in today’s New York Magazine, that he has never seen things as dismal as they are on Wall Street.  Today the State of California announced a 5.7% unemployment rate, an increase of ... Read more»

Talent Management in Financial Services – Impact of the Slowdown

Talent Management in Financial Services – Impact of the Slowdown

This week I had a call with five financial services clients to understand the impact of the economic slowdown on their learning, talent, and systems investments.  How are HR, talent strategies, and enterprise learning investments being affected by the credit crunch and slowdown in the US financial system? 

(The clients included companies in banking and ... Read more»

Perspectives on the SuccessFactors and Softscape Lawsuit

Perspectives on the SuccessFactors and Softscape Lawsuit

On March 12, two of the leading talent management software vendors went to war.  SuccessFactors, a leading provider of performance management software,  filed a lawsuit against Softscape, a leading provider of integrated talent management software.

The lawsuit, and continuing press releases, claims that Softscape inappropriately logged into SuccessFactors’ internal systems, distributed false and misleading claims ... Read more»

Performance Management Creates Agility in Copper Mining

Performance Management Creates Agility in Copper Mining

Last week I spoke with some of the business and HR leaders at Freeport McMoRan, one of the nation’s largest producers of copper, gold, and molybdinum.  This company, which recently acquired Phelps Dodge, produces over 4 billion lbs. of copper each year, from its mines in North America, Indonesia, Chile, and Peru.  The company generates ... Read more»

Talent Management Suites:  Research Launched

Talent Management Suites: Research Launched

We just released the largest-ever research study on the market for talent management suites.  This research took place over the last 18 months and is the result of an exhaustive analysis of 20 vendors, 800+ HR managers, and in-depth meetings with more than 50 organizations.  Leighanne Levensaler, our principal analyst in this area, is ... Read more»

SuccessFactors goes Public

SuccessFactors goes Public

Last week was a big week in the world of corporate talent management systems.  SuccessFactors, one of the fastest-growing providers of performance management software, went public.  The initial IPO valued the company at about $500 Million, or close to 9 times sales.  This valuation is very high relative to the other companies in this ... Read more»

Social Networking:  Meet Corporate America

Social Networking: Meet Corporate America

This week I was on a panel at the Oracle Users Group discussing the needs of the multi-generational workforce.  Most of the attendees (HR and training managers) were focused on identifying what their organizations need to do to attract, manage, and integrate younger workers into their organizations.  

Our research clearly shows that the Millenia (20s) ... Read more»

IBM Buys Cognos – What will Happen to HR Analytics

IBM Buys Cognos – What will Happen to HR Analytics

For those of you technical people, read on.  Before I entered the world of training and talent management, I spent almost ten years of my career in the analytics and data warehousing business.  At that time (1980s and early 1990s) the market for “business intelligence” software was wild.  There were dozens of companies selling pc-based ... Read more»

Performance and Recruiting Management Shootout – Who Won?

Performance and Recruiting Management Shootout – Who Won?

Industry’s First Integrated Performance and Recruiting Shootout

This year’s shootout focused on the powerful integration (but not well understood or adopted) between performance management and recruiting including the coveted, and often elusive measure of “quality of hire. Four leading talent management suite vendors were included; Authoria, HRsmart, SuccessFactors, and Vurv had 75 minutes to demonstrate ... Read more»

HR Technology Conference 2007 – A Recap

HR Technology Conference 2007 – A Recap

Leighanne Levensaler and I just finished a week at the HR Technology show in Chicago. This conference represents one of the biggest meetings of HR technologists and HR software vendors each year.  As always, this conference was an opportunity for most of the HR and learning technology providers to announce new products and offerings.

Here ... Read more»