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John Sumser presents the interbiznet Bugler
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interbiznet presents The Bugler
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May 21, 2007
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NEW:
Presentation from John and Bridget Sumser, Rethinking The Workforce is available for download.
Ten Principals for Recruiting An Integenerational Workforce from John Sumser.
Truth, Consequences and Branding
Remember the old story about the
blind wisemen and
the elephant? Recently I was turned on to this parody:
Six Blind Elephants Were discussing what wise
men were like (never having seen one). Failing to agree, they decided
(Read More)
NOTE:
Please send news and events to carrie.baggs at gmail.com for publication in the Bugler.
Special Edition:
Gartner's
MarketScope for Employee Performance Management Software, 2007
Vendor Product/Service Analysis
Authoria
Authoria has very good functionality across performance management, compensation management and succession management. Its solutions have been especially attractive to customers where compensation and pay-for-performance are primary issues. The 2007 release of its solutions have involved replatforming its entire talent management application suite (including recruitment) onto a common Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) platform. The preferred delivery model for Authoria is a hosted solution with subscription pricing. Customers have felt that Authoria is a good partner and works well with them in large, complex implementations. However, Authoria has focused primarily on the North American market and is still building out its multinational capabilities. Customers should expect that this will be a work-in-progress during the next 12 to 18 months. Rating: Positive
Beeline
With its acquisition of Integrated Performance Systems, Beeline has expanded beyond its roots in talent acquisition into a broader talent management application suite. Integrated Performance Systems adds performance management, succession management and learning to the portfolio on a .NET platform delivered primarily through a hosted model (with some on-premise implementations). The iPerform solution has good performance management capabilities. It does not have a formal offering for compensation management, although Beeline has done some work with customers automating the calculation compensation based on performance reviews. For succession management, iPerform has the basics for pool-based and position-based planning, but lacks integrated organizational charting and impact analysis. It is used primarily by domestic U.S. companies. Customers like the integrated nature of Beeline's EPM offerings. Rating: Promising
Cezanne Software
Cezanne and HRM Software signed a definitive merger agreement in February 2006. The merged entity, Cezanne Software, offers an integrated solution for employee performance management, compensation management, succession management and organization charting on a Microsoft-centric technology platform (such as Active Server Pages, COM+, and Oracle or SQL Server relational database management system [RDBMS]) delivered primarily on-premise (although they have a growing number of hosted customers). Cezanne has solid functionality across the board, with strong functionality for goal management and pay-for-performance (including goal-level integration with compensation). In addition, for succession management, the integration with HRCharter from HRM Software provides a strong organization charting tool along with a flexible presentation of succession data. Cezanne is one of the few vendors with more than 100 customers using performance management and succession management. Most of Cezanne's adoption is in Europe. Large, global customers have been particularly impressed with Cezanne's ability and willingness to customize the solution to meet specific needs. Rating: Positive
Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone OnDemand offers an integrated talent management solution encompassing learning, performance management, succession management and, later in 2007, compensation management built on a Microsoft-centric architecture (.NET with SQL Server 2000 as the RDBMS) and delivered via software as a service. The solution has very strong functionality in performance management. It is also notable for its flexibility of configuration for large, complex organization needs. Cornerstone is not as deep in succession management as it is in performance management. It has good support for position-based succession planning, but is still adding support for pool-based planning and needs to improve its organizational charting capabilities. Compensation planning is still in its formative stages (v.1 scheduled for 2007), but Gartner's view is that the design looks promising. Cornerstone has established an initial customer base for performance management and, to a lesser extent, succession management, but it is still in ramp-up mode. It has won some deals with some very large, U.S. customers that will work with Cornerstone to enhance its multinational support (the solution is available in eight languages today). In addition, Cornerstone has closed a significant round of funding that will be announced in May. Customers have indicated that they are pleased with the vision of Cornerstone for an integrated suite and its willingness to take input into its development plans. Rating: Positive
Halogen Software
