Not content to shake up the CRM market alone, Salesforce.com is moving into a new social-software sector with its latest acquisition. Salesforce has acquired Rypple, a cloud -based social-performance management company, for an undisclosed amount.
With the Rypple assets and talent, Salesforce is entering the human capital management market for the social enterprise . Salesforce will relaunch Rypple as Successforce and create a new HCM division run by John Wookey, executive vice president of advanced applications at Salesforce. The company expects Rypple's tech to also bolster the value of its core products.
"As we developed Chatter, we started thinking more about how we could deploy the concept of social-networking platforms to different business processes and how it could have a huge potential impact on outcomes of those business processes," Wookey said. "The opportunity with Rypple was serendipitous."
A Social-Goals Revolution
The rumblings of a HCM software shakeup have been getting louder over the past couple of years as companies like WorkSimple and Rypple emerged on the scene with social-goals platforms. Traditional HCM software was designed for a generation of workers 30 years ago when the goal was reducing the cost and risk of employing people.
Salesforce believes the modern workforce demands new performance and leadership tools that are completely transparent and allow employees to be connected to their company's mission and each other. Apps from Rypple and WorkSimple, among others, allow for goal setting, feedback, recognition and continuous dialog to help employees align more effectively around the company mission.
"We took the science of team performance and applied the collaborative, transparent, and real-time power of social networks to create a completely new model for managing people and the work they deliver," said David Stein, co-CEO and co-founder of Rypple. "Salesforce.com gives us the opportunity to apply our expertise and extend our vision for Rypple with Successforce."
Mission-Critical Human Capital
Wookey expects the Rypple acquisition to drive Salesforce.com's suite of social products. The company plans to embed some of Rypple's next-generation features into its existing products. For example, people will be able to thank colleagues, win badges and provide recognition -- all from within Salesforce Chatter. And customers of core Salesforce products -- the Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Force.com platform -- will be able to connect with new employee feedback tools to help drive business goals and power the future of their employee social networks.
"We had always planned to begin with the business processes that are most critical, which are you onboard and manage employees in a way that aligns what they do every day with the objectives of your company and the mission of the enterprise," Wookey said. "Rypple has credibility with enough customers, and a proven model that works, as well as a team of people who understand the HCM space."
martes, 3 de enero de 2012
Oracle Misfires in Fiscal 2Q, Raising Tech Worries
Oracle stumbled in its latest quarter as the business software maker struggled to close deals, a signal of possible trouble ahead for the technology sector.
The performance announced Tuesday covered a period of economic turbulence which has raised concerns that major companies and government agencies may curtail technology spending.
Oracle's results for the three months ending in November suggested the cutbacks have already started. Management reinforced that perception with a forecast calling for meager growth in the current quarter, which ends in February. The developments alarmed investors, causing Oracle Corp. shares to slide 10 percent.
In a telling sign of weakening demand, Oracle's sales of new software licenses edged up just 2 percent from the same time last year. Analysts had expected a double-digit gain in new software licenses. The company had predicted an increase of at least 6 percent and as much as 16 percent.
Wall Street focuses on this part of the business because selling new software products generates a stream of future revenue from maintenance and upgrades.
Oracle's software is a staple in companies and government agencies throughout the world. Its database products help companies store and manage information . Its line of applications automates a wide range of administrative tasks.
Part of the problem was that technology decision makers delayed signing contracts during the final few days of the quarter, according to Safra Catz, Oracle's chief financial officer. That could be an indication that companies and financially strapped government agencies are treading more carefully as Europe's debt problems threaten to hobble a still-fragile global economy.
"Clearly, this quarter was not what we thought it would be," Catz told analysts during a Tuesday conference call. She said the company is hoping some of the deals that were postponed in the last quarter will be completed within the next two months.
Oracle's weakest markets were in the U.S., Europe and Japan.
Things looked even bleaker in Oracle's computer hardware division, which the company has been trying to build since buying fallen Silicon Valley star Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion last year. Oracle's hardware revenue dropped 10 percent from the same time last year
Oracle earned $2.2 billion, or 43 cents per share, in its fiscal second quarter. That was a 17 percent increase from net income of $1.9 billion, or 37 cents per share at the same time last year.
