Social Networks That Boost Your Business

Most people are familiar with the term “Web 2.0,” which refers to a second generation of Web development and design that focuses on fostering social networking via the Web. Innovative companies are beginning to embrace Web 2.0 technology as a way to enhance communication, information sharing, and collaboration, thereby allowing them to work smarter rather than harder.

The use of Web 2.0 in business represents a new trend called “Business 2.0.” Aside from being the name of a defunct magazine, Business 2.0 is about using new Web-based social networking applications (many of which were originally created for personal use) in a way that fosters teamwork, customer touches, and internal and external collaboration in a low-cost seamless way.

Unfortunately, many businesses feel that Web 2.0 and social networking are for the younger generation and a waste of time when used by employees. However, once you understand the power of these applications and how to use them in your company, you’ll quickly find that they can be invaluable tools to boost your bottom line.

Following is an overview of the best Business 2.0 tools.

Personal Tools with Business Applicability

Facebook
Personal Use: Facebook enables you to connect and share with the people in your life. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with others. People can add friends, send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.

Business 2.0 Use: Large organizations can connect all of their employees, or members, with Facebook. Some are finding an added advantage of using an internal, secure version of Facebook. This has helped organizations to dramatically increase their internal networking and collaboration.

Ask Yourself: Could we use Facebook, or our own internal version to get people to collaborate at a higher level?

Twitter
Personal Use: Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of short, quick answers using no more than 140 characters per message. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or co-workers. Users can receive updates via the Twitter Web site or other social networking sights such as Facebook. Young people use Twitter for answering the question: What are you doing?

Business 2.0 Use: Business users could change this question to: What problem are you trying to solve? Several companies have used this as a fast way to solve problems. Hotels, airlines, and airports are using Twitter to pitch services, travel updates, and respond to travelers needs.

Ask Yourself: Could we use Twitter to solve problems faster with our organization or our customers?

Wikipedia
Personal Use: Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can use to find information on virtually any topic. Anyone can edit the content as well.

Business 2.0 Use: A large manufacturing company with engineers in locations around the world increased problem solving and collaboration by creating an internal, secure version of Wikipedia for sharing information on parts and service offerings as well as repair and maintenance instructions. Retailers and suppliers could create a version of Wikipedia to foster education and training as well as enhanced information sharing.

Ask Yourself: Could we create an internal version of Wikipedia to foster better information and knowledge sharing?

YouTube
Personal Use: YouTube is a video sharing Web site where users can upload, view, and share video clips. YouTube displays a wide variety of user-generated video content as well as movie clips, product demonstrations, and commercials. Unregistered users can watch the videos, while registered users can upload an unlimited number of videos.

Business 2.0 Use: Businesses are posting humorous commercial videos to generate interest in their products with great success. The more entertaining it is, the more people watch it. Business partners could create a YouTube like channel for the purpose of educating and training.

Ask Yourself: Could we enhance our marketing efforts as well as general communication by using YouTube?

Digg
Personal Use: Digg is a social news Web site made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet, by submitting and accessing links and stories. Voting stories thumbs up or thumbs down is the site's cornerstone function, respectively called digging and burying.

Business 2.0 Use: Many organizations have found this to be a good way to track the most interesting advances in technology or the most useful business news. Large organizations can create their own internal version for sharing what employees consider to be the most useful information.

Ask Yourself: Could we use Digg, or our own internal version, to get people to share their most interesting and valuable Web-based information with each other?

Delicious
Personal Use: Delicious is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. It uses a non-hierarchical classification system in which users can tag each of their bookmarks with freely chosen index terms.

Business 2.0 Use: Business users can share their most useful Web sites with co-workers or business partners. If a customer purchases a product, sellers could share relevant bookmarks that keep the customer coming back for more information and hopefully more products.

Ask Yourself: Could we use Delicious to share important new Web sites faster within our organization or with our customers?

Visual Communications
Personal Use: Visual Communications, unlike traditional video conferencing, uses your desktop, laptop, and soon your smart phone to hold a quick, anytime, anywhere videoconference with one or more other people. Travelers who must be away from home are using their laptops in hotel rooms with broadband access and free software such as Skype and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) to communicate with family and friends to enhance their personal connection.

Business 2.0 Use: Businesses are discovering the power of Visual Communications to enhance the connection with their sales force, business partners, and customers.

