So, if the HR technology market has never been more innovative and more capable, and the HR function has never been more important for the success and even the survival of the organization, why are so many HR leaders struggling to secure HR technology budgets? I can think of three likely drivers behind this disconnect.

Business leaders outside of HR have traditionally not equated "people" challenges as "business" challenges. This is true despite the fact that, for most organizations, salary, wages and employee benefits costs represent the largest annual cost item. When HR leaders attempt to make the business case for increased HR technology investments, these investments are often seen as secondary to technology investments that impact customer-facing or operational functions. In other words, the new sales and marketing system trumps a new employee learning and development solution, even if the new L&D tool can actually help employees improve their sales and marketing skills.
This one is really the cause of many of the prioritization challenges I alluded to above: In many organizations, HR is still not a key stakeholder in budgeting and decision-making around overall organizational technology investment. Technology is either "owned" by the CIO or the CFO, or both, to the extent that HR, along with other functions, must come hat-in-hand to beg for increased investment in and allocation to HR systems each year. And, in many cases, HR has more difficulty presenting the kinds of "hard" ROI calculations from HR technology investments that CIOs and CFOs tend to seek out in these budgetary allocation exercises, placing HR at a competitive disadvantage when compared to technology investment alternatives.
HR leaders are often caught up in a cycle that can prevent them from having the time to do the necessary analysis and business-case development for new HR technologies. If the HR organization is constantly tied up in day-to-day and very reactive behavior, simply having the internal time and resources to devote to analyzing the fast-growing HR technology market becomes extremely difficult. But this cycle is often caused by not having the best or right HR technology installed that would alleviate many of the day-to-day problems that keep HR so swamped. HR technology projects can typically be medium- and longer-term payoffs, and–in a reactive, "we just need to keep the trains running" environment–such longer-term planning becomes less of a priority.

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