Financial Meltdown and HCM Software investments

Came accros this one..

Financial Meltdown and HCM Software investments

We all read it, two iconic US banks going down in a matter of few days !!!
Does this kind of Financial meltdown signals warning to the HCM Software market ? Is it temporary ? These are some of the questions which are floating on other blogs too.


First of all, the kind of globalisation we are all part of, there is virtually nothing that can go without an impact. So if there is a shakeup in US, tremors are virtually felt across the world.
This is also true for the coming crisis, which due to the nature of inclusion to the global economy would impact revenues and therefore investments.
I am not an investment advisor, nor am i intending to play that role, but here is what I see as the future of the industry which banks on HCM Software.

1. Organizations would try to be more careful in their choice and justification of need of HCM Software. One prime reason I see this happening is, HCM is an area which has more intangible ROI associated with it and therefore it would be difficult to justify investments.

2. Organizations would definitely look at a long term investment and ROI too. This is likely to bring more focussed investments in long term, stable options rather than investing in a small term player.

3. Outsourcing could pick up as a result of this, organizations would see value in reducing their operative costs. This could also mean evaluation and availability of more options like managed services, BPO, Shared Service or SaaS.

4. I also see a trend towards addressing a requirement becoming the focus. This would mean that need based solutions like recruiting, learning management system, self service etc would be more in demand. Apart from addressing a specific need, such solutions are also easy to deploy.

5. Last but not the least, the organizations who have not invested in HR Software so far, may find a reason to wait. This would not apply globally and may not even be specific to an industry, but caution is the word where no experience exists.

To sum it up, its a time to refocus, rethink and reutilize the capabilities of the organizations to save cost, however not at the cost of automation. Because apart from being desirable HR automation today is a source of competitive advantage and its benefit in the medium to long term are there to see.
I personally also see this evaluation phase leading to better processes being identified to separate the haves from have nots. So organizations would be able to put in stringent measures in place to evaluate which software would actually be the best for them.

However a word of caution - Being Price conscious may bring down your investment worries however may not give you what you need. So invest but invest wisely.