Ask Yourself: Could we use Visual Communications to enhance communications internally and externally?

Purely Business 2.0 Tools
Wiki
A Wiki is a collaborative Web page or collection of web pages designed to enable anyone to create a quick web page that allows visitors to search the Wiki’s content and edit the content in real time, as well as view updates since their last visit. Wikis are often used to create collaborative Web sites and to power community Web sites. On a moderated Wiki, Wiki owners review comments before additions to the main body of the topic. Additional features include calendar sharing, live AV conferencing, RSS feeds, and more.

Ask Yourself: Could we use Wikis to enhance internal and external collaboration?

LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a business-oriented professional networking website for exchanging information, ideas, and opportunities. There are over 35 million registered users spanning 170 industries actively networking with each other. For example, large insurance companies use LinkedIn to foster networking with their independent sales representatives. Human resources (HR) professionals from all over the world could use LinkedIn to share best practices.

Ask Yourself: Could we use LinkedIn to expand our organizational network for enhanced knowledge sharing?

Cloud Computing and Software-as-a-Service (Saas)
In cloud computing, some or all of the storage, software, IT processes, and data center facilities you use can exist on your provider’s server, which is maintained and cared for by your provider, giving you 24/7 access from any device anywhere. The cost of upgrading hardware and software, maintenance, and associated IT labor costs can be dramatically reduced or eliminated. Currently, the ideal organization would be any size company that’s facing big investments in computing and communications infrastructure. For example, Amazon.com can give you an entire e-commerce back end. SaaS such as SalesForce.com has a customer relationship management (CRM) package, SciQuest has a spend management package, and Google, Microsoft and others have a suite of offerings.

Ask Yourself: Could we use cloud computing and SaaS to streamline our IT needs?

Gain a New Competitive Advantage
By reframing the use of social networking technology, companies can increase communication, collaboration, problem solving, and competitive advantage with little cost. Remember, many of these tools are free or nearly free, making them accessible to even the smallest of businesses. Therefore, the sooner you embrace Business 2.0 and put it to work for you, the faster you can penetrate new markets and win the lion’s share of business.


SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/social-networks-that-boost-your-business-20803/

Microsoft Windows Me -- The Millennium DOES Begin in 2001

Windows Me, the operating system formerly known as Millennium Edition (TOSFKAME), will eliminate support for many networks. And it's running late. La plus a change

[CNet] March 15, 2000 - Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has dropped support for some networking technology from its upcoming Windows Me consumer operating system in a move analysts say is intended to nudge customers to the company's more lucrative Windows 2000 software.

Windows Me, formerly known by its code-name, Millennium, will not include technology that allows users to connect directly to corporate local area networks (LANs) running Novell (NASDAQ:NOVL) or Banyan (NASDAQ: BNYN) systems software, the company confirmed.

Unlike previous Microsoft operating systems, Windows Me, expected to debut this fall, is positioned solely for home users, who would be unlikely to connect their PCs to corporate networks. Microsoft argues that the networking technology being dropped from Windows Me is more of a hassle for consumers, not a convenience.

Banyan and Novell both say the decision will not have much of an effect on their customers, who generally use Windows NT or Windows 2000.

Windows Me is Microsoft's first purely consumer-focused version of Windows. In designing the upgrade, Microsoft originally sought to bolster the way the operating system hosted digital media entertainment, gaming, home networking, and shared networking. The company also wanted to make it easier to use than its predecessor.

In addition, the product is scheduled to include Internet Explorer 5.5, the latest version of Microsoft's browser, also currently in beta testing.

Market Impact

Can you imagine how nasty things would get if the business and consumer sides of Microsoft were split up after the antitrust decision? Windows Me doesn't just eliminate Novell & Banyan support - it also leaves out full Active Directory functionality. Active Directory is one of the principal new features in Microsoft Windows 2000, released on 17 February 2000. Many of the most desirable features of Windows 2000 networks, such as IPSec, Intellimirror, file replication, and encryption, require Active Directory.

Just say cha-ching. Microsoft is clearly pushing the business PC buyer to stay away from Windows Me and Windows 98 (upgrade street price $97) in favor of Windows 2000 (upgrade street price $189). There's still a lot of Windows 95 and Windows 98 in the corporate world, and this will spur further upgrades to Windows 2000.

