Aside from being the title of a great song from one of the greatest rock bands ever -Iron Maiden- Be Quick or Be dead is a great metaphor for today’s business environment. No matter how you look at it speed is picking up and someone will take advantage of it at someone else’s expense. Now more than ever with falling valuation of assets, lack of liquidity, and reduced consumer confidence the notion of “survival of the quickest” is the real deal. Darwin famously stated that it is not the strongest but the most adaptable to change that survives, and this is true as true in the business world as it is in nature.

Actually if you think about it, when is the best opportunity to actually go on the offense and make a change? When the going gets tough or when everything is gently pointing upwards? Companies will either be acquired, stripped of assets, or go on the offense to acquire underpriced assets when markets and demand soften up. The real deal then is obviously to make sure you quickly can get your organization aligned and executing on the new company’s direction, and that you drive the calculated synergies of a merger or acquisition home. With people being by far the biggest expense for any given business (on average 70% of operational cost) how you deal with your joined workforce must logically be the most important factor in any M&A situation.

“In any merger or acquisition, investment banks and equity analysts will provide you with a plethora of figures quantifying the synergistic strategic benefits of the union. Yet what determines whether a merger succeeds or fails is really its people.” – Jean-Pierre Garnier, ex-CEO of GlaxoSmithKline

Logically then, companies with better people processes and a serious focus on people performance should do better in a merger. To test this hypothesis, SuccessFactors research examined the performance of ten of our customers that specifically cited challenges resulting from a merger or acquisition as their business drivers for investing in SuccessFactors. The results were clear – the ten companies that leveraged SuccessFactors to drive the merger home completely outperformed their competition in 12 month revenue growth, 12 month income growth, return on equity and price to book ratio. These mergers were not just successful on paper, they worked in the real world.

Download the SuccessFactors Research Data Sheet: Mergers & Acquisitions to see just how successful our customers are and how they are winning in these uncertain economic times.

I was just checking my Yahoo! mail where I saw an email highlighting a really cool piece of research recently done in the UK, studying how the Google generation (people born after 1993) go about getting information. The study, information behaviour of the researcher of the future, was commissioned by the British Library. Guess what – people are not going to spend time pouring through libraries and books to get the information they need, but rather simply search from the web or better just have it intelligently pushed to them – is this really a surprise? No but it does raise the question: why have we put up with enterprise software that is so dumb in how it delivers information? Generally, enterprise software is great for handling transactions but no real guidance on how to make better decisions faster.

SuccessFactors has just released the 83d release of our product, called ULTRA, which has received enormously positive feedback from customers, prospects and analysts. But what is so special with this new release? Yes, it is completely integrated and easy to use with very intuitive navigation and delightful appearance. So what does that have to do with finding the information you need when you need it? Information alone is not terribly useful. This is why ULTRA strives to deliver contextualized content. That simply means delivering answers to questions that you might have, or ought to have to effectively execute the task at hand. Today, no one has any time for anything including time to find the information they need, which would be lost time for productive work. If you need relevant information, but fail to go out and get it you will be forced to make a less informed decision. This could have a huge impact on your overall productivity. In ULTRA this concept was widely considered during its design, which is why in ULTRA information is delivered with the relevant context and tools so that you can make informed decisions. Even if you actually don’t know that you need it.

For example, there is a Coaching advisor that gives the individual practical advice on how to address specific needs or shortcomings, as defined in a competency assessment? If you have a need for better communication skills (and who does not btw…) real, practical advice on how to improve those skills is just there. Need to get a quick look at how people in your department are performing vs. their potential, check out the nine-box summary and drill down to the individual level to troubleshoot performance problems – content in context. These tools have not only helped me, but have also benefited the members of my team for whom I complete performance reviews. That is what truly smart software provides for its users. The writing assistant is another powerful tool that I just used to assist in writing a performance review for an analyst on my team. I think that alone saved me the evening, freeing up some valuable time and getting me home in time to have dinner with my wife and kids. Thanks to the ULTRA team for making it easy for the Google generation and for the rest of us…

Though it’s always true with anything on this blog, i should note here in particular that this post represents my personal opinion on this matter, and not necessarily that of SuccessFactors.  – Max

Why public disclosure of vendor selections will make analysts and vendors more accountable to customers.

