"Ultimate, a major HR vendor, is going private and many are speculating about how the deal will affect employees, customers and top executives. But shouldn’t we be discussing other factors, too (e.g., how the private-equity deal financing will affect things)?"

"On the concern side, Kronos needs to accelerate on the AI side, it is relatively late with Aimee and it needs to come up with a voice driven UI, which is key for end users. That is all not too far away for Kronos, but it needs to happen. Moving from Workforce Management to HCM means that vendors cannot hide under the complexity and compliance blanket but must show some style and appeal to motivate users… and we are not even talking Talent Management here. Kronos also needs to get their buying center to step up inside the HR buying center, quite a change for the current Kronos supporters."

"My slow-cooked piece on the future of SAP payroll - including cloud payroll - is finally ready. Here's the view from SAP's Daniela Lange, and my analysis. This is a deep read, so grab your hot beverage first."

"On the concern side, Ceridian needs to push the envelope in the direction of Machine Learning / AI in general and voice as the new UI more. Last year at the user conference the vendor showed the most impressive voice demos of all HCM vendors in 2017 – a worker talking to Alexa (?) for an understanding of their shift situation and executing a shift swap. No demo this year, the vendor citing keynote time reasons… Behind an effective Machine Learning / AI strategy is the move to public cloud, to be able to leverage cheaper compute, spare capacity, low cost storage and overall compute elasticity. And Ceridian says the Dayforce suite runs on public cloud IaaS (I think Azure) but needs to move there for good. When the whole industry is moving to IaaS, it’s time for all vendors to move there to level the field."

"Next-gen partners are often the missing piece in the SaaS value proposition. With SAP TechEd Barcelona kicking in, here's a winning example of extending SuccessFactors on the SAP Cloud Platform, with partner EIR."

"ADP product portfolio gets stronger and stronger, now it has to prove itself in practice. Following the roll out waves in 2019 will be key for prospects and customers. The ability to have payroll managers configure, change and operate a payroll are innovative, at least of the scale that ADP needs to support. The team approach of Liffion is equally key, as teams are the org units that make and break enterprise success. And for that, very little has been done in the past to support teams and their leaders."

"At CommLive18, FinancialForce launches PSA analytics and financials reporting powered by Salesforce Einstein analytics, but says AI may have to come from elsewhere"

"SuccessFactors is making progress, but the pace seems to be glacial. Realistically using more of SAP technology, a good decision overall, means even more ‘plumbing’ work by R&D resources vs. ‘sun deck’ work (building SaaS capabilities). But it is an investment SAP should make, with the expectation of better productivity and more functionality being shipped in a few years – latest."

"Ceridian came back to public markets Friday after more than a decade away, but the HR/payroll vendor is much changed today. Brian Sommer has the backstory."

"A good HCM World for Oracle, the product keeps progressing and customers and ecosystem are positive. Customers tap more and more into the suite benefits, adding modules after originally going live on more administrative functions as ESS / MSS and Payroll. Needless from the start though, suite level benefits are tangible and create productivity for users as well as HR departments, all leading to a more positive stance towards the product, in this case Oracle HCM Cloud."

"On the concern side, ADP will have to switch the format of the event from vision heavy to more product centric. It would almost be a crime in the positioning category not showing and sharing with its global customers what is happening with Lifion and Pi."

"Standing back from the noise of yesterday's SAP HCM on-premises announcement, I see a more complex environment."

"We had the opportunity to attend Ultimate Software’s first analyst summit, held at the vendor’s headquarters in Weston, Florida, November 16th. Always good to be at an inaugural analyst meeting, good attendance by the usual HCM analysts."

"We had the opportunity to attend the Ceridian yearly user conference, Insights, held at the Aria in Las Vegas, from the 3rdtill 5th of October 2017. The conference had record attendance with almost 3000 participants and was very well attended from influencers and analysts."

"On the concern side, SuccessFactors still needs to find its way inside, versus or with the SAP mainstream. The acquisition is soon more than six years ago and while SuccessFactors has delivered a compelling HR Core product with EmployeeCentral, it need to address looming payroll (no mention in keynote) and overall platform / suite level questions. The sooner, the better. And as a general conversation, HR conferences increasingly seem to be about celebrities and good vibes. All good but the product message can’t be overshadowed too much."

