In Full Bloom http://infullbloom.us Give me that KSAOC religion! Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:16:24 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Naomi’s Annual “Appearance” On Mr. Bill’s Radio Show http://infullbloom.us/?p=1341 http://infullbloom.us/?p=1341#comments Mon, 30 Aug 2010 11:00:41 +0000 Naomi Bloom http://infullbloom.us/?p=1341 Oh No Mr. Bill!

On Wednesday (9-1-2010) at noon EST, I’ll be doing my third annual guest “appearance” on Bill Kutik’s Radio Show, which is very generously sponsored by Knowledge Infusion.  I always look forward to doing these shows because Bill’s a great interviewer, the long tale of replays is enormous, and getting ready to [...]]]>

Oh No Mr. Bill!

On Wednesday (9-1-2010) at noon EST, I’ll be doing my third annual guest “appearance” on Bill Kutik’s Radio Show, which is very generously sponsored by Knowledge Infusion.  I always look forward to doing these shows because Bill’s a great interviewer, the long tale of replays is enormous, and getting ready to be pithy and ready for Bill’s questions forces me to a clarity of thinking that ups my game.   

No one is ever sure what we’ll discuss, including Bill and me, but I’m sure we’ll hit on some of the most important topics facing our industry.  What about the absolute sea change that’s underway in HRM software (really in all applications software) from single tenant, licensed on-premise to multi-tenant, subscribed and hosted software?  Which vendors will be the winners, and who will end up in one of the growing software graveyards?  And what about the HR profession?  After so many years of our collective best efforts, why are they still unable to draw a line of sight from what they do to the financial outcomes of the organization?  Is there a point at which the line of business leaders just take over strategic HRM?  We love naming names, but you’ll never know who they are if you don’t listen.   

I’m sure that we’ll take a few moments to kvell over the upcoming HR Technology Conference, which substitutes in Bill’s life for the physical children he never had (or at least doesn’t acknowledge).  If you can’t wait for the conference, join the conversation at the Conference’s LinkedIn group.  Or better yet, read everything on this blog and then quote my own mistakes to me at the Conference’s “Ask the Expert” session I’ll be hosting — but please don’t bring throwable fruit.   

But whatever else you’re up to over the next few days, please do join Bill and me for what feels to us like one of the many thousand such telephone chats we’ve done since we met.  The only difference will be that you are there.

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]]> http://infullbloom.us/?feed=rss2&p=1341 1 Event Report — Workday Technology Summit 8-23-2010 — Humongous Post http://infullbloom.us/?p=1333 http://infullbloom.us/?p=1333#comments Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:55:48 +0000 Naomi Bloom http://infullbloom.us/?p=1333 Workday held a briefing yesterday for twenty of enterprise software’s toughest and most knowledgeable analysts.  Workday had much more to say about their technology and business strategy, about their underlying architecture and object model, and about what’s cooking in the Lab than they’ve revealed thus far to this type of audience.  Even a few surprises [...]]]> Workday held a briefing yesterday for twenty of enterprise software’s toughest and most knowledgeable analysts.  Workday had much more to say about their technology and business strategy, about their underlying architecture and object model, and about what’s cooking in the Lab than they’ve revealed thus far to this type of audience.  Even a few surprises for me, and I’ve been following them closely.  Much of this session was tweeted, so nothing here is under NDA.  

For those of you familiar with/working with my HRM object model and architecture “starter kits” (please note that Workday is not a licensee but has been a client as was PeopleSoft), and those of you who have been reading my blog (including all the boring bits), there are no surprises here as to direction.  But I think you’ll be impressed, as many to most of the analysts were, with how far they’ve gotten along their chosen path — and with what discipline, healthy culture and management effectiveness they’ve accomplished this.  Obviously, having a lot of resources with which to work and a headstart from some acquired technology helps, and it also helps that the leadership has learned from their past efforts.

I couldn’t make this important session to my regret, but I’ve tried to capture as much as possible of the twitterstream via RTs.  Below is my twitterstream from this period, read as you know from the bottom up to get chron order.  Following that are two sources (thus far) of the total twitterstream as captured by colleagues who were there using tools with which I’m not familiar.  And I’m sure there will be a deluge of blog posts/analyst reports/etc. coming very soon.  Already posted are Dennis Howlett, Brian Sommer, Mipro.  A good backgrounder on Workday’s technology stack, written before the Summit is here.

What’s important here is how much leverage Workday derives from working in objects as true objects and from the other components of their architecture.  And while I’m not touting Workday per se, I think they are an excellent example of the ideas I have been touting for quite some time.  You’ll reach your own conclusions about what’s needed to compete at the intersection of HRM and IT, but I thought this humongous twitterstream might be useful input.

