The HR Technology Conference is the one event every year I really look forward to attending.  It is the only event where you can spend time with vendor executives and understand where they are going, catch-up with clients to hear how they are progressing their HR strategy, and listen to companies and discuss what they need to evolve their strategy.

In summarizing many of those conversations, a couple of key themes seem to resonate this year...

1. Still lots of talk and little action in enterprise collaboration.  The market still seems conflicted between the the "cool" factor of new technologies and risk concerns of rogue employees.  Instead the discussion should be about the value, benefits and impact of social-based collaboration.  HR is not taking advantage of the opportunity to lead this new era of collaboration within their organization.  Jason Averbook, in the Great Debate session with Jim Holincheck, described "social" as a solution looking for a problem.  Three challenges are creating a stand-still for most organizations today: 1) the HR audience, who tend to be more followers than leaders, 2) the lack of technology that blends talent management process with collaboration, and 3) the use of the word "social" that tends to make most executives think "Facebook" and loss of productivity.  It is nice to see vendors like Rypple and Saba who are creating new innovation, blending talent management needs with real-time collaboration. Today, their are very few case studies and those that tend to have impactful stories are keeping them tight-lipped.  At our KI Fall Executive Forum just prior to the conference, Polly Pearson, formerly of EMC, shared the amazing things EMC is doing to move the needle through the use of collaborative technologies, framed all around "R.A.P" (revenue, admiration and profits).  Other companies like Best Buy and Target are doing some amazing things tying collaboration to the business initiatives.  These stories need to get out for enterprise collaboration to progress from "cool" to "impactful". 
   
2. The buzz around workforce planning.  Workforce planning isn't necessarily new but the demand for what it needs to be is growing.  There is not a company I don't talk to today that's NOT talking about workforce planning.  That was also the case at the conference.  Most companies still don't know, though, how to get started.  Workforce planning is complex and requires solid workforce reporting (where you've been) combined with planning and simulation (where you want to be incorporating flexibility for multiple scenarios).  Workforce planning has reached a new level of demand because CEOs now realize and demand a new level of flexibility with their workforce.  The constant pace of organizational redesign and the renewed focus on growth demands companies need to know where their talent resides, where they have gaps, how the can quickly assemble and dis-assemble teams quickly and the real-time value of increases and decreases in workforce decisions.
   
3. Talent management going from 1st generation to 2nd generation.  Talent management is quickly going into its next evolution, from transactional systems to interactional decision support tools.  Many companies are discussing how they can shrink their "portfolio" of applications while saving cost and unifying process leveraging a common process and user experience.  As talent management goes into its next generation, the vendor landscape is also changing dramatically and the importance to make sound business decisions, and not just focused on feature/function, is more important than ever.
   
4. The emergence of "mobile". Although I was a little underwhelmed that more vendors are not doing anything in mobile, those that are investing in mobile technologies are creating some unique distinction.  Vendors such as SuccessFactors (via their Cubetree acquisition), Workday and even ADP (yes, ADP, although it is not available just yet) have creating some amazing mobile applications that simplify the user experience while creating a new level of engagement.
   

Of course any conference note wouldn't be worthy without mentioning Sonar6.  The creativity of their booth (a cardboard box) and t-shirts is only matched by the uniqueness of their talent management applications.  I continue to enjoy how they think out of the box.

I am already looking forward to next year's conference!