Part Two – More HR Tech
Jobs2Web: Clearly the best find at HR Tech was someone who wasn’t even exhibiting. Doug Berg, serial entrepreneur [techies.com, hotgigs] and currently the CEO of Jobs2Web, has developed an interactive recruitment marketing platform that integrates with the current talent acquisition systems and provides a comprehensive suite of products that helps firms market their jobs to very targeted audiences. Using tools such as campaign management system, integration to over 20 Web 2.0 type products’, detailed measurements and metrics, this tool focuses on search engine optimization for key positions within the firm. With over 125 firms on this platform, its software as a service model could be the job board killer app. This tool does not replace your typical talent acquisition system that sits on top of it as a dedicated sourcing engine.
Talx – Equifax: Although it is estimated that 80% of mergers and acquisitions don’t work, and we’ve clearly seen evidence of this in the human capital space – the acquisition of Talx by Equifax seems to have fallen in the 20% rule. With today’s current economic clients, Talx has experienced significant growth in the insurance claims business and the I-9 verification business. In addition, more companies are trying to save money by delivering pay stubs electronically. All of these are core offerings by Talx. On the other hand, their assessment business is directly related to the hiring process and has slowed down. Although they have experienced significant growth in some product lines, a number of the owners confirmed that companies they have previously bought are now reentering the market as their non-compete clauses have expired.
Authoria- Last year’s HR Tech conference brought the announcement that Authoria was being taken over by a private equity firm. At that time we were reassured by the current management that the additional financing and privatization would bring additional sales and marketing expertise to their organization. Little did they realize that the senior management team would be totally replaced, that the product still required significant investments, and the last 12 months was a time when the new management had to come into the business and show demonstrable change and product improvement. We think it’s been a hard year for both Authoria and for their client base but that things should improve in the next 12 months.
SumTotal Systems: As a traditional licensed vendor trying to convert their client base to a software-as-a-service model, it’s extremely difficult as a publicly traded entity. When SumTotal was acquired by the private equity firm The VISTA Equity in the public spotlight, it gave itself room to redevelop itself into a true software-as-a-service model. With Barbara Stinnett <http://www.sumtotalsystems.com/company/team/Stinnett.html> as the new CEO, she is tasked with stabilizing the current client base, combining a mishmash of products from Docent, Pathlore, Mindsolve and Click2Learn into one homogeneous product offering. This is not an easy task. The real question is then the loss of clients short-term while fixing the product line in gaining momentum in a very competitive market. Many clients already started to migrate or shop for new talent management or learning management systems.
Saba: Unlike SumTotal who has bought and merged many products, Saba seems focused on building up their own product line. As the only LMS vendor on the public market it still faces the challenge of quarterly earnings calls. Clearly behind other companies that have more pieces of the pie in integrated talent management solution, their focus continues to be a large-scale learning management system deployment and performance management initiatives. At this point it’s really hard to differentiate why someone would buy Saba over several of the other talent management vendors.
Part Three tomorrow ....
