Mark Smith's Analyst Perspectives

Workday Rising while Oracle Sleeps in the Clouds

Posted by Mark Smith on Oct 28, 2011 12:04:43 PM

As Workday held its annual Workday Rising conference this week, it’s a good time to note the accomplishments of the company and to provide a fair and balanced coverage that has yet to be spoken by my industry peers for some reason. Co-founder and co-CEO David Duffield, who founded PeopleSoft, champions a set of core values in its culture and leads a workforce that has built a new generation of ERP applications for deployment in the cloud computing environment. The suite brings together human capital management (HCM) applications to manage absence, benefits, compensation, goals, performance, succession and career planning, along with payroll; accounting applications for general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable and cash management; and spend management applications for procurement and expenses including labor. Workday prides itself on the innovative design of its application technology, compared to the on-premises approach of PeopleSoft (now part of Oracle). It has received significant financial investment to support development, including $85 million in recent Series F financing, which indicates support for its approach.

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Topics: SAP, Human Capital Management, Kronos, NetSuite, Operational Performance Management (OPM), Recruiting, Zuora, Business Analytics, Business Collaboration, Business Mobility, Cloud Computing, Oracle, Business Performance Management (BPM), Cornerstone OnDemand, Digital Interviewing, Financial Performance Management (FPM), Hiring, HRMS, Saba, SumTotal Systems, Talent Management, Taleo, Tidemark, Workday, Workforce Analytics, Workforce Performance Management (WPM)

Marketing Executives Aren’t Ready for the Social Explosion of Data

Posted by Mark Smith on Oct 27, 2011 3:09:43 AM

I had a chance to review the results of an interesting new global study of chief marketing officers (CMOs) by IBM, and I want to comment on some of its findings. Adding to the pressures facing the CMO today are new challenges in brand promotion and the growing impact of consumer sentiment expressed in several channels, including social media. The research found these to be the top two concerns in marketing and that 65 percent of organizations are not prepared to deal with them. My investigations lead me to agree with these findings.

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Topics: Big Data, Social Media, Customer Analytics, Market Research, Operational Performance Management (OPM), Business Analytics, Business Mobility, Business Technology, Cloud Computing, Business Performance Management (BPM), CMO, Customer Performance Management (CPM), Demand Generation, Sales Performance Management (SPM)

IBM Brings Business Analytics to Apple iPad

Posted by Mark Smith on Oct 27, 2011 1:47:56 AM

Fulfilling its intention to make it easier to access and use analytics and business intelligence, IBM released its Cognos Mobile application natively for the Apple iPad. Of course IBM is not the first to release a native application for the tablet, and many might say that it is late in doing so, but in reality the market for dedicated applications on tablets is just heating up. The adoption rate of the iPad as the tablet of choice for business continues to grow, and while statistics are not yet available our research has found a groundswell of interest this year and last among businesses in mobility for analytics and BI. In this context, the mobile app is significant for IBM Cognos. It has delivered software for mobile technology including smartphones for over a decade, but the new application was carefully designed to establish a foundation for upcoming incremental releases in the tablet format.

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Topics: Microsoft, Google, Operational Performance Management (OPM), Playbook, RIM, Business Analytics, Business Collaboration, Business Intelligence, Business Mobility, CIO, IBM, Mobility, Business Performance Management (BPM), Cognos, Sales Performance Management (SPM), Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM), Workforce Performance Management (WPM), Digital Technology

SuccessFactors Takes Learning to a New Plateau

Posted by Mark Smith on Oct 19, 2011 10:53:22 AM

Attendees at the SuccessFactors Insights conference and those of us on Twitter socializing with the Insights11 hashtag in San Diego this week was designed for Plateau customers who came to the final conference that was scheduled prior to its acquisition by SuccessFactors. The conference provided educational and customer content in an agenda focused on developments in the previous Plateau learning management system (LMS) and new products that SuccessFactors is integrating with it. SuccessFactors brings significant number of assets that the Plateau technology and people can leverage from its global scale and operations to the product release and customer operations centers for cloud computing delivery of its applications.

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Topics: Social Media, Human Capital Management, Learning Management System, Operational Performance Management (OPM), Recruiting, Business Analytics, Business Collaboration, Business Mobility, Cloud Computing, Business Performance Management (BPM), Digital Interviewing, Financial Performance Management (FPM), Hiring, HRMS, Sales Performance Management (SPM), Talent Management, Workforce Analytics, Workforce Performance Management (WPM)

Hiring Goes Digital with HireVue

Posted by Mark Smith on Oct 17, 2011 11:32:53 AM

A vendor I have been tracking and got to examine at the recent HR Technology Conference has a tool to help businesses improve their talent management that I had profiled this company in my talent management guide for the eventHireVue’s Digital Interview Platform records interviews and enables hiring managers to review candidates’ responses to critical questions.

