Perceptive HR Technology

I’ve been busy travelling to several customer sites to talk about new talent management projects.  I am very encouraged by what I’m hearing, especially with respect to the way HR leaders are engaging in the process of creating the right kind of ‘bridge’ between process and technology to solve critical business problems.

As I wrote about in my recent post from the cruise ship, many of the companies that jumped into talent management early are now struggling to reap some of the long-term benefits of integration and the use of competencies in collecting data.  But the last three meetings I’ve attended with VPs of HR (in the last three weeks, by the way), I’ve noticed consistency in the longer-term thinking that seems to be taking place.  And some of these customers have point solutions installed — others are just getting started.  But the story is the same — we have to look at the broad range of issues (with surprising focus on building a reusable competency infrastructure) FIRST — then look at business process, then technology.  Now for some, that will require reworking that technology.  For others, it’s a great opportunity to select a well integrated suite of products with an embedded competency framework (sorry, I couldn’t stop myself!).

The benefits of such an approach are broad and game-changing.  Some, like John Ingham in a recent post suggest that the implications are dramatic and could be costing organizations billions.  If it’s true, and companies can really master all elements of good talent management (people, process, AND technology), there should be competitive advantage for those that do.

And if my unscientific data is any indicator, perhaps there’s a trend.  Time will tell, and I’ll be watching.

One more post about my experience at the HR forum two weeks ago………….

Some of you are probably aware that this event has a ‘pay for play’ element to it — suppliers pay to participate, and the delegates attend for free in exchange for a commitment to a certain number of meetings to hear about offerings from the various suppliers.  There’s an elaborate (and I would say effective) matching process to get folks with like interests talking to each other.  But with the goal to make sure that every supplier gets a certain number of ‘meetings,’ you always have a few with someone you quickly discover couldn’t care less about what you have to offer (or vice versa). 

Knowing there would be some of that (and in some cases I could even tell in advance), these delegates became my ‘focus group’ targets — I tested our strategies to see how these folks would react eventhough they probably wouldn’t be our target customer.  A particularly insightful meeting was with a large, national retailer with over 100,000 employees who’s identity I will opt not to disclose.  The delegate, a senior HR person, was telling me about their talent management technology strategy, and the conversation went something like this (paraphrased for brevity, and might slightly miss on a detail or two):

Supplier (me):  How are you addressing your talent management technology needs?
Delegate:  We have a enterprise-wide LMS installed that’s having a real impact on delivering training in the stores, we just started an implementation of a recruiting system, and performance management is next.
Supplier:  How many vendors are providing that technology?
Delegate:  Three.
Supplier:  Are you concerned with the issues of technical integration?  Do you hope to leverage infrastructure like organizational and supervisor structure across those products?
Delegate:  Definitely.
Supplier:  How are you going to do it?  Is IT engaged in the process?
Delegate:  <moment of silence>.. IT is looking at it

And so went the discussion..we also explored how they anticipated leveraging data for decision-making across the full organizational development value chain, and concluded that while those issues had been discussed, these integration elements (see my previous post) are not central to the creation of their technology strategy — at the moment.

I would anticipate that this organization has a real shot at efficient and effective management of their core transactional business processes in talent management.  For training, they’re already doing it.  But at the end of the day, after all those operational benefits are achieved and they want to really get those systems talking together they are either going to spend a fortune consolidating data into one of those systems (and hope that the one is good enough to manage the data from the others) or they will be building the mother-of-all-data-warehouses.  And let’s face it — HR is always number 11 on a priority list of 10, and after all of the money they’ve spent on getting the operational stuff right it will require real clout to get the funding for yet another major HR technology initiative.

Everyone knows about my bias here — that an integrated, ERP-class talent management solution aligned with the system-of-record data about people is the only realistic way for organizations to do breakthrough talent management.  It’s about great operational efficiency AND actionable data about people, and the organizations that get both right will be at a significant advantage.

After a long-awaited vacation with family (a Carnival Cruise to Mexico), I was delighted to return to see this post from systematicHR.  It speaks for itself — and I can appreciate the challenge on the use of the term ’strategic.’  We’ll let time (and some great success stories) speak for itself on this topic.