Halogen Software offers an integrated solution covering performance, compensation and succession management built on a J2EE platform. The solution can be implemented on-premise or hosted by Halogen (and licensed as a perpetual license or via subscription). The primary market for the solution is midsize-to-large enterprises (typically 10,000 employees or fewer). It does a good job balancing functionality and ease of implementation and use by customers. It is also one of the few EPM vendors that has targeted specific vertical markets with its solution (with more than 100 healthcare customers and, most recently, introducing offerings for financial and professional services). Most of the Halogen customer base uses its performance management solution (more than 600 customers, total). However, it has gained good traction in compensation management while succession management (the last module introduced) is ramping up. Halogen has strong performance management functionality, including goal and objective management, competency management, appraisal/assessment management and writing assistance. In compensation planning, it has solid functionality across the board with especially easy-to-use administrative capabilities. Halogen has built its solution to support a pool-based, not position-based, approach to succession management. Halogen has primarily focused on the North American market. Customers consistently indicate that Halogen's solutions are easy to implement and use and are cost-effective. Customers also feel that Halogen has remained open to feedback even as it has grown its customer base. Rating: Positive
HRN Management Group
HRN Management Group's Performance Pro solution is focused on performance management for midsize organizations. It also has a succession management module that is in beta testing with four customers. It does not offer a compensation management solution (planned for the 2007 to 2008 time frame). Performance Pro was built using Microsoft-centric technologies (such as Active Server Pages, .NET, COM, VBScript, and JavaScript on SQL Server 2000 RDBMS) and uses the software-as-a-service delivery model. Performance Pro does an excellent job of helping organizations automate the performance appraisal process. It has strong writing assistance capabilities. In addition, Performance Pro has the basics for goal and objective management, competency management, assessment and development planning. It has had good adoption from U.S.-based midmarket customers (more than 500 customers). Gartner did not evaluate the succession management capabilities as they are not generally available to customers. Customers have felt the quality, customer support and ease of use of Performance Pro was strong. Rating: Promising
HRsmart
HRsmart offers a talent management application suite that encompasses recruitment, performance management, succession management, learning management and compensation management. The applications were built using an open-source platform (PHP/Perl for UI/Application Logic, Apache Web Servers on Debian Linux and mySQL 4.0 as the RDBMS) and use the software-as-a-service delivery model (the solution can also be bought with a perpetual license). In performance management, it has strong support for competency management, assessment and development planning. However, it has limited support for writing assistance, and its goal and objective model is not as detailed as other solutions (improvements are planned for 3Q07 in both areas). It has solid compensation planning capabilities that support a pay-for-performance methodology. In addition, it has strong employee profile management and impact analysis for supporting position-based and pool-based planning. HRsmart is still ramping up customers in EPM (it has more than 50 customers, with the most in performance management out of more than 400 total customers), but it does have a good depth and breadth for customers looking for a talent management application suite provider. Its partnership with Monster.com and DDI (for competency model content) could prove an effective channel for growth, especially for midsize-to-large enterprises. In addition, it is one of the few providers that has a presence in the South American market (in addition to the North American market). Rating: Promising
JobPartners
JobPartners is a U.K.-based provider of talent management applications that includes recruiting, performance management, compensation management and succession management built on J2EE technology. The primary delivery model for JobPartners is as a hosted solution, but it also offers it for on-premise implementation as well as delivered via software as a service. JobPartners is still ramping up its EPM customer base (less than 25), but early adopters have been large, global organizations that have proven the scalability of the solution. It is solid across the board, but not spectacular. It has strong competency management capabilities that are well-integrated into development planning. However, it takes a very different approach to goal and objective management from other vendors. It allows a customer to capture whatever data it wants to about a goal in a question block. This provides a lot of flexibility in the goal model but does not allow the solution to easily support alignment or cascading of goals. In addition, the solution does not support any writing assistance. JobPartners supports all the basics in compensation management but does not integrate pay with performance. It has solid support for succession management, particularly position-based planning. It has a flexible employee profile and supports impact analysis. JobPartners has focused on the European market. Customers have indicated that JobPartners is customer-centric and delivery-focused. Rating: Promising
Kenexa
