As well as this time of year being back to back conference season, it also sees a peak around Fosway’s HR research output. And we’re delighted to share one of our key pieces of research – the 2017 Fosway 9-Grids™ for Cloud HCM and Integrated Talent Management with you, live for the first time today.

With Cloud HCM now in its second year, and talent management in its fifth, the 9-Grids™ are the culmination of hours of painstaking research with corporate buyers and users of HR technology, suppliers and other industry connections. They are based on thousands of lines of data, demos and behind-closed-doors conversation. All distilled (and names removed to protect the innocent) to  give you the inside track on the HR tech market that we uniquely see as analysts.

There is a very important difference between 9-Grid™ and other analyst models. In the 9-Grid™ all of the nine zones have value, and more interestingly, have an associated set of actions that can help you to maximise the value of the relationship with different vendors.

This means that being in the top right is not the only valid selection point. For some buyers, top right may not even be desirable. There are many other zones that offer success, especially when balanced against Total Cost of Ownership – a woefully overlooked, yet incredibly important factor in any buying process in our view.

As well as looking at the 9-Grids™ themselves, we’d urge you to read the accompanying reports. The analysis of the strategic benefits of Cloud HCM and insights into fight the good fight in the war for talent are valuable to anyone in HR, talent and learning today. You can find them here and of course, if you’d like to discuss any aspect of the research please do just drop us a line.

Plus there’s more research coming next week from our partnership with HR Tech World…stay tuned…