Look, Learn and Listen!!

This morning we hear news of Taleo acquiring Vurv to create a combined company that will continue to be a major player in the talent management technology space now and into the future. This is a good move for the industry when it comes to innovation and customer satisfaction as we continue to watch vendors focus on "what is in the best interest of the customer - now and into the future."

Knowledge Infusion has many, many clients that have either Taleo or Vurv or both. This posting is directed at them but even more directed to the entire market at large. While market consolidation drives many acquisitions, this acquisition has the potential to create the worlds largest (if not already - depending on definition) and best talent management vendor in the space. What does this mean to you?

• The combined company will have greater strengths than each of the companies standing on their own. This means that if you are a Taleo customer or a Vurv customer / or prospect; in the long term you will see great benefit from this move.

• An acquisition of this size takes time to happen, think through, and create a unified set of products and services to take to market. Taleo has an excellent leadership team to make this happen, and we expect nothing less from them into the near future.

• The products that you are already using will not change anytime soon. What this means is "DON'T PANIC" and start a bunch of vendor evaluations to leave the combined company. You are part of a new family and it will take a few months before you start to hear and see the combined synergies of the companies either become very positive or not to your liking. Either way, it is WAY TOO early to do anything such as think of switching vendors. That hurts our market and reputation as HR professionals more then anything.

• The talent management marketplace is still VERY new in the world. There will be more consolidations such as this and many more new entrants into the space. What is important is that you look back TODAY at your HR and Talent Management technology strategy and realize that if created correctly, this move has zero impact and could in the long term have very positive impacts on truly being able to measure the value of human capital in your organization.

Nonetheless, acquisitions cause turmoil in the short term. From a Knowledge Infusion standpoint, we are here to help you understand the market, the choices and how to make the best choice for your organization long-term. If you have specific questions or just want to talk through the issues, please do not hesitate to call me directly and I will make sure you are directed to someone who can Look, Learn and Listen AND THEN help you make strategic, long term decisions and not short term, tactical decisions.

Jason Averbook (jason.averbook@knowledge-infusion.com)

Chief Executive Officer, Knowledge Infusion, (925-922-2266)

Another infusion of knowledge...

Computerworld does a great job of talking with a Software as a Service (SaaS) expert from Saugatuck Technology Inc and the things that all enterprises need to be thinking about when looking and deploying SaaS solutions.

On a daily basis, Knowledge Infusion is working with clients to help them understand this evolving market and what organizations need to be thinking about before entering and during deployment of these types of solutions. The nine things that this article highlights and some Knowledge Infusion comments are:

1. What is Saas? - Read this carefully and do not let vendors try to confuse OnDemand or ASP with Software as a Service. Organizations such as Workday and SuccessFactors to name a few are doing this right today in the human capital management and talent management markets.

2. What about security? - Take time to really understand how secure your data is. The vendors in this space make your data much more secure in their world then it would be stored at your site.

3. How do SaaS vendors charge?- This is very important to take time to understand, especially in the HR space. Many people have said to us, "The software would be more than what we paid for PeopleSoft or SAP!!". The thing they are forgetting is how much they have paid in the past for support. You have to look at this as a TCO argument.

4. What kinds of services do SaaS vendors provide? - Once again, very important to understand in this space. If you are used to x level support from your ERP provider, you are going to get Y level support from the SaaS vendor. Not necessarily good or bad, just different. You are also not implementing, but deploying which changes the types of support and services you need as well.

5. Is SaaS only for small and medium businesses or will it work in our enterprise? - SaaS solutions are proving with the right planning upfront to work in any size enterprise. The PLANNING piece is critical. You have to look at your processes and understand how the SaaS vendors solution fits into your enterprise process flow.

6. How mature are SaaS services? - Not very mature and rapidly growing up. Depends on the vendor and talk to references.

7. How mature is the SaaS market? - See response to number 6

8. Is SaaS more than a flash in the pan? - We believe this is the right solution for many organizations, not all, but many and depending on factors such as, may be the future for your organization with PLANNING.

1. What is your ERP?

2. What is your BI strategy?

3. What is your global strategy?

9. What involvement should the service users have with the vendor once contract is signed? - ALOT. This market is in constant BETA mode and things that you need in your solution are being added daily. Your feedback is so important and it is important to give it early and often.

It is a very exciting time in this space as vendors continue to shift towards this model. We will continue to see talent management vendors such as Taleo, Vurv, Authoria, Plateau, Saba, SumTotal, Halogen, Cornerstone OnDemand, Workscape and others continue to enhance or deploy their SaaS solutions over the next 12 months. Also, dont be suprised to see Oracle, SAP and Lawson continue to get MUCH better in this space. Learn about the market now, stay tuned - much more to come!!

Another infusion of knowledge...

Link to Computerworld Article

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