I am pleased to introduce myself and our new blogosphere Technology for Talent for sharing trends, vendor updates, and prognostics on talent technology – the place to visit to keep informed and involved on technology solutions to effectively manage talent. As far as I know, my picture is not posted on the ‘wanted’ wall in your local post office, so here’s my latest mug shot and a few words about me. 

I’ve been in the industry 15+ years driving talent strategy and technology selections and implementations for companies in all industries across the globe.  Formerly a Principal Consultant with Bersin’s Strategic Services Team, I’ve partnered again and again with our clients to ensure that their talent and talent technology decisions drive the greatest business impact possible. In fact, many client HR organizations are already rethinking many of their HR programs and initiatives as business strategies and leveraging technology to enable the process and implementation.

I’ve had the opportunity to dive deeply into the solutions from most of the talent and HRMS technology providers.  The faces and guts of their solutions are forever maturing to keep pace with evolving needs. As it goes, the only constant is change…particularly when it comes to technology.

Welcome to this blog. Please visit and contribute often--- a controversial discussion always sparks new insights! And sometimes, some healthy, but maybe not so wanted, banter!

“TM Systems – Room to Grow”

Despite a horrific 2009 economy, the talent management software market weathered it well and shows sign of even better health this year.  We estimate this market will reach around $2.6 billion by the end of 2010 and will continue to grow, particularly in the core talent processes (performance and succession management, compensation, and learning management) as well as social learning interfaces, smart coaching tools, real-time dashboards, business analytic tools and full integration of core HR data (payroll and benefit data, EEO data, hiring data and the like) for a true end-to-end people management solution. 

There is more and more recognition that the Talent Management System, while separate and distinct from the HRMS, is becoming the ‘single system of record.’ On the flip side, we see many ERPs continuing to focus on the expansion of their platform to include the core talent processes. We do believe that organizations, particularly the SMB market, will seek an end-to-end solution which includes both HRMS and Talent Management. Our upcoming HRMS Market Research Report, planned for release this summer, will explain this further.  Stay tuned.

Overall then, the market remains largely un-penetrated, particularly in SMB. We expect annual TMS market growth rates to be significant in all markets sizes and geographies—take a look:

So, in all markets and geographies, we see growth (some more than others) and providers are taking steps to expand their offerings to full people management solutions ---the combination of talent processes with core HR data. 

What changes would you like to see your service provider (or one you may be considering) make to better meet your business needs?

In future blogs, I’ll continue to talk about changes to the market and will offer highlights about specific providers and just how they are differentiating themselves.  For now, I invite your thoughts, ideas, comments, perspectives, and insights on the TMS industry. Please write to me barb.arth@bersin.com.