While Microsoft has been in the enterprise application space for many years with its Dynamics product family, one significant hole has been on the HCM (human capital management) side of the house. Its $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn helped changed that substantially and now it has emerged that Microsoft is working on a number of new HCM applications. Here are the key details from ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley:
The Operations module in Dynamics 365 currently includes some HR functionality carried over from Microsoft's Dynamics AX ERP. But it seems Microsoft has plans to go beyond this and build HCM specific apps, based on a January 5 job posting for a software engineer from the company's career site.
From that posting:
"Dynamics 365 is all about reinventing business processes (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/reinventing-business-processes-satya-nadella). We are delivering purpose built SaaS apps to quickly disrupt and transform business applications. Our specific team charter is to create the next generation of Talent Engagement applications which help businesses to manage their most important asset - People. We are building apps to address the whole gamut of needs from hire to retire. We are looking for talented web & full stack developers to realize our vision. Our apps provide a rich experience for tightly focused scenarios across the web and mobile."
Microsoft already has a jumping off point for building out an HCM portfolio in the form of LinkedIn Recruiter, as well as LinkedIn's learning and development applications. LinkedIn's Talent Solutions portfolio provides the majority of its overall income. In fact, LinkedIn is likely the second or third-largest HCM vendor by revenue, and just with talent management revenue, says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Holger Mueller.
"It's good to see Microsoft closing its biggest gap in the Dynamics portfolio," Mueller says. "People are the biggest expense for most enterprises and not offering a way to empower and enable people has been something Microsoft needed to do for a long time."
Microsoft hasn't confirmed publicly any timelines or road maps for its HCM strategy, but safe money says that new talent management products will be in market by the time its major Ignite conference rolls around in September.
Finally, Microsoft's initial focus on talent management within HCM seems like an obvious one, given the head start LinkedIn's assets give Microsoft and the fact that it's years away from building out a full HCM suite. (Underscoring this point, Microsoft selected SAP's SuccessFactors HCM Suite in November for its 114,000 full-time employees.)
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