Your HR Tech Vendor Should Tell You 'No'

Having an interesting day at the HR Tech Tank event in Toronto meeting with and talking to a talented group of HR Technology Startups that are (mostly, I think anyway), based in Canada.

One of the recurring themes that has come up during the day is the importance of listening to customers/prospects in the design and development process. As a couple of the startup veterans in the group have pointed out, if you run too far down a development path and have not done enough research, prototyping, and received enough detailed feedback from the most likely users of the product, then you place yourself at serious risk of building something that no one (except maybe you) actually wants.

But at the same time, if you do too much listening to customers and prospects and focus on attempting to incorporate all of their feedback, enhancements, and feature requests into an existing product, (and more importantly, into a product that is meant to be fairly tight in scope), then you end up with a more complex product than you had intended, might miss important delivery commitments, and risk not staying true to your initial vision for the product. Probably the very same vision that sold your first employees, investors, and even customers on initially.

It is definitely a fine line to walk for an HR Tech Startup founder and their team, and likely also for more established HR tech providers. It really comes down to having a pretty deep understanding of your product, your team's capability, the completeness of your vision and product, and lastly your philosophy about working with customers.

There are no specific of set rules or answers for sure. Which is why creating and delivering product is really, really hard.

But for customers or prospects it feels or seems much easier, right? Just look for and agree to continue working with only those vendors that continually say 'Yes' to all of your enhancement and new feature requests. After all, you are the customer and the customer is always right. And if your vendor doesn't react as completely as you like, and according to your timeframes then you can simply find some other one that will.

Except for the fact that unless you are the startup's very first customer, then that means that there are others, maybe even thousands of other customers making similar requests of your vendor. And guess what? All of those other customers think their enhancement requests are just as important as yours.

And if the vendor keeps saying 'Yes' to all of, or even most of your (and everyone else's) requests, they will end up with a product that is more a set of collected features and less of an elegant solution to a problem. A solution and vision that was what originally so compelling that you had to have it.

The vendor, especially the startup vendor, HAS to say 'No' sometimes, maybe most of the time.

The challenge for you, the customer, is to learn that 'No' is sometimes, maybe most of the time, the right answer. For both of you.

What was interesting at #SHRM12? How about vending machines?

In a sea of SHRM National Conference and Exposition vendors providing employee assessments, background checking, and outsourced benefits administration services, it can be a little hard for any individual vendor, (assuming they don't have a custom 18-wheeler to roll in to the Expo Hall), to stand out from the pack.

One vendor that did stand out, at least in my mind, not only with the neat and innovative service that they provide, and in the clever way they engaged with some of the members of the massive SHRM blogging brigade in the pre-conference hype, was Avanti Markets, a Washington-based company that provides organizations with a new and fresh take on the typical break-room vending machine array. Avanti installs and helps maintain 'markets', a convenience store-style set-up with a variety of packaged and fresh food items, and a pay-as-you-go style kiosk that allows employees to purchase and pay for items using debit, credit, a stored-value Avanti account, and soon, company payroll deduction.

Companies can stock the markets with the mix of food items that they and their employees prefer, one idea being that organizations concerned with employee health and wellness can focus more heavily on fresh and healthy foods, and can even set a food pricing strategy, (and use subsidies), to encourage more consumption of good food options. Make a fresh salad cost $2.00 and a Snickers bar set you back $3.25, and you just might see the guys on the night shift start eating a little better.

Avanti's inventory management capability also allows company administrators to see real-time stock levels, consumption trends, and allows companies to make rapid adjustments to ordering and pricing strategies.

The last point about Avanti I'd like to mention, and maybe the main reason I wanted to take a few minutes to recognize them here? They seemed like a group of really nice people, from CEO Jim Brinton down to all the folks I met at the booth and corresponded with prior to the event. They have a neat idea, a cool service offering, and were really genuine and excited to share their story without trying to force me or the other folks here to notice them.

If you are interested in a better and potentially more healthy set of options for your organization's break areas, I would encourage you to check out what is happening at Avanti.

Now I better run to grab a Snickers before the price goes up.