If not for certain items, Oracle said it would have earned 54 cents per share. That figure fell below the average estimate of 57 cents per share among analysts polled by FactSet.
Revenue for the period edged up 2 percent from last year to $8.8 billion. Analysts, on average, had projected revenue of $9.2 billion.
In the current quarter, Oracle expects its adjusted earnings per share to range from 55 cents to 58 cents -- below the average analyst estimate of 59 cents per share. Revenue is expected to rise by 2 percent to 5 percent from the same time in the previous year. If Oracle hits that top end of that target, it would translate to revenue of about $9.2 billion -- below the analyst estimate of $9.4 billion, according to FactSet.
Oracle has expanded its sales force by about 1,700 people to fish for more customers during the second half of its fiscal year. About 111,000 employees worked at Oracle as of Nov. 30.
The company's shares shed $2.91 to hit $26.26 in extended trading after the second-quarter figures were released. The stock has been sagging since hitting $36.50 in May.
In an effort to bolster the stock, Oracle announced it will spend an additional $5 billion to buy back its shares. The company, which is based in Redwood Shores, Calif., didn't set a timetable to complete the stock purchases. Oracle spent about $1 billion buying 33 million shares in its most recent quarter.
The performance announced Tuesday covered a period of economic turbulence which has raised concerns that major companies and government agencies may curtail technology spending.
Oracle's results for the three months ending in November suggested the cutbacks have already started. Management reinforced that perception with a forecast calling for meager growth in the current quarter, which ends in February. The developments alarmed investors, causing Oracle Corp. shares to slide 10 percent.
In a telling sign of weakening demand, Oracle's sales of new software licenses edged up just 2 percent from the same time last year. Analysts had expected a double-digit gain in new software licenses. The company had predicted an increase of at least 6 percent and as much as 16 percent.
Wall Street focuses on this part of the business because selling new software products generates a stream of future revenue from maintenance and upgrades.
Oracle's software is a staple in companies and government agencies throughout the world. Its database products help companies store and manage information . Its line of applications automates a wide range of administrative tasks.
Part of the problem was that technology decision makers delayed signing contracts during the final few days of the quarter, according to Safra Catz, Oracle's chief financial officer. That could be an indication that companies and financially strapped government agencies are treading more carefully as Europe's debt problems threaten to hobble a still-fragile global economy.
"Clearly, this quarter was not what we thought it would be," Catz told analysts during a Tuesday conference call. She said the company is hoping some of the deals that were postponed in the last quarter will be completed within the next two months.
Oracle's weakest markets were in the U.S., Europe and Japan.
Things looked even bleaker in Oracle's computer hardware division, which the company has been trying to build since buying fallen Silicon Valley star Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion last year. Oracle's hardware revenue dropped 10 percent from the same time last year
Oracle earned $2.2 billion, or 43 cents per share, in its fiscal second quarter. That was a 17 percent increase from net income of $1.9 billion, or 37 cents per share at the same time last year.
If not for certain items, Oracle said it would have earned 54 cents per share. That figure fell below the average estimate of 57 cents per share among analysts polled by FactSet.
Revenue for the period edged up 2 percent from last year to $8.8 billion. Analysts, on average, had projected revenue of $9.2 billion.
In the current quarter, Oracle expects its adjusted earnings per share to range from 55 cents to 58 cents -- below the average analyst estimate of 59 cents per share. Revenue is expected to rise by 2 percent to 5 percent from the same time in the previous year. If Oracle hits that top end of that target, it would translate to revenue of about $9.2 billion -- below the analyst estimate of $9.4 billion, according to FactSet.
Oracle has expanded its sales force by about 1,700 people to fish for more customers during the second half of its fiscal year. About 111,000 employees worked at Oracle as of Nov. 30.
The company's shares shed $2.91 to hit $26.26 in extended trading after the second-quarter figures were released. The stock has been sagging since hitting $36.50 in May.
In an effort to bolster the stock, Oracle announced it will spend an additional $5 billion to buy back its shares. The company, which is based in Redwood Shores, Calif., didn't set a timetable to complete the stock purchases. Oracle spent about $1 billion buying 33 million shares in its most recent quarter.
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