With all of the recent purchases, acquisitions, and mergers in Human Resources technology during the past few years, the space has seen a lot of activity. “Our industry, specifically recruiting, talent management, and human capital when it comes to technology is a complicated and exciting place to be especially these last 36-48 months,” writes Jessica Miller-Merrell on Blogging4Jobs.
What does all of this activity mean for the future of HR tech? Check out what several experts had to say below.
How do recent mergers and acquisitions impact the HR tech space?
More Collaborative Research and Development -- and Hopefully Cheaper Costs for Business Customers
To this day, I am amazed at how few companies cater to the SMB market when more than 54 percent of the American workforce works for these small- to medium-sized firms. I am hoping that companies find ways to target smaller companies and offer them cost-efficient solutions to applicant tracking and human capital management -- not just the larger firms with deeper pockets.
-- Joey Price, Jumpstart:HR
Opportunity For New Applications
The incumbents have struggled with Innovators Dilemma and have slowing and/or reluctantly failed to breakout out of the ATS paradigm. The recent M&A activity has provided an opportunity in a brutal and very lucrative market, to provide intelligent, data driven applications for
talent acquisition, not just talent tracking.
-- Michael A. Morell, Riviera Partners
More Focus on Social and Cloud-Based Platforms
Recent acquisitions, such as Salesforce.com acquiring Rypple (now Work.com), are leading the charge against traditional, ineffective performance management solutions. Keeping up with the fast pace of today’s workforce is requiring solutions work the way modern workers do--and the future of work points to social and cloud-based platforms as a major part of HR technology.
-- Morgan Norman, WorkSimple
Allows to See Strength and Impacts Morale
From a positive perspective, mergers and acquisitions allow you to see who is stronger in the area of technology. Use it to impact the sharing of information to both companies providing instant access to information and a vehicle for real time information. This keeps employees abreast of what happening and promotes better morale. Employees do not want to feel that their livelihood is being threatened by anticipating the loss of employment. The negative of mergers and acquisitions includes sometimes widespread terminations.
-- Elizabeth Moffitt, Christopher Quinn Group
Enable Us To Work With Fewer Vendors and Simplify Integration and API’s
We’re in the early adoption stage with a number of talent acquisition technologies, particularly those in the social space. M & A activity will enable us to work with fewer vendors and, hopefully, eliminate some of the complexity regarding integration and API’s.
-- Larry Jacobson, Vistaprint
Improving Apps Through Increased Access For Customers
The outlook for HR tech is cloudy – but in a good way! – because cloud-based HR apps are gaining ground. Mergers and acquisitions in the HR tech space are focused on improving recruiting and management applications by giving customers access to the tools they need anytime, anywhere. The HR innovations that will have the greatest impact over the next few years will be delivered via the cloud.
-- Ziv Eliraz, Zao
Stifling Innovation and Reducing Choice
Customers will have less choice and there will be less innovation in the market. Big companies are trying to create closed systems based on proprietary platforms and this will lead to higher prices, less flexibility, and more lock-in for customers. Organizations can resist this by selecting best-of-breed platforms for maximum benefit.
-- Alex Raymond, Kapta
Validate the HR tech Space as an Opportunity For Growth, Leading to Funding for Future Innovations
It shows that larger enterprise software companies recognize the value in HR Tech as a growth opportunity. And, because those larger acquirers are validating the space, that will whet the appetites of the venture capital world to fund more innovation. HR Tech is in the early innings of innovation, and I can't wait to see what is around the corner.
-- Pete Kazanjy, TalentBin
Heather R. Huhman is the founder and president of Come Recommended, a content marketing and digital PR consultancy for organizations with products that target job seekers and/or employers. You can connect with Heather and Come Recommended on Twitter and Facebook.