HR Technology Conference - Choosing Technology

Wrapping up observations from the HR Technology Conference in Chicago with a question that I get all the time in one form or another:

What solution is the best for (insert among the following: ATS, Performance Management, Comp. Planning, LMS, collaboration, idea management, etc.?)

The answer, as always is: 'It depends'.

I know, classic consultant-speak cop-out. And while Salary.com did a great presentation in the HR Technology Shootout, easily out pacing SAP, Lawson, and Plateau in the minds of the conference attendees, does that mean that they offer the 'best' solution? Honestly, for large portions of the shootout, the solutions presented were fairly indistinguishable from each other.

It is not really possible for an observer, even a relatively informed one, to give a quick answer to the question. There are so many variables that have to be considered in determining what the 'best' solution is for a given organization's unique set of problems.

So while I can't tell you what technology is the 'best', I can offer a few suggestions to help evaluate from the literally thousands of HR Technology providers.

Understand the problem - What are the business problems you are trying to solve? 'We need Talent Management technology' is not good enough.  Try to focus on the most pressing current issues that need attention, while also considering the state of the organization three years out.

Know your capabilities - How proficient are your end users with technology? If you are deploying a new system for employee performance management, the primary users of the system will be first-line managers.  Make sure you understand their ability, motivations, and what is in it for them before making the final decision on a vendor.  Better still, include some of these end users on the selection team. Do you have internal IT support? Are there company rules on data privacy that make implementing solutions hosted on the vendor's servers unappealing?

Learn the market - Not easy, but necessary.  You have to avail yourself of all available resources to learn about the vendors in the market space. Obviously attending the big HR Technology Conference is a quick way to get in front of representatives from all the major vendors in the space. Most vendors typically offer periodic webinars and/or recorded demonstrations of their solutions, and many even offer free trials of their solutions. But beyond assessing capability and features, and assessing gaps in functionality, take a long hard look at the market position of the vendor.  Are they financially stable?
Are they on some larger firm's takeover radar? Do they have a commitment to continuously innovate, and are those innovations easily applied to all customers?Flickr -8 Skeins

Trust, but verify - Obviously many if not most vendors will tell you what (they think) you want to hear. If a needed feature is not currently in the solution offered, many vendors will promise that it is coming soon, or if you enter into contract with them, that they will add the feature for the customer. Historically, one method of 'verification' of vendor claims or promises has been the customer reference. The vendor provides a hand-picked list of their current customers that the prospect is encouraged to contact to learn more about the customer's experience with the vendor. But of course since all the customer references are vendor-supplied, how do you know how much to trust the information you get from these references?

Leverage your networks - An advantage of cultivating and maintaining an active network of HR and HR Technology professionals is the ability to connect with current and future users of a given technology solution. Posting questions on LinkedIn groups, or in LinkedIn Q&A, or on Twitter can almost certainly yield relevant information and additional connections that are not necessarily filtered through the vendor's prism. Just like you read the reviews on Amazon.com before you plunk down for that new plasma TV, take the time to uncover some independent insights on the technologies you are considering.

Investing in new HR Technology solutions can be one of the most important decisions that you organization makes, effecting employee productivity, engagement, and ultimately business performance.

Better choose wisely.

Sunday Stories - The Wine Cellar

Last Sunday I posted the ridiculous story of my very first day on my first 'professional' job, which mostly involved downing multiple beers in a gay bar. Details of the day are here.

That story is one that I have told in class a few times, and this week I started thinking that maybe I should post some of the other offbeat, and hopefully humorous stories from the past that I like to share with the students. So here is the second installment of 'Sunday Stories', a little tale of a dinner at a nice restaurant in the Eastern US, with some former colleagues and some external consultants, and a trip to the wine cellar.

The Backstory

In about 1997 or so, I was working for a major manufacturing company and was participating on an Enterprise Resource Planning software selection team.  About 10-12 of us spent 6 months or so traveling around the country, meeting vendors, reference accounts, and external consultancies all who had an interest in our business. The contract my organization would ultimately sign for the software was for about $10M, and the bill for external consulting likely ended up at another $10 - $15M on top of that. So the vendors and consulting companies that were helping to facilitate the evaluation process all had a huge vested interest in the purchase decision.

