Executive Summary

Buyers Guide Overview

ISG Research has conducted market research for over two decades across vertical industries, business applications, AI and IT. We have designed the ISG Buyers Guide™ to provide a balanced perspective of software providers and products that is rooted in an understanding of business and IT requirements. Utilization of our research methodology and decades of experience enables our Buyers Guide to be an effective method to assess and select software providers and products. The findings of this research provide a comprehensive approach to rating software providers and rank their ability to meet specific product and customer experience requirements.

The ISG Buyers Guide for Total Compensation Management is the distillation of continuous market and product research. It is an assessment of how well software providers’ offerings address enterprises’ requirements for Total Compensation Management software. The Value Index methodology is structured to support a request for information (RFI) for a request for proposal (RFP) process by incorporating all criteria needed to evaluate, select, utilize and maintain relationships with software providers. The ISG Buyers Guide evaluates customer experience and the product experience in its capability and platform.

The structure of the research reflects our understanding that the effective evaluation of software providers and products involves far more than just examining product features, potential revenue or customers generated from a provider’s marketing and sales efforts. It can ensure the best long-term relationship and value achieved from a resource and financial investment We believe it is important to take a comprehensive, research-based approach, since making the wrong choice of Total Compensation Management software can raise the total cost of ownership, lower the return on investment and hamper an enterprise’s ability to reach its potential. In addition, this approach can reduce the project’s development and deployment time and eliminate the risk of relying on opinions or historical biases.

ISG Research believes that an objective review of existing and potential new software providers and products is a critical strategy for the adoption and implementation of Total Compensation Management software. An enterprise’s review should include a thorough analysis of both what is possible and what is relevant. We urge enterprises to do a thorough job of evaluating Total Compensation Management and offer this Buyers Guide as both the results of our in-depth analysis of these providers and as an evaluation methodology.

How To Use This Buyers Guide

Evaluating Software Providers: The Process

We recommend using the Buyers Guide to assess and evaluate new or existing software providers for your enterprise. The market research can be used as an evaluation framework to assess existing approaches and software providers or establish a formal request for information from providers on products and customer experience and will shorten the cycle time when creating an RFI. The steps listed below provide a process that can facilitate best possible outcomes in the most efficient manner.

1. Define the business case and goals.
   Define the mission and business case for investment and the expected outcomes from your organizational and technological efforts.

2. Specify the business and IT needs.
   Defining the business and IT requirements helps identify what specific capabilities are required with respect to people, processes, information and technology.

3. Assess the required roles and responsibilities.
   Identify the individuals required for success at every level of the enterprise from executives to frontline workers and determine the needs of each.

4. Outline the project’s critical path.
   What needs to be done, in what order and who will do it? This outline should make clear the prior dependencies at each step of the project plan.

5. Ascertain the technology approach.
   Determine the business and technology approach that most closely aligns to your enterprise’s requirements.

6. Establish software provider evaluation criteria.
   Utilize the product experience: capability and platform with support for adaptability, manageability, reliability and usability, and the customer experience in TCO/ROI and Validation.

8. Evaluate and select the software provider and products properly.
   Apply a weighting the evaluation categories in the evaluation criteria to reflect your enterprise’s priorities to determine the short list of software providers and products.
9. Establish the business initiative team to start the project.
   Identify who will lead the project and the members of the team needed to plan and execute it with timelines, priorities and resources.
   
   

Using the ISG Buyers Guide and process provides enterprises a clear, structured approach to making smarter software and business investment decisions. It ensures alignment between strategy, people, processes and technology while reducing risk, saving time and improving outcomes. The ISG approach promotes data-driven decision-making and collaboration, helping choose the right software providers for maximum value and return on investment.

Total Compensation Management

Total compensation management (TCM) has emerged as the strategic core of enterprise compensation programs, unifying design, planning, administration, analytics and employee communication within a single operating model. For large organizations navigating global labor markets, complex job architectures, diverse rewards strategies and intensifying regulatory scrutiny, TCM platforms serve as the connective tissue that ties spend discipline to talent outcomes. When executed well, they enable financial rigor suitable for the chief financial officer and the workforce impact required of the chief human resources officer, ensuring that pay practices are equitable, explainable and aligned with business performance while also being transparent to managers and employees.

ISG defines total compensation management as an end-to-end software category that supports the design, planning, administration, analysis and communication of compensation as part of an organization’s broader total rewards strategy. The category is distinguished by breadth, covering planning cycles for merit, bonus and equity, market alignment via salary structures and benchmarking, operational governance and exception handling and employee- and manager-facing communication. Depth in analytics that diagnose pay equity, optimize spend and inform executive decision-making is also a focus. In contrast to point solutions that solve for a single moment in the annual cycle, TCM platforms sustain the year-round program, spanning modeling and forecasting, execution and approvals and the delivery of total rewards narratives understandable to the workforce. In enterprise contexts, TCM also implies multicountry readiness, transparent governance across business units and integration with human resource information systems, payroll and financial systems to maintain data fidelity and auditability at scale.

The earliest compensation tools digitized spreadsheets and on-premises workflows to tame annual merit cycles, but were narrow in scope and brittle across geographies and business units. As organizations shifted to software as a service (SaaS) HR suites and cloud payroll, compensation planning moved from departmental spreadsheets to configurable web applications with role-based approvals, basic budgeting and integrated data loading from core HR systems. The category then expanded as enterprises demanded stronger range management, better integration with market data providers, and support for equity and variable pay programs alongside salary actions. This period also introduced the first wave of analytics, moving beyond static reports toward trend analysis and what-if forecasts.

Over the past several years, the TCM category has matured on two fronts. First, analytics moved from retrospective reporting to diagnostic and prescriptive use cases, especially around pay equity and regulatory compliance. Second, the employee experience became central, as organizations recognized that total rewards communication was not a peripheral artifact but a strategic lever for engagement, retention and trust. Leading platforms now combine rigorous governance and audit with manager enablement and employee transparency, reflecting an understanding that compensation must be both financially sound and clearly understood. The result is a category that operates as a system of control and a system of communication, rather than a one-time planning tool.

Enterprises require TCM capabilities that elevate artificial intelligence from a feature to a programmatic capability. This includes models that surface recommendations, detect anomalies and simulate outcomes across salary, bonus and equity, while enforcing guardrails for fairness and compliance. AI must be explainable and auditable so compensation committees, HR leaders and managers can understand the rationale behind suggestions and the sensitivity of outcomes under different assumptions. This is especially critical as pay transparency expands and regulators and employees alike expect clarity about pay decisions. Through 2027, the majority of enterprises evaluating compensation management software will list automated pay equity modeling and anomaly detection as required system functionality.

