Salesforce.com entered the human capital management fray with the acquisition of Rypple. The company also put enterprise software veteran John Wookey in charge. 
With the move, a collision between Workday, Salesforce and SAP with its recent acquisition of SuccessFactors could play out. The company downplayed any potential competition with Workday.
Rypple, which is technically a “social performance management” application, will be rebranded Successforce. The aim is to enable a continuous feedback loop for workers from management, colleagues and others.
Salesforce is looking to put a social spin on human capital management (HCM) software. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in a statement that “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.”
Wookey added that the Rypple purchase accelerates Salesforce’s social enterprise strategy. Rypple customers include Facebook and Spotify. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Wookey said on a conference call:
Today’s companies need and frankly deserve the performance and leadership tools that are transparent and allow employees to be connected to the Company’s mission into each other. The acquisition of Rypple and its relaunch of Successforce will really be the first step in building out our HCM strategy.
The big question here is whether Salesforce is being spread too thin. Cowen analyst Peter Goldmacher recently noted that the company’s expansion into new markets takes away from its salesforce automation focus.
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