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Summary
All businesses need to optimize the performance of their most important asset: people. To do this, they must improve existing processes and perhaps develop new ones that empower employees to work more productively and align their actions with the organization’s strategy and objectives. Applications dedicated to workforce performance and talent management can help them produce these advances. Softscape competes in this market and recently upgraded its main product suite, now called Softscape Apex 2008, with new components for talent acquisition, workforce performance and learning and development, along with new capabilities in analytics and visualization. To align recruitment and activities to the needs of business performance requires planning and analysis; visualization simplifies interaction of Softscape’s applications across the organizational hierarchy and the correlation of information among them. Ventana Research advises HR organizations hampered by having isolated silos of applications for their workforce and human resources management processes to assess Softscape’s new release as a vehicle to streamline support of those processes.

Assessment
The market for workforce performance management and talent management software continues to grow as organizations realize that they have to find ways to maximize the potential of their workforce. In recent years companies have adopted stand-alone applications for recruitment, compensation, employee performance, succession, planning and other workforce-related activities. They have realized some productivity improvements for specific activities but have found it challenging to integrate them easily to manage all aspects of performance together. Finance organizations have noticed the lack of continuity between processes and tardiness in getting access to workforce information needed for budgeting, compensation, incentives and rewards.

Softscape Apex 2008 has capabilities to address these issues. The new version advances the product suite’s support for several key processes. It provides unified access to workforce and role-specific information across an organization; integrates talent acquisition across recruitment activities; facilitates regulatory compliance reviews; enables management of performance ratings; and overall is easier to use for users with various levels of skill. Here’s a look at the three major additions.

TalentMap provides interactive visualization so managers can navigate across organizational structures and examine specific reporting relationships. This capability can help examine performance, succession planning and other information about roles and individuals across an organizational hierarchy. Apex 2008 offers security and user access utilities to secure information so only appropriate people can see workforce information pertinent to their roles. Softscape also has expanded its Talent Profile function to include views of employee records, historical performance, awards and rewards that have been granted, compensation and vacation time; this capability helps unify information across applications and provides visibility for workforce decisions and planning.

For organizations looking to go beyond traditional recruitment, Softscape Talent Acquisition offers requisition, candidate selection, hiring and onboarding. HR and individual managers know that utilizing Internet job boards and managing job submissions can be difficult; Softscape has simplified this with a job distribution tool and reporting and dashboard functions that are easier to use. It integrates with Microsoft Outlook’s scheduling and calendaring features to simplify many routine tasks related to recruitment. Softscape understands that managers in recruiting, hiring and departments need to work together and supports their collaboration, not just each discrete function.

Regulatory requirements for organizations to track and report on training and learning have increased dramatically in recent years. Softscape has added these capabilities to its learning management system product, which also provide notifications and reminders for escalating noncompliance. As well Softscape has introduced a balanced approach to performance ratings, which may differ across departments and divisions but need equivalence across the organization for management review and overall rewards. Softscape calls this rating distribution management; it provides flexibility to adapt to the way departments operate but to manage consistently from a central system.

Softscape Apex 2008’s usability improvements accommodate individual work styles so the application appears to be customized but actually is consistent across all users. Overall, the new version eliminates silos and the resulting issues of fragmented processes and information, taking a step toward making workforce performance management a reality.

Market Impact
The market for applications to manage workforce performance has both grown and consolidated. Softscape has experience in this market, offering an integrated platform and robust applications for various aspects of managing the workforce. The Softscape Apex 2008 release helps HR improve the effectiveness and efficiency of processes and replace the silos of applications that hamper their results. Other providers in the market include Infor, Kronos and Lawson, but their human resources management system (HRMS), workforce management and talent management applications mostly operate across separate product suites and servers, while Softscape integrates its. Others such as Kenexa, SuccessFactors and Taleo are working to fill their suites through acquisition or development of applications specifically for talent management.

Recommendation
Organizations that in the past invested in customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other enterprise applications now see workforce performance management as a strategic area. Softscape has experience in addressing workforce processes while ensuring that the necessary information and analytics can be available to any role in the organization. HR organizations that are interested in playing a more strategic role should examine the products in the Softscape Apex 2008 suite.