Jim Holincheck

It is good to be posting again.  I have been swamped with the march towards year end for my day job (as well as battling some sort of flu bug/virus that many others have been battling).  The Magic Quadrant for Employee Performance Management Software will be completed soon (thanks Thomas for pushing it forward when I was ill).  So, I thought I would take a few minutes and reflect on 2008 and look forward to 2009 in the world of HCM software:

• Talent Management applications continued to be hot in 2008.  I expect as Q4 results are announced that it will have cooled off to some extent.  However, some vendors will likely continue to post strong results.  I expect that we will have a mixed bag in 2009.  Strong vendors will continue to post good results (perhaps not as strong as 2007 and 2008), but marginal vendors will feel the squeeze.  When times are tough, cash is king.  So, make sure that if you buy new HCM software in 2009 that you take a close look at cash in the bank and burn rates.
• 2008 saw a number of significant mergers and acquisitions (especially in talent management).  Expect more in 2009.  With valuations depressed, some will see this as a good opportunity to buy to increase product offerings and market share.
• Cost cutting should drive investments in Workforce Planning solutions.  I discuss why in this research note (Gartner subscription required).  The short version is that smart companies will use workforce planning to make better decisions about sizing the workforce.  I expect this area to get considerable attention from vendors (and hopefully customers) in 2009.
• In terms of hype, social software in HCM had a big year.  In all fairness, we also started to see some good use cases emerge.  I think the enthusiasm for social software in HCM will temper somewhat in 2009 as priorities shift towards more immediate HCM needs (see bullet #3).

What do you think?  What was the biggest thing to happen in HCM in 2008.  What do you expect to see happen in 2009?