Oracle’s EBS HCM “surprise” is nowhere near as market changing as this this week's announcement to acquire Sun Microsystems, but it is certainly notable in our neck of the woods.

The surprise is the company’s new Talent Profile feature. From my perspective, the Talent Profile substantially improves the end-user experience and, more importantly, now provides a foundation for Oracle EBS HCM to help organizations support integrated talent planning and decision-making.

As you can see from the screenshot below, the Talent Profile aggregates relevant employee data (such as performance objectives, training, certifications, competencies, academics, awards, succession plans, career plans and appraisals) in one user experience. In addition to serving as a launch page or hub for talent management activities, the employee information captured in the Talent Profile can be easily accessed across all HCM applications (e.g., recruiting, learning, performance, compensation, etc.) wherever the employee’s name appears as a hyperlink.

(The Talent Profile is now available in v.12.1 for Oracle EBS customers.)

With unified data and a complete picture of talent information, the idea is that managers, business leaders and HR specialists have a much more holistic view of the workforce – and can make much more informed talent decisions within a process step (such as who should receive merit increases, who is ready to fill internal vacancies, what development and skills gaps need to be closed, and who has the necessary background to support a project or company initiative).

You may wonder, “why this news,” when just about every solution provider in the talent management market already offers some type of talent profile. (For example, both Authoria and Taleo have very sophisticated and interactive profiles.) There are two reasons why this was a surprise to me.

1. Beyond competency management and the company’s analytics toolsets, I was not convinced Oracle was committed to integrating the disparate HR and talent applications and data. The company proved me wrong – or at least somewhat mistaken.
2. With the Talent Profile, Oracle proves it is still committed to “innovating” EBS outside of the impending Fusion HCM Application. (But one would hope the company is integrating in concert with Fusion.)

Oracle EBS still has several other gaps to fill, but we are encouraged by the recent announcements.

Going Forward: In the next EBS HCM release, we would like to see Oracle extend this Talent Profile feature to support profile matchups for fit / gap analysis as an employee self-service. (This capability is broader than competency matchups, which Oracle has supported for several releases.) For example, employees and managers should be able to compare comprehensive Talent Profiles against open jobs and apply for an open position where there is a strong fit, or use the fit / gap analysis to support career development. The social aspects of the Talent Profile feel a long way down the road – but perhaps Oracle can incorporate tagging of employee information, or embedding the profile to be used in collaborative spaces and for expertise finding. Just a thought.