His extensive experience includes previous executive positions at Oracle, Taleo, PeopleSoft and Price Waterhouse.

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Companies like RightNow and Taleo are cloud companies with a different DNA than the software companies of old.

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While SuccessFactors and Taleo (Nasdaq:TLEO) have done a bang-up job for enterprise HCM, Flip sees an even bigger opportunity for small- and medium-sized businesses.

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On the surface, IBM is simply responding to its competitors, Oracle and SAP, that recently acquired similar integrated HR solutions companies Taleo and SuccessFactors, respectively.

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Another name to consider name to consider off is Taleo.

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Like SuccessFactors, Taleo is another human capital management (HCM) company.

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Gregoire started on the job at CA. Prior to CA, Gregoire was president and CEO at on-demand talent management software company Taleo, which was acquired by Oracle.

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And it uses a cloud approach, which has been a key driver for the software industry as seen with companies like Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM), Taleo (Nasdaq:TLEO) and NetSuite (NYSE:N).

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These feature-and-function freaks are all loyal customers of Apple and Oracle and SAP and Taleo and Harley-Davidson and Boeing and Mattel and Avon and SAS and Deere and ten thousand other brands.

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The largest retailers, for example, might receive more than a million a year, says Adrienne Whitten, of Taleo, a software outfit that powers the online career centers of nearly half the Fortune 100.

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