  1. TwapperKeeperEX
  2.   : @InFullBloomUS your TwapperKeeper hashtag archive #workdaytech is ready for download at http://bit.ly/a4DSdD 11 minutes ago via Twapper Keeper Retweeted by you
  3.   If you’re intrigued w what you saw at #workdaytech, check out #Meta4. Started earlier, far fewer resources, other constraints but same path. about 1 hour ago via web
  4.   It does my heart good to see tough #EntSW analysts kvelling over power of objects, definitional development, inheritance, etc. #workdaytech about 1 hour ago via web
  5. jcorsello
  6.   RT @brasker: StepStone Solutions closes MrTed acquisition – expands capability to address global talent acquisition http://bit.ly/9WGrSC #ki about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  7.   RT @dahowlett Workday is a lot more humble than I expected even though they have a lot to show #workdaytech >> my POV: leadership sets tone about 1 hour ago via web
  8.   RT @dahowlett My takeaway from today? Workday is trying hard to be transparent…and is listening #workdaytech about 1 hour ago via web
  9.   RT @dahowlett My take on Workday: accidental social ninjas #workdaytech about 1 hour ago via web
  10.   RT @jasonaverbook Interesting to see that HCM is Lawson #1 product line – congrats Lawson team! about 1 hour ago via web
  11.   Jason Corsello’s latest edition RT @Irregulars Welcoming the Youngest Enterprise Irregular http://bit.ly/aahS7a about 1 hour ago via web
  12.   RT @ClarkNewby Fantastic 1st Workday Tech Summit draws to close. Thank you to terrific roomful of thought leader participants! #workdaytech about 1 hour ago via web
  13.   RT @paulhamerman #workdaytech Thanks to @andrewworkday for organizing a substantive and informative analyst event. about 1 hour ago via web
  14.   RT @rwang0 It’s a wrap! time to sign the poster, get on bus and continue at www.wentevineyards.com #workdaytech #innovation #cloud #saas about 1 hour ago via web
  15.   RT @paulhamerman #workdaytech Workday has a dilemma betw building what custs ask for versus building innovative solutions ahead of curve. about 1 hour ago via web
  16.   RT @merv RT @rwang0: Twitter use in company meetings reminds me of passing notes in junior high #workdaytech > or analyst briefings about 1 hour ago via web
  17.   RT @mkrigsman Workday Labs showing native iPad HD app, including “Workfeed” #workdaytech << I’m seeing shades of Chatter here about 1 hour ago via web
  18.   RT @rwang0 Native apps in #ipad allow gestures to come alive. Touch your BI. All you need feedback on ipad #workdaytech #innovation #saas about 1 hour ago via web
  19.   RT @jimholincheck #workdaytech conversational trans are an interesting take on self-service using SMS or Twitter and search of WD metadata about 1 hour ago via web
  20.   RT @merv #workdaytech say “Hello” to workday with an SMS – get pers assistant. If it has metadata, can ask, say, “what’s my PTO balance”? about 2 hours ago via web
  21.   RT @rwang0 #workday conversational transactions – moving into conversations. #workdaytech #innovation #cloud #saas about 2 hours ago via web
  22.   RT @paulhamerman #workdaytech Anytime feedback is micro-blogging feature within app. Nice idea, others have it, may or may not be useful. about 2 hours ago via web
  23.   RT @merv #workdaytech using voice recognition on iPhone – feedback for my team – “great presentation, Betty” about 2 hours ago via web
  24.   RT @vendorprisey @aneelb doth protest too much on social. There is lots in the brew here (mixing my Macbeth metaphors). #workdaytech about 2 hours ago via web
  25.   RT @mfauscette #workdaytech anytime feedback feature coming in next rlse – labs innovation take it out to mobile & incorporate voice input about 2 hours ago via web
  26.   RT @merv #workdaytech twitter DM with a bit.ly link allowed recipient to launch Workday and execute required business action as a result about 2 hours ago via web
  27.   RT @jimholincheck Nice posts RT @CurtMonash: http://bit.ly/9FLVXS glad I got my oview/background/platform posts before #workdaytech ! about 2 hours ago via web
  28.   RT @merv #workdaytech using Notification API to send messages to Twitter. But, as @dahowlett points out, F500 has problems with that idea. about 2 hours ago via web
  29.   RT @mfauscette RT @workday: @JoeKorngiebel on Workday Labs. 3 months old. Center for research & innovation #workdaytech #innovation #cloud about 2 hours ago via web
  30.   RT @rwang0 Pivot rocks. 10M rows of data, sorted in less than a second #workdaytech #innovation #cloud #saas about 2 hours ago via web
  31.   RT @rwang0 Seeing new data visualizations. Microsoft Pivot. #workdaytech #innovation #cloud #saas about 2 hours ago via web
  32.   RT @jimholincheck #workdaytech Nice demo new Outlook integr8 they are working on inclu Workfeed that lists sys events/info rela8 to worker. about 2 hours ago via web
  33.   RT @ merv #workdaytech partners have used the open API into the Google Calendar for tracking vacations about 2 hours ago via web
  34.   RT @vendorprisey there is quite a lot of social capability here, they just don’t label it social. probably sensible. #workdaytech about 2 hours ago via web
  35.   RT @rwang0 Workfeeds are activity streams. Activity streams really workflow ver 12 (interaction hist) #workdaytech #innovation #cloud #saas about 2 hours ago via web
  36.   RT @merv #workdaytech deom of Labs connection between WorkDay and Outlook. Rich – context within another context about 2 hours ago via web
  37.   RT @rwang0 Skype integration very cool in #workday #workdaytech #innovation #cloud #saas about 2 hours ago via web
  38.   RT @paulhamerman #workdaytech Workday discussing the concept of a “natural workspace.” Could be Outlook, mobile, other environments. about 2 hours ago via web
  39.   For the record, I’m just finishing off my RTs of #workdaytech from yesterday. Twitter shut me down, and I wanted a complete record. about 2 hours ago via web
  40.   RT @vanheukelom Managing workforce info and compliance is one thing, if you want to enable work getting done – requires social #workdaytech about 2 hours ago via web
  41.   RT @mfauscette #workdaytech workday labs focus: natural workspace, data filters, collaboration, and mobile about 2 hours ago via web
  42.   RT @rwang0 RT @ScottGuinn: #workdaytech Workday Labs modeled after Innovation model of Google and LinkedIn about 2 hours ago via web
  43.   RT @rwang0 @aneelb Workday Labs fosters innvoation. Pay attention to consumer internet companies. UI/backend/biz models #workdaytech #cloud about 2 hours ago via web
  44.   RT @jimholincheck #workdaytech thought folks would be excited abt custom analytics. no need to pre-define dims/cubes. flex for parts/custs. about 2 hours ago via web
  45.   @SueMarks Many of my HCM software vendor clients, esp those who have licensed my domain model/architecture “starter kit,” are on this path. about 2 hours ago via web in reply to SueMarks
  46.   @SueMarks Workday is doing many of the things I advocate for good HCM software, from my object model to preferred architectural behaviors. about 2 hours ago via web in reply to SueMarks
  47.   @glfceo Can’t speak for anyone else, but I’ve never been paid and will never be paid for a tweet. Can’t imagine anything sleezier. about 2 hours ago via web in reply to glfceo
  48.   @bostonwriter I was directly on Twitter’s Web site. about 2 hours ago via web in reply to bostonwriter
  49.   RT @jasonaverbook Huge point from WD Tech Summit is how Workday listens to its custs even to dislike of analysts at times #workdaytech #ki about 2 hours ago via web
  50.   RT @jimholincheck #workdaytech Has report catalog that allows customers to share report defs w other customers. Good idea – SaaS-enabled. about 2 hours ago via web
  51.   RT @dealarchitect any tech ven could get this qual of interaction if they could be this open @ZoliErdos: tweetstream excelnt #workdaytech about 2 hours ago via web
  52.   RT @dahowlett ‘Which other vendor can you make a transaction out of a report?’ @aneelb #workdaytech about 2 hours ago via web
  53.   RT @ZoliErdos @aneelb it’s not about following friends, it’s about who “friends” should be in context of what I am doing now #workdaytech about 2 hours ago via web
  54.   RT@rwang0 Customers gain #bi and #analytics as part of the license fee. No additional bolt ons. #workdaytech #bi #cloud #saas about 2 hours ago via web
  55.   RT @johnrrymer #workdaytech Demos here show power of navigating an object model rather than submitting queries, etc. Much more flexibility. about 2 hours ago via web
  56.   RT @merv #workdaytech Workday has shown admirable focus today, staying in its space w its context & not going in too many other directions. about 2 hours ago via web
  57.   RT @rwang0 actionable insight comes for free b/c it’s not bolt on. OO design allows for this #workdaytech #cloud #bi about 2 hours ago via web
  58. rwang0
  59.   Tweetdeck, skype, email, and side conversations are a multi-taskers challenge at events #workdaytech #cloud #bi about 12 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 2 others
  60. dahowlett
  61.   RT @chinamartens451: Another lesson Workday learned from PSoft is 2 be global from get-go not one they tend to highlight #workdaytech < about 12 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  62. jimholincheck
  63.   #workdaytech Bashing TM vendors on global-has point from a SoR perspective, but not entirely, have cust using in more than 100 countries too about 12 hours ago via HootSuite Retweeted by you and 1 other
  64. rwang0
  65.   RT @mfauscette: #workdaytech focus is apps so no plans to sell platform, analytics, integrations outside of the workday environment about 12 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  66. mkrigsman
  67.   Main point of Workday BI: simple, self-service, easy to use. Needed as part of system of record platform. #workdaytech about 12 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 1 other
  68. merv
  69.   #workdaytech My POV: Does Workday have to be where other data is brought in or should it provide to chosen BI solutions? Today, the latter. about 12 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  70. Workday
  71.   Delivering Data Analytics Through @Workday SaaS Applications http://bit.ly/bZR6cL via @Dana_Gardner #workdaytech #podcast #EnSW #BI about 12 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  72.   I thought I was doing a public service for the #HRtech community, but perhaps I need to purchase a higher level Twitter membership first. about 2 hours ago via web
  73.   Morning all. I guess I did so much RTing of #workdaytech yesterday that Twitter decided I was a spammer and shut me down. Blech! about 2 hours ago via web
  74.   @mkrigsman It’s more than BI that’s needed. We need full range of embedded intelligence http://infullbloom.us/?p=1211 #workdaytech about 12 hours ago via web in reply to mkrigsman
  75. mfauscette
  76.   #workdaytech focus is apps so no plans to sell platform, analytics, integrations outside of the workday environment about 12 hours ago via Tweetings Retweeted by you
  77. jasonaverbook
  78.   Brian Sommer spot on, orgs want to pull in outside data for HR reports/analytics, not just what in Workday #workdaytech #ki about 12 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  79. rwang0
  80.   My POV: BI must be more predictive, proactive, and pushed to the right person at the right time. #workdaytech #cloud #bi about 12 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  81. rwang0
  82.   RT @jimholincheck: #workdaytech brian sommer makes a good point about integrating external data for analytics and predictive intelligence. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  83. mkrigsman
  84.   Now listening to @pgustafson discuss Workday’s approach to BI << focus on simplicity and openness #workdaytech about 13 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  85. merv
  86.   #workdaytech key issues for Workday’s BI approach is Context: actionable, drillable, time-aware. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  87. merv
  88.   #workdaytech jargon-free BI – no dimensions, fact tables, etc. what a concept. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 2 others
  89.   @jasonaverbook You are so right. Ron’s buried, I’m buried, and we both need hands on remedial workshop. about 13 hours ago via web in reply to jasonaverbook
  90. mfauscette
  91.   #workdaytech biz / budget trade-off for next product enhancement, decided to do executive mobile instead of expanded collab and social about 13 hours ago via Tweetings Retweeted by you and 1 other
  92. ZoliErdos
  93.   Had to pick between collaboration or C-level apps for reasource reasons @infullbloomus #workdaytech about 13 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  94. mkrigsman
  95.   Workday considered major investment in collaboration, but decided C-level analytic apps would have more impact for their cust #workdaytech about 13 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 1 other
  96.   Thanks to @jasonaverbook, I have a new iPad. Now all I need are Workday exec apps for it. Can’t wait. #workdaytech about 13 hours ago via web
  97. mhweier
  98.   takes guts to develop a new enterprise product focusing first on ipad. Bhusri notes execs love new devices #workdaytech about 13 hours ago via web Retweeted by you
  99. merv
  100.   #workdaytech “It’s not about who has the best app, it’s about who has the best app that gets used” – Bhusri about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 2 others
  101. rwang0
  102.   Analytics is key driver for financial sales Tablet- starting point. Multi-touch perfect form factor #workdaytech #integration #saas #cloud about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  103. andrewworkday
  104.   #iPad becoming gateway for delivering enterprise apps that matter to the c-suite #workdaytech #analytics a top priority about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  105. mkrigsman
  106.   Workday pushing into operational analytics apps, design for C-Level. iPad the platform #Workdaytech about 13 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  107. jimholincheck
  108.   #workdaytech For the record, the last time I disagreed with @aneelb, he was right and I was wrong. I take his POV seriously. about 13 hours ago via HootSuite Retweeted by you
  109.   @toppundit Toy is the operative word on iPad? #workdaytech about 13 hours ago via web in reply to toppundit
  110.   @ZoliErdos iPad great for those who can’t touch type 120 wpm about 13 hours ago via web in reply to ZoliErdos
  111. vendorprisey
  112.   C level user centric apps. #workdaytech “Ipad has screamed into the enterprise.” about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  113. mfauscette
  114.   #workdaytech c-level apps coming soon: focus on KPI’s and eventually move to predictive analytics, mobile including iPad. about 13 hours ago via Tweetings Retweeted by you and 2 others
  115. ZoliErdos
  116.   talking (no–pre-announcing) C-level apps. #workdaytech about 13 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  117. jasonaverbook
  118.   Great feedback today on Taleo customer response time to issues. Nice to see customer service from SaaS provider in space about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 2 others
  119. rwang0
  120.   Manager Self Service is a driver why #workday customers chose them #workdaytech #integration #saas #cloud about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  121. rwang0
  122.   A paradigm shift in usage. Gestures, fingers, consumption sharing, mobile internet computing. #workdaytech #integration #saas #cloud about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 3 others
  123. toppundit
  124.   #workdaytech I see 2 iPads in the room, 5 Macs, among 21 or so pundits. Large number of iPhones. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  125. rwang0
  126.   RT @mfauscette: #workdaytech mobile: no disconnected mode because of privacy concerns about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  127. rwang0
  128.   My POV: If @linkedin would offer 3rd party profile cert it could grow their addresable market #workdaytech #saas #hcm #cloud about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  129. mfauscette
  130.   RT @merv: #workdaytech RIM’s technology is “ancient and limiting” right now (speaker names not listed to protect the guilty) about 13 hours ago via Tweetings Retweeted by you
  131. mfauscette
  132.   #workdaytech mobile: no disconnected mode because of privacy concerns about 13 hours ago via Tweetings Retweeted by you
  133. mkrigsman
  134.   RT @mfauscette: “ #workdaytech goal: enterprise technology that feels like a consumer app” > not just in UI but by being mobile & social too about 13 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  135. rwang0
  136.   Discussing how we build once deploy multiple times. #workdaytech #saas #cloud about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  137. merv
  138.   #workdaytech how will mobilization approaches compare in market? TBD. Is “ahead of curve” important? TBD by $$ buyers will spend. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  139. jasonaverbook
  140.   Loved @aneelb response re collaboration/customer adoption but still fine line btwn adoption and check box w/requirements #workdaytech #ki about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  141. mfauscette
  142.   #workdaytech mobile: 3 tiers: 1 – completely native app, 2 – native app / shell with HTML for transactions and 3 – browser only about 13 hours ago via Tweetings Retweeted by you and 1 other
  143. jimholincheck
  144.   #workdaytech clarification disagree w/ @aneelb on int soc med for collab. There is interest, Workday needs to have POV beyond biz process about 13 hours ago via HootSuite Retweeted by you and 1 other
  145. dahowlett
  146.   BUT – I’d say #workdaytech needs to be ready #social about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  147. vendorprisey
  148.   disagreeing with @aneelb on social and HCM. #workdaytech about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  149.   RT @vendorprisey have a look at #Rypple for HCM meets social stuff #workdaytech about 13 hours ago via web
  150.   RT @mfauscette #workdaytech mobility: have a native iPhone app about 13 hours ago via web
  151.   Big debate underway at #workdaytech about all things social. Your thoughts? about 13 hours ago via web
  152.   RT @mfauscette #workdaytech custs not asking for deep social functionality yet but I bet their emps using unapproved tools despite “rules” about 13 hours ago via web
  153.   RT @rwang0 MY POV: #linkedin is default resume. employees control it and it’s portable. drives orgs nuts but they must adapt #workdaytech about 13 hours ago via web
  154.   RT @rwang0 MY POV: employees and unions will drive innovations in #hcm and #social not companies #workdaytech #integration #saas #cloud about 13 hours ago via web
  155.   RT @paulhamerman #workdaytech Interesting, Aneel Bhusri is investor in soc networking, but not seeing customr demand for it in Workday base about 13 hours ago via web
  156. mkrigsman
  157.   “Social networking is not getting traction with Fortune 500 companies” — @aneelb #workdaytech about 13 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 5 others
  158. jasonaverbook
  159.   Collaboration still a weakness within Workday compared to point solution and ERP solutions on purpose,customers not ready! #workdaytech about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  160. Scott_Schmidt
  161.   Sad to think about HR orgs I know and their processes vs what software will support. HR needs to raise its game #workdaytech #ki about 13 hours ago via web Retweeted by you and 1 other
  162. rwang0
  163.   @aneelb customers not ready for too much #social right now #workdaytech #integration #saas #cloud about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  164. jimholincheck
  165.   #workdaytech participating in a bus process in Workday is not really collab as most people think of it today. Would not position as such. about 13 hours ago via HootSuite Retweeted by you
  166. rwang0
  167.   Collaboration on All business processes is comment focused only. Can’t share, retweet, add content. #workdaytech #integration #saas #cloud about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  168. rwang0
  169.   Role based security, a key pt in #nextgen #apps – dynamic user exp http://bit.ly/130WiO #workdaytech #integration #saas #cloud about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  170. mkrigsman
  171.   Richness in explanation of user interface shows depth of thinking on this topic, including roles, UI controls, search, etc #workdaytech about 13 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  172. dahowlett
  173.   Subliminal ‘green’ messages in choice of #workdaytech screen color palette? Nod to Apple 3D objects? Works nicely and better than blue/grey about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  174. paulhamerman
  175.   #workdaytech The employee image should be treated as an important piece of employee data, most HR depts not there yet though about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  176. rwang0
  177.   Workday Drilldown. whereever you see a blue number you can drill down and filter by other attributes #workdaytech #integration #saas #cloud about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  178. rwang0