The evangelizing will continue on our strategy.  Calling all bloggers — keep these kind of posts coming!

On a different subject, I’m off to the HR Forum tomorrow morning.  I wrote about this previously (link here), and now it’s time to see if the event will prove useful.  If the internet connection on the cruise ship cooperates, I’ll try to provide you with a daily post both on what’s interesting at the event and how the program looks from a vendor’s perspective.  Stay tuned!

Well, in this case that’s probably not such a good idea.  Too many good things happened at CUE for the SHCM product — to stay quiet about it would be a tragedy.  In no particular order, here are some musings about CUE 2008:

1. Our strategy for talent management was validated enthusiastically by our customers.  They loved the functionality and were wowed by the quality of the user experience.
2. There are early signs of healthy market interest in the product.  At least two industry analysts didn’t ask me how we were going to sell it — they wanted to know how we were going to manage the (inevitable) demand.
3. Customers loved our announcement of extended availability and our sensitivity to making sure we didn’t bite off more than we could chew.  Let’s hope they are just as reasonable if some of them have to be patient in starting their implementation!
4. Customers got their key questions about the new products answered, and had good opportunities to learn more about it from people who knew what they were talking about.
5. We presented to over 500 people in a range of sessions during the conference plus numerous private demos and 1:1 sessions in the lounge.  It’s too soon to tell, but we anticipate healthy demand for the product that will help us build launch momentum.
6. Press and analysts came out in large numbers, and were enthusiastic about our vision.  The next few weeks will tell the tale as they all publish content about their experience at CUE.
7. My only regret:  On Wednesday, during my mainstage presentation, I didn’t get to interview our customers.  We were running over, there was all kinds of pressure to stay on time because of Tuesday’s overrun and I succumbed to the pressure.  I had control over the presentation, everyone was very engaged (there was no one walking out) and I should have just done the interviews anyway.  Perhaps our customers had seen enough of Marilyn Monroe the day before, but they definitely would have enjoyed hearing from their peers about SHCM.  Oh well, next time I’ll know better.

All in all, a great event!  And now that I’ve slept nearly 12 hours a night for a few days, I’m starting to feel like a human being again as well.  Thanks to everyone that helped to make CUE2008 and the SHCM launch a big success!

The first full day was full of press and analyst briefings — I just love the way those folks batter you with questions.  I often wonder how long a meeting would last if I just let them ask until they ran out them!  But they keep me on my toes — asking challenging questions about strategy, product vision and operations.  Sounds crazy, but I find them to be fun.

We also opened the SHCM Lounge where we started talking to customers en mass about SHCM.  The first full overview session had nearly 100 people - far more than we’d been expecting.  And every time I stop by, all of the demo stations seem to be full.  A good day overall.

If you’d like to see a short video blog of the lounge, click here.

We’re going to try a different medium today — video.  This clip does a pretty good job of summarizing what’s great about CUE — our customers (one in particular) and the tenor of the conference so far.  Talk to you tomorrow!

I made it to Las Vegas without incident, although thanks to spring break all over the USA, more than a few people missed their flights due to long security lines – thank goodness for elite frequent flier programs!  It’s great to have the conference in a single facility, where everyone (especially Lawson employees) can all stay in the same hotel.  But the Venetian is a gigantic place – you have to wonder how they make the logistics work so well.

Yesterday was for internal meetings – I had one with the product management team.  The details would probably bore you to death – but there was an evolving theme for the afternoon – the numbers 8 and 12.  After the two numbers came up a second time in less than an hour, I knew that I had to act – so I hit the roulette table, put $15 on 8 and 12 and hit the jackpot for $350!  I looked like a complete idiot, having never played roulette — I didn’t realize I’d won until the dealer started pushing chips my way.  But when I cashed them in (which I did immediately), those three $100 bills felt mighty good.  I gave about $100 back to the slot machine gods, but it’s all good.  Next stop should be a designer boutique – I’ll burn the cash one way or another.

Next up is the employee rehearsal this evening and more importantly, dry runs of the big SHCM demonstration for Wednesday with the team.  The conference really kicks into high gear tomorrow!

It’s 2:30 on Friday afternoon, and the Lawson offices are rapidly becoming a ghost town!  Even the cafeteria will be closed next week as a majority of employees in the St. Paul headquarters will be in Las Vegas.

