The special promotional code to receive the discounted rate is COMPARE10 (all caps).

Below is a summary, with links, on what to expect at this year’s show. I skipped SHRM this year but will be attending HR tech.  I prefer HR tech mostly because I find that more HR technology vendors show up than show up for SHRM. I don’t get a booth or attend any of the events; I just walk the expo hall and chat with my existing and potential vendors for CompareHRIS.com.

“The famous Shootout has become a track this year with up to eight vendors giving 25-minute demos based on our scripted scenario. Bound to have a couple of ERPs and lots of Talent Management vendors. Best way to compare live software, since they will largely be showing you the same thing. If they follow the script and don’t cheat! Which is why we have judges, two of the three bloggers above.”

“The HR Technology® Conference & Expo is the best in the world, at least according to Workday and PeopleSoft founder Dave Duffield, and many of the estimated 18,000 HR practitioners, vendors, consultants, analysts and bloggers who have attended in the last 12 years from 24 countries.

“The source of its popularity and strength is its devotion to education, not to sales. Speaking slots are never sold to vendors or sponsors, and all the session content is vetted in advance by Co-chairs David Shadovitz and Bill Kutik, editor and technology editor of Human Resource Executive magazine.

“Here are just a few of this year’s highlights: the debate between guru Naomi Lee Bloom and Gartner’s Jim Holincheck, Oracle revealing more of Fusion HCM, the legendary Shootout, the Blogger Insight Panel (members not yet chosen), and “Awesome New Technologies for HR” from bleeding edge start-ups (chosen at the last possible second). To see them all, download the pdf of the full conference brochure: http://www.hrtechnologyconference.com/WEB-BROCH.pdf?submit22=Download”

Be great to embed the link for downloading the brochure, since I think it makes the event make more sense than the website, which is not optimally designed. Obviously, please include the link to our home page, www.HRTechnologyConference.com

Search Engines and Searches

If the term HRMS had replaced HRIS, then wouldn’t that mean that fewer people would be searching on the term HRIS than HRMS? Well, of course it would.  Unless, of course, no one realized the terms were changing. According to Google Ad words keyword research tool there are over 210,000 global searches per month on the term HRIS but only 200,000 global searches for HRMS per month. If the term HRMS is replacing HRIS, then those searching online for these types of systems don’t seem to be aware of it. Either way I feel pretty safe with how well CompareHRIS.com is positioned with keyword ranking. We currently rank #4 for HRIS on Google and #5 for HRMS.

Vendor System names and industry confusion

If the term HRMS was replacing HRIS, wouldn’t it make sense to see fewer and fewer companies use the HRIS term? We list 20 of the industry’s leading HRIS/HRMS systems on CompareHRIS.com, 5 of those systems list themselves as a HRIS, 2 list themselves as a HRMS and 3 list their products as a HCM. I guess an argument could be made that the term HCM is replacing HRMS as well.

In conclusion

If the term HRMS is replacing HRIS, it does not appear that the people searching for these types of systems know. Nor does it appear that the software producers know. I wrote an article last year on the subject of comparing these terms that you may find interesting as well:

HRIS solutions versus HRMS solutions – What’s the difference?

So what do I want in return?

If you have written a term paper on selecting or implementing an HRIS/HRMS system, I’d like to publish it on CompareHRIS.com and/or HR-softwareblog.com. I’m certain our readers will benefit from your unique perspective and research. For me, it means a few less articles I need to write. If you visit the articles page of CompareHRIS.com, you will quickly notice that as President of the site, I spend a great deal of time writing.

So what’s in it for you?

Well…. it might not look bad on the old resume to have a link to an article you created about HRIS systems published by CompareHRIS.com. With the article, we’ll also include an author biography which can include anything you wish. On top of the fact that your article and bio will appear on a website which receives over 10,000 visits per month from HR professionals around the globe, we may also include your article in our newsletter which is sent to over 14,000 HR professionals each month. I’ll also make suggestions on other sites to which you may be able to submit your paper to further increase exposure. It’s never too soon to start establishing yourself online as an industry expert.

Who and how to contact?

If you have an article or research paper you would like to publish with us, email me directly at C.Scroggin@comparehris.com. We ask that the papers be original content created by you and that you include an author bio section. I’ll let you know if and when we are able to use the article.  And at that time, I will provide additional sites to which you may want to submit the same article.

Our free HRIS comparison tools include our HRIS software selection tool and our HRIS quick product search option. CompareHRIS.com’s HRIS selection tool is comprehensive, free, and easy to use. Customers simply answer a series of questions about their requirements and rank the importance of each. CompareHRIS.com then automatically generates a free report showing ranked scores of the HRIS products that best match their needs. From there, customers may compare the features of each product side by side, view additional product details, view a pre-recorded demo or request a free trial.

Welcome to our new vendors and we hope all our visitors will continue to take advantage of all the HRIS/HRMS resources CompareHRIS.com has to offer!  And please feel free to drop us a line about your personal HRIS/HRMS selection success story.

It offers a detailed description and ‘How To’ guide of the eight steps that will aid in the most efficient and effective HRIS/payroll implementation.  And as we all know, we want to make this implementation process stress free, if possible.  With this guide in hand, you will be assured that this process will be as complete and stress free as possible. 

To learn more, view Executing Parallel Testing: Part 2 of a 2 part series.

Workforce – Of the top three HR publications, I think workforce has the fewest articles on HRIS systems. Truthfully, I am not sure if I have ever seen one. They have a special advertising section which is usually basically a white paper by one of their advertisers but that’s about it.

I am not the only one who has noticed a lack of content on HRIS systems for Workforce. As I scanned the last magazine issue, I counted only three HRIS vendors advertising in the magazine.