  179.   Preview cards allow users to rollover to get details that are contextual #workdaytech #integration #saas #cloud #ux about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  180. merv
  181.   #workdaytech ability to pop up actions to take against things shown on screen is pervasive. another “free” benefit of the object-based model about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 2 others
  182. toppundit
  183.   #workdaytech Related action capability action excellent, but would benefit from using history (Favorite related actions) and context. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  184. dahowlett
  185.   @zloierdos serves well as our resident giggle master : Explains wheel – http://bit.ly/a74LnX about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  186. jasonaverbook
  187.   Workday search (v12) in the future is very powerful benefit for organizations to drive talent management/employee mgmt #workdaytech #ki about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  188. toppundit
  189.   #workdaytech I had had major reservations about the search capabilitiies–good, but easily overwhelmed–but in WD12, faceted search. Good-o. about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  190. mfauscette
  191.   #workdaytech new in next release faceted search, making a powerful tool more useful about 13 hours ago via Tweetings Retweeted by you
  192. mkrigsman
  193.   Search is an important way of navigating the system – to find tasks, reports, data, etc #workdaytech about 13 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 1 other
  194. rwang0
  195.   12 bubbles is the max in the wheel #ui #ue #ux #workdaytech #integration #saas #cloud #mobile about 13 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  196. ZoliErdos
  197.   Workday succeeded in reinventing the wheel :-) #workdaytech (to those not in the room, it’s their new UI) about 13 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 2 others
  198. jimholincheck
  199.   Yes, Outlook integration RT @jasonaverbook: Interesting to see Workday mgr/ee exp.how mgr/ee do tasks w/o going to Workday? #workdaytech #ki about 13 hours ago via HootSuite Retweeted by you and 1 other
  200. rwang0
  201.   LOL RT @ryanprociuk: @rwang0 Found best way to integrate app with BB is to use a hammer. about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  202. rwang0
  203.   Customers who made the choice to go to the wheels have had better adoption #workdaytech #integration #saas #cloud #mobile about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  204. jasonaverbook
  205.   Interesting to see manager/ee experience in Workday…what if org wants mgrs/ees to do tasks without going into Workday? #workdaytech #ki about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  206. rwang0
  207.   Role based design #ux #ue don’t need more boxes thrown at them. Design for need http://bit.ly/9ChcV9 #workdaytech #integration #saas #cloud about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  208. merv
  209.   #workdaytech describes pieces appearing on the interface as “worklets” – a meaningful functional paradigm about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  210. rwang0
  211.   Clarity: Unsexable,a category in the www.ushik.org db as part of the data registry standards #workdaytech http://bit.ly/9ChcV9 go to page 7 about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  212. mkrigsman
  213.   To understand the Workday architecture, look at Facebook, Google and other huge consumer services (from @aneelb in convo) #workdaytech about 14 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 1 other
  214. mfauscette
  215.   #workdaytech unique to workday experience: simplicity, modern, user focus, pleasing, pervasive innovation and everywhere about 14 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you and 2 others
  216. jasonaverbook
  217.   Even when deploying application as “good looking” as Workday;still huge/maybe more chg mgmt needed (not training) #workdaytech #ki about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  218. rwang0
  219.   Scalability in Charts – sliders in place for details. drill in/ drill around. Zoom and Pan. #workdaytech #integration #saas #cloud about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  220. dahowlett
  221.   @rwang0 you’re being kind about BB…pile of steaming poo about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck in reply to rwang0 Retweeted by you
  222. jimholincheck
  223.   #workdaytech Lots of discussion about acceptable response time to bring up a 10,000 line journal for editing – benchmark at 7 secs. about 14 hours ago via HootSuite Retweeted by you
  224. mfauscette
  225.   Growing trend – RT @paulhamerman: #workdaytech RIM BB is not a platform of interest right now for Workday. about 14 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you and 1 other
  226. vendorprisey
  227.   the metadata model does a lot of the basic UI work then specialised components do the sweet bits #workdaytech about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  228. mhweier
  229.   @aneelb says Workday “ready to go” on Android mobile if customers want it. iPhone still primary focus. #workdaytech about 14 hours ago via web Retweeted by you
  230. mkrigsman
  231.   “Blackberry a limited device for mobile apps” compared to iPhone #workdaytech about 14 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 1 other
  232. paulhamerman
  233.   #workdaytech Mobile support -everything except iPhone is through mobile browser only. Wday not being asked to deliver a native Android app. about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  234. toppundit
  235.   #workdaytech Having a release every 4 months is a great pace for UI development. << Interesting point. Particularly for mobile devices. about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  236. jasonaverbook
  237.   Workday is looking drive consumer look and feel with its applications-not all HR folks appreciate/want that experience #workdaytech #ki about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  238. mhweier
  239.   Sometimes lost in argument for #saas is updates vs. upgrades. Workday SaaS is 3 releases/yr. Can you imagine three upgrades/yr? #workdaytech about 14 hours ago via web Retweeted by you and 1 other
  240. paulhamerman
  241.   #workdaytech correction an earlier Tweet. Workday financials is GA now, has about 15 customers. Just not selling it aggressively up market. about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  242.   @philww Not a question of getting ready for chaos, it’s already here. Orgs/people not ready are overwhelmed about 14 hours ago via web in reply to philww
  243. dahowlett
  244.   “want to do approvals on mobile device…flow to iPhone’ – #workdaytech about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 3 others
  245. mfauscette
  246.   #workdaytech UI server: built to scale, facilitates rapid app dev, supports multi devices about 14 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  247. jasonaverbook
  248.   The amount of time/energy/passion Workday puts into its user interface is simply amazing and should be model #workdaytech #ki about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  249. paulhamerman
  250.   #workdaytech Can get the app to run on iOS and other platforms. Haven’t seen the mobile demo. All apps vendors talking mobile these days. about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  251. dahowlett
  252.   Uses Adobe Flex but SAP makes Flex cool with close developer community involvement #demojam #sap #workdaytech about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  253. mfauscette
  254.   #workdaytech definitional app dev enables consistency in UI, enhancements permeate the app and apps can be deployed on multiple devices about 14 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  255. dahowlett
  256.   OK – Heading t’ards the final stretch. Long intense day but high qual content/interactions. Excellent crowd helps #workdaytech about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  257. mfauscette
  258.   #workdaytech goal: enterprise class technology that feels like a consumer app about 14 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you and 1 other
  259. jimholincheck
  260.   @InFullBloomUS #workdaytech We discussed scalability at different tiers of arch. Continuing to make improvements, especially for OMS. about 14 hours ago via HootSuite in reply to InFullBloomUS Retweeted by you
  261.   @rwang0 Tell Dave hello from me. about 14 hours ago via web in reply to rwang0
  262.   Why did the #workdaytech tweets stop? Are you finished for the day? about 14 hours ago via web
  263.   When are you going to ask the really hard Q’s, like what are the risks associated with their architecture in terms of scaling? #workdaytech about 14 hours ago via web
  264.   RT @mkrigsman Showing the Eclipse-based integration IDE for “background atmospherics” and get a sense of the environment #workdaytech about 14 hours ago via web
  265.   RT @aneelb #workdaytech Cape Clear team huge advantage for Workday. Diff DNA than apps. David Clarke, Annrai O’Toole pioneers web services about 14 hours ago via web
  266.   RT @merv #workdaytech 82% of prod customers are using EIBs, over 10,000 runs/month as of April – steep ramp about 14 hours ago via web
  267.   RT @merv #workdaytech this demo is an export funct but w context awareness, ETL-like transforms, target awareness, encrypt, all menu picks about 14 hours ago via web
  268.   RT @rwang0 Inbound & Outboud EIB’s work together. Support digital certs. nbound Decryp. AS2 support point/ click. #workdaytech #integration about 14 hours ago via web
  269.   RT @dahowlett I’m watching this #workdaytech integration stuff and thinking SAP ABAP peeps would crap themselves >> crap is right! about 14 hours ago via web
  270.   RT @mfauscette #workdaytech demo of the EIB (enterprise integration builder) 90% outbound use case about 14 hours ago via web
  271.   @rwang0 Unsexable is standard in code set. Attributes are sex at birth, sexual identity, aspirational sex, all effective-dated of course. about 14 hours ago via web in reply to rwang0
  272.   RT @mkrigsman Workday system has “unsexable” in international versions. #workdaytech << the version for alien galaxies on distant planets about 14 hours ago via web
  273.   RT @dahowlett Configurati to #workdaytech = point, choose, click (mostly) – not code. Leassons from SMB vendor market? Interesting. about 14 hours ago via web
  274.   RT @toppundit #workdaytech I hate to compliment vendors, but occasionally stuff is mind-boggling. WD generates custom upload spreadsheets. about 14 hours ago via web
  275.   RT @dahowlett @mkrigsman it’s arguable that HR/HCM/Financials is service based ERP. But then quickly drop into verts #workdaytech about 14 hours ago via web
  276. rwang0
  277.   @vendorprisey cape clear is fundamental piece of supporting hybrid, saas to saas, and also the partner ecosystem #workdaytech about 15 hours ago via TweetDeck in reply to vendorprisey Retweeted by you
  278. vendorprisey
  279.   Cape Clear is more important to Workday than most realize. I’d say it is the funda. diff between them and the TM vendors. #workdaytech about 15 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  280. jasonaverbook
  281.   Great to see HR vendor spending time in building true INTEGRATION, not INTERFACE tools-key value-add into future#workdaytech #ki about 15 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  282. ZoliErdos
  283.   How do you integrate SAP and Oracle HR? Replace them with Workday:-) @Flextronics #workdaytech about 15 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  284. mfauscette
  285.   #workdaytech integration: web svcs API, integration networks and set of integration tools (interface bldr, studio) about 15 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  286. dahowlett
  287.   Eclipse based dev environment used for integration. @monkchips would be pleased #workdaytech about 15 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  288. Workday
  289.   David Clarke and Dan Beck up on #integration in the cloud #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 15 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  290. rwang0
  291.   @vendorprisey retro is cool. “rotary dial” makes a come back. seriously our clients love it! #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 15 hours ago via TweetDeck in reply to vendorprisey Retweeted by you
  292. jasonaverbook
  293.   RT @toppundit: #workdaytech Not sure I’d want the job demo’ing product in front of 25 analysts – Ron Wagner is one of the best about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  294. mkrigsman
  295.   RT @toppundit: #workdaytech Not sure I’d want the job of demo’ing a product in front of 25 fractious, egotistical analysts. #Brave! about 16 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 1 other
  296. paulhamerman
  297.   #workdaytech embedded org charting is a good visual feature, most other core HR systems use bolt-ons. about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  298. vanheukelom
  299.   @InFullBloomUS like in-memory versus RDMS at the core perhaps :) about 16 hours ago via web in reply to InFullBloomUS Retweeted by you
  300. merv
  301.   #workdaytech watching a look at an employee profile, find myself increasingly thinking in terms of “object inspection.” It’s catching. about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  302.   #workdaytech The analysts are throwing scenarios at WD rather than letting them just demo. Right approach. http://infullbloom.us/?p=602 about 16 hours ago via web
  303. jimholincheck
  304.   @toppundit I thought you meant something diff about cov check. Good example in terms of team coverage and appointments. about 16 hours ago via HootSuite in reply to toppundit Retweeted by you
  305. mkrigsman
  306.   And now #toppundit fires back, because he wants to see a specific feature. And…@toppundit wins this round :) #workdaytech about 16 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  307. BICG
  308.   We have 50 free passes to Oracle OpenWorld. Contact us to find out how you can get one. @Oracle @OracleEPMBI @OracleEvents @Oracle_epm 1,282,493,898,000.00 via Facebook Retweeted by you and 3 others
  309. jimholincheck
  310.   @toppundit #workdaytech going back and showing coverage check – it does accruals and pending – all of the good stuff. about 16 hours ago via HootSuite in reply to toppundit Retweeted by you
  311. rwang0
  312.   @toppundit gets real time feedback from @LeighLevensaler on time off demo example #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  313. mkrigsman
  314.   Embedded analytics, based on context of screen where user is working, relies on basic object architecture model #workday about 16 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  315. dahowlett
  316.   @toppundit finds hole in #workdaytech demo: http://is.gd/ezogK about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  317. mkrigsman
  318.   Seeing demo of Workday. UI is simple, clean, point and click. Mostly just gets out of the user’s way, which is good. #workdaytech about 16 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  319. mfauscette
  320.   #workdaytech embedded analytics in context, relevant content when you need it about 16 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  321. paulhamerman
  322.   RT @ScottGuinn: #workdaytech Nice UI, intuitive, appears very performant. Supporting 18-19 languages by the end of next year. about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  323.   #workdaytech Just thinking aloud, I would if Fusion apps are built this way? We’ll find out at #HRTechConf #OOW. Prepping now w questions. about 16 hours ago via web
  324.   #workdaytech Insightful/correct object models made operational through the right architecture are future of HCM software, and not just WD. about 16 hours ago via web
  325. rwang0
  326.   Application runs fast and smooth. You can see the object model in action. jimholincheck about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  327. dahowlett
  328.   RT @vendorprisey: workday search is rather nice, I think they should make more of that in the UX design #workdaytech <+1, deffo about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  329. mfauscette
  330.   #workdaytech search integrated in UI with history about 16 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  331. megbear
  332.   @BillKutik are both the HRTechnology Conference Hotels booked? The website says they are. Any suggestions for alternate? about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  333. vendorprisey
  334.   workday search is rather nice, I think they should make more of that in the UX design #workdaytech about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  335. vendorprisey
  336.   workday demo. UX clean and simple. object driven etc. #workdaytech about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  337. mfauscette
  338.   RT @rwang0: @cpantel is responsible for Workday UI. he’s now up on deck. #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 16 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  339. vanheukelom
  340.   Shout out to @cpantel – Workday UI strategist and all around great Canadian :) #workdaytech about 16 hours ago via web Retweeted by you
  341. mfauscette
  342.   #workdaytech clean and simple UI, the workday “wheel”, very modern look about 16 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  343. rwang0
  344.   Lots of competitors envious of the user experience and user interaction #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  345. merv
  346.   #workdaytech DEMO TIME! The room hushes… about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  347. merv
  348.   #workdaytech REST and SOAP both offered. REST has ramped up dramatically and we are able to go there. about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  349.   RT @merv #workdaytech Today customer never charged for storage. Future likely to be up to a threshold included and $increments above about 16 hours ago via web
  350.   This is also not your grandfather’s in-memory for fast analytics. #workdaytech about 16 hours ago via web
  351. merv
  352.   #workdaytech steady buildout in pictures of granular services inside OMS and how they scale very effective visually. “It’s all in memory.” about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  353. rwang0
  354.   #workday #inmemory is data persistence, transaction services, and requests. This is more than just the db. #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  355.   http://nbcsports.newsvine.com/_news/2010/08/23/4955435-divorce-between-woods-and-nordegren-is-final?category=sports about 16 hours ago via web
  356.   RT @mkrigsman This is not your grandmother’s ERP. Had advantage of building new system from scratch with no legacy overhead. #workdaytech about 16 hours ago via web
  357. mkrigsman
  358.   This is not your grandmother’s ERP system. They had advantage of building new system from scratch with no legacy overhead. #workdaytech about 16 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 3 others
  359. rwang0
  360.   Common management – credential,WMU, Stats Serveri Event Bus, Env Manager, Orch Manager #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  361. mkrigsman
  362.   Yo’ #workdaytech: your team doing an amazing job, thank you for their obvious level of preparation and patience answering endless questions about 16 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 1 other
  363. mkrigsman
  364.   Workday now explaining how the system is structured to scale with multi-tenancy and elasticity. #workdaytech about 16 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  365. rwang0
  366.   Scaling all comes down to data persistence, processing, and requests #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  367. merv
  368.   #workdaytech Each customer gets an OMS, a DBMS instance for their persisted info. That’s where “their stuff” is. about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 2 others
  369. rwang0
  370.   RT @johnrrymer: #workdaytech Showing us the development method. It uses high-level templates to manipulate underlying class model. No code. about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  371.   @ZoliErdos Thanks for the pics. Nice to see how well all of you are dressed. Where are the ladies? #workdaytech about 16 hours ago via web in reply to ZoliErdos
  372. jcorsello
  373.   Watching #WorkdayTech from home with my 4 day old girl. Great job to @Scott_Schmidt @dahowlett @rwang0 @jasonaverbook @mkrigsman @merv about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  374.   @mkrigsman Also means that more of the cross-apps foundation is just that, foundation. Doing HCM first provides BIG lift in obj model. about 17 hours ago via web in reply to mkrigsman
  375.   @mkrigsman It means faster/cheaper/more error free/more adaptable applications. There’s a fundamental shift in the development effort. about 17 hours ago via web in reply to mkrigsman
  376.   @jimholincheck I believe that yet is the operative word. The underlying architecture will support it. Wonder if a partner will build one. about 17 hours ago via web in reply to jimholincheck
  377. mkrigsman
