ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

The Best HR Tech Is Often the Stuff You Never Notice

Posted by Matthew Brown on 27 May 2026

The market loves flashy HR tech, but much of the real value sits behind the interface. That is easy to forget in a market shaped by polished demos, hot buzzwords and high-visibility features designed to win attention quickly. Copilots, assistants, dashboards and sleek user experiences tend to dominate the conversation. They are easy to see, easy to explain and easy to remember. But some of the... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Why Learning Stacks Still Fail Frontline Workers

Posted by Matthew Brown on 21 May 2026

Learning is often an afterthought for the business, even when leaders say it is not. You can see it in how learning gets funded, how it is supported and how it is threaded throughout the business. Too often, learning enters the conversation at the end when it should be there from the beginning. That applies to the technology, the content, the support model, the team structure and the broader... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

You Want HR AI—but Your Data Says “Not Yet”

Posted by Matthew Brown on 14 May 2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not a feature you just turn on. It requires readiness work that many HR organizations still have not done. That may sound blunt, but it reflects a reality that is getting lost in the current excitement around AI in HR. The market is moving quickly. Providers are rolling out copilots, assistants, recommendation engines and more advanced agentic capabilities across... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

HR Data Governance: Build Trust Before Dashboards

Posted by Matthew Brown on 22 April 2026

The quickest way to derail an HR analytics effort is to publish a dashboard that people do not believe. You can feel it in the meeting when the questions stop being about decisions and start being about whether the numbers are real. Leaders ask for “the actual headcount,” HRBPs keep their own trackers, and the room quietly agrees the system is helpful but not authoritative. At that point, the... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

From Payroll to Platform: Takeaways From Rethink 2026

Posted by Matthew Brown on 09 April 2026

I recently attended ADP’s 2026 Rethink event and had the chance to hear the company’s latest thinking for its international clients and analyst community. The HCM market is shifting quickly. AI is accelerating across the enterprise, labor markets are reshaping themselves, and buyers increasingly expect unified platforms that connect HR, payroll, workforce management, data, and intelligence. ADP... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

AI Agents as the New UI: What Happens to Your HR Stack?

Posted by Matthew Brown on 07 April 2026

A payroll leader gets a message the morning after payday: “Why is my net pay lower than last period?” In many organizations, that question still sends employees into a maze of portals, PDFs, tickets and handoffs. Payroll is not a background utility in the eyes of employees: it is one of the most frequent and emotionally loaded moments of truth. When pay is right, people move on. When it is wrong,... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Talent Marketplaces: When the Label Doesn’t Fit

Posted by Matthew Brown on 24 February 2026

Picture a world where a role opens and your first instinct is to look inward with confidence. You open your talent marketplace and see people who are ready now, plus people who could be ready soon with targeted support and development. Instead of defaulting to external recruiting, you redeploy talent faster and keep high potential employees from quietly disengaging. That is the promise behind... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

When HR and Finance Can’t Agree on the Same Numbers

Posted by Matthew Brown on 17 February 2026

HR and Finance rarely agree on the same numbers, and the reasons run deeper than a simple spreadsheet mismatch. It’s a symptom of siloed business processes and disconnected data models that create misalignment at every turn. Underneath that are unclear data definitions, governance strategies without real accountability and cultural priorities that pull the two functions in different directions.... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

You Bought the Software. Now What? Lessons on Post-Go-Live Success

Posted by Matthew Brown on 05 February 2026

Buying HR technology is a significant decision. It requires months of software provider reviews, internal alignment, business case development and implementation planning. When the contract is signed and the system goes live, it often feels like the hard part is over. In reality, the work that determines actual success is just beginning. Many organizations hold the misconception that... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

How To Ride the AI Wave in HR Without Wiping Out

Posted by Matthew Brown on 28 January 2026

Let's be blunt: The pressure to adopt AI in HR is a panic button being hit by the C-suite. The mandate from the boardroom is clear, and the pressure is intensifying: HR must adopt AI to remain competitive. This directive often lands on the desks of HR leaders who are already managing complex environments, creating a dangerous disconnect between executive ambition and operational reality. The... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Plug in or Fall Behind: The Heartbeat of an HR Tech Strategy

