The Puzzling World of HR Technology

It has been a very active couple of weeks in the acquisition market for HR systems.  This has sparked many discussions and conjecture within the HR systems industry on how these acquisitions will effect the future of the HR systems market.  While much has been discussed, it is still too early to fully know the impact to the final look and feel of the product.  What appears is that the major ERP players are moving into Software as a Service (SaaS) and, as predicted, there will continue to be consolidation in the HR systems market.

Every time there is a major merger or acquisition announcement, I continue to get calls and emails from HR professionals asking about how these changes will impact their system.  Even if you are not a client of the acquired vendor, the acquisition can impact your currently used technology.  The acquisition could have a profound change in the direction of the specific genre of software or it could result in an entirely new product being developed which will scientifically change the way HR technology is used.  The one thing that is certain, the changes we have seen will continue to occur.

To better prepare yourself for changes in the market, it is very important you have a full understanding of the technology you are using and what are the plans to interconnect the technology.  If you have not created a HCM technology strategy, now is the time to consider the undertaking.  If you do have a strategy, you may want to revisit your original assumptions during the creation to assure that your plan is still viable.  I realize that undertaking such an exercise in a time of smaller staffs can be difficult, but the payback with a solid strategy can help avoid any costly mistakes.

When updating any strategy it is best to get input from system experts.  This can come from organizations such as IHRIM or from reliable consulting firms such as HRchitect.  The knowledge you can obtain from outside resources can eliminate hours of research for you.  When updating your plans to address changes in the HCM technology future, consider using outside resources.  You will save time and update your plan to include the impacts of the recent software mergers and acquisitions.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.