Talisma, a provider of multi-channel CRM products, has announced the acquisition of KnowledgeBase.net, a provider of hosted and on-site Knowledge Management software for customer support and self-service.
Talisma will incorporate KnowledgeBase.net's technology, intellectual property and customer base into its operations, fueling its strategy of organic and acquisition-based growth.
The acquisition is the culmination of over eighteen months of technology, product and business collaboration between the two companies and has already resulted in several product and service offerings.
The acquisition of KnowledgeBase.net will add to Talisma's suite of CRM products and, it is hoped, will strengthen Talisma's position in the fast-growing Customer Interaction Management segment of the CRM market.
The knowledge management tools market is estimated to reach over $5 billion by 2008. The number of multi-channel call centers in North America is projected to climb from 6,600 in 2003 to approximately 13,800 by 2008.
Robin Goad, senior CRM analyst at Datamonitor says as a result of this acquisition, Talisma is expected to expand its market presence to become a significant provider for both Enterprise and SMB Customer Interaction Management products: As the number of customer interactions continue to rise, companies worldwide are recognizing the value of optimised multi-channel CRM solutions. As a result, they are turning to providers for robust solutions that are easy to implement and result in a rapid return on their investment.
Dan Vetras, President & CEO of Talisma said their success in selling KnowledgeBase.net on an OEM basis led us to our decision to acquire the company.
An August 2004 review of the Talisma 6.0 multichannel CRM suite in InfoWorld found that while power and features are there interface and lack of integration support holds back Talisma 6.0.
InfoWorld reviewer James Borck found Talisma suffered a bit of a setback with regard to its knowledge base. Recent M&A activity from third-party provider Primus Knowledge Solutions introduced some competitive overlap, sparking Talisma to develop its own knowledge base solution.
Talisma, however, was not able to make the new version of its knowledge base available for this review. The knowledge base integrates into other components such as Chat to allow reps to search for information.
David Sims is contributing editor and CRM Alert columnist for TMCnet.
To discover how contact centers can save money and increase productivity by making the switch to IP Telephony, be sure to attend TMC's IP Contact Center Summit May 24-26, 2005, in Dallas, Texas.
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