A brief analysis of various vendors in the HCM space.
- The first vendor selected was Successfactors An SAP Company. They were founded in 2001 and eventually bought out by SAP and have headquarters in San Mateo, CA. They have several strengths and they were considered the market leader for on-boarding according to Gartner. They have been found to have best-in-class performance management functionality. Furthermore, their functionality is delivered five times per year via SaaS model which allows quick responses to customers’ needs. Lastly, many customers indicated that product quality and ease of use were better than average for on-boarding. Some weaknesses for Successfactors as a vendor deal with the customization and integration with existing client systems. Since medical manufacturers rely heavily on ADP to provide human resource management systems it would be necessary to integrate the on-boarding module with the rest of the systems.
- The next vendor selected was Silkroad technology which filled the niche position. As a smaller company based in Winston-Salem, NC Silkroad is able to provide better customization and a easy to use system. The strengths of their on-boarding system include strong search and data-mining technologies. They have also been named by Gartner as having the best-in-class functionality. Another benefit of their module is that is more comprehensive and could be expanded upon to include off-boarding if needed. The weakness for the SilkRoad system is they provide little in the way of effective on-boarding training for managers that extends beyond technical “how-to” learning for the system. This could become a problem if the person in charge of the system doesn’t have many technical skills. There have also been issues with Silkroads use of firewall and protection system which limits the ability to connect with external systems. Since Silkroad on-boarding would be another add on module it would again be difficult to integrate with the existing ADP systems.
- Peoplefluent is a well established vendor since 1997 and headquartered in Waltham Massachusetts. They are a stable company who have much support in the financial industry. The strengths of the system deal with the customizable, accessible and easy to use new hire portal. This is especially important as it gives a good impression to new hires who are onboarding. Customers found the on-boarding systems was easy to configure and the product quality was strong. This is important for clients as it will require less maintenance and technical hours to manage it. The weaknesses of their system deals with lack of awareness in the project manager market. Since not many managers might have experience with the system it might be difficult to follow a detailed plan. There would be more risks as implementing the system doesn’t have as many guides. Lastly, the system would have trouble integrating with the existing ADP systems and accessing information for on-boarding.
- ADP is the current provider of most human resource managements systems for the medical manufacture. They have a large presence in the market as a SaaS provider. The bussiniess has worked with ADP in the past and future projects would already have that existing relationship. Their on-boarding module is called Salute and would work with the existing systems. Another major benefit of the ADP system would be that it integrates seamlessly and would not require separate support. The weakness of using ADP deals with too much reliance on one vendor for all systems. There could be major issues if ADP runs into trouble as the client invested heavily into using their systems.