In the early nineties I was and SQL programmer in a market dominated by companies like Oracle and Informix. At the time these database companies stuck to their core competency. Fast forward a few decades and Oracle sells software in virtually every space. Moreover they are a revenue generating machine as they have gobbled up so many companies; there are few other choices in the market. This in-turn has allowed the company to raise maintenance costs nicely over the years.<\/p>\n
Marc Benioff having worked at Oracle realizes how successful the model of owning a software ecosystem is. Sure there is AppExchange<\/a> but Salesforce realizes owning much of the ecosystem is even better as you have more control. Moreover, not all the successful apps live on AppExchange.<\/p>\n Today the company has extended its ecosystem of cloud-based solutions with its purchase of cloud-based HR company Rypple for what they say<\/a> is the first step toward human capital management for the social enterprise.<\/p>\n And how’s this for a marque customer – Facebook reviews<\/a> its employees using Rypple.<\/p>\n The new HCM business unit, including Successforce, will be led by John Wookey, salesforce.com’s executive vice president of advanced applications. Wookey came to Salesforce.com with more than 20 years of experience in senior leadership at Oracle and SAP.<\/p>\n This follows recent news that the acquisition of social listening company Radian6 has resulted in<\/a> creating the company’s social marketing cloud offering.<\/p>\n At this rate it is worth noting the company will butt heads with Google who also wants to be a major player in the cloud-based application space. I would be surprised if Google isn’t considering purchasing Salesforce… Then again they have collaborated closely for years, it is unclear to me other than recent Salesforce momentum from what the M&A catalyst would be.<\/p>\n