Kenexa offers solutions for recruitment, performance, compensation and succession management on the J2EE platform. It is delivered primarily as software as a service (but a small number of customers have implemented the solution on-premise). It has good functionality for performance and succession management, and promising functionality for compensation management. It has very strong competency management, and strong assessment and writing assistance functionality but is not as strong in goal management. In compensation management, Kenexa offers the basics, including integration with performance. In succession management, it has a strong employee profile and talent review capabilities supporting position-based and, to a lesser extent, pool-based planning. Kenexa has grown to be a significant player in the overall talent management application suite market through acquisitions (see "The Pace of Consolidation Accelerates in the E-Recruitment Software Market") of vendors, such as Webhire and BrassRing. It has established a good base of customers (more than 100 across all of its EPM solutions) primarily in North America. Kenexa's strength and differentiation in EPM is not its products or technology. It is how it combines the products/technology with content and services to help customers successfully leverage talent management. A few customers have been frustrated by the lack of flexibility of the product/technology. However, happy customers have appreciated the hand-holding that Kenexa can provide. Rating: Positive
Lawson Software
Lawson offers ERP/human resource management system (HRMS) solutions across a broad set of industries. It is a more recent entrant into employee performance management. Today, it offers three modules focused on performance management but is developing compensation management and succession management capabilities with delivery starting in 2007. Lawson Performance Management supports performance appraisals, goal and objective management, and career management and development planning (part of the HR module). TalentView is a remarketed version of PDI's solution for competency management and assessment functionality. Lawson Performance Management for Healthcare is a stand-alone solution that came from the acquisition of Competency Assessment Solutions (see "Lawson Expands Talent Management Capabilities in Healthcare"). Lawson Performance Management is very new and has very limited adoption. TalentView is a well-established solution and offers very strong competency management and assessment capabilities, combined with optional services from PDI to leverage the assessment results. Lawson Performance Management for Healthcare does an excellent job in meeting the specific needs of healthcare providers in the U.S. around Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) compliance (ensuring that the employee performance is evaluated against job requirements at least annually). Ultimately, Lawson will deliver a solution that takes the best from the existing modules. It will improve on the foundation it has built for appraisals and goal management. It will have its own competency management and assessment capabilities where a customer can load in the PDI content (or other content) or continue to integrate with TalentView. Finally, it will take the job and competency content from Lawson Performance Management for Healthcare and put it into a technology that offers more flexibility to support more than just completing appraisals that support JCAHO compliance. The Lawson vision is very good, but it is in the early stages of delivery. Rating: Promising
Learn.com
Learn.com offers an integrated suite of solutions for learning, performance management, succession management and recruitment built on a Microsoft-centric technology stack (Active Server Pages, .NET, COM, and SQL Server 2000 moving to a pure .NET environment in the third quarter of 2007). It delivers the solution primarily via software as a service, but also has customers implemented on-premise as well as a hosted solution. Learn.com differs from other EPM vendors in that it only offers its solution, LearnCenter X, as a suite. Customers that buy the suite get all the modules as well as any additional modules developed in the future. LearnCenter X offers a broad set of EPM functionality, but it is not deep. It has strong competency management, assessment and development planning functionality (integrated with its learning capabilities). In addition, it has strong goal management and appraisal management functionality. However, it has little writing assistance and calibration functionality in the solution. In addition, LearnCenter X has basic compensation and succession management functionality. It has a strong employee profile capability to support position-based and pool-based planning. The LearnCenter X suite has had good adoption (more than 350 customers, primarily in North America), but Gartner believes the adoption of compensation management and succession management capabilities by suite customers is relatively limited. Customers have been impressed with the consistency and quality of support services from Learn.com. Rating: Promising
Meta4
Meta4, based in Spain, is a provider of human capital management solutions, including core personnel, payroll and benefits, as well as talent management applications that cover recruitment, performance management, succession management, compensation management and learning in an object-oriented, Java-based architecture (HTML, JavaScript, and a Rich Internet Application user interface (UI), running on Windows or Unix Application Servers, and Oracle and SQL Server as the RDBMS). The solution is primarily implemented on-premise. The talent management applications from Meta4 can be purchased independently of its core HRMS solutions. Meta4 solutions have strong competencies in foundation and career management functionality. The goal model provided in the solution lacks the depth of other providers, and the solution does not include any comment suggestion or writing assistance. It has solid standard compensation planning capabilities (but it is well-integrated with the core HRMS and performance management). Meta4 also has good support for position-based succession planning but needs to develop support for pool-based planning and impact analysis. Meta4 solutions are used primarily in Spain, Portugal, France, and many Latin and South American countries. In 2006, it started to offer its solutions in the U.S., the U.K. and Scandinavian markets. The solution is well-architected to support multinational customer needs and has shown strong scalability for the core HRMS. Customers like the flexibility of the architecture and development tools of Meta4 but wanted it to show more leadership on talent management. Rating: Promising