Beyond AI, enterprises need a robust range architecture and market alignment that continuously reconcile internal structures with external benchmarks, not just at cycle time. Equally important is multicountry support that handles currency, regulatory requirements and local practices without fragmenting the governance model. Scenario modeling and forecasting that bridge HR and finance, enabling what-if analysis on budgets, headcount plans and performance distributions are essential. Systems need a durable operations backbone—workflow orchestration, exception management, data validation and audit trails—that supports off-cycle actions throughout the year, not just during annual events. Finally, enterprises need credible pay equity analytics that go beyond gap identification to quantify remediation options, budget impacts and communication strategies, as well as transparent employee and manager experiences that translate complex rewards into clear narratives.

Successful TCM platforms in large enterprises must deliver a complete control surface for governance and a compelling experience for decision-makers and employees. Table stakes include secure, granular, role-based access; configurable approval workflows; robust data validation and audit logging; accurate handling of merit, bonus and equity; integration with HRIS, payroll and financial planning systems; and reliable performance at enterprise scale during peak cycles. The underlying data model must support job architecture, ranges and grades, eligibility rules and multiple reward instruments, with a coherent approach to effective dating and historical comparisons. These foundations ensure that decisions are repeatable, traceable and compliant across jurisdictions.

Differentiators increasingly center on intelligence, simulation and communication. Leading platforms embed explainable AI that detects outliers, proposes range-consistent actions and simulates trade-offs under budget and policy constraints. Advanced scenario modeling allows HR and finance to test distribution curves, funding models and equity refresh strategies with real-time feedback on pay equity, budget adherence and downstream payroll impact. By 2027, one-half of enterprises utilizing compensation planning tools will require them to support complex (such as salary increase plus bonus) budget allocation modeling scenarios, rules and guidelines for both accounting and talent segments. Strong total rewards communication presents unified, comprehensible statements for employees and contextual guidance for managers. The best platforms tailor content to local norms and individual eligibility while preserving global standards. Finally, successful platforms enable cross-functional collaboration—HR, finance, business leaders and compensation administrators work in a shared environment with clear guardrails—so that strategy and execution remain aligned throughout the year.

Within the broader Compensation Buyers Guide, the TCM category exists to evaluate platforms that combine planning, analytics, operations and communication into a cohesive system. Its purpose is to help buyers distinguish truly unified solutions from strong point products that excel in one dimension but rely on external tools for the rest. This report addresses the needs of large enterprises that require breadth and integration as much as depth, reflecting the reality that compensation decisions are continuous and cross-functional, not episodic or siloed.

Scope boundaries are essential. TCM differs from Compensation Planning by going beyond structural design and annual planning cycles to include operational administration, advanced analytics and employee-facing communication. It differs from Compensation Insights by embedding insight directly into decision workflows and by managing the end-to-end cycle, rather than focusing primarily on diagnostics and executive reporting. It differs from Compensation Operations by integrating day-to-day execution with program design and analysis rather than emphasizing only workflows, approvals and data hygiene. Finally, it is distinct from the Emerging Providers segment, which highlights promising breadth but does not yet demonstrate the maturity, scale or polish that characterize leading TCM platforms in global enterprise environments.

Enterprises approaching a TCM selection should ground requirements in governance and scale, insist on explainable AI that augments but does not obscure human judgment, validates multicountry and multiunit complexity in live demonstrations and assesses how analytics inform action inside the planning and operations flow rather than as a separate reporting detour. Decision-makers should scrutinize the clarity and configurability of employee and manager experiences, ensure that job architecture and range management align with market data and internal equity objectives and test the platform’s capacity to handle off-cycle changes with the same rigor applied to annual events. Above all, it is important to confirm that the software functions as an operating system for compensation—connecting strategy, execution, insight and communication—so pay decisions are equitable, explainable and economically sound.

The ISG Buyers Guide™ for Total Compensation Management evaluates software providers and products on the ability to deliver a unified, end-to-end approach to compensation. This includes designing and managing compensation plans and budgets, maintaining salary structures and ranges and integrating market benchmarking data for competitive alignment. It also examines how platforms handle merit, bonus and equity cycles, enable governance through workflow automation and approvals and support off-cycle adjustments. In addition, the guide assesses advanced analytics for pay equity and compliance, scenario modeling for strategic planning and tools for transparent communication, such as total rewards dashboards and personalized statements, all within a framework that supports collaboration and global scalability.

The Total Compensation Management research evaluates the following software providers offering products that address key elements of total compensation management as we define it: ADP, Dayforce, Infor, Oracle, Payscale, PeopleFluent, Salary.com, SAP, UKG and Workday.

Key Takeaways

Total Compensation Management platforms have become the central system of record and communication for enterprise pay programs. They unify compensation design, planning, analytics and execution, enabling equitable, explainable and auditable pay decisions at scale. Enterprises depend on these platforms to manage complex global programs that integrate finance, HR and payroll data. Providers are differentiating through explainable AI, scenario modeling and transparency tools that link pay governance with employee trust and engagement.

Software Provider Summary
The research identifies Oracle, ADP and Salary.com as overall leaders, with Oracle ranked highest across multiple categories. Classification placed ADP, Oracle, Payscale, Salary.com and SAP in the Exemplary quadrant, while no providers were categorized as Innovative or Assurance. Dayforce, Infor, PeopleFluent, UKG and Workday were categorized as Merit. The research assessed providers on Product Experience and Customer Experience to highlight strengths and areas for improvement.

Product Experience Insights
Product Experience represented 80% of the overall evaluation, weighted across Capability and Platform. Oracle, ADP and Salary.com led in overall Product Experience. In Capability, Oracle, Salary.com and ADP excelled, while Oracle, ADP and SAP led in Platform performance. Leaders demonstrated strength in advanced integration capabilities and explainable AI features that improve governance and streamline compensation planning.

Customer Experience Value
Customer Experience accounted for 20% of the overall evaluation, focused on Validation and TCO/ROI. Oracle, Salary.com and ADP led in Customer Experience by demonstrating strong commitment, proven success cases and lifecycle support. Non-Leader vendors often lacked clear ROI documentation or comprehensive case studies, limiting confidence in their long-term partnership and value realization.

Strategic Recommendations
Enterprises should treat Total Compensation Management as a strategic platform connecting governance, analytics and employee experience. Buyers should prioritize providers that combine explainable AI, robust integration with HR and financial systems and transparent communication tools for equitable pay decisions. Platforms that deliver audit-ready compliance, scenario modeling and strong analytics will drive greater confidence and alignment between HR, finance and the workforce.