  378.   Getting detailed explanations about implications between trad development and template, model-based dev at Workday. A big deal. #workdaytech about 17 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  379.   #workdaytech twitterstream is amazing. I hope all my clients are tuned in. about 17 hours ago via web
  380. rwang0
  381.   RT @debwolf: Watching a social media experiment in the making at the Workday Tech Summit today. Crazy! #workdaytech about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  382.   @jimholincheck Is it time to ask about (1) interrogatory configuration, (2) extensibility/configuration limits in what’s open to customers? about 17 hours ago via web
  383. jimholincheck
  384.   @InFullBloomUS #workdaytech To answer your previous question (definition driven dev), templates define methods that are invoked by the OMS about 17 hours ago via HootSuite in reply to InFullBloomUS Retweeted by you
  385. rwang0
  386.   Tighter, more predictable results from developers via the Workday development model #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  387.   #workdaytech The secret is in knowing how to model a domain well and insightfully. VERY few business analysts are able to do this. about 17 hours ago via web
  388. merv
  389.   #workdaytech “We don’t want our developers to even type. They point and click” – Swete about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 2 others
  390. rwang0
  391.   RT @chinamartens451: Persistent data store is MySQL, not looking to noSQL so far not worried about Oracle pulling support #workdaytech about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  392. merv
  393.   #workdaytech the complexity is in the management of millions of objects. And yes, it’s hard, but few developers see that. They see forms. about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  394. andrewworkday
  395.   twitter has become what groupware promised in 1992. 25 people, one room, collaborating live and online simultaneously #workdaytech about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  396. merv
  397.   #workdaytech Client/Server is code driven. Code calcifies and is hard to change. Our model is template driven based on metadata. about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  398. dahowlett
  399.   Workday = template driven meta-data definitions: cookie cutter graphic seem right #workdaytech about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  400.   RT @merv #workdaytech Persistent store is a MySQL database with simple, relatively static schema. See Monash at http://bit.ly/cCvcFq about 17 hours ago via web
  401.   RT @rwang0 One key difference here vs #SAP #byd is the in memory today optimizes for transactions #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 17 hours ago via web
  402.   RT @merv #workdaytech Most requests to the OMS are handled out of memory without going to the persistent store. about 17 hours ago via web
  403.   RT @rwang0 Increasingly leaving overhead data for audits, security logging, and user access in the persistent data store #workdaytech about 17 hours ago via web
  404.   RT @rwang0 OMS – proc engine, services ui, data requests, no relat modeling or OO to relat mapping, meta data defs #workdaytech #saas #hcm about 17 hours ago via web
  405. merv
  406.   #workdaytech OMS is the in-memory java application has all the objects and relationships in the object graph, listening for requests. about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  407. rwang0
  408.   Workday cranks out webservices XML for rich map of data transforms, orchestration tools and delivery protocols #workdaytech #saas #cloud about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  409. merv
  410.   #workdaytech Integration server intermediates with systems like the UI does with users. Both talk XML to obj mgt server about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  411. paulhamerman
  412.   #workdaytech Workday’s UI is Flash and Flex-based. Implications for iOS? about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  413. rwang0
  414.   Diet cokes now in the house thanks to @Scott_Schmidt and @LeighLevensaler #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  415.   Meta4 was first to do definitional development in HCM #EntSW. Workday is most visible/farthest along in US. Other clients moving quickly. about 17 hours ago via web
  416. merv
  417.   #workdaytech UI server is point of connection. Developers decide grouping and ordering, but actual UI is generated. about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  418. merv
  419.   #workdaytech There are 4 servers inside the box. about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  420. ZoliErdos
  421.   Wow, they mean the “Technology” part in the name of this summit seriously #workdaytech about 17 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  422. fscavo
  423.   Personally, I think the technology DOES matter, as it lends credibility to the biz value claims #workdaytech about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  424. mkrigsman
  425.   RT @mfauscette: #workdaytech key new design is combining the data and the logic in 1 layer in-memory #BreakingMolds about 17 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  426. rwang0
  427.   RT @mfauscette: #workdaytech key new design is combining the data and the logic in 1 layer in-memory about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  428. jonerp
  429.   RT @ZoliErdos Erp evolution http://twitpic.com/2hjndr #workdaytech >>interesting slide. about 17 hours ago via web Retweeted by you and 1 other
  430. rwang0
  431.   Agreed. #open analyst day is good! RT @dahowlett: @JFP Possibly the most open analyst day I’ve ever known. All goodness #workdaytech about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  432. mkrigsman
  433.   Workday believes “Disk is the new tape” — application scaling based on memory is the future #workdaytech about 17 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  434. rwang0
  435.   RT @johnrrymer: #workdaytech Petros Dermetzis doing primer on object-oriented technology. about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  436. mkrigsman
  437.   To fully appreciate Worday, must understand the underlying tech architecture, which includes in-memory objects and database. #workday about 17 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  438. mfauscette
  439.   #workdaytech key new design is combining the data and the logic in 1 layer in-memory about 17 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  440. dahowlett
  441.   “Secret = put data and business logic together” #workdaytech about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  442. mkrigsman
  443.   RT @rwang0: @pdermetzis showing how workday stack optimizes for information out, sharing, bi dimensions, etc #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 17 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  444. mfauscette
  445.   #workdaytech trad stack: UI-biz logic-data in RDBMS + bolt-ons : WD stack: UI-sys-data+logic-persistent store about 17 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  446. dahowlett
  447.   “Everything we do is in meta data” (sounds like SFdC – explains why they’re pals?) #workdaytech about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  448. mfauscette
  449.   #workdaytech modern tech choices: open standards, open source stack, obj oriented, in-memory, metadata based, multi-tenant, elastic proc about 17 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you and 1 other
  450. rwang0
  451.   The stack: 1 Open standards 2 Open source 3 OO 4 In-memory 5 Meta data based 6 Multi-tenancy 7 Elastic processing #workdaytech #saas #cloud about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 4 others
  452. mkrigsman
  453.   Workday uses benchmarking stats and data to better understand customer usage patterns. Important part of #SaaS #workdaytech about 17 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  454. rwang0
  455.   RT @dahowlett: Analysts not just killing but burying #workdaytech schedule. Here tomorrow at this rate (lol) about 17 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  456.   RT @rwang0 Let’s go deeper on architecture… anyone got a schema I can look at or OO model? #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm >> crown jewels about 17 hours ago via web
  457. paulhamerman
  458.   #workdaytech I wonder if we will have a discussion about Workday’s in-memory computing and integration architecture? about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  459. rwang0
  460.   MY POV: Good to deliver new upgrade turned off to customers. #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  461. rwang0
  462.   MY POV: Good to let customers schedule their move to new release. #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  463. mfauscette
  464.   #workdaytech all new features delivered switched off so customers control what and when to rollout about 18 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  465. mkrigsman
  466.   Workday update process interleaves development with testing; waterfall not fast enough. Date, rather than feature, driven #workdaytech about 18 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  467. mfauscette
  468.   #workdaytech workday is first live on each update #eaturowndogfood about 18 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  469. merv
  470.   #workdaytech Nightly automated testing, data loads, conversion testing – which starts in 2nd weekly drop of each cycle. “Must do like this” about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  471. paulhamerman
  472.   #WorkdayTech Workday’s updating model: 3 updates/year. Develop to deploy is 19 weeks., including validation. about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  473. mfauscette
  474.   #workdaytech update phases: 8 wk dev, 5 wk validate, 6 wk deploy about 18 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you and 1 other
  475. vendorprisey
  476.   now onto dev method. scrum/agile type approach. #workdaytech about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  477. merv
  478.   #workdaytech And now dev process [rubbing hands] is up wth Petros. about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  479. mfauscette
  480.   #workdaytech current 3 updates per year about 18 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  481. mfauscette
  482.   #workdaytech current all customers in single prod datacenter, 2nd for disaster recov, committed to 2 new datacenters next yr out of US about 18 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  483. dealarchitect
  484.   “The Polymath Pose” has taken over from the Milk Mustache! :) Over 50 in the Flickr gallery. Come join it if you… http://fb.me/uQ61u9yE about 18 hours ago via Facebook Retweeted by you
  485. merv
  486.   #workdaytech All customers get a copy of their prod in a sandbox first; run side-by-side before upgrade goes prod. (number 3 on list). Huge. about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  487. paulhamerman
  488.   @dahowlett The problem with SaaS for traditional apps vendors is that the business model is dilutive to EPS. Rev recognition doesn’t fit. about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck in reply to dahowlett Retweeted by you
  489. rwang0
  490.   3. you can preview newest developed software in sandbox, 4. provide data conversion, 5. config security 6. Sas 70 #workdaytech #saas #cloud about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 3 others
  491. ZoliErdos
  492.   @rwang0 I guess it’s a bit more frequent than two years if they are up to 11. Of course it’s a matter of what you call a major release:-) about 18 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop in reply to rwang0 Retweeted by you
  493. rwang0
  494.   Real SaaS according to @workday 1. provide server infrastructure 2. develop & deliver s/w updates part of service #workdaytech #saas #cloud about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 4 others
  495. rwang0
  496.   @toppundit will it’s also about how quickly you can consume the apps #baan #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck in reply to toppundit Retweeted by you
  497. jasonaverbook
  498.   The “new age” of HCM applications will require vendors to make major functional releases more often than every 2 years #workdaytech #ki about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  499. johnrrymer
  500.   #workdaytech Stan Swete: Different approaches to multitenancy don’t matter. All customers on same code line is what matters. about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 4 others
  501. paulhamerman
  502.   #WorkdayTech In fairness to Lawson, they are not claiming Amazon cloud offer is SaaS. Workday called it fake SaaS. about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 2 others
  503. mkrigsman
  504.   Is Oracle Fusion a mythical beast or something real #QuestionsofLife #workdaytech about 18 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 1 other
  505. dahowlett
  506.   Config not customize: THAT’s one of the essential SaaS messages. Forget the tech discussion – IMO #workdaytech about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 4 others
  507. paulhamerman
  508.   #WorkdayTech Stan: every SaaS vendor has a different technical implementation of multitenancy. Valid point. about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  509. merv
  510.   #workdaytech “Not one of 150 csutomers has come back to talk customization after go-live” – Bhusri about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  511. rwang0
  512.   Not 1 out of 150 companies asked for customization. They could do it via configruation #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  513. rwang0
  514.   Wouldn’t want another #successfactors #siemens integration – a whole new code base =) #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  515. rwang0
  516.   @aneelb the reason why the ERP industry is in a mess is b/c of the massive customization. You are orphaned. #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  517. jimholincheck
  518.   #workdaytech Workday ready to consider moving to Cloud back ends with Amazon, Google, and Microsoft as platforms mature and customers ready about 18 hours ago via HootSuite Retweeted by you and 2 others
  519. rwang0
  520.   Let’s get back to the #sap #byd discussion. Is it really true SaaS and multi-tenant on all levels? #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  521. fscavo
  522.   I’ve heard this claim previously and find it hard to believe RT @mfauscette: #workdaytech be a full ERP replacement by 2012 about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  523. rwang0
  524.   We would get out of the data center business when the market is ready #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  525. jasonaverbook
  526.   Interesting to see tech analysts telling Workday need to talk biz value/implications more than just a tech story #ki #workdaytech about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  527.   I’m being told I’m over my Twitter limit. Who knew there was a limit? #workdaytech about 18 hours ago via web
  528.   @mfauscette #workdaytech For even more on SaaS InFullBloom http://infullbloom.us/?p=910 about 18 hours ago via web in reply to mfauscette
  529.   No one shills like Mr. Kutik, but #HRTechConf is worth it. http://bit.ly/bPuzqe about 18 hours ago via web
  530. paulhamerman
  531.   #workdaytech Stan describing real SaaS. Cloud hosting is not real SaaS. All customers on the same code line, updating model are key. about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  532. dahowlett
  533.   Suddenly realized that almost everyone in this group is tapping away like crazy #workdaytech about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  534. mkrigsman
  535.   Workday sees cust drive to simplify ERP instancesand make upgrades easier. #SaaS helps this. #workdaytech about 18 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 1 other
  536. Montclairadvrs
  537.   WD sells ERP, HCM, TM, Fin. Sounds lk a vry $$ sales model. Each of ths is tough 2 sell, alone or as a suite #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  538. mfauscette
  539.   #workdaytech @sswete enterprise needs SW solution with ability to engage the biz user about 18 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  540. mhweier
  541.   CTO @sswete says 3 yrs ago our HR wasn’t ready for big cos; now they’re back talking to us as they face big legacy upgrades #workdaytech about 18 hours ago via web Retweeted by you
  542. merv
  543.   #workdaytech This is a great discussion, but it’s 11:11 and we have not actually talked about the technology yet. #geekADD about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  544. rwang0
  545.   RT @andrewworkday: @rwang0 Petros is a twitter fledgeling @pdermetzis #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  546. mfauscette
  547.   #workdaytech @sswete reduced cost of ownership, ability to accept frequent updates, single global instance, cost effective connectivity about 18 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  548. rwang0
  549.   @sswete What’s needed. red cost of ownership, >freq updates, single inst, cost effective connectiity, engage biz user. #workdaytech #saas about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  550. rwang0
  551.   @sswete Explaining the 3 patterns of why customers look to new ERP. Tier 1 – getting to right # of instances #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  552. mfauscette
  553.   #workdaytech @sswete for larger customers issues include expensive upgrades, cost, resource requirements, getting more for less about 18 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  554. rwang0
  555.   RT @zgur: @rwang0 most clients buy mission critical, dabble with innovative, and deploy the commodotized about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  556. mfauscette
  557.   #workdaytech @sswete why do something new? On prem ent SW has issues: complexity, relationally heavy, expensive to smaller enterprises about 18 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  558. dahowlett
  559.   Analysts killing the best laid plans of #workdaytech – could be a long day now…. about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  560. mkrigsman
  561.   Kudos to Workday for bringing lots of company mgrs to present to (and be grilled by) top analysts #workdaytech #NoHoldsBarred #OnTheRecord about 18 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  562. Workday
  563.   Now presenting @sswete CTO & Petros Dermetzis who heads up dev. #workdaytech #saas #cloud #BI about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  564.   Should Lawson customers be worried about Mr. Icahn’s increased stake? I think they should be worried about Mr. Debes’ anti-SaaS position. about 18 hours ago via web
  565.   Investor Carl Icahn has increased his stake in Lawson Software (LWSN) to 9.94% from 8.54%, according to an amended 13-D filed Friday. about 18 hours ago via web
  566.   HR vendors, my clients or not, you should be following the twitterstream from #workdaytech. Great competitive intelligence. about 18 hours ago via web
  567. dahowlett
  568.   @ZoliErdos @dealarchitect. Enjoying sucking on the branded M&M’s . My lack of teeth preclude peanuts… about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck in reply to ZoliErdos Retweeted by you
  569. paulhamerman
  570.   #workdaytech Very valid point by Leighanne. Traditional HR systems were not designed for business users (e.g. LOB managers). Workday is. about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  571. jimholincheck
  572.   I like that phrase “support at the story level” RT @jasonaverbook: HR needs decision support at “story” level #workdaytech #ki about 19 hours ago via HootSuite Retweeted by you and 1 other
  573. jasonaverbook
  574.   Cant expect vendor to drive how HR manages future of work; need HR to lead and tech to support #workdaytech #ki about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  575. toppundit
  576.   @workdaytech Added ability to manage imputed income for children under 26 (needed for health care reform), available in fall. Fast. about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  577. vendorprisey
  578.   healthcare reform and HR technology. one for @InFullBloomUS about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  579. mkrigsman
  580.   Workday asks cust what their existing ERP system cannot do, and then tries to fill those gaps. Architectural agility. #workdaytech about 19 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  581.   @jimholincheck If they can commit to date for next year now, I’ll block my calendar and ask Dave to send the plane. #workdaytech about 18 hours ago via web in reply to jimholincheck
  582. jasonaverbook
  583.   Workday discuss strat insight/op impact for HR orgs adopting sw; remember: HR needs decision support at “story” level #workdaytech #ki about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  584. vanheukelom
  585.   @jasonaverbook Agreed. Google is an Ultimate Software customer. #workdaytech about 19 hours ago via web in reply to jasonaverbook Retweeted by you
  586. jasonaverbook
