About This Constellation ShortList™

A human capital management (HCM) suite is a collection of key HCM functionality covered by a single vendor across multiple capabilities. Regarding functionality, Constellation looks for strong HR core and payroll capabilities as the main areas of functional necessity, but vendors equally must have substantial talent management, workforce management and benefits functionalities. As for geographical focus, vendors must operate in at least 2/3 of the EU member states as well as substantial support beyond the EU members. Middle East and North Africa should start to show up on 3-5 year roadmaps.

Artificial Intelligence is changing enterprise automation substantially and HCM is no exception. Vendors need to have enabled AI based automation in at least three of the five key HCM automation areas – with tangible success. To enable customers to uptake AI as well, vendors need to upgrade their Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) capabilities with respect to AI.

To ensure vendors are compliant with legal and statutory requirements, they need to have employees in countries in which they operate with the dedicated purpose of monitoring legislation and best practices. Partnerships for this purpose are acceptable and included but don’t score as strong as native/in-house expert access.

Threshold Criteria

Constellation considers the following criteria for these solutions:

  • Over 90% of customers in the SMB segment from 100+ to 3000 FTEs) 
  • Full support for 2/3 of EU member states 
  • Substantial support beyond the EU members 
  • Middle East and North Africa should start to show up on 3-5 year roadmaps 
  • HR core 
  • Payroll 
  • Most of talent management (4 out of the 5: Recruiting, Onboarding, Performance Management, Succession Management and Learning) 
  • Substantial workforce management (needs to support payroll at a minimum) 
  • Substantial benefits management (in this area, partnerships are the acceptable) 
  • Demonstrable ROI from using AI in at least 3 of the 5 key HCM capabilities. 
  • An updated platform architecture that enables AI in out-of-the-box and customer-built AI applications 
  • Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) support for Integrate, Extend and Build use case (see Shortlist for EAP platforms). 
  • Support for more than four continents 
  • 500+ customers with at least 15+ countries live and 50%+ being suite level customers (HR core, payroll, talent management and workforce management) 
  • Cover at least two-thirds of Europe’s GDP via country-based localizations 
  • 10+ languages supported in system

The Constellation ShortList™

Constellation evaluates more than 30 solutions categorized in this market. The Constellation ShortList is determined by client inquiries, partner conversations, customer references, vendor selection projects, market share and internal research.

  • PERSONIO
  • SAGE PEOPLE
  • SAP SUCCESSFACTORS
  • SAP HCM (BASED ON ECC)
  • SDWORX
  • TALENTIA HCM
  • UNIT4
  • VISMA HRM & PAYROLL

Frequency of Evaluation

Each Constellation ShortList is updated at least once per year. Updates may occur after six months if deemed necessary.

Evaluation Services

Constellation clients can work with the analyst and the research team to conduct a more thorough discussion of this ShortList. Constellation can also provide guidance in vendor selection and contract negotiation.

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