Oracle-PeopleSoft
Oracle-PeopleSoft offers an ERP solution that includes a core HRMS along with talent management applications that support recruitment, performance management, succession management, learning and compensation management. It is built on a proprietary architecture that leverages HTML/JavaScript for the UI. It runs on J2EE-compliant application servers from BEA Systems, IBM and Oracle, and uses BEA JOLT for online transaction processing. It supports a variety of RDBMS and is typically implemented on-premise. From an EPM perspective, the performance management solution is the strongest. It has a very strong writing assistance capability that is well-integrated with competency management. In addition, it has flexible appraisal/assessment management functionality. In v.9.0 of PeopleSoft Enterprise, Oracle introduced Profile Manager, which will improve the integration between the talent management applications as well as provide the foundation for a more-robust succession management solution. Today, a customer can flexibly define employee profiles and set up a talent assessment in performance management that populates the profile, but a full succession planning capability is not delivered. There is also a compensation management capability provided today, but it is not widely used by customers, and Oracle is considering a complete revamp for a post-v.9.0 release. Customers have found the ePerformance solution to be easy to set up and administer and like the global nature of the solution, but felt that it could have more flexibility for their unique requirements (page layouts, document flow and so on). Rating: Promising
Oracle EBS
Oracle offers ERP solutions that include core HRMS capabilities along with talent management applications that support recruitment, performance management, succession management, learning and compensation management on a J2EE-based architecture (plus heavily leveraging the Oracle RDBMS platform). The solution is typically implemented on-premise. Compensation Workbench is a strong compensation planning solution. The performance management functionality (delivered through the HR and HR Self-Service modules in E-Business Suite [EBS]) is still evolving. It lacks the depth of functionality in goal management and competency management of other solutions. There is limited support for succession management (employee profile, gap analysis and talent assessments). Gartner expects that there will be additional investment in improving the performance management capabilities in EBS, but that development of full succession management capabilities will be part of Fusion Applications (leveraging the design contemplated for PeopleSoft). Oracle EBS customers have been generally pleased with the performance management and compensation management capabilities of 11.i.10. Customers on earlier releases should consider upgrading to get improved functionality, quality and performance. In addition, customers have felt that the integration, single, common UI benefits and global nature of the solution outweighed any gaps in current functionality. Rating: Promising
Pilat HR Solutions
Pilat HR Solutions offers a full set of employee performance management solutions covering performance management, compensation management and succession management (as well as transition management) built on a Microsoft-centric technology stack (moving to .NET 3.0). Pilat offers strong out-of-the-box functionality, especially in performance management and succession management, and has built a good installed base in these areas. Its 360-degree assessment functionality and ability to link goals to competencies is noteworthy. Pilat has a very flexible employee profile to support very strong position-based and pool-based succession planning. In compensation management, it offers the basics and has few customers to date. It has good multinational support and is used by customers in North America and Europe. Pilat differentiates itself through the services it offers and how it can use the toolkit the application is built on to extend/tailor the solution for customers without changing the underlying code. Most of Pilat's customers have implemented the solution on-premise. However, the trend during the past year has been toward implementations hosted by Pilat. Customers have been happy with the product and toolset, but need to ensure that they evaluate the team that will be working on the project closely to ensure that they get "A" players. Rating: Positive
Plateau Systems
Plateau is a leading vendor in the e-learning suites market (see "Magic Quadrant for E-Learning Suites, 2006"). It has expanded organically into performance management and succession management, and most recently acquired Nuvosoft (see "Plateau Bolsters Talent Management Suite With Nuvosoft Buy") to add compensation management to the suite. Plateau's applications are built using a J2EE architecture. For EPM, Plateau has very strong performance management, and now compensation management, capabilities. It has one of the strongest solutions for goal management, competency management and writing assistance. In addition, it has a very flexible and configurable compensation management solution. It is newer to succession management, and the functionality is still evolving. Plateau has an excellent integrated organization chart and supports position-based planning well. It is still ramping up its customer base throughout EPM. Plateau has seen solid adoption of performance management, but the number of compensation management and succession management customers is limited. It has a global customer base for its learning solutions, and brings the technology foundation and infrastructure to the EPM offerings. Implementations have been split between on-premise and off-premise (hosted and software as a service). Customer feedback has been positive, but few have exercised all the features offered by Plateau in EPM. Rating: Positive