The Findings – Total Compensation Management

The software providers and products evaluated in the research provide product and customer experiences, but not everything offered is equally valuable to every enterprise or is needed to operate in business processes and use cases. Moreover, the existence of too many capabilities in products may be a negative factor for an enterprise if it introduces unnecessary complexity. Nonetheless, you may decide that a more comprehensive set of capabilities in the product is important, and where they match your enterprise’s requirements.

An effective customer relationship with a software provider is vital to the success of any investment. The overall customer experience and the full lifecycle of engagement play a key role in ensuring satisfaction and long-term success. Providers with dedicated customer leadership, such as chief customer officers, tend to invest more deeply in these relationships and prioritize customer outcomes to TCO and ROI expectations. It is equally important that this commitment to customer success is clearly demonstrated throughout the provider’s website, buying process and customer journey.

Overall Scoring of Software Providers Across Categories

The research finds Oracle atop the list, followed by ADP and Salary.com. Providers that place in the top three of a category earn the designation of Leader. ADP and Oracle have done so in four categories, Salary.com in three and SAP in one category.

The overall representation of the research below places the rating of the Product Experience and Customer Experience on the x and y axes, respectively, to provide a visual representation and classification of the software providers. Those providers whose Product Experience have above median weighted performance to the axis in aggregate of the two product categories place farther to the right, while the performance and weighting for the Customer Experience category determines placement on the vertical axis. In short, software providers that place closer to the upper-right on this chart performed better than those closer to the lower-left.

The research categorizes and rates software providers into one of four categories: Assurance, Exemplary, Merit or Innovative. This representation of software providers’ weighted performance in meeting the requirements in product and customer experience.

Exemplary: This rating (upper right) represents those that performed above median in Product and Customer Experience requirements. The providers rated Exemplary are: ADP, Oracle, Payscale, Salary.com and SAP.

Innovative: This rating (lower right) represents those that performed above median in Product Experience but not in Customer Experience. No providers are rated Innovative.

Assurance: This rating (upper left) represents those that performed above median in Customer Experience but not in Product Experience. No providers are rated Assurance.

Merit: This rating (lower left) represents those that did not surpass the median in Customer or Product Experience. The providers rated Merit are: Dayforce, Infor, PeopleFluent, UKG and Workday.

We advise enterprises to use this research as a supplement to their own evaluations, recognizing that ratings or rankings do not solely represent the value of a provider nor indicate universal suitability of a set of products.

Product Experience

The process of researching products to address an enterprise’s needs should be comprehensive and evaluate specific capabilities and the underlying platform to the product experience. Our evaluation of the Product Experience examines the lifecycle of onboarding, configuration, operations, usage and maintenance. Too often, software providers are not evaluated for the entirety of the product; instead, they are evaluated on market execution and vision of the future.

The research results in Product Experience are ranked at 80%, or four-fifths, using the underlying weighted performance. Importance was placed on the categories as follows: Capability (40%) and the Platform category (40%). Oracle, ADP and Salary.com were designated Product Experience Leaders.

Capability of the Product

The Capability criteria is designed to assess the products and features across a broad range of total compensation management capabilities that support the entire compensation lifecycle, from strategic planning and market benchmarking through cycle execution, pay equity analysis and transparent communication of total rewards.

ISG Research evaluated more than 180 different function points in 20 sections to assess the full scope of total compensation management capabilities. It also examined the investment by the software provider. The research weights Capability at 40% of the overall rating. Oracle, Salary.com and ADP are the Leaders in this category.

The Capability evaluation framework for total compensation management provides a framework for enterprises. Software providers that have more breadth and depth and support the entire set of needs fared better.

Platform of the Product

The Platform category evaluates the underlying requirements of a platform and examines how well a software product meets enterprise needs across business and IT. It measures how effectively the product can be managed and configured and integrated into enterprise environments, how efficiently it can be governed and secured, how reliably it performs and scales, and how intuitively it supports users across varied roles and skill levels. The platform category in the ISG Buyers Guide examines specific requirements for adaptability, manageability, reliability and usability.

The grading of the underlying platform focuses on a software product’s overall robustness and the flexibility of a provider’s software foundation. Adaptability measures a product’s ability to be customized and integrated across systems and data, while manageability focuses on governance, security and compliance. Reliability considers performance and scalability across environments, and usability assesses how intuitive and accessible the product is through design, use of AI and ongoing provider investment.

ISG Research evaluated 16 function points in 5 sections to assess the full scope of platforms capabilities. The research weights Platform at 40% of the overall rating. Oracle, ADP and SAP are the Leaders in this category. While not a Leader, UKG was also found to meet a broad range of enterprise capability requirements.

Platform is an essential evaluation category as it indicates the strength and resilience of a software provider’s product architecture. A well-designed platform ensures secure and compliant operations, dependable scalability and uptime, and a unified, intuitive experience for range of usage personas. It also reflects the provider’s capacity to enable deployment models while maintaining flexibility for enterprise demands.

Software providers that performed best in the Platform category were those that have support for the breadth and depth of needs across business and IT supporting adaptability, manageability, reliability and usability. Providers with lower performance were challenged in one or more of these areas or did not demonstrate a cohesive, enterprise-grade approach. The underlying platform for a software provider’s products is essential in any evaluation.

Customer Experience

The importance of a customer relationship with a software provider is essential to the actual success of the products and technology. The evaluation of the Customer Experience and the entire lifecycle an enterprise has with its software provider is critical for ensuring satisfaction in working with that provider. The ISG Buyers Guide examines a software provider’s customer commitment, viability, customer success, sales and onboarding, product roadmap and services with partners and support. The customer experience category also investigates the TCO/ROI and how well a software provider demonstrates the product’s overall value, cost and benefits, including the tools and resources to evaluate these factors.

The research results in Customer Experience are ranked at 20%, or one-fifth of the 100% index, and represent the underlying provider validation and TCO/ROI requirements as they relate to the framework of commitment and value to the software provider-customer relationship.

The software providers that evaluated the highest in the Customer Experience category are Oracle, Salary.com and ADP. These category leaders best communicate commitment and dedication to customer needs.

Software providers that did not perform well in this category were unable to provide or make sufficient information readily available to demonstrate success or articulate their commitment to customer experience. The use of a software provider requires continuous investment, so a holistic evaluation must include examination of how they support their customer experience.

Products Evaluated – Total Compensation Management

Providers of Promise – Total Compensation Management

We did not include software providers that, as a result of our research and analysis, did not satisfy the criteria for inclusion in this Buyers Guide. These are listed below as “Providers of Promise.”