When Windows 2000 was released in February 2000, there were few Windows 2000-specific applications. This announcement may help fix that. There's a clear message for business-oriented independent software vendors (ISV's). Rather than write once for two platforms - 9X/Me and NT/2000, Microsoft is strongly suggesting you write once for one platform - Windows 2000 - and forget about Windows Me.

This also makes life harder for Novell. Novell already makes its own client software, but a majority of business users just use the Microsoft-provided Novell client. This makes it incrementally harder to continue supporting NetWare servers. Windows 95 & Windows 98 were both positioned as consumer products - and they included the LAN support.

At the same time, ship dates for Windows Me vary. Estimated ship dates have varied in the press, and beta testers have doubted that Microsoft will make a ship date in 3Q 2000. Microsoft is still publicly committed to shipping Windows Me in 2000, although a fourth quarter shipping date would be too late for many holiday PC sales.

Right now, Microsoft has tied the release of Internet Explorer 5.5 to Windows Me. If Windows Me hits further delays (40% likelihood), Microsoft is likely to release IE 5.5 independently of Windows Me.




SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/microsoft-windows-me-the-millennium-does-begin-in-2001-15612/

Customer Relationship Management and Social Networks—They're Related How, Again?

Customer Relationship Management and Social Networks—They're Related How, Again?
Featured Author -
Originally published - February 7, 2007

By now, there isn't a soul reading this who hasn't heard of SAP.

By now, there isn't a soul reading this who hasn't heard of salesforce.com.

By now, there isn't a soul reading this who hasn't heard of MySpace.

Or YouTube, or LinkedIn, or Friendster, or

Many of you may know that both SAP and salesforce.com use blogs, podcasts, and user communities to communicate with their customers and their employees. But neither SAP nor salesforce.com nor, in fact, any of the vendors involved with customer relationship management (CRM) as we know it, integrates social networking tools with their CRM and enterprise platforms yet.

"But why not," you ask?

Well, why should they? They don't really understand the value of social networking. Nor do I imagine do you for the most part.

So, let's answer the question so that both the CRM vendors and integrators—and you—will get it and be comfortable with the idea that it's time to move ahead with the new business models that this portends.

The Question

What the heck is social networking, besides being a giant online gathering place for teens or college students (or, if of age, a virtual bar), or a monster repository for sharing videos and photos that has no particular monetary value that anyone can see within a (metaphorical) thousand miles of it.

In fact, using social networks is a major business initiative, and it is becoming a huge factor in how successful (or not) businesses will be with their customers in this part of the twenty-first century.

Let's take a look at the premise behind social networking and how it relates to CRM—especially the next incarnation of CRM, currently being called CRM 2.0.

Starting at the Root

Human beings are inherently social. Human beings also tend to organize socially into hierarchies. Level playing fields are pretty much only the product of a zamboni between periods at a hockey game—not a product of human evolution.

What makes the growth of these social hierarchies interesting (and not at all the same as those found in traditional corporate bureaucracies) is that the "top of the heap" tends to be naturally evolved and organic as opposed to the leaders in the bureaucracies that we know and love. Leaders in corporations are more often than not appointed based on their titles, not on their actual leadership skills. Equally intriguing is that these social hierarchies can be nested within a company as well as the personal side of human life.

Now you may be asking, "What does this have to do with CRM?"

Be patient; you'll see very soon.

Don't think that social leaders come organically? Think again. Do you know someone at work that you go to who provides you with down-home advice on what to do about that terrible day you're having? Or someone who isn't associated with information technology (IT), but who helps you with your computer problems? Or someone who will cheerfully edit something you're writing for work because you're nervous about what you're saying or how you're saying it, and you trust that person's judgment on these things?

These people are the departmental "mommies" or "daddies." You and I both know that they not only exist, but that they are necessary parts of the social structure of a company.

Outside the company, is there someone who organizes your neighborhood block parties, even if you don't have an association around to do it? Or someone whom others trust to take care of "x, y, or z" when "x, y, or z" has to be taken care of?

These are the leaders of your social networks—organic networks that grow out of moral authority and a variety of other factors that are too numerous to consider in such a short article.