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Topics: Social Media, Human Capital Management, Operational Performance Management (OPM), Recruiting, Business Analytics, Business Collaboration, Business Mobility, Cloud Computing, Business Performance Management (BPM), Digital Interviewing, Financial Performance Management (FPM), Hiring, HRMS, Sales Performance Management (SPM), Talent Management, Workforce Analytics, Workforce Performance Management (WPM)

Visier Is a New Force in Workforce Analytics

Posted by Mark Smith on Oct 7, 2011 12:16:06 PM

In the last year some software vendors have been developing a new generation of workforce analytics that leaves pie and bar charts behind in their dashboards and reports in favor of a more intuitive approach. One such company, Visier,is now demonstrating such a fresh approach, which exemplifies what business analytics in general and especially those used to optimize and understand the workforce should look like. I spent time at the HR Technology Conference and Expo in Las Vegas this week reviewing the software and talking with the development team to learn about the company and its products.

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Topics: Mobile, Social Media, Human Capital Management, Operational Performance Management (OPM), Business Analytics, Business Collaboration, Business Mobility, Cloud Computing, Business Performance Management (BPM), Financial Performance Management (FPM), HRMS, Sales Performance Management (SPM), Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM), Talent Management, Workforce Analytics, Workforce Performance Management (WPM)

Is Oracle Social Network Worth a Look?

Posted by Mark Smith on Oct 7, 2011 9:27:32 AM

Oracle unveiled its Social Network at Open World, but it seems most in the industry weren’t aware of it – or maybe Oracle does not want  them to pay much attention to it. My synopsis is that Oracle Social Network is definitely a work in progress that, even by Oracle own yardsticks of marketing and accessibility, is not ready to for enterprise use.

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Topics: Mobile, Social Media, Operational Performance Management (OPM), Business Analytics, Business Collaboration, Business Mobility, Cloud Computing, Oracle, Business Performance Management (BPM), Financial Performance Management (FPM), Sales Performance Management (SPM), Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM), Workforce Performance Management (WPM)

Cloudy Forecast for Oracle Fusion for CRM and HCM

Posted by Mark Smith on Oct 7, 2011 8:44:34 AM

I did not go to Oracle OpenWorld this year because it seemed the company was fixated on appliances and technology with little  emphasize on its Fusion applications business, which the focus on business is a major interest of our firm. Based on the reports of my colleagues on its applications discussion (See: “Apps Hard to Find at Oracle Open World“) and Oracle Exalytics (See: “Oracle Unveils BI Appliance Called Exalytics“) and my review of Oracle’s online materials and keynotes, I was right to skip it. The week was full of diatribes about appliances and infrastructure, while applications played second fiddle. This is a longstanding imbalance for Oracle, perhaps understandable given its history and the need to build revenue from its expensive Sun Microsystems hardware acquisition.

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Topics: Mobile, Social Media, Operational Performance Management (OPM), Business Analytics, Business Collaboration, Business Mobility, Cloud Computing, Oracle, Business Performance Management (BPM), Financial Performance Management (FPM), Sales Performance Management (SPM), Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM), Workforce Performance Management (WPM)

The Unofficial Talent Management Guide for HR Technology Conference

Posted by Mark Smith on Oct 3, 2011 11:55:33 AM

The HR Technology Conference and Expo in Las Vegas that begins today will showcase an array of new applications for talent management. The array of applications and advancements to help human resources professionals is evolving dramatically, and this is a place for HR and workforce management professionals to find new methods that help increase productivity and optimize business outcomes. The five business technologyinnovations that will be vitally important in this decade for HR as well as other lines of business: They are cloud computing, social media, mobility, analytics and collaboration. If you want to read what is new in these areas, you can read my business technology guide to the conference. Each of these when integrated with talent management processes can improve the potential of your workforce and help recruit and retain talent.

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Topics: Mobile, Performance Management, Social Media, Human Capital Management, Metrics, Recruiting, Business Analytics, Business Collaboration, Cloud Computing, Business Performance Management (BPM), Compensation, Financial Performance Management (FPM), Talent Management, Workforce Analytics, Workforce Performance Management (WPM), Digital Technology

The Unofficial Business Technology Guide for HR Technology Conference

Posted by Mark Smith on Oct 3, 2011 11:38:31 AM

The HR Technology Conference and Expo in Las Vegas that begins today will showcase an array of new business technology innovations for human capital management and talent management. The business technology to help human resources professionals is evolving dramatically, and this is a place for HR and workforce management professionals to find new methods that help increase productivity and optimize business outcomes. Early this year our firm defined five business technology innovations that will be vitally important in this decade for HR as well as other lines of business: They are cloud computing, social media, mobility, analytics and collaboration. Each of these when integrated with business and workforce processes can improve worker/manager interactions, and when combined they can have a widespread impact across the enterprise.

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Topics: Mobile, Performance Management, Social Media, Human Capital Management, Metrics, Operational Performance Management (OPM), Recruiting, Business Analytics, Business Collaboration, Business Mobility, Cloud Computing, Business Performance Management (BPM), Compensation, Financial Performance Management (FPM), Talent Management, Workforce Analytics, Workforce Performance Management (WPM), Digital Technology