The Dinner

The evaluation process was nearing the end, we were down to two vendors and two external consultancies still in the running for the contract. One of the vendors invited us to one of their main US training centers for a few days to get a feeling for their corporate training capability, and to do some additional process modeling of some key functions that were critical to our organization, and would be a major factor in the decision process. One of the consultancies sent a few folks to work alongside us, trying to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise with the solution.

On the last night we were in town, the consulting company guys invited the few of us who were still in town to go out to a nice dinner.  The party was about 3 or so from the consultancy, including one partner, and perhaps 5 of us, none of whom were 'senior' managers or executives.  So the 8 of us headed out for dinner to a locally famous restaurant, well-known for its cuisine, and for its expansive wine list. Flickr - Sam

We arrived at the restaurant, were seated, some drinks were ordered, and the sommelier soon came by the table to offer some wine recommendations.  As no one at the table knew very much about wine, the sommelier (sensing a major score I came to believe), invited us to accompany him to the wine cellar to sample a bottle or two, and make a better choice for dinner. When no one immediately volunteered to go down to the cellar, I raised by hand, and after that another guy from my team named David agreed to come down as well.

When we got down to the huge wine cellar, the sommelier showed us around a bit, then left us to look around while he got some samples for us to taste.  We tried two or three 'dinner' wines, and two or three 'dessert' wines, made our choices of which ones we liked best, and at once the sommelier said he would take care of everything. We made our way back upstairs to the table.

The dinner was fantastic. The food was excellent, and while really no one at the table was a big wine person, the wine was so good that many, many bottles were consumed, once a bottle was empty, another one immediately took its place. All told, it was a really great meal, some business was certainly discussed, but mostly it was just a group of guys who had been working some pretty long hours unwinding and cutting loose a bit.

The Damage

When the meal was finally over, the waiter brought over the bill, and as was typical for these 'selection process' outings, the external consultants that were trying to win the project insisted on paying the tab. When the partner examined the bill, his eyes bugged out, his mouth sort of hung open, and he seemingly could not utter a word.

Turns out the dinner wine that David and I selected in the wine cellar was $750 each, and the dessert wine was $400. Yikes! Of course down in the cellar, we had never bothered to ask the prices, since we knew the consultants were paying for the dinner anyway, and we were being wined and dined all over the country by vendors and consultants trying to win this huge contract.

The total bar tab with the pre-dinner and after-dinner drinks (some of the guys ordered some really expensive single malt whiskey), and the wine was about $9,500.  With the food, tip, and taxes added in, the grand total bill for dinner for 8 people was over $12,000.

So essentially, I helped turn a nice, low-key dinner into a $12K debacle. 

The partner soon regained his composure, took out his American Express card and paid the tab. On the way out of the restaurant, he cornered me and David and in a very low key way said, 'Don't you ever do something like that again'.

Ultimately, I did not feel that bad about what happened, this consultancy eventually did win the majority of the contract to provide services on what became a massive ERP implementation, so their $12K 'invested' in this dinner certainly was not wasted.

There are lots of sweet assignments when working with enterprise technology, and being on the selection team for a multi-million dollar software purchase certainly is one of them.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Hi Santa

Hi Santa
Originally uploaded by steveboese

Time to make your HR Technology Christmas list?

This year I am asking Santa for the following:

1. More vendors willing to donate use of software for my HR Technology class, (thanks once more Halogen Software, SpectrumHR, and Standout Jobs).

2. More students, faculty, colleagues on Twitter, and seeing the value of this platform - follow me - Sbjet

3. Help to make this blog a better resource for students and others who care about HR and Technology.

4. Some more converts in the internal organization to 'modern' tools and technologies to facilitate collaboration, sharing, and connecting.

That is not too much to ask I think. 

And really, I made this post to test the automatic feed of the Santa pic from Flickr over to the blog.  Absolutely awesome functionality.

What is on your wish list for HR Technology?

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