  587.   Talent mgmt vendors still have a HUGE market even if some go to unified talent mangement suite but interesting for future #workdaytech about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  588.   Let’s probe, shall we? #workdaytech Need to find out which moats and how deep to fast follower vendors? I think those moats are foundation. about 19 hours ago via web
  589. paulhamerman
  590.   @vanheukelom The roadmap for Workday’s learning and recruiting is partner, not build. Perf, SP, comp is provided by Workday. about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck in reply to vanheukelom Retweeted by you
  591. mkrigsman
  592.   Workday wants to be “operationally relevant” to general bus. users. Need to understand more on this key point . #workdaytech about 19 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  593. jasonaverbook
  594.   Yes, still many other vendors in space such as Ultimate who offer software for core HR in the market; not just ERP/Workday about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  595. paulhamerman
  596.   #workdaytech In theory, you want a one-stop shop for all HR and talent processes. The talent point solutions are still deeper, however. about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  597. jimholincheck
  598.   @jasonaverbook Yes, have some good new data on TMS usage coming in MQ for EPM software update. More broader adoption happening. about 19 hours ago via HootSuite in reply to jasonaverbook Retweeted by you
  599. mkrigsman
  600.   Workday has “intense focus” to build out talent mgt and then financials and full ERP replacement in 2012 (estimate) #workdaytech about 19 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 1 other
  601. ZoliErdos
  602.   Workday expects to be a full ERP replacement around 2012 – Mark Nitler, #workdaytech about 19 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 1 other
  603. ZoliErdos
  604.   Not a healthy meeting M&Ms abound http://twitpic.com/2hixoj #workdaytech about 19 hours ago via Twitter for Android Retweeted by you
  605. merv
  606.   #workdaytech great question from @dealarchitect – who is the workforce? Just employees? Answer: no. (suppliers, contingent emps, etc) about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  607.   RT @mhweier analyst @jasonaverbrook says more and more talent vendors losing deals to workday because of its core hr+talent #workdaytech about 19 hours ago via web
  608. jasonaverbook
  609.   Workday plans to ensure orgs do not need point talent solutions now and going forward #workdaytech #ki about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  610. rwang0
  611.   @dealarchitect asks @jasonaverbook if companies are losing to Workday b/c of unified core #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  612. mkrigsman
  613.   RT @rhirsch: ask if Workday has APIs that allow apps to create mash-ups with WorkDay data #workdaytech << answer is Yes about 19 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 1 other
  614. jasonaverbook
  615.   Workday at point with core HR now where they plan to drive “distruption” in typical HR technologies #workdaytech #ki about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  616. rwang0
  617.   SaaS , Native XML, OO, Web UE, Mobile, Auditability, Worktags, Contextual Info, BPM, Builtin BI, Integrations #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  618.   RT @mfauscette #workdaytech peop-centr sys: ez to use inc search, tags, links, self-serve, collab, connected, contextual, mobile, Pers prod about 19 hours ago via web
  619. rwang0
  620.   Mark Nitler is the Chief Architect @workday and part of the dream team with @sswete and Petros #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  621. toppundit
  622.   #workdaytech Long talk at break on leveraging the in-memory database to do things like entering partial data and saving it. Good progress. about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  623. jasonaverbook
  624.   @aneelb is one of the few HR tech executives that actually gets the value of technology to drive HR innovation – #workdaytech #ki about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  625.   Multi-tenancy reduced time/cost/errors to market, enabling more rapid/lower cost innovation. #workdaytech HR folks, please pay attention. about 19 hours ago via web
  626.   HCM consultancies: miss the opportunity to partner with Workday on Workday-centric HRM transformations, and you’re missing the wave. about 19 hours ago via web
  627. rwang0
  628.   Nitler – We are making a shift from Thing- oriented business to People oriented biz – Not just Service biz #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  629.   Be sure to ask about definitional development at #workdaytech Get a demo of exactly how it’s done. about 19 hours ago via web
  630.   SOR and TM are inextricably intertwined. #workdaytech about 19 hours ago via web
  631. vanheukelom
  632.   Where’s the real systems of record today – HR or TM? Workday going to own everything HCM? hope so #workdaytech about 19 hours ago via web Retweeted by you
  633. paulhamerman
  634.   #workdaytech Workday’s LMS partner is Plateau systems. Can orchestrate integration. Working with Taleo, Mr.Ted (Stepstone) for recruiting. about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  635. rwang0
  636.   #saba, #sumtotal can also integrate via #webservices #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  637. rwang0
  638.   LMS partnership w/ Plateau #LearningManagement #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  639. mfauscette
  640.   #workdaytech average time to live is 4-5 months for SaaS ERP about 20 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  641. jimholincheck
  642.   #workdaytech @aneelb Accenture, Deloitte, and Towers Watson are ramping up consulting practices with Workday. about 20 hours ago via HootSuite Retweeted by you and 5 others
  643. rwang0
  644.   @ZoliErdos has a live tweet feed of the #workdaytech summit. See here. please retweet http://bit.ly/cn7riE #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 3 others
  645. vendorprisey
  646.   insightful comment. TM vendors are like I2 and manugistics. not owning system of record. #workdaytech about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  647. mfauscette
  648.   #workdaytech the toughest barrier for new competitors is the SaaS knowledge about 20 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  649. rwang0
  650.   Sat with a #workday customer on the way back from #ams. They were 30 days from go-live. Love UI #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 2 others
  651. jimholincheck
  652.   #workdaytech Looks like they might develop a student information systems as they increase focus on higher ed – interesting vertical focus. about 20 hours ago via HootSuite Retweeted by you
  653. mkrigsman
  654.   Workday as apps provider. Contrast with Salesforce as a platform vendor. Drawing clear non-competition lines with Salesforce #workdaytech about 20 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 1 other
  655. mfauscette
  656.   #workdaytech why not be platform? serving 2 masters, not place of app vendor (salesforce is the exception) about 20 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  657. mkrigsman
  658.   Flextronics clarification from @Leighanne: they HAD 83 systems; now 100,000 employee equivalents on Workday #workdaytech about 20 hours ago via web Retweeted by you
  659. rwang0
  660.   Brian Sommer asks “Who do you admire in the SaaS space? ” @aneelb “Salesforce. Marc has stayed true message” #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  661. rwang0
  662.   @mhweier What’s holding back big legacy vendors fr getting it right? @aneelb “need a clean sheet of paper” #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  663. mkrigsman
  664.   From @aneelb: Expecting SAP to make Business byDesign the new ERP. #workdaytech about 20 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 2 others
  665. mkrigsman
  666.   Workday uses “full in-memory DB and uses relational for persistence” only #workdaytech << pressing hard against #SAP about 20 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 1 other
  667. rwang0
  668.   @aneelb we had the full in memory database frst. Pure OO development Sep UI from Apps layer #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  669. merv
  670.   #workdaytech @jimholincheck asks who is the biggest competitive threat? about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  671. merv
  672.   #workdaytech “Staying focused on the 1000-up market, direct. Today, every go-live event is known to the whole company.” That intimacy a key. about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  673. rwang0
  674.   We see more #sap conversions than #peoplesoft converstions. Lots of legacy like #lawson. #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  675. mfauscette
  676.   #workdaytech distribution strategy: direct in the large and upper mid and partner for small and mid. about 20 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  677. toppundit
  678.   #workdaytech “Seeing a changing of the guard in CIOs. More business-oriented. More tolerant of managing vendors by SLAs.” about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  679. johnrrymer
  680.   #workdaytech Classic: Customers consider Workday when they face upgrade of conventional app, with big costs, outdated “core” models. about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  681. mkrigsman
  682.   Sales pattern is very simple: Need to win over HR and then becomes question of #CIO embracing SaaS #workdaytech about 20 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  683. rwang0
  684.   3 types of adoption: Tier 1 legacy, Tier 2 upgrade to ent class, Net new: spin out or fast growing entity #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  685. mfauscette
  686.   #workdaytech largest deployment 100,000 employees, average deal in current pipeline over 10,000 employees about 20 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  687.   @toppundit I’m doing my best to follow along from afar, and yes I hate not being with all of you. Tell Aneel to get busy on teleportation. about 19 hours ago via web in reply to toppundit
  688. merv
  689.   #workdaytech “If you’re going to be a core – you have to have integration; that’s why we bought Cape Clear.” – Bhusri about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  690. merv
  691.   #workdaytech “First redefinition of the core in 15 years. Org and security model, BPM and workflow, embedded BI” all needed change. – Bhusri about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  692. dealarchitect
  693.   #workdaytech @aneelb We are more focused on SAP than Oracle. View Oracle as more of infra vendor like IBM about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 2 others
  694. jasonaverbook
  695.   The HR/HCM/Talent Management space is about to learn what “true SaaS” is; not just for IT anymore – #ki #workdaytech about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  696. mfauscette
  697.   #workdaytech core tenets: real SaaS, strength from core, enterprise class, innovation throughout about 20 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  698. mfauscette
  699.   #workdaytech Indus focus: pub sector now, next fin services and healthcare about 20 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  700. jasonaverbook
  701.   Exciting to see Australia as a “short-term” target for Workday – very needy market for unified HCM #ki #workdaytech about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  702. mfauscette
  703.   #workdaytech Indus and geo focus: us, Canada, UK now, next australia, 2011 and beyond japan, korea, Germany, France, scandinavia, india about 20 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  704. mfauscette
  705.   #workdaytech Standard contract is 3 yrs, most customers negotiate to 4 yrs for greater predictability about 20 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you
  706. merv
  707.   #workdaytech “Usability was our lever into the market” says Bhusri. Despite all their experience, “field” learnings early mattered greatly. about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  708. rwang0
  709.   @Workday has a good pricing model. Flat line pricing for a 5 year period #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  710. rwang0
  711.   @aneelb up against 20 of the toughest analysts in the market with a crossfire of questions #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  712. mkrigsman
  713.   Workday co-CEO @aneelb on small- and med- market: “That’s not where we want to be” #workdaytech about 20 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  714. dahowlett
  715.   Raised $165 million to date #workdaytech about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  716. jimholincheck
  717.   #workdaytech Does not plan big push into Financials until 2011/12 (targeting US midmarket now). Slower than I thought it would be. about 20 hours ago via HootSuite Retweeted by you and 1 other
  718. rwang0
  719.   @aneelb roadmap – 2008/9 Core HR, 2010 Payroll, 2010/11 Talent, 2011 Projects, Spend 2011/12 Core Financials #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  720. rwang0
  721.   Brian Sommers asks the questions “When are you taking the gloves off?” @aneelb Now. #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 2 others
  722. jasonaverbook
  723.   Not going to let legacy vendors get away with “warmed over hosting” as “cloud” – #workdaytech #ki about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  724. rwang0
  725.   Replacement platform for PeopleSoft, SAP, Oracle in Financials will take some time. Collapse 5 yr cycle into 2#workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  726. jimholincheck
  727.   #workdaytech @aneelb MT matters for custs, not just vends. For me, it is a means to an end. Not all SaaS vendors pass on bens to custs about 20 hours ago via HootSuite Retweeted by you
  728. Workday
  729.   RT @rwang0: Workday focused on Real Cloud Platform. We are an Apps Company. We are not a platform play. #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  730. rwang0
  731.   Financials come into play with Worker Spend, Expenses, Projects into large companies. #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  732. jasonaverbook
  733.   Workday on path to be “gold standard” in HCM Leadership in tech space by end of 2011 – #workdaytech about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  734. merv
  735.   #workdaytech “All roads lead through HCM leadership. Moved target from 2013 or 2012 to next year. ” – Bhusri about 21 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  736. mkrigsman
  737.   Aneel focusing on Innovation, user experience, HCM/ERP for med / large multinationals, focus on SERVICE sector #workdaytech about 21 hours ago via web Retweeted by you
  738. merv
  739.   #workdaytech “Corporate antibodies” slowing disruptive innovation are not as present in the “new guard” companies, says Bhusri about 21 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 1 other
  740. rwang0
  741.   Workday focused on Real Cloud Platform. We are an Apps Company. We are not a platform play. #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 21 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  742. rwang0
  743.   on @aneelb ‘s reading list …Innovator’s Dilemma (Clayton M. Christensen) and The Big Switch (Nicholas Carr) #workdaytech #saas #cloud #hcm about 21 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  744. mfauscette
  745.   #workdaytech major platform shift underway, bigger than shift to client server, tech and biz model shift #cloud about 21 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you and 1 other
  746. mfauscette
  747.   #workdaytech higher % of people in dev at workday than at PeopleSoft, growing faster than early days of PeopleSoft this yr about 21 hours ago via Osfoora HD Retweeted by you and 1 other
  748. mkrigsman
  749.   Workday growing faster than PeopleSoft (currently growing more than 100% per year) (Workday founders also founded Peoplesoft) #workdaytech about 21 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  750. jimholincheck
  751.   #workdaytech bookings growth up 200%, avg deal size is greater than $1 million, looking to double headcount by end of next year about 21 hours ago via HootSuite Retweeted by you
  752. mkrigsman
  753.   Workday demand outstripping ability to support customers and adding people rapidly as a result #workdaytech about 21 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you
  754. paulhamerman
  755.   #workdaytech Workday has 160+ customers, over 100 in production about 21 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you
  756. mkrigsman
  757.   Aneel says inspiration for this event is because SAP took credit for in-memory database, which Workday has used for a long time #workdaytech about 21 hours ago via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 1 other
  758. jimholincheck
  759.   Saying hellos to lot of folks at #workdaytech including @rwang0 @paulhamerman @dealarchitect @merv @vendorprisey @dahowlett @jasonaverbook about 21 hours ago via HootSuite Retweeted by you and 1 other
  760. m_j_parker
  761.   StepStone Solutions acquisition of Mr Ted now completed. Many thanks to all involved and all the great feedback. about 21 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® Retweeted by you and 1 other
  762. mfauscette
  763.   Carl Icahn Boosts Lawson Software Stake To 9.94% http://tinyurl.com/2aa47s9 about 22 hours ago via API Retweeted by you and 2 others
  764. lruettimann
  765.   I wish you could see this pharma rep. Tight gray dress. Snake-skin heels with a slight platform. She’s selling more than nasal spray. about 23 hours ago via ÜberTwitter Retweeted by you
  766. billkutik
  767.   New column: Great Stuff at HR Technology: Fusion, Social, Great Debate. Discounts end 9/10 http://bit.ly/bPuzqe #hrtechconf about 24 hours ago via web Retweeted by you and 1 other
  768.   If you don’t put your real name on your Twitter acct, why would I presume that your tweets are real/relevant? Why would I let you follow me? 1,282,523,877,000.00 via web
  769.   Rain, rain go away, we’ve had quite enough, thank you. It’s very rare that we get a full day of rain, but today’s been that day. 1,282,521,383,000.00 via web
  770.   @ClarkNewby But other than this one small absence, you’re getting a VERY sharp crowd, and I’m looking forward to the tweets/posts/shouts. 1,282,517,327,000.00 via web in reply to ClarkNewby
  771.   @ClarkNewby By no means all as I’m not able to join you, except in spirit. Had you invested in teleportation instead of objects, well…. 1,282,517,281,000.00 via web in reply to ClarkNewby
  772.   @jasonaverbook I plan to show every vendor briefing me at #HRTechConf how I looked in my prime, provide some musical interludes, and more. 1,282,510,112,000.00 via web in reply to jasonaverbook
  773.   @jasonaverbook iPad usurped by The Wallace for its entertainment value. That seems to be its primary use case. Loading my life in pictures. 1,282,510,051,000.00 via web in reply to jasonaverbook
  774. rwang0
  775.   All #hr #hcm and #cloud #saas gurus now converging to Cloud Mecca (pleasanton) for #workdaytech on Monday 1,282,507,462,000.00 via ÜberTwitter Retweeted by you and 1 other
  776. Irregulars
  777.   Partial Plans Perplex Press at SAP – Sybase Event, But Promise is Everywhere http://bit.ly/aHLh26 1,282,503,453,000.00 via API Retweeted by you
  778. ZoliErdos
  779.   Looking for a logo designer.. anyone? Thx 1,282,495,608,000.00 via Seesmic Desktop Retweeted by you and 1 other
  780.   Having more HRM #EnSW vendors take a modern, object-based approach to their products does my heart good. Who’s buying those who aren’t? 1,282,488,072,000.00 via web
  781.   Dennis Howlett gives it to us straight on Oracle’s VERY competitive behaviors. PSFT customers listen up. http://zd.net/abMzkH 1,282,481,434,000.00 via web
  782.   Many talent mgmt vendors are adding social enablement, but I’m thinking that the real payoff here, in business outcomes, is bigger than TM. 1,282,480,762,000.00 via web
  783.   I’m hot on the trail, using my HRM domain model’s process view to determine where social enablement would enhance business outcomes. 1,282,480,681,000.00 via web
  784.   Is SHRM (not the organization, but social HRM) something to consider? Are there many HRM processes that would benefit from collaboration? 1,282,480,628,000.00 via web
  785.   This got me thinking about social HRM, and equally painful journey RT @pjtec My Painful Journey from CRM to Social CRM http://bit.ly/ccD27D 1,282,480,573,000.00 via web
  786.   @mkrigsman Why don’t you bring wife with you? Ron’s been to many #HRTechConf where he’s a great hit. I’m sure your wife is equally charming. 1,282,480,353,000.00 via web in reply to mkrigsman
  787.   Iran is a great danger to all of us http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/08/22/iran.drone.unveiled/?hpt=T1#fbid=FFYcLLCHi-j&wom=false 1,282,476,851,000.00 via web
  788.   Morning all. 7:33 AM Aug 22nd via webhttp://twapperkeeper.com/hashtag/workdaytech  twitterstream from 8/23/2010 Workday Technology Summit via TwapperkeeperAnother source of the twitterstream from 8/23/10 Workday Technology Summit http://archivist.visitmix.com/df898b48/1?isNew=False
    http://archivist.visitmix.com/ZoliErdos/2 these appear to be the same

