Feature comparison from lead vendors.

The Talent Wheel, a simple but intuitive model to understand talent management activities, was presented in a previous article. In this article, it is used to evaluate the different products in the talent management space. There are many vendors positioned in the Talent Management arena, however due to their initial offerings and stronghold history the depth of their offerings varies, some are already entrenched in the market place as niche players while others have come as new strong contenders. This article doesn’t attempt to include all products; neither pretends to be a complete formal product evaluation.

The chart above presents companies that now offer solutions in the Talent Management space. It chart clearly shows wide spectrum of these firm’s functionality, since it attempts to identify how the vendor sees Talent Management. The depth of each offering and its fit with existing firm's process  also need to be studied when choosing a vendor. As presented here, the talent wheel provides a good initial starting point for analysis.

Taleo: Taleo started in the recruiting and candidate tracking arena and has moved very quickly to include a rainbow of talent management tools. This company started operations in 1996 and due to its high profitable niche managed to grow fast, releasing performance assessment in 2008 and other key elements that today constitute its offerings.

Success factors: This Company has some of the best known products in the assessment section. In fact, its core business comes from the objectives definition and tracking modules. It started operations in 2001, and now is expanding its line of products to become a full Talent Management suite. Success Factors was also one of the pioneers in the cloud enterprise. Success Factors’ strategy is focused on capturing market share and therefore it has not been profitable.

Kenexa: Coming from the recruiting space, this firm started operations in 1987, one of the early pioneers of Talent Management. Kenexa offers additional recruiting outsourcing, content and professional services with a targeted consulting and a variety of integrated systems offering a comprehensive solution for Talent Management.

Silkroad: Privately held - started operations in 2003. Although Silkroad entered a bit late to the race it is well financed and it may be a great future contender. It also has developed a number of interesting modules for Talent Management; the company reports having more than 2000 customers.

Halogen Software: Privately held - started operations in 1996. Not all the information about its financial position is known but clearly its focus is Talent Management. With a product that is competitive, the company reports that there are more than 1500 clients worldwide using its solutions.

The following is a summary of selected information as of December 2010 for the lead publicly-traded companies including Market Capitalization, top line revenue and EBITDA.

 

 

Market-Cap (Billions)

Revenue per Employee

Top Revenue (Millions)

Number of Employees

Number of Clients (Aprox)

EBIDTA (Millions)

Taleo 

1.13

$160,457

267

1664

5000

23.76

Success Factors

2.14

$195,798

205

1047

3200

7.69

Kenexa

0.49

$99,847

196

1963

6000

16.29

The Talent Management wheel can also be used to understand existing Talent Management activities in a firm, or to allocate budget. It can even be used to establish or re-enforce a strategic position.

 

© 2011 by Juan Manuel Moreno - all rights reserved.

This material cannot be copied or distributed without the author's written permission.