Over the last 12 months or so, you might have seen your content contract go from ElementK® to SkillSoft®, or most recently MindLeaders® to SkillSoft®, or maybe your LMS contract shifted from Learn® to Taleo® to Oracle®. Here are some tips to help get you started when selecting a content provider: Trial, trial, trial. Some providers are pushing 5 year contracts in the market to get you the “best” price. We have seen a lot of change in the past year in the world of online training and talent management. So, what’s your strategy on vendor selection? Ask for references. MORE >>

The combination of Oracle and Acme Packet is expected to accelerate the migration to all-IP networks by enabling secure and reliable communications from any device, across any network. Oracle announced it has acquired Acme Packet, a provider of session border control technology, for $29.25 The company’s services are deployed by more than 1,900 service providers and enterprises globally, including 89 of the world’s top 100 communications companies. Source: OracleRedwood Shores, Calif. — Feb. per share, or roughly $1.7 billion. MORE >>

Bill Sawyer, who works in curriculum development within the highly-technical and fast-moving environment of Oracle. Bill is currently Senior Manager of Applications Technology Curriculum for Oracle, based in Orlando, Florida. He leads a small team responsible for designing and developing highly-technical training programmes for IT professionals among both Oracle’s employees and their customers. The work of Bill’s team results in some $12m of course sales for Oracle. Oracle University delivers instructor-led courses designed by Bill’s team. learning architect MORE >>

Let’s take a stroll down memory lane to recap and provide some analysis on a few of the notable moves. Taleo buys Learn.com, Oracle buys Taleo. Learn.com was a big boost to the product stack of Taleo by way of the Taleo  acquisition move in late 2010, but that boost didn’t last long because just more than a year later, Oracle took a look at its horrendous LMS, talent management and social learning story and  bought Taleo in February 2012. My, how times have changed. Two Two years ago, people were scoffing at the term social learning. Everybody wants some. Hello Salesforce? MORE >>

Oracle has got the " Oracle Social Network " product. In a typical organisation you might find the IT team promoting Sharepoint, business managers promoting Salesforce, Internal Communications promoting Yammer, Learning & Development promoting Saba Social Learning , HR promoting Oracle, and your R&D mavericks promoting BuddyPress. It seems like every corporate tool now has some element of social media contained within it. Sharepoint 2010 comes with a range of community tools (blogs, ratings, tagging etc). Yammer , Socialcast and Fusion Universal's Fuse. MORE >>