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IBM Kenexa vs MHR iTrent comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
12th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Talent Management (16th), Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software (6th)
MHR iTrent
Ranking in Benefits Administration
22nd
Average Rating
4.6
Reviews Sentiment
4.3
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Cloud HCM (23rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Benefits Administration category, the mindshare of IBM Kenexa is 2.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MHR iTrent is 1.4%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Benefits Administration Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Kenexa2.0%
MHR iTrent1.4%
Other96.6%
Benefits Administration
 

Featured Reviews

Karan Grover - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
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.
reviewer2215695 - PeerSpot reviewer
NA at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
A scalable solution with good functionalities, but customer support needs to improve
Customer support and getting help from MHR iTrent are not great at all. MHR iTrent concentrates too much on sales, like a selling mechanism. They don't concentrate on helping their existing clients get the most out of the solution. All they're interested in is selling you something else to add on.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I think one of the biggest benefits that Kenexa brings is the scalability."
"The most important features are that the instrument can be customized, that we can get important and relevant data about our employees, and the responsiveness of our client team from IBM has been phenomenal."
"I just think it's a good tool, with great flexibility."
"The ease of scaling is one of BrassRing's biggest strengths, making it a trusted choice for large companies."
"The ability now to be able to take data, load it yourself, ask the business questions and get the answers on your own process with the business just made it a lot faster, and the cognitive solution gives us some insights for us to think about."
"I would say the support that we get from the CSMs is the most valuable for me right now, because I'm still leaning on them pretty heavily to understand everything that I'm doing within the system."
"From everything I’ve seen and heard, I would think Kenxea is probably one of the top three, if not the best, in the business that they do and the things that we use them for."
"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 retrospection feature within iTrent is really good and better than what some other software provides. It's really useful."
"MHR iTrent's functionality and the payroll part are good."
 

Cons

"Improvements can be made from the back end, with the workbench."
"There were functions we couldn't customize and needed to."
"I would say that it could likely be made slightly easier to consume and work with - less scientific or engineering oriented - but IBM Kenexa Talent Insights is about the most powerful and useful tool I've seen."
"My rating is not higher because of the support, honestly; the global service center model."
"If you happen to be an early adopter of enhancements, it can be a frustrating process, as it is hard to decipher together with their support whether an issue is a bug or working as intended (a change in the way something works)."
"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."
"The reporting feature currently is our biggest struggle point; getting the data we need and in the fashion that we need it is a current struggle point for us."
"It was a little rocky, as they always are, but we went live on time and that's all that matters."
"MHR's customer service needs to improve. It's dreadful at the moment. They're not very customer-focused."
"Customer support and getting help from MHR iTrent are not great at all."
 

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."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Construction Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Comms Service Provider
14%
Retailer
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise28
No data available
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

IBM Smarter Workforce, Outstart
MidlandHR iTrent, iTrent
 

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
Brighton and Hove City Council, Cafcass, Capel Manor College, Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS, City and Islington College, City West Housing, Coventry University, Denbighshire County Council, Dudley College, Dyfed Powys Police Force, East Durham College
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Kenexa vs. MHR iTrent and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.