We’re ready and excited about the week to come.  The big news of the week is all of the cocktail parties that our partners will be hosting — my e-mail has been loaded with invites, and I’ll be taking advantage of it!  I should start a nasty rumor that Paris Hilton is going to be at Tao (at the Venetian) on Tuesday night and Brittney is thinking about joining her!

Seriously, though — for those of you interested in the SHCM launch, check out the following:

• The SHCM lounge on the 4th floor of the Venetian (Delfino Rooms) will be loaded with opportunities to learn more about the product
• At 1pm on Wednesday, our customers will host a panel discussion on their experiences with the product and provide an opportunity for interested prospective customers to hear from the experts
• We’ll present a major live demo at the general session on Wednesday, hosted by Dean Hager (with yours truly taking a shot in the spotlight as well)

I’m off to Las Vegas in the morning — hope to see you there!

On Friday, we announced the acquisition of VasTech – an Annapolis, MD-based provider of workforce management solutions.  I’ve been eager to expand the Lawson product footprint in this area, and this deal is the perfect strategic move.  Making the decision to buy a company is always a challenging one – you take a quick look at a company, decide if it looks interesting and then dig into the evaluation phases referred to as due diligence.  For me, that is about managing risk.  Is the product what they say it is?  Will our customers respond favorably?  Can we sell more effectively to new customers?

But at the end of the day, it ends up coming down to the people associated with the organization.  Do you think you can work with them?  Are they trustworthy?  What are they hoping to do after the acquisition gets completed?  Will the addition of the folks to the Lawson team add incremental value?

The best part about this deal is the people.  Josh Vance, Amy Every and Ted Morahan have built a great set of workforce management applications that our healthcare clients will love and that our customers across-the-board will be able to leverage over time.  More importantly, they’ve assembled a team of dedicated folks that are committed to taking their company to the next level in partnership with the rest of the Lawson organization.  I’ve never started a company, so I have no idea what it’s like to sell it to someone else.  But when great folks like Josh, Amy and Ted decide to trust us with their ‘baby,’ I feel a sense of accomplishment in what it will mean for Lawson.  More importantly, I also inherit a sense of obligation to make sure that I do my part to make sure that their vision for the product and the company exceeds what everyone thought possible.

To the entire VasTech team – Welcome to Lawson!  We’re honored that you chose us.

I spent last Tuesday at a very interesting conference with investors that have interest in the HCM technology space.  For a bunch of folks that don’t work at all in our industry directly, they certainly knew a lot about our market, what interests our customers and the trends in the space.  I suppose that’s reasonable because their job is to figure out which of these companies to invest in.  Many of them influence large investment portfolios, and make a habit of knowing the companies well before making decisions to buy the stock.

So I expected lots of insightful questions about market opportunities, growth projections and how Lawson intended to differentiate its products.  And they didn’t disappoint.  But then, without exception (luckily my buddy from Investor Relations, Barbara Doyle, prepared me for this) they asked me if I thought the economy was in a recession.  My immediate response – how would I know?  I felt as if I had to all of a sudden have some enlightened insight into economic theory, the laws of supply and demand and what the Euro would be trading at by the end of the day.

OK, not really – but I was surprised by the level of interest that they had in what a guy like me had to say on the topic.  In fairness, it was mostly about whether we have seen changes in buying behavior (no) or if we were anticipating a substantial shift in customers’ decision making on purchases from us (not yet).

Then I was reading Business Week in the car yesterday, and saw more of the same – everyone on the planet talking about the potential for a recession, each with a different opinion or two about the topic.  It got me to wondering:  how do we tell the difference between a media/hype-induced recession (I suppose I could have been a contributor to just such an effect during my meetings on Tuesday) and a real one? 

I’m sleeping at night because VPs of HR have to be looking at managing talent for the long-term, which will force them to make the kinds of investments that will make their organizations that much more competitive whenever any (possible) economic slowdown comes to an end.  It’s discretionary, but strategic – which means it will last longer on the priority list than many other investments of its type.

For me, you have to treat this stuff as nothing more than noise – I can’t control it, and can only react to those events that are tangible.  So it’s back to work for me!