Compensation Insights

Compensation insights form the analytical core of an enterprise reward strategy, turning pay data into defensible guidance for program design, governance and executive communication. In global organizations balancing fiscal discipline, competitiveness and equity, this category delivers the intelligence needed to align pay decisions with transparency, performance and business outcomes.

ISG Research defines compensation analytics and reporting as a software category purpose-built to analyze, interpret and communicate compensation data for strategic and operational decision-making. It includes pay equity analysis, spend optimization, predictive and prescriptive modeling, executive and board-ready storytelling, compliance reporting and visualization of internal and market benchmarks. These platforms unite HR, finance and legal data to provide evidence-based insights that improve compensation decisions and regulatory compliance.

Enterprises need analytics platforms that combine explainable artificial intelligence, strong governance and reliable data management. Systems must detect anomalies, quantify pay gaps and model budget and equity impacts while ensuring full auditability. By 2027, two-thirds of enterprises evaluating people analytics offerings will require prescriptive guidance with actionable insights that can be read and heard rather than just visualized in dashboards. Effective solutions merge benchmarking, scenario modeling and collaboration so HR, finance and legal teams can act on consistent, defensible insights.

Enterprises selecting providers should prioritize analytical rigor, transparency and scalability. Leading platforms deliver prescriptive guidance supported by predictive modeling, reproducible results and multimodal delivery that moves seamlessly from analysis to action. Buyers should seek strong data governance, validated pay equity methods and clear audit trails that ensure insights remain compliant and ready for executive and board review.

The ISG Buyers Guide™ for Compensation Insights focuses on platforms that improve pay practices and strategic planning. It assesses capabilities for pay equity analysis, spend and trend monitoring, predictive modeling and executive-level reporting. The evaluation also considers visual dashboards, compliance reporting and benchmark data visualization, ensuring organizations can make informed, transparent and compliant compensation decisions. This research evaluates the following software providers: ADP, beqom, Dayforce, HRSoft, Infor, Oracle, Payscale, PeopleFluent, Salary.com, SAP, Workday and UKG.

Key Takeaways

Compensation Insights platforms have become the analytical backbone of enterprise reward strategy, transforming pay data into defensible, actionable intelligence. They connect HR, finance and legal data to provide evidence-based insights that strengthen equity, governance and competitiveness. As organizations manage increasing transparency and regulatory pressure, these solutions deliver explainable AI, predictive modeling and benchmarking that link compensation decisions to measurable business outcomes. Providers are focusing on scalability, prescriptive guidance and audit-ready analytics that bridge analysis and execution.

Software Provider Summary
The research identifies Oracle, Salary.com and ADP as overall leaders, with Oracle ranked highest across multiple categories. Classification placed ADP, Oracle, Payscale and Salary.com in the Exemplary quadrant, while SAP and Workday were categorized as Innovative. No providers were placed in the Assurance quadrant, while beqom, Dayforce, HRSoft, Infor, PeopleFluent and UKG were categorized as Merit. The research assessed providers on Product Experience and Customer Experience to highlight strengths and areas for improvement.

Product Experience Insights
Product Experience represented 80% of the overall evaluation, weighted across Capability and Platform. Oracle, Salary.com and ADP led in overall Product Experience. In Capability, Oracle, Salary.com and ADP excelled, while Oracle, ADP and SAP led in Platform performance. Leaders demonstrated strength in data-driven analytics and predictive modeling capabilities that enhance transparency and decision-making accuracy.

Customer Experience Value
Customer Experience accounted for 20% of the overall evaluation, focused on Validation and TCO/ROI. Oracle, Salary.com and ADP led in Customer Experience by demonstrating strong commitment, proven success cases and lifecycle support. Providers outside the leadership group often lacked comprehensive ROI documentation or clear case studies, limiting confidence in long-term partnership value.

Strategic Recommendations
Enterprises should treat Compensation Insights platforms as strategic enablers of pay equity, governance and accountability. Buyers should prioritize providers that combine explainable AI, rigorous data governance and prescriptive analytics that move seamlessly from insight to action. Platforms that deliver validated pay equity modeling, predictive forecasting and executive-ready reporting will strengthen decision-making and compliance across HR, finance and leadership.

The Findings – Compensation Insights

The software providers and products evaluated in the research provide product and customer experiences, but not everything offered is equally valuable to every enterprise or is needed to operate in business processes and use cases. Moreover, the existence of too many capabilities in products may be a negative factor for an enterprise if it introduces unnecessary complexity. Nonetheless, you may decide that a more comprehensive set of capabilities in the product is important, and where they match your enterprise’s requirements.

An effective customer relationship with a software provider is vital to the success of any investment. The overall customer experience and the full lifecycle of engagement play a key role in ensuring satisfaction and long-term success. Providers with dedicated customer leadership, such as chief customer officers, tend to invest more deeply in these relationships and prioritize customer outcomes to TCO and ROI expectations. It is equally important that this commitment to customer success is clearly demonstrated throughout the provider’s website, buying process and customer journey.

Overall Scoring of Software Providers Across Categories

The research finds Oracle atop the list, followed by Salary.com and ADP. Providers that place in the top three of a category earn the designation of Leader. ADP, Oracle and Salary.com have done so in three categories; and SAP in one category.

The overall representation of the research below places the rating of the Product Experience and Customer Experience on the x and y axes, respectively, to provide a visual representation and classification of the software providers. Those providers whose Product Experience have above median weighted performance to the axis in aggregate of the two product categories place farther to the right, while the performance and weighting for the Customer Experience category determines placement on the vertical axis. In short, software providers that place closer to the upper-right on this chart performed better than those closer to the lower-left.

The research categorizes and rates software providers into one of four categories: Assurance, Exemplary, Merit or Innovative. This representation of software providers’ weighted performance in meeting the requirements in product and customer experience.

Exemplary: This rating (upper right) represents those that performed above median in Product and Customer Experience requirements. The providers rated Exemplary are: ADP, Oracle, Payscale and Salary.com.

Innovative: This rating (lower right) represents those that performed above median in Product Experience but not in Customer Experience. The providers rated Innovative are: SAP and Workday.

Assurance: This rating (upper left) represents those that performed above median in Customer Experience but not in Product Experience. No providers are rated Assurance.

Merit: This rating (lower left) represents those that did not surpass the median in Customer or Product Experience. The providers rated Merit are: beqom, Dayforce, HRSoft, Infor, PeopleFluent and UKG.

We advise enterprises to use this research as a supplement to their own evaluations, recognizing that ratings or rankings do not solely represent the value of a provider nor indicate universal suitability of a set of products.