Suffice to say that Kurt Lewin, often referred to as the father of organizational change, did experiments in the 1940s on identifying the natural growth of leadership in these organic hierarchies. The validation of these hierarchies has existed since then, if you need something other than me saying it to believe it. Google him and you'll find his experiments at the University of Iowa.

"Okay," you might be saying, "but how does this apply to CRM, again?"

Don't worry, we're getting closer to the answer.

Now We're Getting There

Chris Carfi, in his work Social Networking for Executives and Associations, sees online social networks as the migration of what humans do:

In both professional and personal life, human beings naturally form groups based on affinities and expertise. We gravitate to others with whom we share interests.

Most of you are familiar with the many (popular) social networks such as MySpace for the younger crowd, Facebook for the college crew, and LinkedIn for us older types. But these networks are much richer and more important as a trend that can dramatically impact business. If recognized for their worth, they can become part of the business environment and be immensely profitable and beneficial to the businesses that are savvy about using them.

For example, Procter and Gamble (P&G), one of the most customer-centric and foresighted companies on the planet, understands the value of the social network. They have formed a group called Vocalpoint, which consists of 600,000 moms. That's a formidable number, n'est ce pas? But it becomes much more formidable when you find that the most important criterion for "membership" in Vocalpoint is that each member has to have a social network of at least twenty-five other moms associated with her.

Do the math. That amounts to a minimum reach of fifteen-million people who are interacting with the power of the group and its leader—meaning with moral authority. That's a minimum.

What do they do? The 600,000 moms are given product samples for distribution among their social networks. The lead moms then give the samples out in their informal environment to the identified groupings. They are responsible for gathering feedback on the good and the bad about those products and getting that feedback to P&G. The best of them are called into meetings with P&G to discuss how to modify, add, subtract, etc. from the product that they distributed.

So what does the mom get from this? Prestige and products. Prestige because they are the ones that P&G is trusting to receive and distribute the products—chief in hierarchy. They get the products to use—before others do. Plus, they have the knowledge that they collaborated with P&G to make those products better, or to reduce the price, or something else with emotional value.

What does P&G get? Incredible levels of feedback and marketing buzz from a trusted social network that was in place around each mom prior to P&G coming into the picture. So, P&G products are trusted because they are distributed to and tested by the natural leader within the social network.

Do you see the power of this? A trusted network, established for reasons unrelated to the company, that is involved in collaborating with the company on products that the company is selling to them, and that they as members of the social network are likely to use. The data captured through this network's feedback and the marketing buzz around the product are invaluable.

Thing is, the twenty-first century customer is just doing what humans always do—attempting to participate in the decisions, large and small, that affect their lives at all levels. When a business is able to engage these networks, or in other words, make them involved and collaborating customers, we all win. And we all know that we all love to win, don't we?

So, in a nutshell, here is the answer to your question on what social networks have to do with CRM. The customer collaborates with the company to improve the product and spread the word—advocate, in other words, through the engagement of the leaders of the social groupings most likely to use the products, services, and tools of the business.

SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/customer-relationship-management-and-social-networks-they-re-related-how-again-19001/

Palm IPO: 3Com’s morning after, or “Do you know the way to San Jose?”

(Thursday, March 2, 2000 - Reuters) Shares of Palm Inc. skyrocketed the day after its highly anticipated initial public offering, giving Palm a stock market value of US$53.4B.

The stock soared from its IPO price of $38 to open at $150 and trade as high as $165 on Nasdaq. The stock ended up 57-1/16 at 95-1/16, making it the third-biggest percentage gainer and the fourth most active issue on the Nasdaq.

Late Wednesday, 3Com, which makes products and software for data networking, sold 23 million shares, or 4 percent, of its Palm unit at $38 each - well above the expected range of $30 to $32. Initially, the stock was expected to be priced at $14 to $16 a share.

At the stock's closing price, Palm had a market capitalization that was larger than that of its parent company, 3Com.

Market Impact

3Com's most recent SEC filing says it all. From Q2 1999 to Q2 2000:

* Sales of network systems products (switches, hubs, routers, etc.) decreased 12%

* Sales personal connectivity products (NICs, modems, etc.) decreased 14%

* Sales of handheld computing products (Palm) increased 77%

Clearly, Palm has been pumping up 3Com revenues.

