There have been some annoucements recently about the HR-XML standard so I thought I’d inquire about what was happening on that front within SuccessFactors. So, I had a conversation with Doug Ito who has been doing some work on it from our side.

First – what is this thing? Well, it’s an attempt to make it easier for HR systems to communicate and share information with one another by using a common standard for identifying information. That basically means you can do stuff like have your Recruiting system feed data on new hires directly into your  HRIS system, or your Performance Management system automatically grab data out of your HRIS to do performance reviews and then put the compensation decisions back in.

Are we compliant? Yes and No. Not compliant directly with the standard, but because our system already supports XML interfaces – we can effectively interact with any HR-XML standards compliant system without a problem. Our approach can be effectively categorized as "wait and see." While we believe the standard has a future, our ability to interoperate with it using current technology means we don’t have to adopt it wholesale -at least not just yet.

I recorded my conversation with Doug on the topic and you’re welcome to listen in. We talked about the history of simiar standards, why we haven’t yet fully embraced this one and what we’re hearing from the market. Doug does a great job of explaining the technology, and the idea behind HR-XML – so if you’re looking to catch up on the concept, here’s a good place to start.