The Puzzling World of HR Technology

One of the many things that I enjoy about my job is attending HCM vendor Analyst Days. As an organization, we consider ourselves to be the leaders in HCM Systems Consulting services, and in order to maintain that position, we also function as industry analysts.  This allows us to stay on top of what the vendors in this marketplace are doing today…and where they are going in the future.

For those of you not familiar with Saba, this is directly from their web site:

“Saba enables organizations to transform the way they work by leveraging social networking capabilities and the ubiquity of mobile to empower an organization’s most mission-critical assets – its people. The company provides a set of people-centric enterprise solutions to various businesses and industries worldwide. Saba delivers cloud-based learning management, talent management and social enterprise solutions to transform the way people work.”

Many members of the HCM Analyst community recently gathered in San Francisco for the Saba Analyst Day on March 5th, 2013. For starters, kudos to Michael Zeglin, Sr. Director of Corporate Communications for Saba for doing an excellent job in “managing” the day.  Since the Analyst Day coincided with the annual Global Summit for Saba, it was very nicely organized where we were able to be part of the morning keynote and general sessions before breaking off into analyst day activities.

Some people may wonder what goes on during an “Analyst Day”.  There are some things that can’t be revealed but rest assured, no animals were sacrificed or even hurt during the process.

Saba is an interesting organization that has been really trying to figure out exactly who they are.  They have historically been known as a very strong Learning Management vendor, targeting larger organizations with complex needs.  But Saba has been transforming itself over the past few years by embracing social networking capabilities and parts of the broader talent management spectrum.  And of course most recently their founder and CEO, Bobby Yazdani, stepped down to allow a “new generation of leadership” take Saba into the future.

I have been impressed with the Saba People Cloud and the latest announcements have further solidified that. As described by Saba, it is “an innovative, cloud-based service featuring fully integrated and robust enterprise learning and talent processes with social, mobile and collaboration capabilities, all in a single environment.”

Some additional quick notes:

•        More than 750 of Saba’s 2000 customers are on the SaaS platform

•        Emphasis on context-based learning where learning becomes learner-centric as opposed to classroom-centric as well as continuous learning to keep learners engaged throughout the entire cycle

•        All Saba product lines are in a high innovation phases

•        Saba People Cloud is next generation people development platform and will be the focus of innovation moving forward. It is designed to be people-centric and workforce expectations and business climate expect this.

•        Social is becoming an impactful part of talent management – the Saba social capabilities have been built into the platform, not bolt-on like some other vendors in the space.

We, at HRchitect, are very bullish around Saba’s future and continue to look to them as one of the strongest all around Learning-based Talent Management vendors in the marketplace today.  Be sure to stay tuned to the HRtechnology Vendor News blog for announcements and updates from Saba.

I’d like to thank Saba for the invite and congratulate them on what appeared to be a wonderful customer conference all the way around. The customer appreciation party at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art was a fun event as well.

Lastly, just a reminder to the HCM vendor community at large to be sure to invite us to your events so that we can continue to keep our customers and the marketplace apprised of your activities and innovations.

For more information on Saba, please visit www.saba.com

To learn more about HRchitect and how we can help your organization, please visit www.HRchitect.com. HRchitect is the leader in HR systems strategic consulting.  As the premier Human Capital Management (HCM) Systems consulting firm, we offer end-to-end HR technology consulting services focused around strategic planning, evaluation/selection, project management and implementation of HR systems, Talent Management Systems, Talent Acquisition Systems, and Workforce Management software. After more than 16 years in business working on over 2000 successful engagements for more than 900 clients across the globe, HRchitect is a name you can trust as your one-stop shop for all your HR technology consulting needs.

Matt Lafata, HRchitect