Saba
Saba is a leading vendor in the e-learning suite market (see "Magic Quadrant for E-Learning Suites, 2006"). It has built solutions for performance management and succession management as well. It is in the process of building out compensation planning, and our early view of the design and prototypes is positive. All the Saba solutions are built on a J2EE architecture. In performance management, Saba demonstrated very strong competency management, appraisal management and development planning. In addition, goal management was very flexible at supporting subgoals as well as initiatives (to which goals can be aligned). Saba supports multirater feedback, but could improve its rater controls for 360-degree assessments. In succession management, it has the basics, and supports pool-based planning reasonably well. The succession management functionality should be greatly improved in v.5.4 (which was released in April 2007). Saba has had solid adoption of its performance management solution but is still ramping up usage of succession management. Saba has a global customer base for its learning solutions and brings the technology foundation and infrastructure to the EPM offerings. Customers have implemented the solution primarily on-premise, although Saba offers hosting services and a software-as-a-service solution. Customers indicate that v.5.3 was a big improvement in terms of quality, functionality and performance. Rating: Positive
Salary.com
Salary.com started as a vendor of market data for compensation, and expanded into compensation analysis software and ultimately into compensation and performance management solutions. It uses Microsoft technology (.NET, Web services, Analysis/Reporting Services, COM+/MSMQ) and delivers the solution via the software-as-a-service model. Salary.com has very strong compensation management functionality, especially its flexibility around plan definition. In performance management, it has strong goal management and appraisal management, as well as a good foundation for competency management. So, it is a good choice for customers focused on pay-for-performance. However, customers looking for deeper employee development capabilities in performance management and succession management will need to wait for enhancements planned for later in 2007. Customers have been happy with products and the support from Salary.com. Salary.com has been growing quickly and recently had an initial public offering. Rating: Positive
SAP
SAP is a provider of ERP solutions that include a core HRMS as well as talent management applications encompassing recruiting, performance, compensation, succession and learning. mySAP ERP HCM 2005 is built on SAP's Netweaver platform and is typically implemented on-premise. For EPM, SAP has good, but not exceptional, functionality across the board. In performance management, the strongest capabilities are in appraisal creation and management. Cascading goals are supported through the additional purchase of the Balanced Scorecard Module for customers that have component pricing (new SAP ERP customers get this module as part of the bundle). However, we have not seen customers implement balanced scorecards far enough down the organizational hierarchy to practically allow goal alignment. SAP's compensation functionality is solid across the board and is pretty flexible for doing top-down budget allocation. In succession management, SAP has leveraged the Talent Warehouse concept from Recruitment, which provides a strong infrastructure for talent pool management. SAP has seen good adoption of its performance management capabilities but is still ramping up customers for compensation management and succession management. Customers like the integration and multinational support but want SAP to improve the flexibility and configurability of the modules. Rating: Promising
SilkRoad Technology
SilkRoad Technology has a talent management application suite that includes recruiting (OpenHire), on-boarding (RedCarpet), performance management and succession management (WingSpan) and compensation management (GreenLight). WingSpan and GreenLight came from an acquisition of Human Asset Technologies but was re-architected into a .NET application. SilkRoad's solutions are delivered to customers via the software-as-a-service model. SilkRoad targets the North American midsize-to-large enterprise (500 to 10,000 employees) market with its solutions. WingSpan has strong performance management functionality, especially in competency management and assessment. In addition, goal management and appraisals are also strong. In succession management, WingSpan has good support for position-based planning but is not a strong option for pool-based planning today. GreenLight has very good compensation management capabilities. It is flexible in terms of guidelines and pay practices, and offers an easy-to-use front end for managers. SilkRoad has gained good initial traction with performance management but is still ramping up customers for succession management and compensation management. Customers have been very happy with the responsiveness and level of support from SilkRoad. Rating: Positive
Softscape