Product Experience

The process of researching products to address an enterprise’s needs should be comprehensive and evaluate specific capabilities and the underlying platform to the product experience. Our evaluation of the Product Experience examines the lifecycle of onboarding, configuration, operations, usage and maintenance. Too often, software providers are not evaluated for the entirety of the product; instead, they are evaluated on market execution and vision of the future.

The research results in Product Experience are ranked at 80%, or four-fifths, using the underlying weighted performance. Importance was placed on the categories as follows: Capability (50%) and the Platform category (30%). Oracle, Salary.com and ADP were designated Product Experience Leaders.

Capability of the Product

The Capability criteria is designed to assess the products and features across a broad range of compensation analytics and reporting capabilities that support compensation planning cycles, program design, spend and trend monitoring, modeling and forecasting, integration and interoperability, planning and benchmarking and visualization.

ISG Research evaluated more than 70 function points in 15 sections to assess the full scope of compensation analytics and reporting capabilities. It also examined the investment by the software provider. The research weights Capability at 50% of the overall rating. Oracle, Salary.com and ADP are the Leaders in this category.

The Capability evaluation framework for compensation insights provides a framework for enterprises. Software providers that have more breadth and depth and support the entire set of needs fared better.

Platform of the Product

The Platform category evaluates the underlying requirements of a platform and examines how well a software product meets enterprise needs across business and IT. It measures how effectively the product can be managed and configured and integrated into enterprise environments, how efficiently it can be governed and secured, how reliably it performs and scales, and how intuitively it supports users across varied roles and skill levels. The platform category in the ISG Buyers Guide examines specific requirements for adaptability, manageability, reliability and usability.

The grading of the underlying platform focuses on a software product’s overall robustness and the flexibility of a provider’s software foundation. Adaptability measures a product’s ability to be customized and integrated across systems and data, while manageability focuses on governance, security and compliance. Reliability considers performance and scalability across environments, and usability assesses how intuitive and accessible the product is through design, use of AI and ongoing provider investment.

ISG Research evaluated 16 function points in 5 sections to assess the full scope of platforms capabilities. The research weights Platform capabilities at 30% of the overall rating. Oracle, ADP and SAP are the Leaders in this category. While not a Leader, UKG was also found to meet a broad range of enterprise platform requirements.

Platform is an essential evaluation category as it indicates the strength and resilience of a software provider’s product architecture. A well-designed platform ensures secure and compliant operations, dependable scalability and uptime, and a unified, intuitive experience for range of usage personas. It also reflects the provider’s capacity to enable deployment models while maintaining flexibility for enterprise demands.

Software providers that performed best in the Platform category were those that have support for the breadth and depth of needs across business and IT supporting adaptability, manageability, reliability and usability. Providers with lower performance were challenged in one or more of these areas or did not demonstrate a cohesive, enterprise-grade approach. The underlying platform for a software provider’s products is essential in any evaluation.

Customer Experience

The importance of a customer relationship with a software provider is essential to the actual success of the products and technology. The evaluation of the Customer Experience and the entire lifecycle an enterprise has with its software provider is critical for ensuring satisfaction in working with that provider. The ISG Buyers Guide examines a software provider’s customer commitment, viability, customer success, sales and onboarding, product roadmap and services with partners and support. The customer experience category also investigates the TCO/ROI and how well a software provider demonstrates the product’s overall value, cost and benefits, including the tools and resources to evaluate these factors.

The research results in Customer Experience are ranked at 20%, or one-fifth of the 100% index, and represent the underlying provider validation and TCO/ROI requirements as they relate to the framework of commitment and value to the software provider-customer relationship.

The software providers that evaluated the highest in the Customer Experience category are Oracle, Salary.com and ADP. These category leaders best communicate commitment and dedication to customer needs.

Software providers that did not perform well in this category were unable to provide or make sufficient information readily available to demonstrate success or articulate their commitment to customer experience. The use of a software provider requires continuous investment, so a holistic evaluation must include examination of how they support their customer experience.

Products Evaluated – Compensation Insights

Providers of Promise – Compensation Insights

We did not include software providers that, as a result of our research and analysis, did not satisfy the criteria for inclusion in this Buyers Guide. These are listed below as “Providers of Promise.”

Compensation Operations

Compensation operations form the backbone of enterprise reward programs, turning pay policies and budgets into consistent, auditable actions that scale across geographies and integrate seamlessly with payroll and finance. For large organizations managing annual cycles and continuous off-cycle adjustments, this category ensures accuracy, transparency and governance in every transaction, enabling HR, finance and business leaders to make compensation decisions with confidence.

ISG Research defines compensation operations as a software category focused on operational excellence in the administration of compensation programs. It emphasizes workflow orchestration, role-based access, approval routing and exception handling, with deep integration to HRIS, payroll and financial systems. These platforms manage annual merit, bonus and equity events, as well as off-cycle actions, data validation and compliance logging. They must support diverse regional requirements and peak-season performance while maintaining consistent policy enforcement and full audit traceability from approval to payroll output.

Enterprises need platforms that combine explainable AI with strong governance, reliability, and real-time analytics to manage complexity, detect issues, and ensure compliance. The best solutions offer transparency, resilience, and intelligence through guided exception management, AI-driven insights, and automated reconciliation. Buyers should prioritize data validation, secure administration, flexible configuration, and robust integrations that make compensation operations reliable, compliant, and scalable across HR and finance systems.

The ISG Buyers Guide™ for Compensation Operations focuses on platforms that deliver operational excellence in compensation administration. It assesses capabilities for workflow automation, governance and approval routing as well as integrations with HRIS, payroll and finance systems. The evaluation also considers features for data validation, off-cycle adjustments, collaborative reviews and audit-ready compliance tracking, ensuring organizations can manage compensation programs efficiently and transparently.

This Compensation Operations research evaluates the following software providers offering products to address key elements of compensation operations as we define it: ADP, BambooHR, beqom, Cornerstone, Darwinbox, Dayforce, HiBob, HRSoft, Infor, isolved, Oracle, Paycom, Paycor, Paylocity, Payscale, PeopleFluent, Salary.com, SAP, UKG, Unit4 and Workday.

Key Takeaways

Compensation Operations platforms have become the execution engine of enterprise pay programs, ensuring governance, accuracy and transparency across global compensation cycles. These systems manage the full range of merit, bonus and equity processes while supporting off-cycle actions and compliance audits. As enterprises scale, operations platforms are distinguished by their ability to automate workflows, reconcile approvals with payroll data and maintain traceability across HR and finance systems. Providers are differentiating through explainable AI, anomaly detection and real-time analytics that elevate compensation from administrative function to continuous control.

