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Great article from InformationWeek yesterday discussing the changed world of technology.  For all of us in the HR technology space including HCM, Talent Management, HRMS and Business/Workforce Intelligence - take a read; this market is here to stay and our focus should shift from not if but READINESS around preparing our organizations, workforces and data for the next wave of innovation.  A few excerpts:

[SAP|http://www.informationweek.com/#] will be forced to cannibalize its own customers by offering new software that is delivered over the Web as it adapts to a world irrevocably changed by Google, SAP's chairman said.

• Plattner said search engine [Google|http://www.informationweek.com/#] had changed the game by achieving something he had thought impossible a decade ago in delivering what users want over the Web without needing to customize its offering. * "Google has changed the world, and we all have to learn, and if we don't learn quickly enough and redesign our thinking ... then we might not be as successful as we were in the past." * Plattner railed against software designed by blinkered engineers without consideration for the people who would have to use it -- as he said most business software is. * SAP now recognizes that good design runs deeper than appearance, he said. "Design is not putting lipstick on a pig. Design is not just how things look and feel. Design is how things work," he said.

Take a read, as one of the largest software vendors in the world, these are powerful statements for all of us to read and understand.  Vendors in the HCM space such as Workday and Successfactors have been touting this for the past year, look for many more to continue to architect their solutions in this manner.  What should you do?

1. Understand the impact to your existing investment in ERP solutions # Learn about Web Services and Web 2.0 technology # Think INTEGRATION not INTERFACE # Think CONFIGURATION not CUSTOMIZATION # Know and CLEAN UP your existing data # Learn about your users and the demographic of the future

Take a read.  We work with clients, such as a education session today in Atlanta, on this topic and how to prepare for the future.

Another infusion of knowledge...

Link to Article

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Great article from the Healthcare Financial Management Association on the impact of Talent Management in HCO's.  As we at Knowledge Infusion work with more and more HCO's, talent is a true CRISIS in these organizations and a focus on Talent Management NOW is an imperative.  This will effect all of us and our families in the upcoming years, and is one of the reasons that KI feels so strongly about making a difference in this area.

A few excerpts:

• With most hospitals and other HCOs barely able to keep enough staff to meet quality standards, and often having to rely on involuntary overtime even to do that, the challenge of attracting, motivating, and retaining employees has never been greater. The concept of ���talent management,��� i.e. identifying, attracting, managing, motivating and retaining truly talented individuals, in contrast to merely adequate staff, may seem far beyond what job market and revenue realities permit. * HCOs that can succeed in boosting the talent levels, as well as sheer numbers of staff they have compared to what they need, will enjoy significant advantages in their market. * When HCOs are paid on the basis of explicit measures of structure, process, outcomes, or value, it makes sense for them to measure their talent in precisely the same terms as it is being paid. And once measured, it makes sense for them to pay their talent based on the same measures. * One classic example of this effect occurred in the first year that one firm switched from a normally distributed hourly wage compensation system to one based on objectively measured productivity. The major direct result was a 44% improvement in productivity at the cost of only a 10% increase in compensation. But perhaps an even better result was the reduction in turnover by 21% among those rated as high-performers, while turnover among those rated average or low performers increased by over 10%. E. Lazar ���Performance Pay and Productivity��� American Economic Review 190:5 Dec 2000 1346-1361

Share your healthcare TALENT experiences.  Good experiences?  Age of caregivers?

Another infusion of knowledge...

Link to Article

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Software as a Service (SaaS) is something that we are working with organizations with on a daily basis.  We have even created workshops to specifically READY organizations for deployment of SaaS HRMS, HCM and Talent Management solutions.  See the link below to a great article from CIO Magazine in June that discusses SaaS in more detail.  A few takeaways from the Infuser:

• "So far, the SaaS phenomenon has been largely confined to smaller companies." - AMR Research; *WE ARE KNOWLEDGE INFUSION ARE CONTINUING TO SE ORGANIZATIONS 5000 EMPLOYEES (USERS OF THESE SYSTEMS) AND ABOVE LEVERAGING SaaS SOLUTIONS TO MEET THEIR NEEDS.  WE SEE THIS CONCEPT OF SMALL COMPANY ONLY CHANGING VERY RAPIDLY.</str </p>

• "Don't expect something unique" - Customer Quote; THIS IS NOT NECESSARILY A BAD THING.  WE ARE WORKING WITH ORGANIZATIONS ON A DAILY BASIS TO ENCOURAGE THEM TO TRANSFORM THEIR BUSINESS PROCESSES TO MEET THE SaaS VENDOR REQUIREMENTS.  IN MANY CASES, THE WORLD OF HR AND TALENT TECHNOLOGY NEEDS STREAMLINING AND SaaS SOLUTIONS ARE A GOOD ANTIDOTE TO THAT.*  

• "Some vendors are relabeling as SaaS more traditional application outsourcing approaches and that runs the risk of antagonizing and confusing buyers - Gartner; WE COULDNT AGREE WITH THIS MORE AND IT IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS A SaaS SOLUTION AND WHAT IS NOT.  A SIMPLE CHECKLIST:

• One code base for the software*** Used by all customers*** Multi-tenant architecture*** Software configurable by user*** Code is the same and NOT customizable*** Any enhancements for one customer become available to all customers*** Underlying data model not customizable** Where SaaS makes sense:

