The Puzzling World of HR Technology

Matt Lafata -  President

Matt has over 18 years in the HR industry and has been with HRchitect since 2004. As President, he oversees all aspects of HRchitect including worldwide sales of HRchitect services, marketing, customer success, partnerships, consulting, finance, and corporate development.

As one of the industry’s leading thought leaders and analysts on Human Capital Management (HCM) Systems and Vendors, Matt extensively studies the HCM market place and talks to leading vendors on a regular basis to stay on top of trends in this industry. Matt has moderated numerous HCM shootouts and panel discussions for software vendors and HR organizations such as IHRIM. He has also been a featured speaker on HCM solutions and workforce trends at various industry and vendor conferences.

Matt is additionally tasked with ensuring that HRchitect maintains the strongest of commitments to the HCM technology vendor community. This includes attending vendor user conferences and analyst days, blogging and tweeting about vendor related news, strategizing on joint business opportunities, speaking to sales groups, conducting joint presentations, and more.

Matt is also the host of the industry’s most popular live Internet show, the HRchitect HR Technology Happy Hour WebMingle™.

Matt is also a former two-term City Council member in Frisco, Texas, the second fastest growing city in the U.S., a 2005 recipient of the “21 Leaders of the 21st Century” by Inside Collin County Business, a former chairman of the Frisco Chamber of Commerce business networking events, as well as being involved in many other community organizations. In 2011, HR Examiner named Matt one of the Top 25 Online Influencers in several categories: #10 in Recruiting, #5 in Talent Management, and #3 in Digital Influencers.

Matt studied finance and business management at Salem State College in Salem, Massachusetts.

Email:  mlafata@HRchitect.com

Tiffany Appleby -  Vice President,  Marketing & Strategic Alliances

Tiffany Appleby came to HRchitect in early 2008 and currently serves as Vice President of Marketing & Strategic Alliances.  In her role, she is responsible for overseeing and executing HRchitect’s marketing efforts along with building and maintaining relationships with strategic partners in the industry.

Marketing initiatives under her direction have included educational events such as the Brainery of HRtechnology webinar series, the now famous Beauty Pageant and IRONMAN webinar series, HRtechnology Happy Hour WebMingle, The HR Authority newsletter and the HRtechnology Market Minute. Tiffany also works with HR technology vendors on joint marketing initiatives including webinars, guest appearances on the WebMingle and regional educational networking events. Tiffany’s favorite part of her job is attending industry conferences where she has the opportunity to learn about the HR technology marketplace as well as meet current and future HRchitect clients and partners.

Tiffany was recently named to the inaugural class of the Collin County 40 Under 40 list, which recognizes outstanding executives and entrepreneurs under the age of 40 who help structure the community with the professional success and dedicated involvement in Collin County.

John Hinojos – Vice President, Consulting Services

John Hinojos, Vice President of Consulting Services, is responsible for leading and building HRchitect’s consulting services operation. He joined HRchitect in 2000 and has over 25 years of Human Resource and HRMS experience with more than a decade at a senior level. His primary areas of expertise include Human Capital Management systems such as core HR, Employee Performance Management and Talent Management Systems. He also facilitates Strategic Planning sessions and assists with the HR and Payroll systems impact of Mergers and Acquisitions.

John has co-developed and teaches Introduction to HR Systems, Successful HR Systems Selection, and Fundamentals of Project Management certification courses for the International Association for Human Resource Information Management (IHRIM) and Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). He has been a frequent speaker at industry events on human capital management software evaluation, selection and implementation.  Currently, John serves as the President of the HRIM Foundation which is an independent, charitable organization.

Prior to joining HRchitect, John served as President of Triangle Business Solutions, an HRIS consulting firm in San Diego. He has also held HR and HR systems management positions at several Fortune 500 organizations including W.R. Grace and The Seven-Up Company. John is a founding member of the International Association for Human Resource Information Management (IHRIM) and served on the IHRIM International Board of Directors in various positions, including Vice Chair, from 1989 to 1997. He is the president of the Pacific Southwest Chapter of IHRIM and the founding editor of The Review, HRSP’s magazine which was the predecessor to the IHRIM.Link. He also chaired the 2001 IHRIM national conference and won the 2001 Summit Award. John holds a BA degree in Public Relations from California State University – Fresno.

Brian Kimball - Vice President, Talent Management Systems Consulting Services

Brian has over eighteen years of expertise in the human resources domain, including over ten years in systems development and implementation experience. He is qualified in all major aspects of HR systems product development, marketing, sales, implementation and support in complex markets, with a thorough understanding of the central business issues driving the HRMS, ERP and E-commerce industries. Over the years, Brian has led the implementation of client/server HRMS solutions, provided extensive training and adoption services to numerous clients, participated in vendor evaluations and selections, as well as implemented numerous ASP solutions. He is well versed in all aspects of the HR domain, including applicant tracking and workforce planning, and the related technologies. Brian has the background and experience to assume account management, project management, and functional leadership roles on any Human Resource Management System project.

During his tenure at HRchitect, Brian has had project management, functional consulting and training responsibilities in over 50 separate applicant tracking system evaluations and implementations. Brian’s extensive experience includes Taleo, Vurv, Icarian, Kenexa/BrassRing, Deploy, First Advantage, and PeopleclickAuthoria Applicant Tracking Systems.

Having worked with companies across North America (including many global organizations), Brian is experienced in the pitfalls associated with managing applicant tracking system implementations. This includes defining project plans, defining client requirements and differentiating between mandatory versus optional functional requirements, controlling scope creep and other fundamental issues required for a successful implementation.

Brian’s expertise in managing and implementing applicant tracking solutions has resulted in several speaking engagements on how to successfully manage applicant tracking system projects. He has published several articles on the applicant tracking industry in the IHRIM Journal and the IHRIM.link.

Jacqueline Kuhn – Vice President, HCM Consulting Services

Jacqueline is an HR professional with over 20 years’ experience in Strategic Planning, Systems Management, Project Management, Services Delivery and General Human Resources.  Throughout Jacqueline’s career, she has worked with organizations such as, Sears, Beam, Osh Kosh and Johns Hopkins to create strategic plans around their Human Capital Management systems, as well as leading selection and implementation projects for Talent Management, Talent Acquisition and HRIS systems.

In her role at HRchitect, she oversees strategic planning and talent management systems evaluation and selection projects to help ensure that HRchitect stays the leader in these critical areas for many of today’s leading organizations.  Jacqueline is a Certified Professional of Human Resource Information (HRIP) and works extensively with IHRIM.  She also served as President of the HRIM Foundation and developed educational courses on HR technology use and best practices.

Stefanie Baker – Senior Implementation Consultant

Stefanie Baker has more than 15 years of software   implementation and practical experience in the Human Capital Management industry.  Her areas of expertise in the HCM market include HRIS, Payroll, Workforce Management, Learning Management and Analytics. She has provided consulting services for numerous organizations including PwC, Talbots, YMCA, Carnegie Museum, nTelos, and US Chamber of Commerce.

Prior to joining HRchitect Stefanie worked at Ceridian where she led a transnational team in launching a new integrated Payroll/Workforce Management application.  As part of the deployment effort she authored dozens of reference and marketing materials, developed an internal configuration training program, and managed US and Canadian product roadmaps.

Stefanie has presented at a variety professional conferences and led numerous industry forums and discussions.  She is a member of the APA and SHRM and has earned professional certificates from both organizations.

Stefanie holds a BA from George Washington University and a MBA from Penn State.