Software Provider Summary
The research identifies Oracle, ADP and Salary.com as overall leaders, with Oracle ranked highest across multiple categories. Classification placed ADP, beqom, Dayforce, Oracle, Payscale, SAP, Salary.com, Workday and UKG in the Exemplary quadrant, while Darwinbox, Infor and Unit4 were categorized as Innovative. HiBob and HRSoft were placed in the Assurance quadrant, while BambooHR, Cornerstone, isolved, Paycom, Paycor, Paylocity and PeopleFluent were categorized as Merit. The research assessed providers on Product Experience and Customer Experience to highlight strengths and areas for improvement.

Product Experience Insights
Product Experience represented 80% of the overall evaluation, weighted across Capability and Platform. Oracle, Salary.com and ADP led in overall Product Experience. In Capability, Oracle, Salary.com and ADP excelled, while Oracle, ADP and SAP led in Platform performance. Leaders demonstrated strength in automated workflow orchestration and deep integration with payroll and HR systems that improve governance and reliability at scale.

Customer Experience Value
Customer Experience accounted for 20% of the overall evaluation, focused on Validation and TCO/ROI. Oracle, Salary.com and ADP led in Customer Experience by demonstrating strong commitment, proven success cases and lifecycle support. Non-Leader providers most often lacked thorough ROI documentation or detailed customer case studies, reducing buyer confidence in long-term satisfaction and value realization.

Strategic Recommendations
Enterprises should treat Compensation Operations platforms as mission-critical systems that unify governance, scalability and compliance with automation and AI. Buyers should prioritize providers that deliver strong audit readiness, deep HRIS and payroll integration and AI-enabled exception management. Platforms that ensure reliability during peak cycles, automate reconciliation and enhance process visibility will drive operational excellence and strengthen trust across HR, finance and leadership teams.

The Findings – Compensation Operations

The software providers and products evaluated in the research provide product and customer experiences, but not everything offered is equally valuable to every enterprise or is needed to operate in business processes and use cases. Moreover, the existence of too many capabilities in products may be a negative factor for an enterprise if it introduces unnecessary complexity. Nonetheless, you may decide that a more comprehensive set of capabilities in the product is important, and where they match your enterprise’s requirements.

An effective customer relationship with a software provider is vital to the success of any investment. The overall customer experience and the full lifecycle of engagement play a key role in ensuring satisfaction and long-term success. Providers with dedicated customer leadership, such as chief customer officers, tend to invest more deeply in these relationships and prioritize customer outcomes to TCO and ROI expectations. It is equally important that this commitment to customer success is clearly demonstrated throughout the provider’s website, buying process and customer journey.

Overall Scoring of Software Providers Across Categories

The research finds Oracle atop the list, followed by ADP and Salary.com. Providers that place in the top three of a category earn the designation of Leader. ADP and Oracle have done so in five categories; Salary.com in four; and SAP in one category.

The overall representation of the research below places the rating of the Product Experience and Customer Experience on the x and y axes, respectively, to provide a visual representation and classification of the software providers. Those providers whose Product Experience have above median weighted performance to the axis in aggregate of the two product categories place farther to the right, while the performance and weighting for the Customer Experience category determines placement on the vertical axis. In short, software providers that place closer to the upper-right on this chart performed better than those closer to the lower-left.

The research categorizes and rates software providers into one of four categories: Assurance, Exemplary, Merit or Innovative. This representation of software providers’ weighted performance in meeting the requirements in product and customer experience.

Exemplary: This rating (upper right) represents those that performed above median in Product and Customer Experience requirements. The providers rated Exemplary are: ADP, beqom, Dayforce, Oracle, Payscale, SAP, Salary.com, Workday and UKG.

Innovative: This rating (lower right) represents those that performed above median in Product Experience but not in Customer Experience. The providers rated Innovative are: Darwinbox, Infor and Unit4.

Assurance: This rating (upper left) represents those that performed above median in Customer Experience but not in Product Experience. The providers rated Assurance are: HiBob and HRSoft.

Merit: This rating (lower left) represents those that did not surpass the median in Customer or Product Experience. The providers rated Merit are: BambooHR, Cornerstone, isolved, Paycom, Paycor, Paylocity and PeopleFluent.

We advise enterprises to use this research as a supplement to their own evaluations, recognizing that ratings or rankings do not solely represent the value of a provider nor indicate universal suitability of a set of products.

Product Experience

The process of researching products to address an enterprise’s needs should be comprehensive and evaluate specific capabilities and the underlying platform to the product experience. Our evaluation of the Product Experience examines the lifecycle of onboarding, configuration, operations, usage and maintenance. Too often, software providers are not evaluated for the entirety of the product; instead, they are evaluated on market execution and vision of the future.

The research results in Product Experience are ranked at 80%, or four-fifths, using the underlying weighted performance. Importance was placed on the categories as follows: Capability (50%) and the Platform category (30%). Oracle, Salary.com and ADP were designated Product Experience Leaders.

Capability of the Product

The Capability criteria is designed to assess the products and features across a broad range of compensation operations capabilities that support the efficient, collaborative day-to-day execution of compensation programs, including workflow automation, complex off-cycle adjustments, deep HRIS/payroll integration, and stringent data governance across all stakeholders.

ISG Research evaluated more than 80 different function points in 17 sections to assess the full scope of compensation operations capabilities. It also examined the investment by the software provider in resources and improvements.

The research weights Capability at 50% of the overall rating. Oracle, Salary.com and ADP are the Leaders in this category.

Platform of the Product

The Platform category evaluates the underlying requirements of a platform and examines how well a software product meets enterprise needs across business and IT. It measures how effectively the product can be managed and configured and integrated into enterprise environments, how efficiently it can be governed and secured, how reliably it performs and scales, and how intuitively it supports users across varied roles and skill levels. The platform category in the ISG Buyers Guide examines specific requirements for adaptability, manageability, reliability and usability.

The grading of the underlying platform focuses on a software product’s overall robustness and the flexibility of a provider’s software foundation. Adaptability measures a product’s ability to be customized and integrated across systems and data, while manageability focuses on governance, security and compliance. Reliability considers performance and scalability across environments, and usability assesses how intuitive and accessible the product is through design, use of AI and ongoing provider investment.

ISG Research evaluated 16 function points in 5 sections to assess the full scope of platforms capabilities. The research weights Platform capabilities at 30% of the overall rating. Oracle, ADP and SAP are the Leaders in this category. While not a Leader, UKG was also found to meet a broad range of enterprise platform requirements.

Platform is an essential evaluation category as it indicates the strength and resilience of a software provider’s product architecture. A well-designed platform ensures secure and compliant operations, dependable scalability and uptime, and a unified, intuitive experience for range of usage personas. It also reflects the provider’s capacity to enable deployment models while maintaining flexibility for enterprise demands.

