The marketplace for Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions has seen an extraordinary amount of acquisition and consolidation activity in the past six months. The activity related to cloud-based HCM solutions for Life Sciences companies is far outpacing any other application of cloud-based technologies. Earlier this year SAP spent $3.4 billion to purchase SuccessFactors. Not to be left behind, Oracle jumped into the fray two weeks later by spending $1.9 billion to acquire HCM solution provider Taleo. Some say that Salesforce.com started the frenzy with its purchase in December of 2011 of cloud-based HCM performance management solution Rypple.

And as a backdrop to this activity, there is an impressive march forward by cloud-based HCM provider Workday. In a recent Towers-Watson survey, 444 organizations responded to detailed questions about their HCM solutions.¹ Of those organizations planning to implement a new HCM solution, 22 percent are planning to implement an SAP HCM solution. However, a stunning 18 percent are planning to implement a Workday solution.

With the highly dynamic solution landscape for HCM, questions abound. Should Life Sciences companies implement an on-premise SAP HCM solution? Should we continue to invest in on-premise SAP HCM solution? Should we investigate cloud-based solutions like Workday? What can we expect from SAP’s purchase of SuccessFactors? How do I maximize my company’s success while minimizing the risk we face during these volatile times?