I’m just returning from the annual HR Technology Conference in Chicago (another wildly successful event with all thanks to Bill Kutik) and reflecting on some of the key messages and learnings. If you’ve been logged on pre-conference to the HR Technology Conference discussion boards and/or attended any of the conference sessions last week, you didn’t escape without listening to or participating in discussions about the new technology landscape riddled with M&A activity as providers offer truly integrated people management solutions.
The conference buzz on these solutions was all about their focus on global and mobile capability as well as an integrated talent management and core HR capability. In fact, 1/3 of HR technology users are willing to sacrifice some features and functionality for integration –this is twice the number from last year.
As with all technology always, the only thing constant is change. Regardless of whether horizontal or vertical acquisitions as we see in the list above, the talent management technology market is consolidating, and buyers do continue to have clear expectations from their technology providers. During our second annual ‘what’s driving customer satisfaction’ presentation, Josh and I shared preliminary findings of our 2nd annual customer satisfaction research regarding customers’ expectations. ADP, Halogen, and Taleo were the leaders in mid-market, enterprise, and global enterprise, respectively.
The four service aspects around which customers assessed their providers are:
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Product Quality
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Feature capability
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Ease of use
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Configurability
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System performance
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Implementation
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Service
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Communicate support issues
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Responsiveness to support tickets/requests
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Follow-through on service tickets/requests
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Business Partnership
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Understands business needs
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Offers domain expertise and promotes best practices
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Offers direct method for input to product development
In addition to Halogen, ADP, and Taleo, other preliminary leaders are:
StepStone for Implementation
iCIMS for Service
Learn.com for Business Partnership
Let’s take a look at some of the other interesting research findings that we shared last week. There isn’t a correlation between the number of talent processes that a customer uses and their satisfaction level with their provider. Similarly, with the exception of social collaboration software which drives an 11/4% increase in satisfaction ratings, there isn’t a correlation between any specific talent process and customers’ satisfaction with their providers. Finally, what is important to note is that the overall satisfaction scores from all customers for all providers revealed very average scores. The rating scale was 1-5 (with 1 being the least satisfied and 5 being the most satisfied) and the average score across all vendors for each of the 4 service areas was:
What does this mean for customers and providers? To start, while customers are most pleased with the trusted advisor role that their provider offers, customers are not wowed by their providers’ service levels in any of the four service areas. Secondly, providers now have some insights as to which of the four service areas they might choose to focus on improving first, second, etc. In this dynamic market, it is a real challenge for providers to keep pace with customer demands. We want our annual research in this area to help both providers and customers. While the data from this research is not intended to give the customers the answers to which providers they should select or de-select, it can offer some insights as to which providers’ solutions and services best align with their talent strategy and business goals. Conversely, providers should leverage this research to better understand their customers’ solution priorities as they build out their own people management solutions.
Watch for the final publication of our 2010-2011 Talent Management Systems Customer Experience Report planned for publication later this year. Until then, our 2010-2011 Customer Satisfaction with Talent Management Systems: Our Initial Findings Research Bulletin offers Bersin members insights regarding these initial findings that we shared and discussed at last week’s HR Technology Conference.
We look forward to your thoughts, comments, and ideas on the changing landscape of the talent technology market and what continues to drive your satisfaction with technology providers.
Barb Arth, Principal Analyst Systems