Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve noticed a lot of moving and shaking going on in the HR software industry. While mergers and acquisitions are always interesting for industry analysts, the most recent bout of activity – including the acquisitions of Rypple and SuccessFactors by Salesforce and SAP (respectively), as well as the announcement of VC funds flowing into the market (with large investments in SmartRecruiters and iCIMS) – are particularly exciting. Why? Because this activity is driving change in areas of talent management technology that we primarily paid lip service to in 2011.

With two major players taking action, the market in 2012 is poised for the continued expansion of HR solutions into the Cloud, as well as further integration of social media functionality across the full spectrum of HR applications. To that end, 2012 will see more large software companies making strategic moves in the talent management niche as they fight for the biggest piece of the pie.

Guest blogger, Kyle Lagunas, HR Analyst at Software Advice – an online resource for reviews of HR software – has taken an in-depth look at what SAP and Salesforce stand to gain from their HR acquisitions, how it will impact this dynamic software market, and where other contenders in this space might make moves of their own in 2012. Take a look at his analysis and forecast on his HR blog at: http://blog.softwareadvice.com/articles/hr/the-hr-software-round-up-setting-the-stage-for-2012-1011912/. Have your own thoughts? Join the discussion, and leave a comment.

Follow us on Twitter @dealmakermedia
Photo Credit HERE