How we score. And why we won't take vendor money.
Every shortlist Nova produces is auditable. If a CFO asks why a vendor scored 85 and another 55, you can answer to the dimension, the weight, and the underlying evidence.
Eleven fit dimensions, eight capability axes
Our engine scores fit against eleven dimensions tuned to your priorities (size, geography, modules, budget, total cost of ownership, stack integrations, implementation speed, support & stability, change burden, expert rating, AI fit). Each vendor card surfaces eight redesigned capability axes — Core HR, Payroll & Compliance, Talent, AI, Integrations, UX, Support, Value — derived from the underlying schema so you can compare strengths visually.
Hard exclusions before scoring, never silently
Vendors that fundamentally cannot fit — wrong geography, no payroll coverage in your data-residency region, an implementation timeline you cannot accept — are excluded before any score is computed. Each exclusion is surfaced with a stated reason on the "considered but excluded" panel, so you see exactly which constraint each vendor fell short on.
Evidence beats marketing
Each dimension is scored against vendor demos, customer reference checks, real-world contract reviews, and (for AI) live capability tests. We score what ships today — not roadmap promises.
Weights flex to your priorities
Default weights reflect Nova's view of what matters for a typical Irish/UK SMB. Your Scorecard answers re-weight live: payroll-heavy team? Compliance jumps. Hiring 200 people next year? Talent jumps.
A confidence band, not a single number
Every match score carries a confidence band. We re-run the scoring under thousands of plausible variations on your weights and surface the spread — a tight ± 3 means the recommendation holds up under small priority changes; a wider ± 8 means the choice is sensitive to how you ranked your priorities. Where one vendor wins clearly, we show "top in N% of scenarios" so you know how robust the call is.
AI is a substance score, not a buzzword
We catalogue every AI feature each vendor ships — generally available, beta, or roadmap; included or add-on; and size-relevant or not. GA features score; roadmap promises score zero. The catalogue is reviewed against vendor releases as new capabilities ship.
No vendor pays to rank
Nova is paid by the buyer, never the seller. Vendors cannot pay to be added, weighted, or rated. We refuse referral fees from vendors. Independence is the product.
Transparent and auditable
Click any score in your shortlist and see the dimension, the weight, the underlying evidence, and the rationale. Export to PDF. Take it to your board. We will defend it line-by-line on a call if asked.
What each dimension actually measures.
Every vendor in the catalogue is scored across all eleven; the weight on each is set by your Scorecard answers.
Size fit
How well your headcount sits inside the vendor's sweet spot. A 60-person buyer evaluating an enterprise platform scores low here; a 200-person buyer evaluating a modern mid-market tool scores high.
Geography & payroll fit
Whether the vendor operates in your geographies and whether they own native payroll in the regions where your people are paid. Native UK/IE payroll for an Irish buyer scores higher than partner-routed payroll.
Module coverage
For each HR module you need (core HR, recruitment, payroll, performance, learning, etc.), whether the vendor delivers it natively, through a partner integration, or not at all. Module fit is the single highest-weight dimension by default — if the vendor doesn't cover what you need, nothing else compensates.
Budget fit
Per-employee, per-month pricing against the band you specified. Vendors fully inside your range score high; those at the edges or partially outside scale down proportionally.
Total cost of ownership
The full multi-year cost view: licence + implementation + integrations + training. A vendor with a low headline price but a six-figure implementation will score lower here than a vendor with the inverse profile.
Stack integrations
How cleanly the vendor connects to the rest of your stack — your finance system, your existing benefits platform, your identity provider, your collaboration tools. Catalogued integration partners get full credit; bespoke API work scores lower.
Implementation speed
Typical time-to-go-live for buyers in your size band. A vendor with a 6–10-week rollout scores higher for "this quarter" timelines; longer rollouts scale down.
Support & stability
Service-level commitments, response times, customer satisfaction signals from real reference calls, and platform stability over the last 24 months. Vendors with public SLAs and named CSMs score higher.
Change burden / UX
How disruptive the rollout will be for your team. Modern, opinionated UX with strong default workflows scores high; anything that needs deep configuration scores lower for change-constrained teams.
Expert rating
A direct rating from the Nova analyst team based on demos, reference calls and live deployments. We score what ships today, not roadmap promises. Unrated vendors are flagged so you can see what we have and have not directly evaluated.
AI capability
Substance, not buzzword. We catalogue every AI feature each vendor ships — generally available vs. beta vs. roadmap, included vs. add-on, size-relevance threshold — and score against your stated AI appetite. A vendor with three GA AI features in your size range scores higher than one with ten roadmap promises.
Our four-phase consulting methodology.
Every Nova engagement follows the same four-phase rhythm — the lens behind the score, applied with stakeholders, system access, and a real read of your operations.
- Phase 01
Discovery & Stakeholder Interviews
Map current state, surface what your people actually do, and align on what good looks like before we score anything.
- Phase 02
System Capability Assessment
Audit every module against your real processes — not the demo script.
- Phase 03
Process Efficiency Analysis
Quantify manual work, integration drag, and the cost of staying put.
- Phase 04
Competitive Benchmarking
Score 40+ vendors against your requirements and your priorities.
Concrete deliverables
HR Systems Diagnostic
A structured assessment of your current state, priorities, and the vendor universe — the same engine that powers this site.
HR Vendor Selection
We run the full bake-off: demo coordination, scoring, reference calls, and contract review.
HRIS Project Management
Implementation oversight from selection through go-live. Change management and adoption baked in.
HR Metrics Dashboard
A read-only view of the metrics that matter — turnover, time-to-fill, comp ratio — wired to your HRIS.
Try it on your own situation.
Around five minutes. Free. No card.