Last month, each week brought news of a significant takeover in the HR and learning tech spaces. Interestingly, in one way or another, the recognized importance of developing employee skills and abilities is a factor in each of these announcements. Other common drivers? The incredible competitive pressure in the HR tech market and the compelling speed of change we continue to see in this market.
There is not enough space in this column to review all the details. And, of course, it will take time to see how these acquisitions actually perform for the companies and customers involved. You can be sure that I will cover these steps — along with many others — and offer my opinion on how I can predict their impact on the market in my upcoming HR Tech keynote, “The Disruption Never Stops.”
For now, I will provide highlights with each announcement. Come to Las Vegas and get the full scoop, as well as the complete market context.
ServiceNow acquired Hitch
Announced on June 3, this acquisition is a strategic step to extend ServiceNow’s market reach. Initially, ServiceNow focused on case and knowledge management, service delivery automation and essential applications for IT and HR self-service. Over the past two years, the company has expanded into hybrid work management, workplace scheduling, employee portals and mobile apps. And it’s all built on a scalable workflow platform (the Now platform) that allows any user to build applications that can use, utilize and integrate data from other corporate systems.
Although Hitch is a relatively small company, it brings to ServiceNow a new set of skills-based tools (for employee learning, growth, mobility and transitions), allowing ServiceNow to move more deep into new markets and grow. And the market-based HR market (talent marketplace, employee development, career management) is huge.
With its extensive experience connecting and integrating legacy systems, ServiceNow envisions a federated rather than centralized model for practices — a solution that integrates multiple practice-related systems, each using data. of skill for its own individual needs. And this, believe it or not, is where the market is headed. The result is the ability to build a functional, geographic or corporate practice model and then use it for ServiceNow workflows, learning trips and customized experiences.
Although the potential is enormous, it is a somewhat tricky step for ServiceNow as it will put it in competition with such market behemoths as Workday, Oracle and Eightfold.
Cornerstone got the SumTotal
This was followed by the announcement that Skillsoft had agreed to sell SumTotal to Cornerstone.
SumTotal Systems is the combination of many older LMS technologies, including Click2Learn, Docent and GeoLearning. The company continued to reinvent itself as corporate training evolved. However, the world is moving on; companies no longer want LMS to be employee -facing systems. The traditional compliance-based LMS solution, pioneered by SumTotal, is now viewed as back-office software.
However, SumTotal has some very large customers, which will bring significant recurring revenue to Cornerstone, which also owns other legacy platforms such as Saba, Lumesse and Halogen. For SumTotal customers, this acquisition is probably good news, as they already have a technology -focused company as a vendor partner.
Earned a Degree Learn In
Degreed was one of the first companies to offer a learning experience platform. Introduced about 10 years ago, LXPs have given corporate training departments the ability to unlock LMS content and connect to other content sources — giving employees an easier, more customized and self-directed learning access. This is a very good idea. In the following years, Degreed grew rapidly as it faced increasingly stiff competition.
On June 23, Degreed announced the acquisition of Learn In, which was established to help companies establish internal talent academies for developing workers with deep skills and broad abilities on longer learning journeys. Key Learn In features complement those in the Degreed LXP and include prepaid learning stipend cards, a world-class marketplace of skills and custom program builder, a tuition benefit manager and dedicated coaching .
Degreed’s vision is to develop what we previously called a “program management platform” that gathers content, manages cohorts and manages e-commerce reimbursement and tuition for third-party programs. It’s something the training of managers from every major company wants. However, there are many complexities and technologies involved in such an offering.
The acquisition announcement was accompanied by news that Degreed’s co-founder, David Blake, will return as CEO. (Blake founded Learn In a few years ago; he left Degreed in 2018.) He pulled off a brilliant idea before; let’s see if he can again.
Gloat raised a $ 90 million investment
This news is interesting in two areas. First, it’s a LOT of money; it was part of a Series D round of funding bringing the total raised to $ 192 million. Second, this investment was made by Generation Investment Management, a firm headed by former Vice President Al Gore and focused on sustainable investments.
Gloat began in 2015 with the mission of using AI to facilitate internal talent mobility. Through the innovative use of AI, Gloat has helped companies break organizational loops, analyze employee scaling skills and provide data-based insights for talent-related decisions. These are extremely important benefits; our research continues to show that worker agility is now a major key to business success.
Generation chose Gloat as the first investment in its new Sustainable Solutions Fund IV because of a single goal: to shape a future of work that ultimately puts the future of the worker first. This cash infusion will help Gloat continue to grow and deepen its footprint in this important market segment, which includes stiff competition from companies such as Eightfold, Fuel50, Workday and Oracle.
Learn more by attending Josh Bersin’s most anticipated keynote, “The Disruption Never Stops,” at the HR Technology Conference, Sept. 13-16, in Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas. Bersin’s keynote is scheduled for 8:30 am Wednesday, Sept. 14.