This time of year people are writing about either the "best and worst" of the year, resolutions for the new year or predicting what will occur in the upcoming year.
My last blog talked about resolutions, my chair message in the IHRIM annual report highlighted the "IHRIM Top 10 Accomplishments" and not one to focus on the negative, I am going to pass on mentioning the "worst" of the year. Thus, I will move on to predictions for 2008.
1) Talent Management will continue to be a hot topic. Yes, I know this is an easy one, but there is nothing wrong with stating the obvious! However, this year there will be some disillusionment in the technology solutions offered as the adopters realize that there is no holy grail and implementing a Talent Management solution takes a lot of effort. Look for sales of these applications to slow down this year.
2) Consolidation in the vendor industry will continue as vendors continue to grow market share and product suite by buying the niche products. Particularly look out for ADP who I predict will make additional acquisitions this year to round out their HR Product offerings in the Talent Management space.
3) Growth in sales of the "non erp" HRMS. Watch for significant growth in the sales of products by HRSmart, Spectrum, and Utimate. These products have full suites of functionality and established track records of success. With the growth of SOA, the integration issues will be increasingly reduced and the savvy buyer will find they get a better product at a better total cost of ownership by switching to a "non erp" HRMS product.
4) Workforce planning and management applications will be the "new thing". Watch for Vemo and SynchSource to have a larger presence this year. This is a space that the HRMS market has not yet developed out and with the increasing focus on managing the workforce, planning tools will be in high demand. These 2 vendors are the first out the gate and will help to drive awareness of the importance of workforce planning.
5) Corporate Social Networks and collaboration will continue to be top of mind. HR, however will need to battle with their Corporate Communication departments for ownership of this. Microsoft Sharepoint will continue to be a leader but watch for SelectMinds, AdpativePath, and IBM LotusConnections to come out strong this year.
6) Odesk, a relatively unknown provider of outsourced IT resources will not only grow in customer base, but also be the catalyst for other suppliers of outsourced resources to reevaluate how they offer their services. If you don't know who they are today, you will by the end of the year. Look for them to begin appearing at trade shows and advertise in HR related publications.
7) IHRIM 2008 Conference will see a more than 10% growth in attendance. With a location like Orlando, the success of our 2007 conference, and the early bird registration numbers we have seen, this will be a tremendous year for this premier event.
8) IHRIM Membership will grow by 20%. As the only formal social network for HRMS professionals, and the new tools for networking that will be provided in the coming year, IHRIM will have a significant growth in membership.
If you have predictions to share, or comments about what I predict, please comment on this posting.
May your 2008 be Great!
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1 comment:
Appreciate the predictions but feel it was very unprofessional to list specific vendor names. IHRIM is an "association" with many members - vendors, practitioners, academics, etc. - and IHRIM should not be plugging certain vendors. It seems a bit inappropriate. If you were an unbiased analyst firm who had thoroughly researched each vendor's offerings then maybe it would be appropriate to put out a report but to simply list a few firms seems poor judgment - especially coming from an association president. Plus, some of the vendor examples you provided were incorrect and you left out some excellent vendors.
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