"SuccessConnect 2017 marked an all-new leadership team on stage. Why the changes? No one better to ask than SAP cloud chief Rob Enslin, who also shared news on SuccessFactors-on-HANA and SAP payroll."

"The SuccessConnect day one keynote is in the books. Here's some impromptu reactions, critiques, and questions I'm pursuing for the rest of the show."

"Salesforce-native applications vendor FinancialForce has outsourced its roadmap for HCM to ADP so that it can focus in on its 'ERP for services' vision."

"SuiteWorld 17 has come and gone but this year, we found eight customer stories that are worth the reading along with three others that capture the essence of the strategies Oracle NetSuite is deploying."

"The big product news from NetSuite this week is SuitePeople, a full-function core HR system that's deeply embedded in the cloud ERP platform."

"Uber's losing at an employment tribunal in London is a temporary setback for the company. Here's why."

"Two years ago, car maker Jaguar Land Rover standardized its HR in the cloud. Here's what it learned about converging processes, data and teams."

"SAP's Q3 FY2016 was marginally above expectations at the top line, albeit marred by heavy currency impact. Stock based compensation hit margin.The company ups outlook."

"The recent troubles of the Co-Operative Group have been well documented. However, part of the turnaround plan is to invest in its people and systems."

"On the concern side ADP cannot afford to rest. While the current UI is still appealing, it is no longer as fresh and in tune with the latest innovations in UI that are happening these days. Likewise its Data Cloud is on the right architecture and platform, given these decisions were taken 2+ years ago, but a fresh start today may consider other platforms, designs and architectures."

"An on-site conversation with Justin Watras shed light on Brooks Brother's strategic approach to HR, and the continual art of managing change. Exhibit A: cloud-based HR self-service. Watras even gave me advice on men's fashion, specifically the fate of my tie collection in a business casual world."

"On the concern side SAP must – like all vendors with a history in the enterprise software market – address the question of technical debt. Some of the acquired older SuccessFactors products are turning double digit if not teenage years old, always a point to rethink and possible rebuild products."

"Workday turned in a good result for Q2 FY2017, beating out on revenue but with relatively light guidance for Q3. However, the ongoing mid-term guidance is solid and something that catches the eye."

"Two recent podcasts with SuccessFactors experts bring clarity to good - and bad - cloud consulting practices. Here's some keepers from the talks."

"SAP rolls out a better than expected quarter with one offs dropping out and a bump in European business."

"Zenefits continues to clean house, offers a reset in valuation for the Series C investors that sees the valuation dropped by 55 percent."

"On the concern side, SuccessFactors operated on considerable technical debt incurred over the years, mostly before the acquisition. At some point SAP needs to address that, and that will be a substantial investment. It looks to me as if there are some resource constraints (they are always there, but focusing e.g. on ‘horizontal’ is an indication), that are not of immediate concern, but if SAP SuccessFactors wants to be appealing beyond the SAP install base, it needs to start investing in differentiating ideas now."

"SAP slipped up on closing deals in Q1 FY2016. Of itself that's not important. The bigger issue is how SAP plugs what is a gap with S/4 HANA. Right now there's little detail upon which to go but there are plenty of questions we can ask."

"A very good MOTM for ADP, the vendor has delivered what it promised a year ago and now has a competitive product, for the first time I can think of. Good to see ADP is not resting on its product laurels and has more interesting offerings and products coming. Naturally, focus now turns to sales and services, customers need to understand and adopt the new offerings. Too early to tell how well ADP will do here."

"I have no doubt we are we are still in the early innings of the multi year shift from client server OnPremise software (i.e. SAP HCM, Oracle EBS, PeopleSoft) to the next generation cloud based offerings (i.e. SuccessFactors, Workday, Oracle HCM Cloud) which Bill Kutik has done a great job of outlining in this article. SAP has been very aggressive over the past 5 years spending over 17 billion on acquiring cloud companies such as SuccessFactors, Ariba, Fieldglass and Concur and is now predicting that cloud and support revenue will overtake software by 2018."

