Insights on Corporate Talent, Learning, and HR Technology
The term SaaS (Software as a Service) has become a hot topic among HR and L&D software providers. In fact, many of the HR software buyers use stories about their “SaaS-iness” as their major selling points.
To try to help demistify this topic, I’d like to take some time to explain what SaaS means to ... Read more»
Even in this year’s terrible economy, the Talent Management Software market continues to show signs of life. We estimate this important market will reach around $2.4 Billion by the end of 2009 and continues to grow in size and importance.
How the Talent Management Software Market is Expanding
This week we met with the head of L&D from a large financial services institution. This company, like many others, has just completed a wrenching reorganization and redesign of its global learning organization to save money. In this particular case the company is also integrating the L&D teams from several acquired companies.
(I know this ... Read more»
Over the last year or so we have talked with hundreds of companies about their desire to transform their corporate training programs to take advantage of social networking, knowledge management, communities of practice, and better models of blended learning. As we studied dozens of high performing training programs through our Learning Leaders® program, we ... Read more»
The LMS market continues to heat up as two private equity firms bid for SumTotal Systems. 
This week Vista Equity Partners upped its bid to $4.75 a share (up from $3.80 several weeks ago), bringing SumTotal’s market capitalization to over $150 Million. (This is nearly twice the market cap of Saba, who’s revenues are ... Read more»
A 
very important partnership was announced today: IBM announced a major commitment to Saba as its primary learning management technology partner.
Background on IBM’s Learning Platform Business:
IBM has been in the corporate learning market for many years. In the 1980’s, the company offered a wide range of corporate training tools and systems, including PC ... Read more»
We have been carefully looking at the Talent Management Software market over the last few weeks, and the first quarter of 2009 was a bit of a disaster. The market for performance and succession management software, which we believe finished 2008 around $520M in size and is expected to grow to $655M in 2009, had ... Read more»
There is now a little bidding war going on for SumTotal Systems. ACCEL-KKR, a private equity firm, outbid Vista Equity Partners by offering approximately $124 Million for the company. This bid is approximately 20% higher than the $103 Million offer which Vista extended in early April.
This is a very positive thing – ... Read more»
Today, at our IMPACT 2009 Research Conference, we released our 2009 Learning Management Systems research which details the pivotal changes taking place in the market for corporate learning platforms. This market has grown to $817 Million (projected for 2009) and continues to grow despite the economic downturn. Some of the highlights of our research include:... Read more»
Today was a very important day in the world of corporate learning and talent management systems.
Vista Equity Partners, a mid-sized private equity firm, announced a proposal to acquire SumTotal Systems, the largest independent provider of LMS software, and one of the pioneers in this industry.
Typically such transitions occur because the shareholders have ... Read more»
Whew. Earlier this year we embarked on a major research effort to understand the growing role of social networking in enterprise learning and talent management. The results are amazing. Let me give you a brief preview of some of our initial findings:
As we read more and more about talent management suites and the rapid growth in the market for integrated HR software, what has happened to the market for learning management systems? I’d like to provide our readers a brief update, with more details available in our research library.
1. The LMS market continues to grow.... Read more»
For many years the corporate learning market has struggled with the issue of content management. Training programs create many forms of content: powerpoint slides, checklists, job aids, video, audio, as well as the massive amount of content provided by e-learning, including HTML pages, Flash objects, assessments, audio, video, interactivities, blog entries, and more.
As more ... Read more»
Much has been written in the last few years about “informal learning” and the need for a culture of learning in organizations. We know from our research that today’s tight labor market and the changing demographics of the workforce are creating an even greater and greater need for a new model. Let me discuss our ... Read more»
The Quandry of Selecting Learning Management Systems
After many years as an analyst in this market, learning management systems continue to amaze me. They are like chameleons – continuously changing and morphing to survive as corporate learning and software markets evolve. We have seen four big phases over the last 10 years: first as back-office ... Read more»