Softscape is a provider of talent management applications encompassing recruiting, performance, compensation, succession and learning built on top of a Softscape-built application server, and leverages Microsoft IIS as the Web server and runs on SQL Server, Oracle and DB2. Most of its customers are hosted by Softscape, but it also offers on-premise and software-as-a-service alternatives. Within EPM, Softscape has had the most take-up of its performance management capabilities. However, compensation and succession management have had good adoption. It has strong performance management capabilities with very flexible appraisal management and very strong writing assistance. One of Softscape's differentiators is the integration of its applications. Development planning is a good example of this integration and is very strong. Softscape has solid compensation management and strong pay-for-performance integration. In succession management, Softscape has very strong position-based management. It is committed to being a global provider, and the product supports multinational needs well. It has also started to build out its infrastructure with offices in Europe and Asia in addition to North America. Softscape has many large, demanding customers, has built a lot of deep functionality and has grown quickly. Some customers have had some issues as a result. Gartner believes that Softscape will make it successfully through these growing pains. Rating: Positive
StepStone
StepStone acquired ExecuTRACK to add performance, succession, compensation and learning management to its recruiting solutions to provide a full talent management application suite (see "Acquiring ExecuTRACK Will Expand StepStone's TMAS Portfolio" and "Magic Quadrant for E-Recruitment Software, 2006"). ExecuTrack solutions are built in Microsoft-centric technologies (Active Server Pages, a combination of .NET and COM, and SQL Server) with on-premise implementation as the primary delivery model (although it also provides hosting services and has a software-as-a-service offering — ETWeb). It is a very strong solution for performance management and succession management for global organizations. The functionality for goal and objective management, competency management and career management is particularly strong. In addition, it has very strong profile management and talent review capabilities in succession management. It has good functionality for compensation management, including pay-for-performance integration, but is not best-of-breed yet. ExecuTrack has shown good adoption across all areas of EPM (more than 80 customers in each area). Most of the customer base is in Europe, and it is now focusing on building its presence in the U.S. market. Customers have been pleased with the depth of functionality and quality of the code. Rating: Positive
SuccessFactors
SuccessFactors offers a talent management application suite that includes performance, compensation, succession and, most recently, recruiting built on a J2EE platform. It offers the solutions only through the software-as-a-service model. SuccessFactors has been very successful in performance management and is the only specialist vendor reviewed that has more than 100 customers each for performance, compensation and succession management, with many successfully using all three. It has very strong performance management functionality, particularly in goal management, appraisal management and writing assistance. SuccessFactors' offerings for compensation management and succession management are newer and still maturing, according to customers. The compensation management functionality is very good, especially its pay-for-performance integration. SuccessFactors has strong support for position-based succession management but could still improve its support for pool-based planning. SuccessFactors has shown a strong focus on innovation through the creation of "NEXT," a development lab that creates prototypes based on new technologies to improve the end-user experience. Most of its customer base is in North America, but SuccessFactors has made inroads into Europe and Asia as well. SuccessFactors' customers comment that, even with its growth, the vendor is very responsive to customer requests and issues. Its monthly release cycle of new functionality enables SuccessFactors to respond quickly to customer needs. Rating: Positive
SumTotal Systems
SumTotal Systems is a leading vendor in the learning market (see "Magic Quadrant for E-Learning Suites, 2006"). With the acquisition of MindSolve (see "SumTotal Aims to Lead Talent Management Market With MindSolve"), it now offers a talent management application suite that encompasses learning, performance, compensation and succession management built on Microsoft-centric technologies. In EPM, most of its customers use a solution hosted by SumTotal. SumTotal also offers an on-premise implementation. SumTotal has had the most success in performance management, but even there, it is still ramping up customers. Compensation and succession management are much newer and have had limited adoption to date. The performance management functionality is strong across the board, with very strong writing assistance and calibration capabilities. Compensation management is solid and has the basics. Succession management has strong support for pool-based and position-based planning. The MindSolve solution has strong multilingual support for performance management and is used by U.S.-based multinational enterprises globally. SumTotal is a global vendor, and we expect to see it market TotalPerformance more-aggressively outside the U.S. Customers feel that SumTotal has been flexible in meeting their specific needs and have been happy with support pre- and post-acquisition. Rating: Positive
ViaPeople
