What is HR Technology?

I think one of the toughest challenges in developing and facilitating a course about HR Technology is deciding which areas of the technology spectrum to emphasize, and what areas to give only passing comment to, or perhaps ignore completely.  Most all mid-size to large organizations already have implemented technology solutions for core HR functions, time and attendance, payroll etc.  Those solutions and systems are mostly well understood by students, and quite honestly pretty boring.

Even more advanced solutions like Employee Self Service and online annual Benefits Open Enrollment are fairly ho-hum to most students.  Many, many organizations have implemented these solutions over the last five years or so. 

Common across all the above types of solutions for those processes is that they rarely, if ever lead to any real competitive advantage in the marketplace, beyond achieving some cost savings and potentially avoidance of any troublesome compliance issues.  Does having an efficient time and attendance system win you any customers?  Does the best talent want to come to your company (and stay) because of your wonderful payroll system?  Most likely no and no.  Good talent may walk away if you can't pay them correctly, but that is another story.

So that leads me as an instructor to want to focus the material on the types of solutions and processes that can add real value, that help attract and retain key talent, and develop that talent for future leadership roles.  Things like recruiting, performance management, succession planning, and the tools and solutions that are available in the market to automate and improve those processes.

And what about newer Web 2.0 technologies that are only on the surface indirectly related to HR?  Things like wikis, blogs, and RSS?  I am certainly seeing the interest and need from the students to learn about and consider these technologies in their HR roles.  But sometimes I worry that by spending too much time on Web 2.0, I lose the focus on the 'core' of HR and the real reason the class was created.

So, if you had to design an HR Technology course, what would you focus on?