HR industry's first price comparison site ready to launch

Tim Latham - 21 May 2009

Probably a great idea but when I visited hrcomparison.com the site hadn't been created. Maybe their press release was a bit premature?

SVEN RINGLING - 22 May 2009

@Tim: the article says, it's going to be launched 15th June.

Excellent idea. This market can do with some transparency!

Howard Clark - 22 May 2009

But why would you ever buy a package off the shelf?

Instead design something simple just for you, that does only what it is required to do. And only that.

If you buy off the shelf you'll end up with a system that signs, dances and wags the dog!

Chantal Walton - 05 June 2009

This isn't exactly a new idea. I did exactly the same thing myself back in 1998, where HR professionals got a free consultation and were given a shortlist of 3 suppliers who would be able to meet their needs. It'll be interesting to see how it translates when you take away the human middleman and replace them with a web page!

DENIS BARNARD - 11 July 2009

Hi Chantal - let me know what you think of it. I guess the premise was that instead of me tearing round the country helping organisations select HRIS I invested the knowledge into the site to come up with an algorithm that partly-replicated what I did already.

That process is continually refining - would be interested to hear your comment, both here, and direct: denis.barnard@hrcomparison.com

Best regards - Denis

Chantal Walton - 11 July 2009

Hi Denis, well I sincerely wish you every success with it.  If you can use the website to cut through the maze to the relevant bits of software then it's all good.  Do you have all suppliers listed on it though?  (We had all except one whose MD was so grumpy I refused to work with him :D).

I often found that the HR people didn't understand techie speak and the techies didn't understand HR speak (whatever their claims of employing HR people so that they did...).  So I'd get some HR clients who, after their free consultation, would discover that actually there was a whole part of the process missing, to properly understand what they needed (as opposed to what they wanted), the cost/benefit, the fit with other technology / processes and so on.  So some would end up buying a workshop from me to help them carry out this bit.  It's the critical part that soooo many people miss out (or think they've done when they really haven't scratched the surface).  Then they realise that actually they need something completely different.

Coupled with that, I didn't rely on the software suppliers to remember to keep the database up to date.  I made sure I understood their system, had a play with it, got user comments and probably turned into a bit of an HR system anorak in the process!  But then when a client phoned up saying "help", I could ask the right questions and come up with the right shortlist of solutions for them.

I'm not saying mine was the only or the best way of doing it, but for me the human element was the bit that resulted in the right answer, not the database in the middle.  Undoubtedly, for HR people who understand how to project manage the process (which isn't often something they'd get experience of in their day to day job but the info's out there if they ask the right questions of the right people!), your service will save them a lot of time and angst in sourcing the right systems to test out. 

Hope you find that constructive and helpful?

Best of luck!  Of course, if you ever need any associate assistance....!

Best wishes

Chantal Walton

HR on Tap Ltd