HR Technology Column

No one reading this needs to be told recruiting has been the greatest source of innovation in HR technology for almost two decades. Now "the newspaper of record," which still means something to me, at least, has published two long articles on successive Sundays catching the world up on the new technologies being applied to that wildly inefficient process.

Infor, once a classic aggregator, has been quietly changing its stripes for two years and now will noisily debut its new look on April 21. If you recognize its new Infor HCM 10x as Lawson, Workbrain and Enwisen, it may have failed. But how well the three work together is a lot more important than whether they're beautiful.

It stands for "small and mid-sized business," but what it means depends on whom you ask. Whatever the range of employees defining an SMB, it is the hottest segment in HR technology first because of the huge number of companies that size. Established vendors have served it successfully for years, but endless start-ups want some of their fruit.

Kenexa CEO Rudy Karsan has always had the most highly developed social conscience of any business leader I know. He really wants to change the world. And now as a senior executive of IBM, one of our richest companies and long famous for spending on experimentation and innovation, he may be getting the chance he's always wanted.

The author is "retiring" only as founding co-chair of the HR Technology® Conference, not from the industry. Join him on this trip back to the beginning, but expect no trenchant insights into how the conference reflected (or even hastened) the changes in HR, technology or business. No, mostly it's just about him and how the conference became successful.

Workday had many reasons to celebrate at its recent annual user conference, Workday Rising: its wildly successful IPO, its seemingly delighted 350+ customers and its continuing sales momentum. Plus, with three releases a year, Workday is filling the holes in its software faster than customers can fall into any of them.

I got the biggest news of the HR Technology® Conference Sunday morning before it opened: Knowledge Infusion, the hottest consultancy in HR for the last seven years, is being acquired. CEO Jason Averbook sees KI continuing on its current path, but going much wider than before with new owner Appirio.

Discovering new trends in HR technology doesn't take rocket science, just a long-term time commitment. The companies selected for this year's "Awesome" session at the conference, along with the runners-up, speak volumes about what entrepreneurs are doing and what they think HR needs.

Just what Yoda told the worried spirit of Obi-Wan-Kenobi as Luke Skywalker cut short his Jedi training to rocket off to save his friends in the second original "Star Wars" movie. There is another vendor offering a unified SaaS HRMS and a full talent-management suite: SilkRoad.