"Good progress at Ceridian on the Dayforce product. In general the team has a good delivery track record and that shows after 3 days of significant investment in product. Now the question is where Ceridian will take the product next – more global is already a direction the vendor is executing on. HCM anywhere is a promising direction but needs more validation and further investment."

"Given that, it should come as no surprise that SAP is leading with SuccessFactors HCM Suite for all new customers, in most regions worldwide. There has always been a delicate balance within the SAP HCM Consulting market and this major shift over the last few years of HR customers moving to the cloud (with SuccessFactors and to competitors) has had a huge impact on the traditional SAP HCM consulting market. In the SAP HCM market, I am seeing a very little opportunity, billable rate compression, layoffs and it is not a place you want to be longer term."

"While there is nothing wrong with having a junior or inexperienced consultant, the lead of a project should always have Professional Certification. In this blog, we’ll explore what this means to customers and consultants and look at why customers should always seek out some of the hundreds of consultants that have Professional Certification."

"We had the opportunity to attend Workday's TechSummit, held at the beautiful Cavallo Point resort in Sausalito."

"This remains a key trend to make HR applications better for end users. Hope you could make it to the panel I was honored to moderate on Monday, with the key analytic leaders of Castlight Health, Cornerstone, Equifax Workforce Solutions, Ulimate Software and Workday."

"In contrast to previous Success Connects there where a much higher number of live and implementing customers in the audience – a good sign to the more ‘in evaluation mode’ crowd of the previous years"

"On the concern side Ceridian is growing fast and needs to scale beyond the product – on the sales, implementation and support side. As of July it looks like the sales side is in good shape, Ceridian even shared that it is now giving existing customers the choice to stay on the legacy product or move to Dayforce, something vendors pressed for revenue won’t do."

"We had the opportunity to attend the Oracle HCM Analyst Summit in Redwood Shores recently. This was the largest analyst attendance ever for an Oracle HCM Cloud event and it is a proof point for Oracle momentum as well as the vendor’s investment in the HCM space"

"So with some surprise – Salesforce.com announced it is (re) entering the HCM market with ‘Salesforce for HR’. So let’s dissect the press release in our customary style (it can be found here):"

"Payroll and related services are somewhere beyond 80 to 90% of HCM enterprise spend, and making sure that an enterprises is compliant with legal and statutory updates, as well as it can pay its employees correctly and on time is a ‘must have’ for HR Leaders… so big news today comes from Workday – as the vendor is adding Payroll support for the UK in Workday 24, its 3rd vendor supported country (Workday supports USA and Canada already). "

"A good event for Oracle customers and the vendor, who keeps showing traction in HCM. Oracle believes, as Hurd shared that when you have the ‘foot in the door’ with HCM in the cloud – the rest of the enterprises will follow. As much as we agree that the ‘golden rule’ of enterprise software that ‘suites always win’ should remain true for the cloud era, we also know that the PeopleSoft history (on premise of course) has shown us differently."

"Oracle committed to HCM – from top down – Similar like last year Mark Hurd opened the event, which is a good sign showing the top executives are committed to keep up the HCM momentum. To compare – other vendors in the big, big category (SAP, Microsoft) have not shown the same presence – or not even formulated their HCM strategy. "

"Good software is like wine, it takes time to mature, and ADP is on track to bring its innovations across its vast product suite. Gone will be the days of inconsistent UIs that troubled users, different architectures that hampered consultants and irritated IT professionals"

"Ceridian has created a new version of the user interface for Dayforce, which addresses shortfalls of the previous user interface. In the last 20 month’s Ceridian has moved off a very Microsoft centric user interface, to a HTML5 based user interface that was and looked like a first version to now a good looking, dense enough for their heavy users and still visually appealing modern user interface."

"In short, there are not a host of changes for HR customers. The focus of S/4HANA is firmly on the ERP and Financials area, with added functionality for HR coming from existing HCM solutions. A simplified data model and planned packaged integrations are going to make it easier for Employee Central customers to integrate with S/4HANA, but SAP ERP HCM customers are going to have to build their own integrations or consider a migration to SuccessFactors Employee Central."

"SAP had their yearly analyst meeting in San Francisco and it was a good time to catch up on overall progress almost 6 months after SuccessConnect in Las Vegas (my takeaways here)."

A comprehensive post.....