DubDubs from systematicHR (Previously Known As The HR Technology Discussion board – so update your links) has some new thoughts on the performance management shootout from the HR Tech show in Chicago.  Although he wasn’t there, his (very educated and experienced) feeling is that Authoria won becuase of a spiffy user interface and solid integration between the modules they’ve acquired (as opposed to built). For a play by play of the shootout, you can see my post from that day.

I agree in part. I was there, and I felt that in the short time each company had to present, just about the only takeaway one could have was a general impression having to do with the UI. That’s not a fault of the shootout itself. The shootout is a great idea, and the execution was flawless. It’s just that each company is only given a few minutes to demonstrate its application and therefore the demos move so quickly they can be hard to follow.

What gets lost in all this is the functionality and overall usability of the application (versus the usablity of any one module). Dubs asks "So what happened to WorkStream and SuccessFactors? Clearly we can’t say that they didn’t have the functionality, integration, or UI." And he’s right, there’s just no time for the audience to fully digest those aspects of the presentations.

The point I think may get lost in all this relates to other aspects of comparison between vendors like customer retention, customer service, customer satisfaction, customer recommendations and so on. To be clear, we think our UI and overall user experience are the best in the business, but we believe that it’s our relentless focus on our customers that sets us apart.

By way of further reading, Dubs says he considers "Authoria, SuccessFactors, WorkStream, and Recruitmax to be the leaders in the field," and he’s reviewed all four vendors here and here.