The Fosway 9-Grid analyzes the cloud HR systems market

The cloud HR systems market is highly competitive; this is reflected by the number of providers available.

In an effort to give a clear picture of what providers actually give their clients, the Fosway 9-Grid analyzes the cloud HR market.

Fosway inspects five key elements. Firstly, “performance”, which is made up of market performance and customer performance. Fosway looks into how enterprises have rated their experiences with vendors and whether the provider has been nominated for industry awards.

Then the company investigates the scope of the service, its capability, and its sophistication as part of “potential”. Thirdly, the history and popularity of an offering is acknowledged in “presence.”

The Fosway 9-Grid also looks into the “The Total Cost of Ownership” and “Future Trajectory” of the service, which is based on both performance and potential.

After researching all these areas for cloud-based HR service providers, Fosway made a graph of performance and potential to accurately display the value that services are bringing to clients.

Fosway notes: “A key difference of the 9-Grid to other analyst models, is that all the nine zones have value.

“Top right is not always best! The key question you should be asking is, ‘What is best for you?’ i.e., your specific organization, your likely investment/resources and your real needs and requirements.”

This year’s analysis includes new players, challengers as well as innovation within the big HR tech incumbents.

What this tells us about vendors

The analysis makes it clear that the likes of Personio are strong performers, while long-time industry leaders like ServiceNow remain at the top of the industry. Furthermore, ServiceNow looks to continue this leadership following the release of a one-stop-shop for employee needs via ServiceNow Rome.

Interestingly, Neeyamo places highly as a potential leader and the core challenger area is populated by numerous providers including CIPHR, Unit4, and Cegid.

Fosway also found larger themes from this analysis. It noted that the focus of providers had changed from turmoil and crisis management that dominated 2020 report. Instead, companies have looked at delivering exceptional people experience, delivered through an ecosystem of Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM) Suites and Cloud HR Specialists.

David Wilson, CEO of Fosway Group, said: ‘If last year’s 9-Grid was a story of crisis management and digital acceleration, this year’s is about evolution.

“HR has raised its game significantly and we see emerging HCM strategies that are more workforce and human-centered.”

The focus now is on innovation and growth, but the context is challenging as organizations look to reskill and realign themselves to seize new opportunities in a post-pandemic world.”

He continues, “Organizational innovation is being matched by innovation amongst technology vendors. Cloud HCM Suites are innovating their capability to support these shifts in HCM strategy, and combined with Cloud HR Specialists, deliver a higher quality people experience.

“As a result, the ecosystem gets stronger as well as more diverse. The priority is to create an HR ecosystem that aligns to the priorities of the organization and that provides a seamless experience for all those who use it.”

The analysis provided by Fosway gives fresh insight into the vendor landscape and may even lead to a few companies seeing what’s on offer elsewhere.