3Com is more than aware of the trends - its stated plans are to focus on the following growth markets as it completes its Palm spin-off: voice over IP (VoIP), LAN telephony, broadband access, wireless access, and home networking.

3Com's largest rivals are not standing still. Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU) has also announced plans to spin-off its' own, more mature PBX and LAN networking businesses. Lucent will concentrate on high growth areas, including optical networking, Internet infrastructure, wireless, semiconductors, and consulting services, according to Lucent Technologies Chairman and CEO Richard McGinn.

Canadian telecom giant Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT) is moving in similar directions. Nortel recently announced plans to spend $260 million and add 3,400 people to its burgeoning fiber optic networking business. Nortel is also active in CRM (Customer Relation Management) and call center software, with its plan to acquire San Jose-based front office software maker Clarify Inc. (NASDAQ:CLFY).

Finally Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) dominates the market for network hardware such as routers and switches. It's also moving aggressively toward the LAN hub and switch (hello, 3Com!) market, and home users. Furthermore, Cisco has over US$10B cash to help finance any potential acquisitions.

3Com, with a market cap of "only" US$28B is dwarfed by the market capitalizations of Lucent (US$229B), Cisco (US$454B), and Nortel (US$161B). It can't afford to buy any of them at present. As 3Com heads for newer markets, it's going to find two extremely deep pockets - Lucent and Nortel - headed there as well. At the same time, Lucent is clearly eschewing 3Com's traditional networking market, while Cisco is targeting LAN's and homes.

3Com's stock will churn as the market digests its distribution of its 94% share of Palm stock. Obviously, it will add greatly to its own US$950M cash reserves, but 3Com's rivals dwarf even Palm's US$54B market cap. Hmm. Well, Cisco's San Jose headquarters are only about five miles away from Santa Clara. And Cisco has the reputation for being extremely good at mergers.

We expect a 70% likelihood that 3Com and Cisco enter into merger or acquisition discussions during the next twelve months, and at least a 40% likelihood that they establish a joint venture, minority purchase, or merger.


SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/palm-ipo-3com-s-morning-after-or-do-you-know-the-way-to-san-jose-15582/

Ramco Systems - Diversity Marshaled Through Flexibility

On October 29, Ramco Systems, an Indian provider of enterprise business applications and accompanied services, announced that its ASEAN and European operations have continued to drive revenues during the second quarter of FY 2001-02. Building on their strong performances in the previous quarter, Q2 revenues in ASEAN and Europe grew by 37% and 24% respectively over the corresponding period last year. However, the company cites the general US slowdown and the tragic events of September 11 had an impact on its US revenues, which witnessed a drop of 30% over the corresponding period last year.

For the first half of FY 2001-02, the company has posted global revenues of $22.05 million and a loss of $4.82 million, which compares to $24.34 million (a 9% drop) and $2.76 million respectively. This was mainly attributed to investments in product development and to efforts to build long-term strategic partnerships with large global corporations. The company has reportedly invested about 50% of its manpower on development of the next-generation ERP suite of products that are expected to be ready in early FY 2002-03. During the second quarter, ERP solutions have reportedly registered a 20% growth in revenues compared to the corresponding period last year. This would be a much-needed revival in demand for ERP solutions worldwide and should augur well for the next-generation ERP suite of products currently under development.

This, Part One of a three-part Event Note, covers recent announcements by Ramco Systems. Part Two will cover the Market Impact of the announcements, and Part Three will discuss the Challenges faced by Ramco Systems and make User Recommendations.

Joint Ventures and Partnerships

During the quarter, the company's Swiss subsidiary entered into a joint venture with Triamun AG of Switzerland, a provider of integrated solutions for the health care sector. The two companies are jointly developing advanced solutions for the health care sector. These solutions, which are specially tailored to the needs of medical practices, pharmacies, laboratories, health insurance companies and hospitals, will be marketed and implemented by both companies.

Ramco Systems also recently announced that partnerships signed during the last several months and the ones to be signed in the future would be the growth driver for the company in the coming times.