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]]> http://infullbloom.us/?feed=rss2&p=1333 2 M&A Observations: Whither Goest Genesys? http://infullbloom.us/?p=1309 http://infullbloom.us/?p=1309#comments Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:05:56 +0000 Naomi Bloom http://infullbloom.us/?p=1309  
Late-breaking news.  Genesys’ buyer is PeopleStrategy, the current owner of Integral Systems (which was Dave Duffield’s predecessor company to PeopleSoft, so we’re going back here to the mid-80′s for it’s heyday).  PeopleStrategy is led by Randy Cooper, who also led the buy of Genesys for Salary.com.  Randy is very experienced with that generation of HRMS, having previously acquired Tesseract for Empagio, and it may well be that his latest of the late adopter installed base will be well-served by this aggregation of older HRMS brands.  Never a dull moment at the intersection of HRM and IT.
 

Run For The Exits

It was announced yesterday that Salary.com had completed the divestiture of the Genesys business for $2.5 million.  They had bought this business at the tail end of 2008 for a damn sight more at what were then considered fire sale prices from the former owners of Genesys, primarily Larry Munini, who was also the founder and CEO of that Snowdon of Yesteryear.   

Many of us thought Kent Plunkett had made a strange tactical move when he bought the former Genesys, but his strategic vision of delivering an entirely integrated system of record and talent management suite wasn’t at all strange.  As you all know, that’s a part of the HCM product strategy of everyone from Workday (from the SaaS ERP community) to SuccessFactors/Softscape/SilkRoad (from the talent management community) to Lawson/Oracle/PeopleSoft/SAP (from the legacy ERP community). 

The most interesting aspect of this second fire sale of a long-since depreciated asset is that the buyer has insisted upon anonymity.  Since every customer will learn at some point who their new vendor is, and then we’ll all know, one has to wonder at what type of buyer would need such secrecy.  Is it Larry Munini coming out of retirement under cover of darkness?  Is it Vista Partners buying this thing to fold quietly into their well-run Accero/Cyborg?  Is it some Indian firm hoping they can reverse engineer the beast over the weekend and make it part of their US middle market BPO platform?   

Genesys is so traditional a US payroll, and not a payroll engine, that it’s hard to see its buyer thinking otherwise, but then there’s one born every minute.  And clearly the folks at Salary.com who did the deal to buy Genesys underestimated mightily what it would take to derive value from this asset while overestimating their ability to do so. 

If I were a Genesys customer, I’d be running for the exits.  But then these folks should have done so years ago.  If I were Lawson, I’d be doing a targeted campaign if Genesys is still serving any healthcare customers as they once did many.  Can’t wait for the next chapter to the Genesys saga. 

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]]> http://infullbloom.us/?feed=rss2&p=1309 2 “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” — Let’s Change That In Chicago http://infullbloom.us/?p=1287 http://infullbloom.us/?p=1287#comments Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:30:52 +0000 Naomi Bloom http://infullbloom.us/?p=1287 The more things change, the more they remain the same  doesn’t sound as romantic as the French, but it’s a reasonable translation.  So it is in many aspects of life, and so it is especially in my little corner of the professional world, at that intersection of HRM and IT where I’ve been camped out [...]]]> The more things change, the more they remain the same  doesn’t sound as romantic as the French, but it’s a reasonable translation.  So it is in many aspects of life, and so it is especially in my little corner of the professional world, at that intersection of HRM and IT where I’ve been camped out since the flower power van broke down there in the 60′s.  Here’s some of what hasn’t changed:

  • Many HR leaders are still trying to find a “seat at the table” when they should have long since owned the table;
  • Much of IT (formerly DP) is still trying to make the business case for investments that are as fundamental as fixing a leaking roof when they should be replacing their own roof with ones that integrate solar-collection technology that generates more energy than they can use (yes, that’s just one of the things going on in true cloud data centers);
  • Far too many HR systems implementation projects are still running over budget and schedule in spite of PMOs, project management software, methodology consultants, change management consultants, because the HR folks doing them are almost always doing them for the first time and/or working part-time on these projects while still doing their “day” jobs;
  • The majority of HR professionals still haven’t implemented systemic approaches to competency-centric HRM regardless of how much talent management software they’ve bought;
  • Most CFOs are still insisting on “hard” savings (that means headcount and cutting already budgeted line items like hardware or outsourcing fees) when what’s really needed are the very business outcomes that come under the heading of “soft” benefits because they’re what should happen in the future rather than cutting out a cost that we know happened in the past;
  • Oligopolistic software, hardware, consulting, etc. vendors have still got many customers by a body part not appropriately mentioned in a blog post written for mixed company;  and
  • Analysts/influencers/people in the know continue to wring their hands — see, I’m wringing my hands — over all the progress we must still achieve.

To be fair, I’ve seen enormous progress in the course of my career, both in the practice of human resource management (HRM) and information technology (IT).  My neighborhood has been electrified, given phones, then mainframes, then minicomputers, then PCs, then networked servers, then networked everything, then virtualized servers operating somewhere “over the rainbow,” now smart phones with the power of those early mainframes.  Tons of technology, oodles of HRM thought leadership, and going on five decades of hand wringing by most everyone involved (except for vendor sales and marketing folks) about why we’re not making even more progress.

But now something really monumental has happened.  Something really has changed, for good and forever.  Now there are no projects failing quietly or vendors behaving badly in secret.  Now there are no missed business outcomes going undiscussed nor HR leaders failing to lead without anyone noticing.  Now every employee, every worker of whatever flavor, is able to contribute to the conversation.  They can tweet, blog, flickr, youtube, etc.  about what’s right, what’s wrong, what works and what doesn’t, and how to improve things – and they’re doing it in droves.  Social tech has given everyone a voice, and I for one think that, amids the noise, great ideas will spread like wild fire.

And those former hand wringers?  Those industry folks, like me, who’ve wished for more progress in making HRM the driving force behind achieving business outcomes?   We’re now at the front of the social tech pack, blogging for action.  Whether all  these voices telling the tale and advocating for change are smart and insightful or just ill-informed and loud, only time will tell.  But now you get to decide because you too can take to the social tech speakers’ box at the corner at HRM and IT.

My hope is that the noise will be overtaken by the collective intelligence and that, before I’m too old to care, real urban renewal will take place at the corner of HRM and IT.  I like this neighborhood, always have, and I see the promise and the progress.   If you’d like to join me at our next neighborhood block party, perhaps take to the speakers’ box at what’s otherwise known as the 2010 HR Technology Conference, I’d love to see you there.  It’s my 65th birthday celebration, but this time you get the present.  If you’re one of the three people who haven’t yet received it, you can download the conference brochure here.   When you register, use the promotion code INFULLBLOOM (in ALL CAPS), and you’ll get a $550 discount.  Not a bad birthday gift in these tough times.

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]]> http://infullbloom.us/?feed=rss2&p=1287 3 M&A Observations: StepStone Solutions Acquires MrTed — Who’s Next http://infullbloom.us/?p=1267 http://infullbloom.us/?p=1267#comments Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:58:50 +0000 Naomi Bloom http://infullbloom.us/?p=1267 Just in this morning was the announcement that StepStone Solutions is acquiring MrTed in what appears to be a very congenial coming together of two prominent European players in the talent management software market.  In the interests of full disclosure, StepStone is a client with whom I’ve been working actively as this deal was getting [...]]]> Just in this morning was the announcement that StepStone Solutions is acquiring MrTed in what appears to be a very congenial coming together of two prominent European players in the talent management software market.  In the interests of full disclosure, StepStone is a client with whom I’ve been working actively as this deal was getting finalized.

MrTed has been focused exclusively on talent acquisition, and founder/CEO Jerome Ternynck, a valued colleague, has long championed the position, with which I never agreed, that talent acquisition should be a separate, not integrated talent-related application.  There are some aspects of talent acquisition that do argue for a more external focus and connect points when these applications are viewed narrowly as recruiting.  However, my own view is that there is also a critical internal focus and far too many internal touch points between talent acquisition and the rest of talent management, not to mention between talent acquisition and the system of record, to enable a quite separate talent acquisition solution to be connected properly without a lot of expensive to maintain and quite fragile interfaces. 

From sharing KSAOC profiles of the relevant jobs, positions and work units you’re trying to fill, to sharing the relevant assessment techniques for determining and measuring those KSAOCs as they appear or don’t in external and internal position seekers, to drawing upon the system of record’s organizational structures for knowing who may do what to whom during the talent acquisition processes, the list of shared data and processes is quite long and growing as organizations get serious about integrating their talent management processes for maximum impact on their business outcomes.  While it’s certainly possible to manage talent acquisition as a silo, I have never thought that was a durable or even desireable approach.  One important outcome of this acquisition could be a more integrated set of global talent management capabilities from a financially strong vendor presented to MrTed’s and StepStone’s customers.

MrTed has also been built, from the ground up, to be multi-tenant SaaS from an architectural, deployment and business model perspective.  Such a true SaaS focus and experience base continues to be a rarity in the HCM software industr, in spite of the fact that most of our vendors now claim to be SaaS when they are really hosted, subscribed and largely single tenant.  True SaaS has been a major differentiator for MrTed on several levels, but the firm lacked the scale and resources to leverage fully these assets at a time when scale is critical to maintaining momentum in a very competitive neighborhood. 

These true SaaS capbilities, and MrTed’s very desireable customer base of about 100 large, global enterprises, may well explain StepStone’s interest in MrTed.  It may also explain, when combined with MrTed’s commitment not to stray into the broader talent management space that it claims as its own, why Workday had chosen to partner so publicly with Mr Ted.  One must wonder if Workday will view a partnership with StepStone Solutions as positively, with MrTed now in the hands of a much more broadly focused, globally established and financially robust StepStone.

StepStone Solutions, which also had its origins in talent acquisition, has offered a complete talent management suite for some time but hasn’t been viewed as having the same degree of true SaaS “chops” as some of its competitors.  Furthermore, StepStone hasn’t had the same degree of brand awareness in the US, especially among the larger, more complex organizations which form the bulk of MrTed’s customers.  Where MrTed’s Jerome Ternynck is well-known in HCM industry circles within the US, Matthew Parker, StepStone’s CEO, and his company are much less so, a level of brand awareness we should expect StepStone to raise pretty sharply over the coming months.  And with one of their major European competitors, perhaps their most successful such, now in the StepStone Solutions set,  StepStone now faces a much less challenging European talent management landscape.  It also picks up considerable new competitive strength against it’s US-centric talent management suite competitors as well as the opportunity to sell its broader talent management applications to MrTed’s customers. 

This increase in competitive strength and product offering should also serve them well in the emerging markets, like China and India, which are so important to all of the major talent management vendors.  With the legacy ERP/HRMS vendors delivering ever more talent management functionality and doing so without requiring full suite upgrades in order to consume that newer functionality, the developed economy markets that are saturated with these ERP/HRMS implementations can be a more difficult sell for integrated talent management suites. 

Because I’m under deep NDA as regards StepStone’s product strategy, I’ll defer any comments until released from that NDA.  But true SaaS platforms, like MrTed, are the present of HCM software, and SaaS InFullBloom is the future.  Enough said.

I think this is a very good and strategic acquisition for StepStone Solutions, always assuming that the price is right and that no nasty gremlins are lurking in the acquired assets.  With Jerome staying onboard as an advisor and the reportedly positive reactions of both firms’ employees, there’s a much better than average chance that the combined company will be able to retain both talented workforces and customers, to include those customers running on StepStone’s own talent acquisition solutions even as they see the power of true SaaS in MrTed’s. 

If you’re a current customer of MrTed or StepStone Solutions, you can be pleased that you’ll now be supported by a larger, more powerful vendor with big plans for the future.  If you’re an end-user on the look-out for talent management software, StepStone Solutions becomes a more global, more SaaSy, more US-visible possibility for you.  If you’re a competing vendor that hasn’t achieved sufficient critical mass at a time when $100 million in annual recurring revenue may be table stakes for a talent management suite vendor trying to compete for complex mid-market to global enterprise deals, this new StepStone Solutions is just one more example of your own need to bulk up.  And if you’re an end-user depending on one to many smaller talent management vendors to round out your HCM software platform, you may want to revisit the viability of your smaller vendors in this consolidating landscape.

It wasn’t the first, and this is by no means the last consolidation we’re going to see in the HCM software/services market.  I expect to hear (and not because of any direct knowledge or involvement with them in this area) that Salary.com’s substantial embedded intelligence and quite good talent management applications have found a new home, probably separate from their old Genesys-based, latest possible adopter business.  We’re all waiting to hear what Mr. Icahn has in mind for Lawson.  TriNet has hired a corporate development executive out of their PE firm, General Atlantic, whom we can guess will be on the lookout, among other possibilities, for roll-up opportunities among the PEOs.  And I think that Sonar6 would make an attractive acquisition.  I could speculate further, but I’ll leave that for your comments.

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]]> http://infullbloom.us/?feed=rss2&p=1267 10 In Search Of HRM/HRMDS/HR Tech “Best” Practices: France/Spain http://infullbloom.us/?p=1236 http://infullbloom.us/?p=1236#comments Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:00:17 +0000 Naomi Bloom http://infullbloom.us/?p=1236 The Glory Of Carcassone At Night

 Ron and I will be traveling again from 6/25 through 7/17 (life is short!) mostly in the Languedoc and Dordogne in France and on the Med coast of Spain between Valencia and Barcelona.  We’ll be soaking up “best” practices in HRM, the HRM delivery system and HR technology every [...]]]>

The Glory Of Carcassone At Night

 Ron and I will be traveling again from 6/25 through 7/17 (life is short!) mostly in the Languedoc and Dordogne in France and on the Med coast of Spain between Valencia and Barcelona.  We’ll be soaking up “best” practices in HRM, the HRM delivery system and HR technology every step of the way, to include during visits with Row Henson, the Oracle Fellow who has been a leader with the PeopleSoft HCM product since she was its first head of product strategy back in the day, and Graham Barnes, who was the founder/CTO of BMS, Ltd. (later sold to ADP) when he was the first licensee of B&W’s HRM domain model “starter kit.”  Many thanks in advance to our friends for their hospitality, not to mention formal briefings on the listed topics.  

