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IBM Kenexa vs Oracle Taleo comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Kenexa
Ranking in Benefits Administration
14th
Ranking in Talent Management
21st
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software (16th)
Oracle Taleo
Ranking in Benefits Administration
9th
Ranking in Talent Management
11th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Benefits Administration category, the mindshare of IBM Kenexa is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Taleo is 2.8%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Benefits Administration
 

Featured Reviews

Karan Grover - PeerSpot reviewer
Suitable for larger-scale companies aiming to streamline and automate their processes digitally
The deployment of the solution took between six to eight months. When we introduced BrassRing at my company, we encountered several challenges. First, moving data from our old system to BrassRing was tough because it needed reformatting. Second, connecting BrassRing with our HR data was tricky due to manual processes for roles and departments. Third, setting up the workflow in BrassRing was complex. Fourth, configuring user access and approval levels was a detailed task. We also had to manage the change process, including running both old and new systems in parallel, communicating changes, and training users. Lastly, monitoring and reporting were needed to ensure data accuracy and proper system usage once everything was in place. We had a team of six to eight people managing the project from our side during the BrassRing deployment. I'm not sure about the size of the BrassRing team, and we also had our own technical team, which had three to four members. The solution required maintenance, particularly from my side as the administrator. Maintenance responsibilities were divided into two parts: some tasks we, as end-users, could control, while others were the responsibility of the BrassRing team. Payment-related tasks were a regular part of our responsibilities. I wasn't the only person maintaining the solution. There were three power users from Infosys, each responsible for a specific geography. My counterpart managed it in the US, and I, along with my colleague in India, managed it for other geographies.
Prasan Edirisinghe - PeerSpot reviewer
Industry-standard stack enables better load handling for large-scale companies
With Taleo, I experience two limitations. First, it only supports soft calls with a daily limit, which is a concern. The other limitation is that it feels outdated, and I cannot compare certain things or implement some automations that require a lot of manual intervention when initiating, generating, and calculating offers.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable features are that we can upload documents and download them on demand."
"IBM Kenexa is fairly stable. We don't have any downtime."
"It is extremely user friendly. It is very flexible in managing recruitment, especially when you have thousands of applicants as we did. We easily had over 20,000 applicants within a year for some of our positions, so it made it very easy to manage a large application pool. It was very easy to customize by recruiter preference. When you open up someone's profile to see their experience, education, or other things, you can customize that for yourself. It was flexible in that, and each recruiter could set up their preferences. It didn't have to be set up so that everyone had to have the same landing platform, which was very helpful. As someone who trained other HR people on how to use the system, it was very easy to pick up and learn."
"The ease of scaling is one of BrassRing's biggest strengths, making it a trusted choice for large companies."
"Oracle Taleo's integration capabilities are good."
"Oracle Taleo's integration capabilities are good."
"The solution offers good benefits for administrators."
"The solution's most valuable features are the OCR, single source of truth, and simplicity of the workflows."
"Performance and goal management are good to have, based on certain client requirements where the user base isn't too large, but the most workable domain of Taleo is the recruiting module."
"The advantage I see is the presence of the industrial Taleo stack, which is beneficial for large-scale companies handling a higher load."
"The Talent Acquisition and Headhunting features are good."
"The product remains stable, and Oracle is investing further to improve and enhance it."
 

Cons

"The reporting tool is helpful, but it is not the easiest to train on or is not as understandable for other HR pros. Their Workbench site, which is the administrator site that you use to update your website, is not user-friendly. When updates are required, it is not that easy to manage because Workbench is not user friendly. It required more work from the admins. They have Workbench training, which actually was very unhelpful. It took eight hours to complete, and it was not very helpful. Their customer service when it comes specifically to their Workbench site is not helpful."
"I would like to have a better and more user-friendly interface."
"I would not recommend IBM Kenexa to others."
"It needs to update its reporting and analytics tools."
"There are always going to be little caveats here and there that you might not have known about as far as changes are concerned, however, it's not business-oriented to the point where the business shuts down."
"I don't see very valuable features in this product because it has an old way of interpreting ATS. It should be more flexible in managing datasets and data searches. The screening data is a long process in Taleo."
"The product was not very sophisticated in terms of what it could do."
"Lacks some systems that we need."
"The bulk recruitment feature does not work well."
"The pricing could be improved."
"It only supports soft calls with a daily limit, which is a concern."
"Oracle Taleo felt a bit outdated, and we didn't use it for every step of the candidate process. We mainly used it to track job IDs, create job requisitions, and add candidates when making an offer. It wasn't very user-friendly for moving candidates through different stages of the recruitment lifecycle."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Kenexa was fairly priced. However, in 2019, before I left my previous organization, they significantly increased their pricing. It can be affordable, but their pricing is going up. It is not just licensing; it is how many applicants you have in your system on the database side."
"Oracle Taleo is an expensive solution."
"Whether you pay annually or on some other payment schedule depends on the license model you choose. Typically, clients pay a yearly subscription."
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842,466 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Comms Service Provider
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Kenexa?
The ease of scaling is one of BrassRing's biggest strengths, making it a trusted choice for large companies.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Kenexa?
As a large company, we first bought the complete BrassRing package, which had various features. Later on, we paid extra for specific features like customer test management. When we integrated with ...
What needs improvement with IBM Kenexa?
BrassRing needs improvement in a few areas. First, it should update how it tracks where candidates come from and avoid duplicate entries. Right now, it is not very flexible. Also, its way of making...
What needs improvement with Oracle Taleo?
It would be beneficial if Oracle Taleo included AI-based CV screening, rather than just keyword matches. This would enhance the precision of candidate selection. Additionally, no-code automation fo...
What is your primary use case for Oracle Taleo?
As an HR professional focused on talent acquisition, I primarily use Oracle Taleo for managing the talent side and hiring processes. I explore Oracle Taleo's capabilities as part of my assignments ...
What advice do you have for others considering Oracle Taleo?
I would rate Oracle Taleo a seven out of ten. Oracle Taleo is more suitable for a bigger SME size business, whereas start-ups and enterprises might find other tools to offer better customization an...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

IBM Smarter Workforce, Outstart
Taleo, SonicRecruit
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Sweet Spot International (SSI), Leo Burnett Worldwide (LBW), Sika AG, Legacy Health, Apollo Group Inc., Regeneron, Transurban Group, National Health Service, New Zealand Police, Overland Footwear, Yealands, Johnson Controls, Allscripts, Kerry Foods, Masterpet, AMD, Balfour Beatty
ICA Fluor, Monsanto Company, Hitachi Consulting, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, Kalpataru Ltd, DELL Inc., JSR Micro Inc., Skanska AB, Acciona, Baloise Group, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, Logicalis Inc., Garmin International, Intuit Inc, The Dow Chemical Company
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Kenexa vs. Oracle Taleo and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,466 professionals have used our research since 2012.