The company has recently signed partnerships with a few major global corporations. As an example, on October 15, Enterasys Networks, a leader in the Enterprise Networking Solution, announced a partnership with Ramco Systems. According to this agreement Ramco will offer Enterasys' Networking products as part of its Enterprise solutions to its customers. Enterasys offers data networking solutions to the enterprise customers in association with technology partners like Nokia, F5 and Siemens. The Enterasys flagship products include Matrix and Vertical Horizon Switches, XPEDITION Switch Routers, NetSight Manager, Aurorean VPN products, Roam About wireless LAN, Dragon Intrusion Detection products. In addition, Firewalls from Nokia, Load Balancers from F5 and Convergence Gateways from Siemens form the complete solution for the enterprise.

System Integration Services

The Enterprise Networking division of Ramco Systems with expertise in designing and implementing networks will offer System Integration services to enterprise customers. The Enterprise Networking Solutions division of Ramco Systems provides Network and System Integration solutions and Information security solutions. The networking services offered by Ramco include Network Consultancy Services, Network Design & Implementation, Network Management Services, Facilities Management Services and Educational Services.

Further, on August 30, Ramco announced a strategic partnership with webMethods Inc., one of the leading providers of integration software. The two companies are partnering to meet the growing demand among companies for enterprise application integration (EAI) services. Combining Ramco's applications development and implementation expertise with webMethods integration platform could give customers integrated solutions that meet organizational needs and drive business efficiencies. Globally, Ramco has enabled companies in the aerospace, chemical, building products, utility, food and other industries to operate more efficiently with Ramco solutions.

SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/ramco-systems-diversity-marshaled-through-flexibility-16540/

Top 5 Trends in HR Technology

Over the last decade, the face of human resources (HR) has changed dramatically. What was once a seemingly low-priority department has now become an integral part the organization—and its bottom line. Today, HR is all about the understanding that maintaining a positive and productive work environment is good for business.

Accomplishing this more-than-ideal scenario can seem difficult because many organizations don't understand what is required. So, how can today's businesses manage this change? Simple: by adopting HR best practices and leveraging HR technology.

Recession or not, innovation in HR technology continues to grow and to alter the way in which people work. This technology impacts all of us—in both our personal lives and in the workplace. It's important that we continue to embrace technology in order to have the tools that will help create better communication and collaboration within our grasp. Technology (e.g., social networking, mobile phones, etc.) helps people connect within their work environments and fuels the potential for increased productivity and creativity.

But no matter what the current trends are, the most important point remains: organizations need to keep both their current and future workforce requirements in mind before turning to a new solution.

As we approach a new decade, here are five of the top trends that I believe are making the biggest impact in the HR arena.

* talent management
* social networking
* outsourcing
* software as a service (SaaS)
* mergers and acquisitions (M&As)

1. Talent Management
Talent management adds to the core HR mix, providing a combination of recruitment, performance and compensation management, succession planning, and more. As such, the enterprise software industry has seen a drastic increase in vendor offerings—as well as the types of vendors who are selling them.

This year's 12th Annual HR Technology Conference & Exposition in Chicago, Illinois (US) was proof that talent management is alive and well, and making an impact on the way organizations do business. Today, both talent management and employee development are critical in determining an organization's performance potential. But it's the ability to manage performance that often sets organizations apart—and the primary differentiator between an organization that produces so-so results and one that exceeds their expectations.

Talent management is a strategy that combines core HR functions such as, personnel administration, payroll, and benefits with acquisition, development, and performance. These solutions provide a comprehensive suite of tools that helps organizations take a more strategic approach to the way they select, manage, and retain their employees.

The vendors that offer talent management solutions today are an extremely diverse bunch. This can make it difficult for HR decision makers to determine which solutions can truly satisfy all their needs. The decision makers need to decide which solution is better for their organization by determining whether or not to purchase an out-of-the-box HR solution, an learning management system LMS solution that fits nicely with their current core HR system, or an enterprise resource planning ERP system that can replace many of its separate solutions. The combination of systems available is endless.

The five main types of talent management offerings include

* traditional HR vendors that have added talent management functionality to their core HR applications;
* ERP vendors that have developed talent management add-ons to their core product(s);
* LMS vendors that blend learning with talent management;
* niche players that focus on one particular area of the talent management spectrum (e.g., applicant tracking, recruitment, workforce management, performance management, etc.); and
* talent management software vendors that focus solely on the four pillars of talent management (recruiting, performance management, learning management, and compensation management).


SOURCE:

http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/top-5-trends-in-hr-technology-20469/