SSA Global buys customer management and HR-related suites
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 9/1/2005 12:00:00 AM
In one of its first acquisitions following its initial public offering, SSA Global is beefing up its customer relationship management (CRM) and human resources (HR) capabilities. In early August, SSA announced the intention to buy CRM analytics provider Epiphany, as well as, a short time later, Boniva, a privately held start-up specializing in human capital management.
Epiphany, the better known of the two, offers customer analytics and marketing campaign management. Its latest CRM suite version—6.5, announced in May—added integration with specialized third-party packages for managing marketing resources, real-time analytics for customer interactions, enhanced GUIs, and new vertical functionality.
Epiphany had been struggling of late, as the $79-million company was facing larger rivals such as SAP and Oracle. SSA Executive VP Graeme Cooksley says the acquisition should give Epiphany the heft to play in a market that is growing at a 9-percent annual rate. SSA is looking to expand Epiphany's reach in retail and wholesale distribution, as well as the midmarket.
Cooksley says there are good synergies between the companies, with 20 percent of Epiphany's customers also using SSA software, coupled with the fact that both are committed to the Java EE (formerly J2EE) architecture for current and future products. As Epiphany is a public company, the deal remains subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.
Boniva, on the other hand, is a much newer, privately held company that extends SSA's existing HR capabilities that in most part came from products it acquired from Infinium and Computer Associates.
Boniva adds e-learning, performance measurement, succession planning, and other areas not typically covered by traditional HR systems. According to Cooksley, the Boniva capabilities will be incorporated into existing HR products and sold separately.
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