I’ll be doing some tweeting from “the road,” @InFullBloomUS, but I may not have time to blog for a while.  When I return, I’ll try to do at least two blog posts about our wanderings, one that’s a travelogue and one that’s a portrait of some good to great professional practices that we’ve observed.  On this trip I hope we’ll be moving slowly enough for me to do a little sketching/watercolors along the way, so perhaps I’ll have something with which to illustrate these trip posts.  I have absolutely no artistic talent, and I’ve only had a very few hours of instruction, but I would love to be able to do the type of travel journals published by widely-collected artist and personal friend Diana Gessler, http://www.dianagessler.com/newbooks.html in her wonderfully illustrated books and articles.  Perhaps that’s something I can work on if there are no major industry developments while we’re traveling.   

By the way, to all the 2nd story men who are reading this blog, our life sitter will be in residence while we’re on the road, as always.  And you don’t want to mess with her fella.     

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]]> http://infullbloom.us/?feed=rss2&p=1236 0 The Future Of HRM Software: Embedded Intelligence http://infullbloom.us/?p=1211 http://infullbloom.us/?p=1211#comments Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:00:12 +0000 Naomi Bloom http://infullbloom.us/?p=1211

Hi, I'm Naomi, your friendly HRM consultant

There’s an easy way to describe what I mean by embedded intelligence.  Conjure up a memory of the best, most knowledgeable, most effectively consultative and strategic thinking HR leader you’ve ever known.  Now conjure up a memory of that master of regulatory options and obligations, that HR administrator [...]]]>

Hi, I'm Naomi, your friendly HRM consultant

There’s an easy way to describe what I mean by embedded intelligence.  Conjure up a memory of the best, most knowledgeable, most effectively consultative and strategic thinking HR leader you’ve ever known.  Now conjure up a memory of that master of regulatory options and obligations, that HR administrator who really knows the innermost details of all your organization’s HRM policies, practices and plans and how to make them work for you.  Now imagine these two wondrous beings living inside your HRM software and bringing all of their KSAOCs to bear on whatever you’re trying to do or should be trying to do in the people management business.  That’s the spirit of embedded intelligence.  We could call her Naomi, your friendly and very knowledgeable HRM/HRMDS consultant “in a box.”    

If you’re an employee making what appears to be a simple change to your home address, Naomi would tell you, from inside the person indicative data processes of your HRMDS software platform, that:    

  • The new home address you’ve just input is simply incorrect (e.g. you’ve got a typo in your zip code or there’s no such street address) — and here’s how to fix it;
  • There are income tax withholding changes as a result of your new home address — and here’s what they are;
  • The HMO in which you’re enrolled doesn’t have jurisdiction at your location — and here’s what you need to do to select and enroll in a new HRO or other health care plan for which you’re eligible;
  • You’re no longer going to receive the mass transit subsidy to which you’ve been entitled because it doesn’t apply to your new location — and here’s the amount by which your gross and net pay will be affected. 

Naomi doesn’t just tell you what the issue/problem/error is, she takes you by the hand (really routing you through workflow) to the appropriate next steps in completing your business event, to include addressing all of the related ripple effects.    

If you’re a manager getting ready to interview a high profile candidate for a tough to fill position on your next generation software architecture team, then Naomi would tell you, from inside the staffing processes of your HRMDS software platform:    

  • All that’s known about this candidate — and what more you may want to know as a part of your evaluation of her;
  • Why the position in question is tough to fill, the efforts already made and the filling experience-to-date — and how you might adjust either the position attributes or the related total compensation entitlements of compete more effectively for these scarce KSAOCs (if they are indeed scarce);
  • What the KSAOC profile is of those working successfully in this type of position and what the desired KSAOC profile is for this particular position — and how you might adjust those profiles in light of available developmental resources within the organization;
  • What questions are best for getting at the specific KSAOCs which you’re seeking when used in an interview format — and what other interviewers have already asked and their notes on those responses;
  • What your own track record has been in making hire decisions in terms of the downstream performance and retention of those hires — and what you might consider changing in order to improve your hire decisions; and
  • What you may and may not ask subject to the regulations of the relevant geographic jurisdiction — and the list goes on. 

Embedded intelligence, AKA Naomi, replaces, in highly automated HRM delivery systems, the human intelligence that was inserted in much more manual HRM processes when you were lucky enough to have only the very best HR professionals at your disposal, when and where you needed them.   

There are many different types of intelligence that can be embedded, to include static and dynamic content, personalized and context-sensitive content, business rules and process knowledge, alerts and triggers, actionable analytics and benchmarks.  When considering how best to organize, prioritize, make investment decisions and then implement embedded intelligence, it helps to have some type of a taxonomy.  The one I use starts with the easy to do and gets progressively more difficult to accomplish as their impact on achieving business outcomes becomes more direct.  My embedded intelligence taxonomy is:    

  1. User inquiries to standard text; 
  2. User-initiated standalone data changes (with attribute, event and context edits) with generated inquiries to standard text; 
  3. User inquiries to personalized text;
  4. User-initiated standalone data changes (with attribute, event and context edits) with generated inquiries to personalized text;
  5. System-initiated distribution of standard text; 
  6. System-initiated distribution of personalized text; 
  7. Personal life, work life, or organizational life event initiated chain of event data forecasts and/or changes (with attribute, event and context edits) with generated inquiries to standard text; 
  8. Personal life, work life, or organizational life event initiated chain of event data forecasts and/or changes (with attribute, event and context edits) with generated inquiries to personalized text;  and
  9. External events with generated inquiries to standard or personalized text.

Then repeat all of the above, adding a strong advisory component, along with the relevant analytics, to each.   

What’s desired is intelligent (as to content, context, business rules, analytics and advisory), pro-active, organizational role (e.g. employee or position seeker or beneficiary) and work role-based self service (e.g. manager of a specific team regardless of the team manager’s home position or generic call center representative position).  It’s via embedded intelligence that we take self service from data entry to self sufficiency.    

Embedded intelligence replaces what we lost when we removed the best HR professionals from most interactions with individuals and managers/leaders (or removed them altogether) — their knowledge of business rules, good practice, context, agreed upon corporate culture, regulations, labor contracts, management preferences, business unit-specific considerations, etc.  It improves upon human embedded intelligence by also removing human inconsistencies, errors, misinterpretations, incomplete answers, dated information, biases, lack of availability, institutional knowledge lost through terminations or retirements, etc.  Automated embedded intelligence reduces greatly the organization’s exposure in all situations where evidence of having trained/told/confirmed the relevant rules/policies/regulations at “point of sale” is an important element in preventing and/or defending against unacceptable behavior by a member of the workforce.  Today, embedded intelligence is expected in any self service environment with those expectations set by commercial Web sites like Landsend.com, Amazon.com, and social Web sites like Wikipedia rather than by enterprise applications software.   

The business case for embedded intelligence includes:    

  • Further administrative cost savings, reduced compliance exposure and reduced cycle times — and this can make or break a shared services of BPO provider;  
  • Improved “customer satisfaction”;  
  • Increased business literacy for better decision-making;  
  • Improved business outcomes from total compensation expenditures;  
  • More effective deployment of KSAOC-rich non-employees;  
  • Improved career-management decisions and outcomes;
  • Improved productivity of individuals and groups;
  • Improved selection and retention decisions and outcomes;  
  • Improved HRM performance metrics and actions;  
  • Better definition and organization of work;  
  • Better definition and organization of work roles;  
  • Improved forecasting, modeling and development of needed KSAOCs;  
  • Improved generation, selection, deployment and retention of KSAOC-rich persons;
  • Improved generation, collection and deployment of organizational knowledge and social networks; 
  • Greater motivation of the workforce toward desired behaviors and KSAOC growth via targeted total compensation plans and work environment programs;  
  • Creation of a work environment that removes barriers to and encourages effective performance;  
  • More effective labor organization relations; and  
  • Better day-to-day coaching, mentoring, assignment, development planning and performance appraisal.  

If this sounds like embedded intelligence goes to the heart not only of improving the total cost and quality of service delivery but also of improving strategic HRM, which is critical to achieving organizational business outcomes, you’ve got it in one!  

So which HRM software/HRM BPO vendors are doing this well?  Great question.  Several of the benefits administration providers have embedded quite a lot of content within their benefits enrollment processes which can be passed through the HRM delivery system of their clients.  Several of the most established HRM BPO providers, in an effort to reduce the volume, time to resolve, exposure to errors, and cost to support call center traffic have also made a dent at the basics of transactional edits and some embedded content.  A few talent management software vendors have worked hard in this area, but most have neither the resources nor the expertise to get as far as they might like.  We are starting to see partnerships between major HCM consultancies and talent management software vendors whose purpose it is to embed the consultant’s intelligence within the TM software, at least for clients who sign up and pay for the enhanced capabilities.  And there’s a lot more coming if what I see cooking in the backrooms is a predictor.  With more and more similarities among the features/functions of the TM software vendors (although their actual capabilities, in terms of their applications architectures and foundational object models remain VERY different, and there are also big differences in their strategies/progress toward SOR/TM/social tech convergence as well as their process and global footprints), I believe that the push for embedded intelligence will be a source of considerable differentiation over the next many years.  Without Naomi “in the box,” HRM software has a long way to go to catch up with Amazon.

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]]> http://infullbloom.us/?feed=rss2&p=1211 10 Father’s Day Thoughts: Remembering Jack Samuel Bloom http://infullbloom.us/?p=1218 http://infullbloom.us/?p=1218#comments Sun, 20 Jun 2010 11:49:04 +0000 Naomi Bloom http://infullbloom.us/?p=1218 Yahrzeit Candle

 From my Dad I inherited:   

his ability to tell a good story, to make a point while making you laugh;  his commitment to active friendship, the kind of friendship that does what you need even when you don’t know you need it; his belief that any day on which you wake up is already a good [...]]]>

Yahrzeit Candle

 From my Dad I inherited:   

  • his ability to tell a good story, to make a point while making you laugh; 
  • his commitment to active friendship, the kind of friendship that does what you need even when you don’t know you need it;
  • his belief that any day on which you wake up is already a good day, that the gift of life is too precious to waste; and
  • his habits of meticulous book-keeping, calendar-keeping, and commitment-keeping.

From my Dad I inherited his love of reading and the sheer joy of opening a new book.   Later I discovered that for me, being rich would mean being able to buy any book I wanted to read and never having to browse in second-hand bookshops unless I was looking for treasure.  Jewish families like ours, in the early 50′s, bought their children a copy of the World Book Encyclopedia, one volume at a time on a payment plan that they could scarcely afford, so that their children would be better educated than they were.  I remember my Dad reading that encyclopedia cover to cover, Aardvark to Zebra, even the boring bits (and there were many such), and perhaps that’s where I also learned that reading some books was about more than having the pleasure of meeting their words. 

My Dad taught me to swim almost before I could walk by carrying me on his back as he swam from the gentle shores of White Sands Beach, CT to the floating dock in the waters of Long Island Sound.  I’ve loved swiming and being in/around the water ever since.  I have no fear of the ocean’s waves and can still feel his support whenever I’m over my head.    

We buried my Dad on my 50th birthday.  He spent just a few days in hospital, having not been ill before his unexpected collapse just as I was about to deliver a presentation at that year’s SAPPHIRE conference in Phoenix.  My Dad was a perfectly ordinary man to whose funeral came hundreds of people we didn’t know who had been helped by him, quietly, without ever asking.  In his retirement, it appeared that he had “adopted” older members of our schul who needed rides to doctors’ appointments, help paying their bills, or just an hour’s companionship.  Without the means of major philanthopy, he found the means for active philanthropy. 

By the time I launched my own business in 1987, the cost of long distance calls, so daunting when I first left home, were much more affordable, and I called him most days in the late afternoon.  Those calls always started with: 

  • Dad:  How’s business?
  • Naomi:  Business is great.
  • Dad:  Are your clients paying their bills on time?
  • Naomi:  Yes, they sure are.
  • Dad:  Are their checks clearing the bank?
  • Naomi:  Absolutely.

When you know that those early clients were firms like Bank of America, Hewlett Packard and International Paper, something my Dad certainly knew, this ritual opening to our calls goes from being merely odd to very odd, unless you also know that being a small retailer all his life shaped forever my Dad’s view of Accounts Receivable.  From there we’d go on to the events of his and my day, and to what was happening across the Bloom family and the larger Jewish community in which I grew up.  I don’t remember my Dad ever calling me — long distance calls were for emergencies only — but I know he loved my calls because he reported on them to the group of men with whom he ate breakfast every day at a local deli. 

I’ve always said yahrzeit for my Dad at the appropriate times in our Jewish calendar, but I’m missing him very much on this Father’s Day.  If you’re lucky enough to still have your Dad, don’t wait for Father’s Day to call him. 

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]]> http://infullbloom.us/?feed=rss2&p=1218 2 In Search Of HRM/HRMDS/HR Tech “Best” Practices: Istanbul To Venice — Field Report Part II http://infullbloom.us/?p=1146 http://infullbloom.us/?p=1146#comments Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:28 +0000 Naomi Bloom http://infullbloom.us/?p=1146 Regent Seven Seas Mariner Underway

The first part of this post was a personal report on our recent travels.  In this second part, I want to share what I learned about our industry’s “best” practices along the way.  More specifically, I want to describe some of the HRM practices that Regent Seven Seas uses to [...]]]>

Regent Seven Seas Mariner Underway

The first part of this post was a personal report on our recent travels.  In this second part, I want to share what I learned about our industry’s “best” practices along the way.  More specifically, I want to describe some of the HRM practices that Regent Seven Seas uses to deliver a consistently high quality customer experience on board their cruise ships.  We took this cruise because of the great itinerary, heavily discounted and all-inclusive pricing (to include airfare, tipping, open bar etc.), but Ron and I aren’t likely to sail on one of these largish ships (700 guests on the Mariner) any time soon because of our dislike of mass market travel that so affects the experience of seeing new places.  Nonetheless, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Regent and the lovely Mariner to anyone for whom this type of cruising — upscale, gracious accommodations, fantastic service, wonderful food, country club ambience and crowd, and well-organized but larger group tours without benefit of any onboard cultural/educational programs — would be just the thing.    

The first thing we noticed when our taxi arrived at the Mariner’s dock in Istanbul was the speed and graciousness with which we were greeted — and the complete lack of tipping.  Porters appeared to handle our luggage, a ship’s officer appeared to welcome us aboard, and we were greeted with champagne flutes as we joined a well-organized flow of boarding passengers in the theater for “on-boarding.”  As soon as we had been “processed,” in what was a very efficient and again gracious manner, we set out, ship’s deck plans in hand, to find our suite.  Yes, suite.  All the cabins on this ship are suite-like in their size and amenities, to include our own balcony, walk-in closet, full size head (bathroom to you landlubbers), seating area, desk, etc.  Great first impression.  