Software providers that performed best in the Platform category were those that have support for the breadth and depth of needs across business and IT supporting adaptability, manageability, reliability and usability. Providers with lower performance were challenged in one or more of these areas or did not demonstrate a cohesive, enterprise-grade approach. The underlying platform for a software provider’s products is essential in any evaluation.

Customer Experience

The importance of a customer relationship with a software provider is essential to the actual success of the products and technology. The evaluation of the Customer Experience and the entire lifecycle an enterprise has with its software provider is critical for ensuring satisfaction in working with that provider. The ISG Buyers Guide examines a software provider’s customer commitment, viability, customer success, sales and onboarding, product roadmap and services with partners and support. The customer experience category also investigates the TCO/ROI and how well a software provider demonstrates the product’s overall value, cost and benefits, including the tools and resources to evaluate these factors.

The research results in Customer Experience are ranked at 20%, or one-fifth of the 100% index, and represent the underlying provider validation and TCO/ROI requirements as they relate to the framework of commitment and value to the software provider-customer relationship.

The software providers that evaluated the highest in the Customer Experience category are Oracle, Salary.com and ADP. These category leaders best communicate commitment and dedication to customer needs.

Software providers that did not perform well in this category were unable to provide or make sufficient information readily available to demonstrate success or articulate their commitment to customer experience. The use of a software provider requires continuous investment, so a holistic evaluation must include examination of how they support their customer experience.

Products Evaluated – Compensation Operations

Compensation Planning

Compensation planning forms the structural foundation of an enterprise reward strategy, guiding how organizations design salary frameworks, align with market data and execute merit, bonus and equity programs with fairness and fiscal control. For large, global enterprises managing multiple job structures and pay philosophies, this category provides the governance that turns compensation strategy into consistent, data-driven practice.

ISG defines compensation planning and benchmarking as a software category focused on the design and planning layers of compensation. It includes salary structures, grades and ranges; integration with external market data and internal benchmarks; governance and policy enforcement for planning cycles; and scenario modeling for budgets, guidelines and eligibility rules. These platforms bring analytical precision and transparency to planning by linking job architecture, budgeting and compliance across HR and finance.

Enterprises need AI-driven, automated platforms that enhance pricing accuracy, budget alignment, and pay equity while maintaining strong governance and auditability. These systems use AI to identify outliers, test models, and guide consistent, compliant decisions, unifying range management and scenario modeling for faster, data-informed adjustments. When selecting providers, organizations should prioritize platforms with explainable AI, transparent job matching, and robust data management that ensure scalability, compliance, and flexibility across global operations.

The ISG Buyers Guide™ for Compensation Planning assesses software that enables organizations to structure pay programs effectively and align them with market realities. This includes tools for defining salary ranges, integrating benchmarking data, managing planning cycles for merit, bonus and equity and ensuring governance through workflows and compliance tracking. The evaluation also considers advanced features, such as budgeting, allocation management and scenario modeling to support strategic planning and organizational agility. The compensation planning and benchmarking research evaluates the following software providers: 15Five, ADP, Anaplan, beqom, Cornerstone, Darwinbox, Dayforce, HiBob, HRSoft, Infor, Oracle, Paycor, Payscale, PeopleFluent, Salary.com, SAP, Unit4, UKG and Workday.

Key Takeaways

Compensation Planning platforms have become the structural foundation of enterprise reward strategies, aligning pay programs with market realities while balancing fairness and fiscal discipline. These solutions unify job architecture, budgeting and governance, helping organizations translate compensation policy into consistent, data-driven practice. Providers are advancing with explainable AI, scenario modeling and benchmarking tools that improve pricing accuracy and pay equity while maintaining auditability and global scalability.

Software Provider Summary
The research identifies Oracle, Salary.com and ADP as overall leaders, with Oracle ranked highest across multiple categories. Classification placed ADP, Anaplan, beqom, Dayforce, Oracle, Payscale, Salary.com and SAP in the Exemplary quadrant, while UKG and Workday were categorized as Innovative. HiBob was placed in the Assurance quadrant, while 15Five, Cornerstone, Darwinbox, Infor, HRSoft, Paycor, PeopleFluent and Unit4 were categorized as Merit. The research assessed providers on Product Experience and Customer Experience to highlight strengths and areas for improvement.

Product Experience Insights
Product Experience represented 80% of the overall evaluation, weighted across Capability and Platform. Oracle, Salary.com and ADP led in overall Product Experience. In Capability, Oracle, Salary.com and ADP excelled, while Oracle, ADP and SAP led in Platform performance. Leaders demonstrated strength in salary structure design and modeling capabilities that support complex budgeting, equity programs and regulatory compliance.

Customer Experience Value
Customer Experience accounted for 20% of the overall evaluation, focused on Validation and TCO/ROI. Anaplan, Oracle and Salary.com led in Customer Experience by demonstrating strong commitment, proven success cases and lifecycle support. Non-Leader providers often lacked clear ROI documentation or comprehensive case studies, which limited enterprise confidence in measurable outcomes and support quality.

Strategic Recommendations
Enterprises should treat Compensation Planning platforms as strategic investments that connect governance, analytics and transparency with scalable design and budgeting tools. Buyers should prioritize providers that combine explainable AI, job benchmarking and global compliance capabilities with intuitive, auditable workflows. Platforms that enable dynamic modeling, equity forecasting and validated market alignment will help organizations achieve fair, data-driven and fiscally responsible pay practices.

The Findings – Compensation Planning

The software providers and products evaluated in the research provide product and customer experiences, but not everything offered is equally valuable to every enterprise or is needed to operate in business processes and use cases. Moreover, the existence of too many capabilities in products may be a negative factor for an enterprise if it introduces unnecessary complexity. Nonetheless, you may decide that a more comprehensive set of capabilities in the product is important, and where they match your enterprise’s requirements.

An effective customer relationship with a software provider is vital to the success of any investment. The overall customer experience and the full lifecycle of engagement play a key role in ensuring satisfaction and long-term success. Providers with dedicated customer leadership, such as chief customer officers, tend to invest more deeply in these relationships and prioritize customer outcomes to TCO and ROI expectations. It is equally important that this commitment to customer success is clearly demonstrated throughout the provider’s website, buying process and customer journey.

Overall Scoring of Software Providers Across Categories

The research finds Oracle atop the list, followed by Salary.com and ADP. Providers that place in the top three of a category earn the designation of Leader. Oracle has done so in four categories, ADP and Salary.com in three and SAP and Anaplan in one category.

