Dreamforce 2012: Salesforce.com Turns Rypple Into Work.com

Salesforce.com today launched Work.com, an employee relationship management system designed to make HR simpler and more social.

It builds on the company’s acquisition of Rypple, which closed earlier this year. Originally, Salesforce.com planned to rebrand the service as SuccessForce, after many assumed it had bought Rypple in response to SAP’s $3.4 billion (£2.2bn) SuccessFactors acquisition.

But now Rypple has become Work.com, a “social performance management platform”, from which employees can be rewarded via custom badges. This can then encourage workers to build their reputation across Salesforce collaboration tools, which will build into the Identity feature also announced today at Dreamforce 2012, the biggest vendor-led tech conference in the world.

Employees can even be rewarded with Amazon.com gift cards from within Work.com, after they have collected enough points, awarded by managers and colleagues.

The tool also allows companies to bring all the achievements, recognition and feedback a person receives into the performance review process, as well as provide instant feedback.

“Work.com employee social profiles reflect their expertise, goals and performance right inside Chatter, helping them build their reputation,” read a Salesforce.com blog post on the launch.

You better recognise

“We need new tools to let workers rise up,” said CEO Marc Benioff, during his Dreamforce keynote this morning. “We’re very excited to bring in the next generation of human resources.”

“Work.com is not just designed for HR, it is for all of us,” added John Wookey, Salesforce.com executive for Work.com.

Facebook is one of the early adopters of Work.com, and the company’s global CIO, Tim Campus, was on hand to talk about how it fitted in with the social networking giant’s ethos.

“At Facebook, we say the site is only one percent finished and there is a lot more to do. The way we are going to get there is with our workforce,” Campus said.

“It’s not about hierarchy or titles… what’s important is who people work with and allowing them to provide feedback together.

“Work.com focuses on that relationship between employees. You get feedback everyday, not just in the review cycle.

“The next generation of workforce tools will continue to foster this kind of management of employees.”

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