John Wookey was a big hitter at Oracle, playing a lead part in the development of Fusion applications before he left to join SAP to head up its large enterprise on demand development. His SAP tenure lasted a short two and a half years or so before he left for unspecified reasons – I can imagine clashes over the pace and direction of the on demand business. Now this big hitter is bringing his experience and product expertise to Salesforce.com.
Salesforce.com has not revealed exactly what Wookey will be doing other than to say he will be working on special projects that will ‘help us accelerate social enterprise success for customers.’ But as its social platform is its latest big bet, Wookey will be heavily involved in one of Salesforce.com’s most strategic areas.
One of the issues around the deployment of social technologies in business is that organisations are still figuring out what to use them for and how to mould them to their needs. If Wookey brings his product-building skills to the social area the result could be a set of ‘applied’ applications – i.e. applications with a clear purpose and defined business benefit. If that happens Salesforce.com would be able to stretch out a huge lead over other participants involved in the race to bring social into the enterprise. It would also play well into its work to claim the next generation front office (see Salesforce.com: surrounding opportunities). I can also see potential for more back-office style developments although this area needs a delicate touch so as not to upset the dynamics within the partner ecosystem. Whatever form his work takes, he will have a substantial impact.