GigaOm Radar for Human Capital Management (HCM)v1.0

Table of Contents

  1. Summary
  2. Market Categories and Deployment Types
  3. Key Criteria Comparison
  4. GigaOm Radar
  5. Vendor Insights
  6. Analyst’s Take
  7. About Bill Witter

1. Summary

The ability to consistently identify and retain top talent is a critical priority across enterprises and can be a key differentiating factor among competitors. Furthermore, a link between employee satisfaction and overall productivity has caused organizations to shift from tactically managing labor costs to strategically maximizing talent assets. These drivers have helped accelerate a broad human capital management (HCM) market with vendors that are continually expanding and maturing capabilities to satisfy this growing need.

To be considered in this report, a modern HCM solution must, at a minimum, include support for basic human resources (HR) processes. This includes labor management, payroll and benefits, and training functions. These modules can be offered natively or via third-party integration. Applications should be underpinned by a central datastore of employee information that’s manageable via self-serve functionality. A standard workflow should support task generation through cross-application workflows such as those for approvals and benefits elections. Finally, pre-configured analytics and dashboards should be available for enterprise-wide telemetry support. Solution suites should be manageable by business users and offer no-code customization for each application.

As demand for this technology increases, more Challengers have started to offer full-featured suites across strategic talent capabilities such as advanced recruiting, workforce management, and talent development. Broad platforms are supplemented with third-party marketplaces and open services for custom integration. And Leaders continue to differentiate themselves with dynamic, employee-focused applications that are driven by artificial intelligence (AI) analytics and extensive process modelers.

These platforms not only transform the way organizations support employees but also help scale HR teams via ticketing engines, digital assistants, and automated knowledge-management functionality. No-code configuration helps business users create custom employee workflows and drive a proactive culture of support. Self-service is further maximized by collaboration spaces, survey engines, and development portals with high-quality content.

Centralization of all HR data is a key consideration when choosing a solution provider, along with security and accessibility. Vendors can either specialize in integration with existing infrastructure or offer easy-to-onboard standalone suites with affordable add-on packages. Most platforms are available through cloud-only software as a service (SaaS) deployment, though some providers also offer on-premises support.

Businesses can use this GigaOm Radar report as the first step in evaluating HCM vendors based on advanced applications, no-code configurators, and/or pricing structure. In the accompanying GigaOm report “Key Criteria for Evaluating HCM Solutions,” we describe in more detail the key criteria and evaluation factors that are used to evaluate vendors in this market.

How to Read this Report

This GigaOm report is one of a series of documents that helps IT organizations assess competing solutions in the context of well-defined features and criteria. For a fuller understanding, consider reviewing the following reports:
Key Criteria report: A detailed market sector analysis that assesses the impact that key product features and criteria have on top-line solution characteristics—such as scalability, performance, and TCO—that drive purchase decisions.
GigaOm Radar report: A forward-looking analysis that plots the relative value and progression of vendor solutions along multiple axes based on strategy and execution. The Radar report includes a breakdown of each vendor’s offering in the sector.
Solution Profile: An in-depth vendor analysis that builds on the framework developed in the Key Criteria and Radar reports to assess a company’s engagement within a technology sector. This analysis includes forward-looking guidance around both strategy and product.