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IBM Kenexa vs Oracle HCM Cloud 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
18th
Ranking in Talent Management
19th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software (10th)
Oracle HCM Cloud
Ranking in Benefits Administration
4th
Ranking in Talent Management
4th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Cloud HCM (4th), HR Analytics Software (1st), Talent Acquisition (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Benefits Administration category, the mindshare of IBM Kenexa is 1.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle HCM Cloud is 4.6%, down from 12.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Benefits Administration Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Oracle HCM Cloud4.6%
IBM Kenexa1.7%
Other93.7%
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.
AanilaNanda - PeerSpot reviewer
Human Resources Intern at a government with 10,001+ employees
Provides unified access to multiple HR functions and reduces navigation effort
I am generally satisfied with the talent management capabilities in Oracle HCM Cloud, but as I mentioned, there are certain pages that really lag sometimes and there are a lot of bugs in talent management. Before, when it had a responsive UI, it was fine, but after it switched to Redwood, I feel there are bugs, and the functionality stated in the documents is not accurate. It takes some time to get that feature, and we need to raise product SR or ask in the community how it works. It's not easily understandable, especially in the talent management area. One potential area of improvement for Oracle HCM Cloud is that it lags. It takes time to reflect the pages, and the loading time now requires us to wait for the page to load. Earlier, we used to click and see the page immediately. However, now we need to wait for it to get loaded, which can be frustrating when working in a fast mode.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"IBM Kenexa is fairly stable, and we don't have any downtime."
"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."
"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."
"Great value and flexibility in an ATS, mainly through the automation and the configuration through Workbench you can do to manipulate the candidate experience to really be something that candidates like and allows them to apply to your site easily and put them in a pipeline for recruiters to access and move through a process and get somebody hired."
"I think one of the biggest benefits that Kenexa brings is the scalability."
"Overall, from a recruiter's perspective, it is an excellent product and is probably one of the best recruitment products out there in terms of usability, ease of understanding, and management of large applicant pools."
"Without this solution, we would have more administrative functions and would need to hire more HR employees."
"It has definitely improved my organization by being able to help the recruiters move candidates through the interview process."
"HCM Cloud's most valuable feature is its ease of use - it's interlinked, so you can drill down into information."
"The best feature of the product is the middleware where it allows you to create a project and all the required and the optional tasks come pre-configured."
"Oracle HCM Cloud adds the latest features on a quarterly basis to the cloud, which makes it very easy for customers to adapt to the new features."
"Job postings and links to job boards are very helpful for talent acquisition."
"The initial setup or implementation process of the solution is fine. The deployment process took place in two days. So, once one has the runbook and everything in place, it is not that difficult."
"It is very user-friendly, and most of the UI is very intuitive so you don't need to follow a course to use it, with one single UI regardless of your roles so you don't have to log into separate applications depending on whether you're HR or just a normal employee."
"It's highly stable because the system is totally managed by Oracle, Oracle provides 99.9% availability for the system uptime."
"It is very user-friendly. Most of the UI is very intuitive so you don't need to follow a course to follow it up."
 

Cons

"It was a little rocky, as they always are, but we went live on time and that's all that matters."
"It needs to update its reporting and analytics tools."
"The reason I’m not rating it with five stars is because of its sheer size."
"Once-a-year engagement kind of seems to be a little bit lagging in terms of how we can actually shape and improve organizations, so I was looking forward to understanding a bit more where IBM Kenexa's thinking is going in terms of pulsing with the employee voice and how that kind of integrates and works with tell-it-as-it-is, and the other two applications we have; it's just too early to know."
"Maybe there's some room for improvement in the functionality around the actual tools that we build with."
"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."
"I would like to have a better and more user-friendly interface."
"We have received some unfavorable feedback regarding Oracle HCM Cloud's performance. This has led us to investigate alternative solutions. In my own experience, I have struggled with the slowness of the cloud assessment and the overwhelming complexity of the software's robust architecture. I have reservations about sharing any positive experiences I may have had with the solution."
"The product is comparably complex to install and deploy properly."
"The user interface, as well as the interfaces between modules, should definitely be enhanced."
"The performance and reaction time can be improved."
"It would be very nice if we were able to roll back transactions from data that was loaded with the data loader."
"One of the challenges that we've discovered is that for some things like report modifications, whenever Oracle provides a new release, they will overlay certain customizations that you have, and then it becomes a real hassle to re-customize for our needs."
"The compensation module needs further automation."
"The interface could be more user friendly."
 

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."
"The solution is quite expensive for small and medium-sized companies."
"The price of Oracle HCM Cloud could improve. However, everyone would like the price of a solution they are using to be less expensive."
"Oracle HCM offers many features at a low price."
"According to the Turkish market, the pricing is a little bit expensive."
"Pricing is largely determined by what is agreed upon."
"I haven't personally dealt with the cost details, but based on client feedback, Oracle HCM Cloud is considered expensive due to additional support costs on top of licensing fees."
"Though I cannot comment on the solution's cost, a fixed cost is involved based on my understanding. The cost multiplies based on the number of users."
"It has a licensing cost. It has a cloud-based subscription, which is quite cheap."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise28
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise33
 

Questions from the Community

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What are the differences between Oracle HCM Cloud and PeopleSoft?
Although both are solutions to manage HR, their differences make each one suitable for different companies. Oracle Cloud HCM is a platform for connecting all human resource processes in your organ...
What do you like most about Oracle HCM Cloud?
The most valuable features of the solution are the core HR, absence, payroll, and recruitment modules.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle HCM Cloud?
I feel the pricing for Oracle HCM Cloud is market competitive; other products are in the same range. Out of ten, I feel it's around six or seven. It's reasonable and not that much.
 

Also Known As

IBM Smarter Workforce, Outstart
Oracle Human Capital Management Cloud
 

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
Kovaion Consulting India Pvt. Ltd., eVerge Group, Kalpataru, Logicalis Inc., Macmillan Science and Education, Drivestream Inc., Kamal Osman Jamjoom Group LLC, WAXIE Sanitary Supply
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Kenexa vs. Oracle HCM Cloud and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
887,041 professionals have used our research since 2012.