Times are a changing in Human Resources both in Australia and across the world as organisations deal with technologies and buzz words including Social, Cloud, Mobility and Big Data. The tools available for organisations to attract, retain, administer and understand people is booming and, if used well, these apps can be a key competitive advantage.
Today we’re announcing the launch of Navigo Research, an independent advisory group operating under the Navigo brand.
Why?
Well read on…
Vendor Consolidation
In the last 2 years there has been significant vendor consolidation – SAP purchasing SuccessFactors, Oracle purchasing Taleo, and IBM Kenexa. The consolidation has not been limited to international vendors – locally we have seen Chandler Macleod purchase Aurion (as part of the Ross Human Directions takeover) and Northgate Arinso purchasing of Neller. I along with many other industry veterans feeling that this consolidation is not yet over.
The move towards Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is bring with it a fundamental change to how software is purchased, implemented and used within organisations. While cloud computing has its foundation in the early “hosting” or “timeshare” offerings cloud is very different. As a recent article in ZDNet highlighted we are now at a time when computing power is powerful enough to allow computers to be “good” with people and not just be an adding machine. This change is being reflected in the new HR systems built for the cloud, such as Workday or BamabooHR. They are designed with a people first philosophy, built to entice and engage.
Social media in the workplace
If these changes were not enough social media in the enterprise is now being seen as a productivity/revenue boost not a time waster. While many of the traditional HR solutions are starting to offer social tools as a module of their existing products there are other vendors moving into this market place. For example Salesforce’s purchase, just over a year ago, of Rypple has the potential to have the sales and marketing organisation now influencing collaboration, productivity and even performance management across your organisation.
Paying your employees is critical
While this new technology is good, every HR professional knows that fundamentally the most important part of your HR Technology landscape is Payroll. Not “sexy” but when it goes wrong payroll can become front page mainstream news over shadowing all of the good work done on leadership programs, engagement and succession planning.
Ensuring that your “back office” is operating as effectively and efficiently as possible is important to business success.
A lack of Australian HR Technology research
Over the last three years conducting the HR Technology surveys we’ve noticed a few common themes. One key theme across all surveys, and Navigo’s core HRIS consulting business, is that while Australian and New Zealand organisations need to get ready for these changes there is a distinct lack of local research and advice around the HR Technology market in Australia. There are global leaders such as Gartner and Bersin by Deloitte but very limited information focusing specifically on the Australian market.
To address this deficiency we decided to establish Navigo Research
Navigo Research is an independent advisory group operating under the Navigo brand.
Navigo Research will provide HR technology focused advisory services that are tightly integrated with industry based research data.
Our three primary service offerings are HR Technology Research, HR Technology Reviews and Systems Selection Support:
In addition to the above services we will be blogging on a regular basis covering different trends in HR technology, the most recent news, and profiling the different vendors who offer products and services in Australia and New Zealand.
While the broader Navigo brand has relationships with vendors and consultants across the industry, under the Navigo Research banner we proudly maintain our independence from all HR related solutions vendors, to ensure we maintain a totally unbiased reputable view of the industry.
To this end we have setup a new team to operate under the Navigo Research brand.
I hope over the coming months and years, you as buyers of HR technology in Australia find value in the services we plan to offer.
