Last week I attended my first HR Technology conference in Chicago. To say that things went smoothly with my registration process would be an overstatement, but that is the subject of another blog entirely, so, before I digress, let me return to more relevant observations. As I patrolled the expo hall, attempting fruitlessly to not accumulate the shiny, blinky, handy and sometimes useless gizmos that are generously handed out by the vendors, my goal was to determine, within the cacophony of products clamoring for attention, which products were really different, maybe better, but not necessarily popular.

At the top of my list, I’d have to say that Workday nailed it! The ceaseless crowds at their booth spoke to this, and anything more than a cursory glance at the product revealed its elegance and capabilities. They held their own at the shoot-out, against giants in the field. They were impressive, and definitely popular. However, more technically savvy people than I have written knowledgeably on the subject of Workday, so my focus is going to be on another company that I felt fit my goal of determining who was different and maybe better.

That company, in my opinion, was Peoplenetz. The reason they captured my attention was probably because quite recently, I had the opportunity to work at a fascinating startup company called Visible Path, who are developing the first ‘corporate’ social network. Being there exposed me to some of the inner workings of social networking technology, which, behind the scenes, is interestingly complex. When I started chatting with Mike Harrison, the founder of Peoplenetz, he began to explain his technology, which I might have found relatively baffling had I not already gained some notion of the machinations of social networks. Very simply stated, their products performed functions I didn’t see elsewhere, and the technology upon which it was based, was clean, elegant and powerful. Those individuals tasked with selecting software to help their organizations run more efficiently and make the most of their human capital and available corporate data would do well to spend the little additional time in ‘getting it’ when it comes to Peoplenetz’ array of tightly integrated products. Check them out!