Insights on Corporate Talent, Learning, and HR Technology
Harvard Business Review research shows that 70-90% of corporate acquisitions fail [1], often driven by an unclear strategy, lack of culture alignment, or poor execution on business integration. When SAP announced the acquisition of SuccessFactors in December of 2011, one could have expected a similarly disappointing result.
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Well, over the last five and a half ... Read more»
Last month Saba, a pioneer in the market for enterprise learning and talent management systems, held its annual customer conference (more than 700 learning and HR professionals attended). I had a chance to meet with the management team, talk with many customers and employees, and talk with Saba’s new owners (Vector Capital).
My conclusion, ... Read more»
Today I had a chat with Paul Sparta, the founder of Plateau and one of the key product leaders at SuccessFactors and now SAP. Paul, who’s current title is Chief Integration Officer, shared some important thoughts with me which I felt were worth publishing.
1. As a result of the acquisition, the SuccessFactors ... Read more»
Today SuccessFactors announced the acquisition of Plateau, enabling the company to enter the learning management systems market with a bang. At the same time the company announced Q1 revenue growth of 51% year-to-year, raised its guidance for the year, and announced its first-ever profitable quarter. This is a company with tremendously strong momentum.
Let me ... Read more»
Remember the dot.com bubble of 1995-2000? I do, and it’s back again. But this time it has a new face, it talks about SaaS, highly connected social applications, mobile apps, and talent management software. 
Talent management software? Yes, SaaS-enabled talent management apps have become one of the hottest investment areas in enterprise software.
The proof ... Read more»
The ever-changing market for Learning Management Systems (LMS) continues to evolve. Last year, Taleo, the largest provider of recruiting software, spent $100 million acquiring mid-market LMS vendor Learn.com. The company’s strategy, which we supported in earlier blog posts, is to expand across all elements of the talent management domain and develop an offering which ... Read more»
Today another major shift takes place in the talent management systems market: SumTotal Systems announced the acquisition of GeoLearning.
Background:
SumTotal Systems is the largest provider of learning management systems today (and also a major provider of integrated talent management systems). In our LMS 2011 research we show that before this acquisition SumTotal had ... Read more»
We just returned from the 2010 HR Technology Conference in Chicago, where we met with 30+ solution providers and more than 60 different corporate buyers and implementers of HR technology and solutions. 
We also introduced a preview peek of our 2010-2011 Talent Management Systems Customer Satisfaction research, which is now available to research members.... Read more»
Today a shoe dropped in the Learning Management Systems Market: Taleo announced plans to acquire Learn.com.
Let me discuss this announcement from three perspectives: first, the impact on the market; second, the impact on Taleo and Learn.com customers; and third, the impact on you as a prospective LMS buyer.
(ps. Kenexa also announced the ... Read more»
Over the last five years, one of the fastest markets for enterprise software has been “talent management.” Talent Management Suites, now offered by more than 30 different providers, deliver a set of features and functionality which allow human resources and line managers automate, monitor, plan, and analyze all the “people-related” processes in a company. This ... Read more»
After almost a year of effort we just released our first-ever Talent Management Systems Customer Satisfaction research. We will be publishing this annually, with next year’s results to coincide with the HR Technology Conference in Fall of 2010.
If you are a talent management systems owner, buyer, or vendor I recommend you read this – ... Read more»
For the last two Octobers we have travelled to the HR Technology Conference to see four HR software providers show off their software in the Talent Management Shootout. While the Shootout is a relatively short event at 75 minutes (each vendor gets about a total of 10-15 minutes of demonstration time), there are often as ... Read more»
In the last 60 days I’ve had the opportunity to attend five major industry events which cover corporate learning: user group meetings at Plateau, Saba, SumTotal and Taleo and the HR Technology Conference. While all this travel has taken a toll on my sleep, it did reinforce the tremendous importance of corporate learning technology.
In ... Read more»
Once each year we travel to Chicago to gather with Bill Kutik and dozens of HR vendors to see the latest and greatest technologies applied to human resources.
This year’s conference was as exciting as ever, with many product announcements and exciting innovations to see. Madeline Laurano, our principal analyst in talent acquisition, is ... Read more»
The corporate training industry is undergoing some major changes. Over last few months we have been involved in many discussions with organizations about the tremendous needs to build, manage, and formalize their social and collaborative learning programs. This is being driven by many factors: the slowing economy, the “always-connected” nature of the workforce, and the ... Read more»