HR Executive – Rarely are any articles written on HR technology at all but even less often do I see any articles on HRIS or HRMS. Once in a while, I do see an HRIS or HRMS system mentioned in the news section but that is about it. If they write about HR technology, it is far more likely to be articles about talent management than anything else.

It’s a little surprising that HR Executive does not do a better job writing about HRIS technology considering that they hold the HR technology conference each year. Most of us in the industry would agree that this is by far the best conference on HR technology.  Shouldn’t the magazine present articles reflecting this as well?

As with Workforce, I noticed only a few advertisements from HRIS vendors. So the question is starting to become are HRIS companies not advertising in these magazines because they are not writing about HRIS systems or are the magazines not writing about the topic because HRIS companies are not advertising with them?

HR Magazine – HR Magazine actually writes a few articles a year on HRIS systems but not enough, in my opinion, and when they do most aren’t very helpful. I was actually interviewed for an HR Magazine article about open source systems a little over a year ago and it was an awful experience. The writer misquoted me, misspelled my name, and misstated what I do for a living. The article itself was biased and, in my opinion, wrong with its conclusions and assumptions. Since then, I have seen one article on hiring a digital native to manage your HRIS and, until this month, that was pretty much it except for the news section.

The SHRM national conference is the biggest show in HR but not for technology. I am hearing more and more that advertisers are skipping the SHRM show and advertising at HR tech instead. I did notice a few more ads for HRIS systems in HR Magazine but this may have more to do with them having the most subscribers. This would also mean, for me at least, that they should also be providing the most helpful content on HRIS systems.

Closing

I might be biased, actually I am certain I am, but HRIS systems are used every day by those companies that have a system and those companies that don’t are looking for advice on how to select and purchase one of these products. Why then are the leading expert HR publications not writing about the topic? If you guys need topics, or even a guest writer, let me know. I might be interested.

Now that you realize this process is a little different than other sales you may have participated in, what next?  To find out the next steps, please visit How to Sell HR Software.

1. HR and Payroll Software Buyers Guide
2. HRIS RFP Template
3. Strategy Implementation by Human Resources
4. Software as a Service HR Solutions
5. HRIS Solutions Versus HRMS solutions: Is there a difference?
6. Understand Your HRIS Input Requirements
7. Human Resource Information Systems
8. What Type of HRIS Application Training Works Best?
9. Number of North American HRIS Vendors
10. HRIS justification
11. Employee Self Service
12. Economic Crisis for HR
13. HRIS benefits
14. HRIS new Software justification
15. HRIS System needs
16. Payroll HRMS system interfaces
17. Human resource information system feature list
18. HRIS certification questions
19. HRIS planner
20. HR management Software selection mistakes

CompareHRIS.com accepts high quality original content articles for the site and will include about author summaries with links to contributing author’s sites. Please contact us if you have a story to tell or advice to offer to our readers.

The second video replaces the video of me sitting at my computer and using the video option from my notebook. The video goes into greater detail regarding how to use the HRIS selection tool and how it assists those looking to purchase a HR information system.

I worked on these videos with Frank Rodriquez at Edit Suites, Inc. in Tampa, Florida and am extremely proud of the end result. Frank and his staff were easy to work with and frankly the entire process was a real hoot. I got to visit the studio when the spokes model read the text in front of the green screen background; not the type of creative stuff I get to see normally. It was sort of a field trip for a guy who spends way too much time sitting in front of a computer. If you are looking at having a professional video created for your business or for your website, I highly recommend Edit Suites, Inc.

As I am writing this blog, the videos are only on youtube.com at this moment but tomorrow the videos can also be found on our site on the following pages.

HR Information System Video

HRIS Selection tool

Someone needed to do this. It was not easy but for years I’ve seen people asking online about HRIS certifications programs and the answer was always the same, they don’t exist. Great Job IHRIM.org!

 Official message from IHRIM.org

I’ve been in HRIS and Human Resources for over twenty five years and I understand just how important it is to stand out amongst my peers and demonstrate my competencies and value to my company every day. That is why I have worked so hard to earn my HRIP certification. IHRIM’s Human Resource Information Professional (HRIP) Certification is the only certification program for HR technology professionals.

According to a February 9 article on HRGuru.com ( http://edu.hrguru.com/articles/586-hris_professional ), the demand for HRIS professionals is expected to increase by as much as 17% over the next ten years and that those who have earned certification should have the best job opportunities. And in this time of economic challenges, it is important that you put your best foot forward and obtain the best credentials available in order to remain competitive in this tight job market.

Through IHRIM’s Human Resource Information Professional Certification Program, IHRIM will help you define, establish, and distinguish yourself professionally with a meaningful, test-based HR information management certification credential. It is an exam designed to assess the knowledge and competencies of professionals in the HR technology field. Passing the exam indicates a demonstrated comprehensive understanding and proficiency in HRIS.

Exam Preparation Products—Helping You Get There

IHRIM offers a variety of products to help you prepare for the examination including:
• Certification Exam Preparation Course – Designed to help you prepare for the HRIP certification exam, the course is available via an instructor led course or through a series of recorded webinars.
• Exam Study Guide – Provides an overview of the body of knowledge content areas and helps you identify areas where additional study and/or work experience may be necessary prior to testing.
• Practice Exam – Use this online tool to simulate the certification exam and, based on your test scores, determine where further study is warranted.

An HRIP certification will definitely help you.

Please visit IHRIM’s website to learn more about IHRIM’s Human Resource Information Professional Certification Program including the Examination Handbook, schedule of upcoming exams and much more!

http://www.ihrim.org/certification/Index.htm