Within minutes, our luggage arrived, our cabin stewardess had introduced herself and asked what else we might need to settle in, and someone else appeared to let us know that luncheon was being served at our convenience.  By then we had interacted with a dozen or more staff members of various responsibilities, and everyone had a smile — a real smile — and seemed genuinely happy to see us.  And because there’s no tipping, we felt entirely comfortable interacting with everyone without the eternal barrier of having each such interaction be a financial transaction.  With tipping removed from the equation, staff become colleagues very quickly as we collectively get ready to sail.  As our trip progressed, I couldn’t help but notice that the excellent level of service NEVER failed.  From line handler to maitre d’s, from cruise director to the laundry person into whom I nearly bumped, no one on the Mariner team ever seemed overly tired, frustrated, distracted, ill-trained or wishing they were somewhere else.  And I was never fobbed off on someone else when I asked for something.  Whoever was the recipient of my request, even when they were obviously not the right person to resolve it, saw the matter through to closure, calling on their colleagues as necessary.  Wow!  

This was a level of customer service the likes of which I’ve rarely seen, and the fact that it was consistent for ten days and shared by every other passenger with whom I spoke, was almost too good to be believed.  So, with Bill Kutik as my spirit guide for skepticism, I began asking a lot of questions about Regent’s HRM practices, believing that the magic began and ended with HRM — and I was right.  Here’s what I learned about the HRM practices of Regent Seven Seas, to include from many crew members who had worked on a wide range of other cruise lines with quite different practices: 

  • Crew are well-compensated compared to other cruise lines, to include what crew would get via their tips on these other lines.
  • Crew greatly prefer the no tipping policy because it removes a barrier to their interactions with customers, making them guests rather than customers, so there’s much less awkwardness not only about requesting service but also about delivering it.
  • Crew accommodations on a Regent Seven Seas ship are about twice the size of those on more mass market cruise ships in space per crew member and house fewer crew members per cabin with even the lowest level (in terms of the type of work and compensation) being housed comfortably.
  • Crew meals are also superior on Regent Seven Seas ships and are eaten in more comfortable surroundings and on better schedules.
  • When in port, many to most (depending on the port, weather conditions, length of stay in port, the nature of a crew member’s assignment, and many other factors), crew members do get enough time off to explore, and there appeared to be low-cost or no-cost transportation provided in several of the ports where local circumstances required the ship to be at anchor or docked some distance from the town.
  • Regent schedules crew leaves, where possible, with an eye on the distances from home their crews must travel and what time of year might be best for a visit to those home countries.
  • Promotion from within is very common, e.g. our housekeeper/cabin steward was training (and boy was she talented) to become a member of the evening entertainment troupe (there was a special evening show that showcased the talents of the non-entertainment crew called “Crew Capers,” and it was wonderful), one of our waiters in the very elegant French restaurant on board had been promoted recently from wait service in the main buffet restaurant, and the bios provided on senior crew all spoke of their promotion through prior roles with Regent Seven Seas.
  • Cross-training is also very common, e.g. the crew person who served drinks one afternoon on the upper sun deck appeared later that afternoon as wait staff for early diners, the deck hands piloted the ship’s tenders when we anchored out, and the reception desk staff handled everything from financial matters to emergency preparedness.
  • With dozens of countries and even more languages represented among the crew (which is common in the cruise ship industry) and English the required lingua franca, language lessons are not only provided but also scheduled to fit the many different shifts needed to achieve the 24/7 service levels needed on a cruise ship.

Regent Seven Seas is considered by all the crew with whom I spoke — and Ron will tell you that I was “interviewing” everyone I met — to be a “best place to work” if you love the cruising life.  Reflecting on what I learned about their organizational design, staffing strategy and execution, total compensation approach, opportunities for advancement, work environment programs, crew development and many other aspects of HRM, there’s such an obvious connection between the wonderful cruising experience they deliver to their customers and their engaged, high quality and satisfied workforce.  What employer could hope for or use HRM to achieve more?

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]]> http://infullbloom.us/?feed=rss2&p=1146 4 Legacy HRMS/Legacy Marriage: Sunk Costs Versus Innovation http://infullbloom.us/?p=1170 http://infullbloom.us/?p=1170#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:00:32 +0000 Naomi Bloom http://infullbloom.us/?p=1170 From The Terrific Web Site http://www.erpgraveyard.com/

 

Al and Tipper Gore by Steve Mack/FilmMagic

 Two completely unrelated conversations over the last week caused that ding ding thing in my brain that happens when the dots connect themselves and I have an aha moment.  One of those discussions took place on a radio talk show I heard while [...]]]>

From The Terrific Web Site http://www.erpgraveyard.com/

 

Al and Tipper Gore by Steve Mack/FilmMagic

 Two completely unrelated conversations over the last week caused that ding ding thing in my brain that happens when the dots connect themselves and I have an aha moment.  One of those discussions took place on a radio talk show I heard while driving to a meeting.  The other was a courtesy call with the HR and IT heads of HR systems at a firm we’ll call LargeFinancialOrg.  The aha is that there’s a great deal in common between the breakup of a long-standing marriage and that of a long-standing ERP/HRMS implementation, to include weighing the sunk costs and comfort with the known against the urgent need to innovate and the discomfort of the unknown.            

Legacy Marital Breakups          

The first conversation was part of an NPR program on which various experts were discussing their own, the media’s and the public’s reactions to the announced separation of Tipper and Al Gore.  They were talking about the characteristics, back story, and broader impacts when long-standing marriages dissolve, and whether or not “till death do us part” is even an appropriate goal at a time when we’re living so much longer than when those words were first spoken.  Putting aside all of the religious beliefs and moral sensitivities around marriage, not out of any lack of respect for them but just for the sake of this blog post, I was struck first by this weighing of:     

  • sunk costs (e.g. all the shared experiences, the established financial/relationship/lifestyle interconnections); and
  • comfort with the known (e.g. with the known behavioral strengths/weaknesses, standard of living, perceived value and status);  against the
  • desire for innovation (e.g. to find oneself beyond the established roles of parent/spouse/helpmate/etc. to follow a long-held lifestyle dream, to eliminate long-standing problems in the marriage which were papered over by shared responsibilities and commitments, not to mention familiarity); and
  • discomfort with the unknown (e.g. where will I live?  how will I support myself?  will my friends stick by me?  what will the children think?  etc.). 

I was also struck by the two themes cited consistently as the major contributors to long and continually satisfying marriages.  There may well have been many other points raised, but as I look forward to Ron’s and my 38th wedding anniversary later this month (you’ll have to ask him whether he’s also looking forward to this milestone), these two major themes really resonated:        

  • enjoying learning/doing new things together, and actually learning/doing a lot of them; and      
  • communicating frequently and effectively, even if one of the parties is more often the initiator/facilitator (and here all the female experts on this program said — big surprise — that the female party takes on this role more often than the male).       

There was also a lot of discussion about how hard it is to unravel a marriage of forty years, e.g. figuring out how to distribute and/or continue to share the joint friendships and family relationships not to mention the financial and property assets, personal momentoes and even pets.  There are so many personal, financial, real property and other connections developed over a long marital lifetime that just thinking about how Ron and I would ever deal with unscrambling all those interfaces and replacing them in a new context gives me a headache.  And the experts said that this burden of unscrambling, this dealing with the sunk costs,  is often enough, especially in the face of great discomfort with the unknown and absent the urgent desire to innovation,  to motivate long-married partners to try a little harder to reconnect, rejuvenate, and recommit to their marriage before tackling all the unscrambling and knowns that come with divorce.       

 But the concensus of the experts on this program was that there really does come a point in even many successful marriages where the needs of one of the partners, again often the woman (and here they pointed to hard data), for new experiences, a new sense of herself, a fuller expression of who she is apart from daughter/mother/wife  roles and, yes, a little more spice in her life, makes unraveling all those connections and facing those unknowns well worth the effort.  Even Sally Quinn, one of the experts on this program, who is a long-standing friend of the Gores and is herself in a long-standing marriage, couldn’t explain what lay behind the Gore separation, but she was convinced that the breakup was a good thing in spite of the heavy lifting that divorce would bring.  While some were saddened by the news and saw these changes as fraught with peril, Sally was full of hope that the separation would unleash a new period of vitality, of personal fulfillment for both Al and Tipper, but especially for Tipper.           

Deciding if and when to end a long-standing marriage, a legacy marriage, is not a casually made or easily implemented decision.  It’s a much easier decision (and easier for everyone around the couple to understand) to end an abusive marriage, one in which one of the partners is addicted to something unpleasant, or a marriage which was doomed from the start by immaturity, a complete lack of common values or purpose, poverty, etc.  But when a marriage has been a positive experience for both parties, has reaped many of the benefits of such a marriage, and has been woven over many years into the fabric of each other’s lives, many people made of lesser stuff than the Gores just continue to lead lives of quiet desperation, of agonizing unfulfillment, of mild to severe unhappiness rather than do the heavy lifting — and we’re talking HEAVY lifting — of working their way out of this unsatisfactory but well-known situation and taking a leap forward but into the great unknown.  How many have the courage to make that leap?  How many are able to reinvent themselves along with the disolution of their long-standing marriage?  It’s still early days for the post-marital breakup evaluation of Al and Tipper Gore, but I for one admire the courage and grace they’ve shown in moving forward without forgetting the good times or devaluing their long-standing, successful marriage just because it’s not the best fit for them now.          

Legacy ERP/HRMS Breakups          

The second discussion was a courtesy call I did with the former client of a colleague who’s retired.  The firm, which we’ll call LargeFinancialOrg, like so many mid-market and larger organizations, has a huge sunk cost in a highly customized implementation of one of the major ERP/HRMSs.  They’re now running on a no longer supported release and have been growing, over many years, one-off add-ons, manual workarounds, inadequate outsourcing arrangements and who knows how many shadow systems to handle all the business needs not met by their core HRMS.  Let’s not talk about the costs of all this nor about the risks they’re taking that they’ll be able to handle the effects of regulatory activism on all things HRM, but at least the ongoing costs are high enough that there’s a push underway to DO SOMETHING!  It’s also worth noting that they haven’t got, by their own admission, anything like the talent management or analytics capabilities that might move the dial on their business outcomes nor have they followed the Yellow Brick Road to create a strategic  HRMDS plan that would give them a leg to stand on in deciding on the right direction under the mandate to DO SOMETHING!         

IT at LargeFinancialOrg thinks it’s a no brainer, low risk, low cost move to simply upgrade their ERP/HRMS to the current release, bring payroll back in house (after all, if you’ve outsourced to someone who can’t handle a firm your size/complexity, then of course outsourcing is the wrong move!), and just get on with it.  The two terrific HR/IT leaders with whom I spoke want very much to do something else because they see the huge costs/pain/risks of the proposed upgrade as just getting them to the current release of a legacy, no longer leading ERP/HRMS, not to mention all the unknowns around future vendor investment in that legacy ERP/HRMS as the vendor shifts focus to their shiny new next gen ERP/HRMS.  Instead, the HR/IT leaders would like to move to a next gen SaaS InFullBloom HRMS from a much younger/smaller vendor, but one of impecable pedigree and a growing number of glowing client references.  They’re very clear that their ongoing but legacy ERP/HRMS “marriage” has served them well over many years but that this isn’t the desired software platform for their future.  They’re also painfully aware that doing anything other than an upgrade in place means unscrambling years of interfaces, interconnections, learned customization habits and the skills to implement them, sunk hardware costs and ongoing production expenses that would now be spread across fewer applications thus raising those costs for other legacy application users.  The list of things to unscramble is long and terrifying when looked at without an understanding of the business outcomes that you’re trying to optimize, and they loom much larger in many HR/IT folks than do the potential business outcome-producing benefits of making a major leap forward.  But without a strategic HRMDS plan that builds the business case for innovation and accepting some discomfort with the unknown in order to achieve that innovation, the obvious and very large sunk costs and comfort with the known are really compelling reasons to just stay on the legacy ERP/HRMS upgrade path.   

Making a long-standing ERP/HRMS “marriage” continue to be successful requires, among many other factors, two of the themes that the NPR experts said contribute to the ongoing success of long-standing human marriages:      

  • enjoying learning/doing new things together, and actually learning/doing a lot of them:  in the case of the ERP/HRMS marriage, this means that the vendor provides very frequent updates that can be consumed easily and cost-effectively, with functionality opt-in and few barriers to learning/using the new capabilities, so the exact opposite of the massive, costly, every several years upgrade of our legacy licensed/on-premise ERP/HRMSs; and
  • communicating frequently and effectively, even if one of the parties is more often the initiator/facilitator:  in the case of the ERP/HRMS marriage, this means that the vendor lays out their product roadmap several releases into the future with enough specificity that their customers can plan for the frequent releases and avoid making near-term investments in alternative solutions when they can see clearly when those capabilities will be available from their primary platform vendor, so again the exact opposite of the legacy ERP/HRMS vendors’ vague roadmaps and unwillingness to commit to specifics except when the big Kahuna upgrade release is ready.         

Just as with the unraveling of a long-standing and previously successful marriage, the decision to end a long-standing ERP/HRMS “marriage” isn’t an easy one — nor should it be.  And it also shouldn’t involve castigating the vendor or software that has served us well over many years.  But there does come a time in many long-standing human and software marriages when the case for innovation  is so strong that the discomfort of the unknown, accepting the sunk costs, and the challenges of unraveling that marriage are more than offset by the anticipated and much-needed benefits of taking the leap.  With ERP/HRMS marriages, the business case for making such a dramatic leap must be grounded in achieving the business outcomes of the organization, not just in administrative cost reductions or the desire for something shiny, buzzy and new.   

I obviously believe that many human marriages can be successful over the long term, but then I married The Wallace.  If our legacy ERP/HRMSs and their vendors had adapted over the last forty years as well, as quickly, and with such grace to the changes in technology and human resource management, to our changing expectations of what software should do and should cost, as The Wallace has adapted to the changes in our lives, then there would be no need to take the innovation leap with a new software partner.   

In the interests of full disclosure, I don’t know Al or Tipper Gore although I did support him for President; we are major donors (major at least without our budget) to WGCU public radio and television, which is the local home of National Public Radio (NPR); many of the current and legacy HRMS vendors, ERP or otherwise, have been and/or are our clients; Ron and I really will be married 38 years on 6/30/2010, and he would say that boredom has NOT featured in our relationship although he might crave the odd moment of peace and quiet; and my recent Twitter exchanges with valued colleague Jim Holincheck made clear why this post was important to write ASAP.  

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