Over the past 7 – 8 years, the HR and Payroll Software Market has progressed through what you would call a basic maturity life-cycle. Back at the start of this cycle, vendors attempted to create value in the market by offering what was perceived as “Market need and demand”. It is true that the target audience of any market defines what is offered by suppliers. In the Australian HR and Payroll Software market, payroll took the lead and most of the providers that existed back then were born as payroll systems. As the cycle progressed and matured, these providers started to tack on token HR components to appease clients and prospects whom themselves were under pressure to make payroll decisions by the finance department. Decisions that did not present any real value to Recruitment and HR. As we stand today, the market has been noticeably fragmented and there now exists 2-3 clear and distinct waves.
Wave 1. Those who were left behind by the cost, complexity and payroll orientation of what was available on the market starting back in 2002 and progressing through to 2007.
Wave 2. Those companies who jumped on board the Payroll bandwagon and ended up with an expensive, cumbersome system that was supposed to deliver all that your HR department required: Recruitment, HR, Payroll, Training Performance… from a Vendor that never really had intentions to evolve their products and allow their systems to play well with other business applications. Many of these companies in this wave are still using excel spreadsheet to manage critical, fundamental HR information and trying to makes HR sense of Payroll data coming from a Payroll system.
Wave 3. Companies that have grown over the years to a stage where they and are now ready and need to embark on setting up an HR solution to deliver productivity, profitability and improve efficiencies. These companies are in a powerful and fortunate position as they have experience at their disposal and timing on their side.
With the Software-as-a-Service revolution now morphing from CRM, to social networking, SaaS has become a welcome progression for all in the above mentioned wave categories. SaaS is methodology that breaks down barriers, delivers flexibility and value. It’s a progression that allows the burden to be removed form old legacy systems and allows business to become agile and focus on core activities.
There are very few providers that have the right attitude, passion, aptitude and resource to transition successfully from the old and graduate to the new school. This is why young and dynamic SaaS providers are at the forefront and are driving change.
Key characteristics of SaaS providers are:
- Innovators
- Desire and Ability to deliver simplicity
- Rapid Delivery
- Can do attitude
- Passion for the Internet
- Ability to quickly add value to customers
Without these characteristics, the chances of a SaaS company succeeding are remote. It’s what has been missing and lacking from the HR and Payroll software market that has driven change.
As Dave Duffield, Peoplesoft and Workday founder puts it ” Before the software-as-a-service model started gaining momentum, I felt like the industry had lost a passion for innovation and a focus on the customer. We’re focusing on both to help breathe new life into this business.”
We feel exactly the same way…
