We recently read the latest Cedar Crestone report, HCM Benchmark Study. Lexy Martin did a very fine job of outlining many interesting findings in this 92-page report.

We especially liked the way she created a simple view called the HCM Blueprint:

Making the distinction is important between administrative applications (HRMS in red) and service delivery and performance focus (Talent Management in green).

In view of all of those components, the major HRMS ERP vendors (SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft) have been making the case for years that it is way cheaper to have one unique solution to provide it all. Many organizations today, especially under the pressure of the CTO, are still under that belief. In fact, this survey shows exactly the opposite: It is cheaper to have a mix of best of breed applications than to have a huge ERP system as shown below!

Cost is one thing. But what about ROI? So we quote the last sentence of the report: “that it is those organizations with a mixed application environment that more frequently have achieved ROI than those that stay with a primarily ERP-based set of applications.”