The overall representation of the research below places the rating of the Product Experience and Customer Experience on the x and y axes, respectively, to provide a visual representation and classification of the software providers. Those providers whose Product Experience have above median weighted performance to the axis in aggregate of the two product categories place farther to the right, while the performance and weighting for the Customer Experience category determines placement on the vertical axis. In short, software providers that place closer to the upper-right on this chart performed better than those closer to the lower-left.

The research categorizes and rates software providers into one of four categories: Assurance, Exemplary, Merit or Innovative. This representation of software providers’ weighted performance in meeting the requirements in product and customer experience.

Exemplary: This rating (upper right) represents those that performed above median in Product and Customer Experience requirements. The providers rated Exemplary are: ADP, Anaplan, beqom, Dayforce, Oracle, Payscale, Salary.com and SAP.

Innovative: This rating (lower right) represents those that performed above median in Product Experience but not in Customer Experience. The providers rated Innovative are: UKG and Workday.

Assurance: This rating (upper left) represents those that performed above median in Customer Experience but not in Product Experience. The provider rated Assurance is: HiBob.

Merit: This rating (lower left) represents those that did not surpass the median in Customer or Product Experience. The providers rated Merit are: 15Five, Cornerstone, Darwinbox, Infor, HRSoft, Paycor, PeopleFluent and Unit4.

We advise enterprises to use this research as a supplement to their own evaluations, recognizing that ratings or rankings do not solely represent the value of a provider nor indicate universal suitability of a set of products.

Product Experience

The process of researching products to address an enterprise’s needs should be comprehensive and evaluate specific capabilities and the underlying platform to the product experience. Our evaluation of the Product Experience examines the lifecycle of onboarding, configuration, operations, usage and maintenance. Too often, software providers are not evaluated for the entirety of the product; instead, they are evaluated on market execution and vision of the future.

The research results in Product Experience are ranked at 80%, or four-fifths, using the underlying weighted performance. Importance was placed on the categories as follows: Capability (50%) and the Platform category (30%). Oracle, Salary.com and ADP were designated Product Experience Leaders.

Capability of the Product

The Capability criteria is designed to assess the products and features across a broad range of compensation planning and benchmarking capabilities that support the strategic design of compensation programs, including defining salary structures, aligning pay practices with market benchmarking data, and managing the budgeting, allocation, and governance of annual planning cycles.

ISG Research evaluated more than 124 different function points in 13 sections to assess the full scope of compensation planning and benchmarking capabilities. It also examined the investment by the software provider in resources and improvements.

The research weights Capability at 50% of the overall rating. Oracle, Salary.com and ADP are the Leaders in this category.

Platform of the Product

The Platform category evaluates the underlying requirements of a platform and examines how well a software product meets enterprise needs across business and IT. It measures how effectively the product can be managed and configured and integrated into enterprise environments, how efficiently it can be governed and secured, how reliably it performs and scales, and how intuitively it supports users across varied roles and skill levels. The platform category in the ISG Buyers Guide examines specific requirements for adaptability, manageability, reliability and usability.

The grading of the underlying platform focuses on a software product’s overall robustness and the flexibility of a provider’s software foundation. Adaptability measures a product’s ability to be customized and integrated across systems and data, while manageability focuses on governance, security and compliance. Reliability considers performance and scalability across environments, and usability assesses how intuitive and accessible the product is through design, use of AI and ongoing provider investment.

ISG Research evaluated 16 function points in 5 sections to assess the full scope of platforms capabilities. The research weights Platform capabilities at 30% of the overall rating. Oracle, ADP and SAP are the Leaders in this category. While not a Leader, UKG was also found to meet a broad range of enterprise capability requirements.

Platform is an essential evaluation category as it indicates the strength and resilience of a software provider’s product architecture. A well-designed platform ensures secure and compliant operations, dependable scalability and uptime, and a unified, intuitive experience for range of usage personas. It also reflects the provider’s capacity to enable deployment models while maintaining flexibility for enterprise demands.

Software providers that performed best in the Platform category were those that have support for the breadth and depth of needs across business and IT supporting adaptability, manageability, reliability and usability. Providers with lower performance were challenged in one or more of these areas or did not demonstrate a cohesive, enterprise-grade approach. The underlying platform for a software provider’s products is essential in any evaluation.

Customer Experience

The importance of a customer relationship with a software provider is essential to the actual success of the products and technology. The evaluation of the Customer Experience and the entire lifecycle an enterprise has with its software provider is critical for ensuring satisfaction in working with that provider. The ISG Buyers Guide examines a software provider’s customer commitment, viability, customer success, sales and onboarding, product roadmap and services with partners and support. The customer experience category also investigates the TCO/ROI and how well a software provider demonstrates the product’s overall value, cost and benefits, including the tools and resources to evaluate these factors.

The research results in Customer Experience are ranked at 20%, or one-fifth of the 100% index, and represent the underlying provider validation and TCO/ROI requirements as they relate to the framework of commitment and value to the software provider-customer relationship.

The software providers that evaluated the highest in the Customer Experience category are Anaplan, Oracle and Salary.com. These category leaders best communicate commitment and dedication to customer needs.

Software providers that did not perform well in this category were unable to provide or make sufficient information readily available to demonstrate success or articulate their commitment to customer experience. The use of a software provider requires continuous investment, so a holistic evaluation must include examination of how they support their customer experience.

Products Evaluated – Compensation Planning

Providers of Promise – Compensation Planning

We did not include software providers that, as a result of our research and analysis, did not satisfy the criteria for inclusion in this Buyers Guide. These are listed below as “Providers of Promise.”

Appendix: Software Provider Inclusion

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Total Compensation Management in 2025, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have more than 50 dedicated employees, have at least $50 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents and have at least 100 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the past 12 months. The product must be actively marketed as an analytics product and capable of accessing data from a variety of sources, modeling the data for analysis, analyzing the data using a variety of techniques, communicating the results in a variety of ways and supporting the data and analytics processes within an organization.

The research is designed to be independent of the specifics of software provider packaging and pricing. To represent the real-world environment in which businesses operate, we include providers that offer suites or packages of products that may include relevant individual modules or applications. If a software provider is actively marketing, selling and developing a product for the general market and it is reflected on the provider’s website that the product is within the scope of the research, that provider is automatically evaluated for inclusion.

All software providers that offer relevant analytics and data products and meet the inclusion requirements were invited to participate in the evaluation process at no cost to them.

Software providers that meet our inclusion criteria but did not completely participate in our Buyers Guide were assessed solely on publicly available information. As this could have a significant impact on classification and ratings, we recommend additional scrutiny when evaluating those providers.