Hello!
I'm James Hatton, founder of SelectionWise. A vendor-agnostic company whose aim is to help organisations get their HR Technology projects off to the best possible start by providing genuinely independent guidance and support.
I've been an HR Technologist for over 30 years. Throughout my career, I've worked as a consultant, vendor, and 'client'—as my 25 years in consulting have taught me to describe organisations on the receiving end of these services.
I love technology, but not for technology's sake. Nothing brings me more satisfaction than seeing technology create great benefits. However, I hate it when technology delivers no benefit at all or, worse, gets in the way.
I've sat through hundreds of vendor demos and witnessed many very polished presentations and a few trainwrecks. I've watched slick sales teams win over clients, and less capable ones fail – often despite having great software.
Having been involved in many HR technology implementations as an architect, consultant, programme manager, and consulting seller, my experiences have been mixed. Some have been very successful, but many have fallen short when I look back at the real value delivered. Despite some very talented implementation teams, almost all have been a struggle.
During the early days of SaaS, I witnessed growing failure rates (despite the software becoming much easier to implement) and became determined to understand the root causes. I concluded that despite implementation teams often taking much of the blame, many projects failed because of decisions made before the implementation even started. This realisation led me to create a 'Phase 0 for Digital HR' consulting approach—focussed on HR technology roadmaps, vendor selection, business cases and implementation readiness.
Working for a major consultancy, I found it hard to give genuinely agnostic advice due to the influence of vendor relationships and the overriding objective of selling more implementation services.
It wasn't until a spell as an Enterprise Architect on 'the client side' that I realised how valuable truly unbiased guidance is at the critical Phase 0 stage—and how difficult it is to find. Also, while many organisations understand the basics of how to evaluate vendors, few understand the intricacies of the process or have a reliable methodology to follow.
Some years later, after more research and practice, I decided to share the many lessons learned and successful techniques in an approach that I've called the SelectionWise methodology. My aim is to empower organisations with the knowledge and tools to navigate the crucial early stages of HR technology projects, setting them up for long-term success.