• Faster deployment times*** Lack of upfront license and infrastructure costs*** Need the ability to address vanilla business processes to resources can be used to focus on organizational core competencies** Where SaaS DOESNT make sense:

• If applications touch upon the core of the enterprise, SaaS should be approached cautiously.*** These processes usually differentiate one company from another and SaaS does not allow for that.  WE WOULD ARGUE THAT SO FEW COMPANIES ARE DOING TALENT MANAGEMENT WELL TODAY THAT THIS IS NOT AS LARGE OF AN ISSUE, BUT WILL BE INTO THE FUTURE.*** If function that is being automated is SO mission critical that business will be shut down, SaaS might not make the most sense.*** If REAL-TIME integration is needed, SaaS might not be best fit.* Use this blog entry as a discussion point in your organization around the vendors you are considering.  There are strengths and weaknesses to each approach and the next years (to 2010) will truly change the HR technology landscape forever. 
  
  
  SaaS isn't for everyone, but understand today what these applications can do to help MOVE THE HR STRATEGIC NEEDLE that you might not be able to do based on IT resources or funding.  At the same time, YOU NEED A PLAN AND ROADMAP for deployment because without, the integration and deployment efforts will delay and possible block your ability to realize any efficiency and possibly move you backwards in creating the business buy in to important HR initiatives.
  
  Link to CIO article
  Another infusion of knowledge...

A bit of humor and fun for a Thursday.  Have a great day from the Infuser.  When rolling out your HRMS, Talent Management technology initiatives, don't forget the audience demographic!!

<div class="wlWriterSmartContent" id="53357c8b-5919-4e32-8c25-305d27c17a37:7c4cb608-1887-4580-9624-e4c7f2b2edd1" contenteditable="false" style="padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; width: 241px; padding-top: 0px">[YouTube - The Zimmers "My Generation" Released: 28/05/07|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqfFrCUrEbY]</div>

Another infusion of knowledge...??

The Human Capitalist had a posting this morning that prompted a response based on some of the client work that we have been doing in the field as well as past experience.

This posting is thanks to Neil Jensen - mailto:neil.jensen@knowledge-infusion.com, Principal Consultant, Knowledge Infusion

SuccessFactors sure does have a lot going for it. They really bring that WOW factor when they demo the software and talk about their business model.  When I evaluated them last year as part of Talent Suite vendor analysis for my former employer, it gave me warm and fuzzy feelings when they talked about integration built from the ground up and also their practices of extreme programming with updates every 30 days.  We were in the market for the full suite of talent products that included recruiting, performance, succession, compensation, and communications.

They provided stiff competition for all other vendors competing for our business.  However, As Capitalist points out, the ���hottest��� vendor may not be the ���best fit��� vendor for every company conducting a vendor evaluation.  In the end, SuccessFactors came in  second because they lacked key functionality in the merit planning and variable pay modules as well as robust functionality in recruiting.  Equity wasn���t even a prototype they could demonstrate at the time.

When you pull back the covers on SuccessFactors, you���ll find that they are a company built from the ground up on Performance Management and Succession Planning.  Not until roughly a little over a year ago did they venture into the compensation space with recruiting coming a few months after that.  While they do offer these modules today, they are still somewhat immature.  Not to say that the functionality they have is worthless, but it isn���t as mature as some of their competitors who went down the acquisition route vs. the build it route.

As you focus on the vendor evaluation for your talent management initiative, be sure to focus on process, requirements, and the business outcomes you are trying to produce.  Also, don���t ignore how the product will fit into your unique environment and how your existing HRMS might fit many of the requirements you are looking for.  

As you evaluate, consider the heritage of the company you plan to do business with and understand where their strengths and shortcomings fall.  Had our evaluation been limited to Performance Management and Succession Planning, SuccessFactors would have won hands down.  Given the need for the full suite, we went with another ���best fit��� vendor.  

Another infusion of knowledge���

WE CALL IT DEPLOYMENT EXCELLENCE!!

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Example from one of our clients that I visited mid last week.  This was the T-shirt the Director of Learning Technologies was wearing as I entered the building.

At lunch, they had an overview of their learning function and how they are an employer taking care of the future of their company by training and developing their workforce.

We do many Deployment Excellence (or change management) projects for clients to insure their technology deployments are a success.  Remember, the technology piece is only 20% of a successful deployment.

Many deployments of employee and manager self-service call themselves that (WE USE THE TERM DIRECT ACCESS).  Many deployments use the system name like SAP vs. using a name that means something to the employee.   Many deployments use different sign ins and different portions of intranets to launch transactions.  Many deployments have been done without any AUDIENCE ANALYSIS.

Drop us an email at mailto:info@knowledge-infusion.com for examples of work we have done to insure deployments occur the way you sell them inside your organization.

Another infusion of knowledge..

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This years IHRIM event in Houston was a great conference and as I heard yesterday from a participant that was there:

"This was one of the better IHRIM conferences I have been to in the last 5 years"

It is great to see the organization making a contribution to the space.  Knowledge Infusion also earned the 2007 IHRIM Partners Award and on behalf of everyone at KI and our clients and prospects, thank you IHRIM for recognizing the impact we are making in the industry on a daily basis.

Click on the link below to read Bill Kutik's recap of the event; his column on HRE online is always full of great information, and also at least one chuckle.

Read Bill Kutik's Column