Posted by Matthew Brown on 20 January 2026

Integration has evolved from a technical requirement into a strategic cornerstone in today’s HR technology landscape. Yet many organizations still treat connectivity between systems as a back-end IT concern rather than the foundation of the employee experience. That mindset is rapidly becoming a liability. The reality is simple: If your systems cannot connect, your strategy cannot connect either.... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Platform Thinking: The HR Tech Strategy You’re Probably Missing

Posted by Matthew Brown on 14 January 2026

HR technology is entering a new era, and with it comes a challenge that many leaders underestimate: the need to embrace platform thinking as a core competency. For years, we’ve approached technology decisions as a way to solve pain points—patching gaps, fixing inefficiencies and responding to immediate needs. That mindset is understandable, but it’s also the reason so many organizations are... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

The Importance of Data in HR Strategies

Posted by Matthew Brown on 18 November 2025

You can buy the flashiest software in the marketplace, win awards for digital transformation and run a picture-perfect implementation project. But if your data foundation is shaky, none of it will deliver. Organizations invest millions in tools only to stumble over incomplete, misaligned or fragmented data. The wall they hit afterward? It is built from poor decisions disguised as “glitches.”... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

HR Tech Buyer Fatigue Is Real, and Happening Now

Posted by Matthew Brown on 11 November 2025

There is a different kind of friction emerging in the HR technology market today. It is harder to quantify but easier to feel if you are inside the decision-making process. It is not a lack of interest or even budget. It is fatigue. HR buyers are worn down. There is always another demo, another promise of transformation, another set of features that look compelling until you dig into what it... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

AI in HR Software: Where the Hype Ends and Practicality Begins

Posted by Matthew Brown on 04 November 2025

You can’t examine an HR software roadmap today without encountering AI—ubiquitously. Natural language search, skills inference, personalized learning, intelligent automation, adaptive planning, worker twins, conversational agents... These aren’t just new features; they represent a new organizing principle. A new architecture for how platforms structure work and how individuals engage with... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

The HR Software Stack Isn’t the HCM Strategy—But It Should Reflect One

Posted by Matthew Brown on 29 October 2025

There’s a subtle but important truth I’ve seen play out across dozens of organizations: HR software doesn’t define your strategy—but it will expose whether you have one. Too often, organizations treat the HR software stack as a series of independent decisions: a new ATS here, a learning platform there, maybe a refreshed core HRIS every few years. Each decision is justified on its own. Each serves... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Skills Software Is Booming. Do You Have the Data Foundation to Use It?

Posted by Matthew Brown on 23 October 2025

Skills software is everywhere right now. Talent marketplaces, intelligent learning platforms, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered upskilling tools—the market is saturated with promises of personalized growth, agile workforce planning and dynamic career pathing. And to be clear: the vision is compelling. The idea of surfacing internal talent, guiding career development and aligning skills to... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

HR Tech 2025 Takeaways: The Future Is Ready—Are We?

Posted by Matthew Brown on 16 October 2025

For nearly 20 years, I have attended the Human Resources Technology Conference and Expo to take the temperature of the market. This year, the energy felt different—less showy, more grounded. I was able to engage with more than 40 software providers for deeper-dive discussions, and I left with three big takeaways and one nagging concern that I can’t shake. The first theme is about shrinking the... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

Post-Go-Live Reality: Building a Continuous Adoption Practice

Posted by Matthew Brown on 14 October 2025

It’s easy to celebrate a go-live. It’s visible, it’s measurable and it comes with a finish line. But anyone who’s been through an HR technology implementation knows that go-live isn’t the end. It’s the beginning. The real value of an HR system doesn’t show up in the configuration. It shows up in the usage, which is often underwhelming. It shows up in whether employees can navigate it without... Read More

Topics: Employee Engagement, Learning Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Payroll Management, Total Compensation Management, Employees & HCM - Business & Technologies

IT Is at the Heart of the AI-Enabled Economy

Posted by Jeff Orr on 26 August 2025

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic concept but a current reality, and enterprise leaders are recognizing its profound impact on the IT sector. The development and deployment of AI-driven applications across various industries hinge on a robust IT infrastructure and skilled expertise. The words of industry leaders reinforce this sentiment: Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy indicates that... Read More

Topics: GRC, Operations, Learning Management, Business Planning, Cybersecurity, Generative AI, IT & Technologies, AI and Machine Learning, IT Management, Skills Gap, Bias, Risk Management