Gartner’s Jim Holincheck poses an interesting question. He wonders:

The reality is that industry analyst firms are also customers. We need technology to run our business. It does not make sense for us to build it all ourselves. So, like our clients, we use packaged applications. How transparent should we be about what vendors and products we use?

It’s interesting because Gartner, like most analyst firms, has very specific rules and regulations about when and how vendors can use Gartner’s name in marketing materials. That is to say – basically, never.

It’s not that I don’t understand the dilemma. Surely, in any competitive market, most vendors will be left unhappy when a 3rd party firm (whose value resides in their presumed objectivity) chooses one over all the rest. It can be construed as an implicit endorsement. How can Gartner (and others – like Forrester, Bersin, etc.) be considered objective once they have made a purchase decision for themselves?

But I’m honestly not sure there is a real conflict here. As a professional services firm, Gartner represents a very specific type of company. And, there are other factors that differentiate them as well – like size (medium), industry (technology) and geographic distribution (global). Those factors account for some of the most important considerations in the choice of a vendor for just about anything.

Therefore, the only realistic conclusion is that analyst firms choose vendors that are right for them; for their situation, specifications and needs. Its not logical to assume that the same situation, specifications and needs are shared by every company that might be influenced by a Gartner report. To put it another way, companies that follow in Gartner’s footsteps purely on the thinking that “whatever is right for Gartner is right for me” are probably making an ill-informed decision.

In that way, it can be argued that analyst firms are doing a disservice to their clients by hiding their own choices. By allowing customers the illusion that those choices are the only correct ones, they miss an opportunity to say “here’s why we picked vendor X, but your company is different in this way and so the choice of vendor X may not be right for you.”

Funny enough, Jim makes an innocent but telling misstep at the end of his post. Having apparently posted to his blog from his mobile device, the post is appended with the line: “Sent via Cingular Xpress Mail with Blackberry.” Clearly we all now know that Gartner (or at least Jim) is a customer of both Cingular and Blackberry. They have opened the proverbial kimono. Gartner’s choice of wireless vendor and wireless email service are now public information: Gartner chooses Cingular and Blackberry.

(more…)

That’s right. A break. I’m off on vacation for a week. A whole week.  But don’t worry. I’m not going to leave you without things to think about. In my absence, I refer you to the following blogs to keep the mind moving and the ideas coming.

SystematicHR – A comprehensive and compelling blog centered on HR technology but free roaming around all sorts of issues that affect HR practitioners. One of the best around, period – from a guy who knows what he’s talking about. 

HR’s Brand New Experience – Regina covers some of the softer issues in HR, with consistently insightful stuff that has you clicking the subscribe button about 2 seconds after the site loads in your browser.

The Human Capitalist – Jason Corsello of The Yankee Group is one of the most respected analysts in the space. This is his personal blog, so you can find pictures of his dog alongside thoughts penned by one of the guys finding clarity in the ever-changing and sometimes confusing world of performance and talent management.

Software as Services – An unabashed advocate of SaaS, Phil Wainewright highlights some of the obvious (and not so obvious) things to know about Software as a Service and notes the hottest news in the space.

Presentation Zen – We all have to do them, so why not spend some time thinking about new ways of making your stuff pop! Presentation Zen inspires and focuses as it entertains.

Bona tempora volvantur by Guy Kawasaki – After just a few months blogging, he’s already considered one of the most popular bloggers around. The well known venture investor and author brings fresh ideas and perspectives to all kinds of business and workplace issues with his trademark writing style and incisive wit.

You can also take a click-walk through the blogroll on the right, mess around with the poll on the left, and don’t forget the archives. Have a great week!

Enjoy, and I’ll see you soon,
Max

At the ZdNet SaaS blog, Phil is listing the analysts he thinks really get the on-demand model. I’m not familiar with everyone on the list (I’m working on it). Though it could be misconstrued as blatant cow-towing, I’d vote for some of the guys who cover our space.