Elearning! Magazine: Building Smarter Companies via Learning & Workplace Technologies.
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News Salesforce.com into HCM Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing company, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Rypple, a cloud- based social performance management company. Salesforce.com plans to re-launch Rypple as "Successforce" and create a new HCM business unit, which will be run by John Wookey. The transaction is expected to close in salesforce.com's fiscal first quarter ending April 30. "Salesforce.com and Rypple share a vision for extending the social enterprise to transform the way we work," says Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com. "The next generation of HCM is not just about a cloud delivery model, it's about a fundamentally better way to recruit, manage and empower employees in a social world." Social enterprises and progressive HR lead- ers are embracing apps like Rypple, which focus on the inherent social nature of perform- ance management — goal setting, feedback, recognition and continuous dialogue — to help employees align more effectively around the company mission. In the future, Salesforce/Successforce plans to expand into other areas with a new social model that will revolutionize the way companies recruit talent, build teams, empower employees and achieve results. Deals JIVE SOFTWARE, INC., offered its initial public offering of about 13.4 million shares of its com- mon stock at a price to the pub- lic of $12.00 per share. The shares are trading on The NAS- DAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "JIVE." Morgan Stanley & Co. L.L.C. and Goldman, Sachs & Co. are acting as lead book-running managers for the offering, and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and U.B.S. Securities L.L.C. are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. B.M.O. Capital Markets Corp. and Wells Fargo Securities L.L.C. are acting as co-man- agers. Since its IPO, its price has fluctuated between $12.00 and $16.86 per share. BLUEVOLT and Parr Lumber have launched the Parr Training Center e-learning university. The training center is part of the com- pany's overall training and man- agement development program, 10 January / February 2012 Elearning! which ensures managers and staff have the skills and tech- niques needed to drive business growth and improvement and perform their best. As an incen- tive to complete courses in such areas as safety, equipment, oper- ational procedures, sales and product knowledge, Parr employ- ees can earn $BlueBucks that they can redeem for gift cards at hundreds of retailers nationwide, the purchase of future courses, or donate to charity. CERTPOINT SYSTEMS is pro- viding its CertPointVLS learning management system to hotel and casino operator Sun International. Sun International operates in several countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Chile. With a press of a button, busi- ness managers can now have information on what training their subordinates have done and what still needs to be com- pleted, especially compliance training for new staff members. The International Association for the Study of Obesity (I.A.S.O.) has adopted INMEDIUS'S Generation21 Learning Suite to disseminate evidence-based e- learning resources to health pro- fessionals globally. An umbrella organization of member groups from over 50 countries, the I.A.S.O. represents scientists, medical and health professionals working in the field of obesity research, clinical management and education. The Generation21 Learning Suite will enable the I.A.S.O. to reach health practi- tioners in regions and communi- ties where obesity is increasing at a significant rate and educa- tional resources are limited. After implementing the MERIDIAN GLOBAL learning management system last spring, Money Management International (M.M.I.), America's largest non-profit, full-service credit counseling agency, has added an array of online educa- tion courses to its line-up of instructor-led classes for man- aging personal finance. Since April, the Meridian LMS, which distributes and tracks education via the Internet, has delivered M.M.I. clients a list of online courses covering topics such as budgeting, financial goal-setting and managing credit. ProMedica, a health-care provider in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, has cho- sen HRSMART as its partner for talent management soft- ware as a service provider. With nearly 14,000 employees and volunteers, ProMedica chose HRsmart for its perform- ance, price and delivery. Its tal- ent management technology also works with the existing HRIS. The system's flexibility and user interface also were key factors. SAP Buys SuccessFactors It's no small bit of change that German software giant SAP shelled out for SuccessFactors just before the Christmas holi- days: $3.4 billion. Analysts contend the price is very high, but it's a wise deci- sion by SAP. According to a Reuters report, D.Z. Bank analyst Oliver Finger says that "SuccessFactors could be a very good strategic fit for SAP in the cloud sector." SAP is paying $40 a share for SuccessFactors, a U.S. Web- based services company. That's a 52 percent premium. "We think it's the right price. What we've seen in the past is [that] SAP has been pursuing positions where synergies come from the top line, and we see that happening here as well," SAP co-CEO Jim Hagemann-Snabe. "The depth and experience that SAP brings to customers via our cloud and on-premise portfolio fit elegantly with SuccessFactors' world-class expertise in providing high-per- forming, low-cost, native cloud applications that customers are passionate about," says SAP Hagemann-Snabe. "Together, we will lead the industry in providing end-to-end solutions consistently to meet any deployment preference, whether on premise, in the cloud, or on device." The deal can help SAP catch up with rivals — including Oracle — in cloud computing. Oracle purchased RightNow Technologies in October. While Oracle paid about 5.5 times RightNow's forecast 2012 rev- enues, SAP is paying about eight times that for SuccessFactors' forecast 2012 revenues.