GigaOM Pro

Somehow overlooked in the flurry of email I received last week after announcing that I’d be writing regularly here at GigaOM Pro was a press release from IBM. Last week, IBM announced the completion of a $1.3 billion cash acquisition of Kenexa (from website):

Kenexa bolsters IBM’s leadership in helping clients embrace social business capabilities while gaining actionable insights from the enormous streams of information generated from social networks every day. The net purchase price is approximately $1.3 billion.

Kenexa, a leading provider of recruiting and talent management solutions, brings a unique combination of Cloud-based technology and consulting services that integrates both people and processes, providing solutions to engage a smarter, more effective workforce across their most critical business functions.

I recently keynoted at a human resources conference in Amsterdam (HR Tech Europe), and realized for the first time that human resources is perhaps the obvious place in the enterprise for the social business concept to find deep resonance, even more than marketing, the locus of social practices in many companies. And I think that this goes far beyond talent acquisition and retention, into core business culture.

I intend to burrow more deeply into what is going on at the intersection of human resources and social, and will likely be writing a report on the technologies in that sector, as well.