Hibob Competition Analysis Last Edited - April 12, 2016 What is a Zirra Report? Things to Remember While Reading the Report Overview Situation Analysis Key Points Comparison Features Comparison Pricing and Business Model Comparison Ratings Comparison Valuation Comparison Comparative Survey Questions To Be Asked Summary BambooHR breatheHR Cezanne HR CharlieHR CIPHR Helm Godfrey Partners IRIS Software Group Kin Kronos Incorporated Maxwell Health Namely NorthgateArinos HR (NGA HR) Peninsula Business Services PeopleHR Sage SMB Staff Squared SutiHR Workable Workday Youmanage Zenefits Industry Coverage Industry Related Presentations Quotes What is a Zirra Report? The Zirra Analysis Report is synthesized from many inputs. Of these, most notable are the wisdom of the crowd, the output of aggregation and data collection technology, and the ratings and metrics produced by our proprietary algorithms. The report is built on external and public information on a company, and provides insights and conclusions obtained from that information. None of the opinions or insights belong to any Zirra employee. All of them are grounded in the integration of a variety of sources. Some statements may sound opinionated, but these are the composite of relevant inputs and crowd opinions, vetted against similar historical situations of comparable companies. Things to Remember While Reading the Report (a) We use no inside information at all. Information offered in the report that is usually non-public by nature, such as revenue figures, trade secrets, share structures, and others, may be missing or somewhat inaccurate in the report. In some cases, such as with valuations, the numbers are generated by our algorithmic models. (b) We do get help from industry experts. We factor their opinions into the algorithm as well as into the qualitative sections. Experts that speak on the record are usually accessible for further questions. Some experts choose to stay anonymous, and in these cases we can provide detailed logs of their contributions (that still maintain their anonymity). (c) Mathematical figures such as ratings and valuations are based on our proprietary algorithms. The intended purpose is as a benchmark for your own process; we cannot “prove” the validity of these outputs. (d) In the second half of the report we provide a lot of raw collected data. This is what our aggregation and collection technology has gathered and flagged as important for the company in question. We provide it as the factual basis for the synthesized statements in the report, and for you to do further analysis on if you wish. (e) A key benefit we provide is identifying the questions you should ask the company. Our clients have found these to be extremely helpful in getting information in a pinpointed and effective manner. Most of these questions are derived by us asking experts for the questions they themselves ask. (f) Another key benefit is the lists of possible risks and success factors. These are similarly derived and also extremely useful in the conversations with the company. (g) We do not employ analysts. We strive to produce a report that is in plain English. Our writers collate data, write according to a specification, and validate that the findings are accurate. Finally, we do not recommend whether or not to invest. Our duty is to help you perform your job better. We pride ourselves on bringing transparency to our customers. Similarly, we encourage you to always be transparent, open, and candid with us. Overview Hibob is entering a crowded and highly competitive market. Zirra analyzed the company’s most direct competitors as well as the market leaders in the UK and the US in order to see the current situation in the HR solutions industry, including BambooHR, breatheHR, Cascade HR (acquired by Iris Software Group) ,Cezanne HR, Charlie, Ciphr, hronline (acquired by Peninsula Business Services), Helm Godfrey Partners, Kin, Kronos Incorporated, Maxwell Health, MoorePay (acquired by Northgate), Namely, People HR, Sage, Simply Personnel (acquired by Peninsula Business Services), SMB, Staff Squared, SutiHR, Workable, Workday, Youmanage HR, and Zenefits. In addition to the companies provided by Hibob, we found BrightHR, Gusto, and TribeHR as additional competitors. Most of these companies’ offerings operate completely in the cloud, or give customers the option to choose between a web based platform and traditional installation, with only one of the competitors analyzed (Sage) requiring installation. In addition, the majority of the platforms offered are highly scalable and can be easily adapted to a wide range of companies’ sizes. Reporting is the second most offered feature, followed by Onboarding/Offboarding and File Repository. The least common analyzed feature was the External benefit gateway. While companies do address this feature (particularly by following the trend set by Zenefits) it isn’t a commoditized feature yet. When taking a look at the origin of the companies, many founders have acknowledged that they came up with the idea of their HR service after seeing the struggles of the HR department on the company they worked on, or spending a lot of money on contracting professional HR services for their own companies; pointing to an actual need of the audience. However, the global similarities among the competitors analyzed finish here: the newest company (Charlie) was founded in 2015, while the eldest (MoorePay) goes all the way back to 1966; the smallest companies have fewer than 10 workers (Charlie, Kin, SMB, and Youmanage), against 10,000+ for the biggest (Sage); and monthly traffic ranges between 15,866 (Cascade) and 2,663,365 (Workable). As for funding, Zenefits seems to have the deeper pockets with $583.6M raised to date, but this information could not be contrasted as most of the companies analyzed have chosen to not discuss their funding publicly. Situation Analysis The HR SaaS market has experienced a massive surge over the last five years due to technological and market changes. The emergence of cloud technology has been seen as a boon to the software industry in general and HR software is no exception. The ease with which a company can now transfer data and deploy new software has created a lot of space for startups to compete with established enterprises such as Kronos and ADP. Further, it has made software more realistic for small and medium sized businesses who are looking for the same efficiency that larger companies have enjoyed in a scalable and affordable way. HR software is a multibillion dollar industry, with more than $10 billion spent annually, and businesses with less than 250 employees now accounting for 60% of those shopping for solutions. Competition has stepped into serving this sector with the help of eager investors and this has resulted in further trends in the market. One is that what the consumer companies expect as a basic standard product is growing beyond maintaining employee details and timecards. Features that rank important in surveys of HR professionals are personnel tracking, enhanced recruiting tools and excellent security and encryption features. Further, analytics has enabled a new scale of reporting that can help HR teams manage the company and employees more effectively and the sophistication of this feature can vary widely in quality. Other enhancements that are commonplace include training, talent management and features that can remain up to date with regulations and compliance issues in the relevant fields. Technological competition has also resulted in price competition. Startups have disrupted the market with plans priced for small businesses and even free and ​ ​ freemium software. On both technology and price, the companies, established and new, must have an edge to show in the crowded and competitive market. Because of the dynamics between established public companies, like SAP and Oracle, and the numerous startups, there are some lucrative end-game options for startups, other than an IPO. The first is acquisition. Established software companies aren’t just looking to acquire from a competition standpoint, they are also looking to acquire the technology that helps them stay on top of the demand for “end-to-end” solutions by enlarging their offering, especially in the small business sector. Another windfall can come in the form of a partnership, which has the same basic goal. Regardless of the path, in order to succeed, young companies in the market must develop a strong differentiating factor beyond traditional core products and revenue channels. Using the freemium model, where premium software features are available for purchase, is one way new companies are trying to entice subscribers. Zenefits is famous for taking a value add approach that offers core HR software for free but makes money selling employee benefits. Health and life insurance, as well as pension and investment plans, are lucrative markets that often pass through employers and require the personal information the HR department already has on hand. A new UK startup, CharlieHR, is pursuing this freemium track and using an opportunity created by a 2012 UK law requiring auto-enrollment in pensions that is going into effect for small businesses in 2016. Their businesses strategy is that their free software will make the company an easy gateway through which small companies can source these pension plans for their employees. Hibob’s website lists pension, cash plan, private medical and other insurances as part of its otherwise standard offering so