ViaPeople provides talent management solutions focused on performance and succession management built on a J2EE architecture (Apache Tomcat 5.0 is the application server and the SQL Server 2005 is the RDBMS). The solution is delivered using software as a service. ViaPeople differentiates itself through its combination of technology, services (deep domain expertise with many industrial/organizational psychologists on staff) and content (for example, competency models). From a product perspective, it is still ramping up customers. It has very strong assessment functionality and supporting competency management. It lacks the depth of other solutions in goal management, career management and integrated development planning. In succession management, it has strong support for position-based management and talent review. The vendor does not offer compensation management. It is focused on the North American market, although it has some global customers using the solution in multiple languages. Customers cited viaPeople's willingness to meet needs and tight time frames as well as ease of use of the assessment capabilities. Rating: Promising
Vurv Technology
Vurv Technology offers talent management applications that include recruiting, performance and compensation management built using Cold Fusion and Java (running HTML/JavaScript for the UI and Microsoft SQL Server as the RDBMS). Vurv does not offer succession management today. However, it is being built out and planned for delivery throughout 2007. Our initial impression is that the design looks solid. Vurv has had good success in the recruiting market (see "Magic Quadrant for E-Recruitment Software, 2006"). However, it is still ramping up customers in EPM. In performance management, it has very strong competency management and writing assistance, but could improve its career development capabilities. Compensation management includes strong administrative and planning functionality, and solid pay-for-performance integration. Vurv successfully supports multinational customers with its recruitment solution, but adoption of its EPM solutions have been primarily in North America. Customers were positive about Vurv's willingness to work with them to tailor and customize the solution to meet needs. In addition, customers indicated that the most recent releases (since the fourth quarter of 2006) have improved quality and performance of the application. Rating: Promising
WisdomNet
WisdomNet offers a talent management application suite that encompasses workforce planning, recruitment, performance, compensation, succession and learning management built on Microsoft-centric technologies (HTML/JavaScript/CSS leveraging an ActiveX control on the client for organization charting, Active Server Pages/COM on the application server, with SQL Server 2000 as the RDBMS). Almost all the customers have WisdomNet host the solution. However, customers can implement WisdomNet on-premise as well. WisdomNet is still ramping up the number of customers for its EPM solutions. It has the most adoption for performance management and succession management. Adoption for compensation management is very limited. Performance management has strong competency management, and career and development planning. Succession management has strong support for pool-based planning, talent review and impact analysis. Compensation management supports basic planning needs with solid pay-for-performance integration. WisdomNet is focused on the North American market. Customers indicate that the product quality and support are good. Rating: Promising
Workscape
Workscape has three main businesses: benefits administration, employee self-service/portal solutions and talent management applications. From an EPM perspective, it offers compensation management and performance management. It had acquired Performaworks for performance and succession management, but product issues led to Workscape taking it off the market. Workscape decided to build its own performance management solution, and it became generally available on 30 April 2007. Our initial view of the design and functionality was promising. Workscape's applications are built on a J2EE architecture and are delivered primarily as a hosted solution (there are some on-premise customers, but for new customers, it is focused on delivering hosted solutions). Workscape has a relatively small customer base made up of very large and complex global implementations of compensation management. The compensation management functionality is very strong overall, especially the flexibility of guidelines/pay practices, workflow and budgeting. Customers give Workscape very high marks on customer service and support. Rating: Promising
Workstream
Workstream offers a talent management application suite that includes recruitment, performance, succession and compensation management. Workstream acquired its EPM capabilities through two acquisitions: Exxceed (for performance, succession and competency management) and Kadiri (compensation management). The EPM functionality is built on a J2EE architecture and is delivered primarily as a hosted or software-as-a-service solution. Workstream is still ramping up its customer base for EPM solutions. Workstream has very strong functionality in performance management and compensation management, including strong pay-for-performance integration. In performance management, it is very strong in competency management and writing assistance. In compensation management, it has outstanding coaching/decision support functionality. The succession management solution has strong support for position-based planning but has limited support for pool-based planning. Workstream has good support for U.S.-based multinational companies. Customer feedback is positive in terms of functionality but overall integration is a work-in-progress. Customers have also had varying experiences in terms of support as Workstream has struggled with retention of development and support resources. Workstream's biggest challenge has been its financial performance. It made many acquisitions but struggled with creating a sound business model. It has brought in a new leadership team, which has addressed many of the issues with product development and strategy. In addition, recent financial performance is promising. However, Workstream will need to demonstrate that it can sustain that momentum over a longer period of time. Rating: Promising
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