Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

Microsoft Acquires Parature - Adds Customer Self-service Suite to Microsoft Dynamics CRM

January 07, 2014

When it comes to enhancing the customer experience the New Year is certainly off to a rapid and interesting start. This is exemplified by Microsoft reaching a definitive agreement to acquire Parature, a leading provider of cloud-based customer engagement solutions.


The deal highlights the growing importance of Parature’s expertise, customer self-service capabilities, as table stakes for vendors seeking to provide enterprises a comprehensive and holistic portfolio customer interaction tools. As such it fills in a gap in the Microsoft arsenal in the space, and is designed according to Microsoft to accelerate the Microsoft Dynamics vision of helping organizations deliver amazing customer experiences.”

Parature a “perfect complement” to Microsoft Dynamics CRM

In blog comments, Bob Stutz, corporate vice president, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, noted that:

“The addition of Parature’s cloud service solutions not only strengthens the Microsoft Dynamics CRM offering, but also accelerates our efforts to deliver differentiated customer care capabilities. We strongly believe that the ability to deliver great customer care lies at the heart of a company’s efforts to build loyalty and trust.  To succeed in this realm, organizations must seamlessly handle interactions across the many channels, including an ever increasing array of social channels.  Parature’s technology allows businesses to create brand champions by taking advantage of functionality that includes self-service customer care portals on the web and Facebook, mobile customer care, chat capabilities, and a strong knowledge base, giving their customers the ability to connect with them on the channels they prefer.  These capabilities are a perfect complement to the existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM customer care offering as well as some exciting things we have planned for our next release.”

Stutz, in the announcement of the deal, expressed Microsoft’s enthusiasm about the acquisition saying, “This is a compelling combination for organizations committed to delivering the best service experience that consistently exceeds their customers’ expectations.”

Given the current grumblings in the market about displeasure over customer service, you have to admire Stutz’s belief that the combination will “consistently exceeds” customer expectations.  After all, self-service can only go so far, and talking to an individual to resolve urgent issues that could tip the balance as to their loyalty is still the foundation for creating and sustaining customer loyalty. 

Who is Parature?

The company as noted is a provider of cloud-based customer service software mostly to SMBs accounting for interactions with 70 million users worldwide and more than 500 well-known brands, including Ask.com, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, IBM, Saba Software Inc., Tagged Inc. and Threadless. The company received the 2013 Frost & Sullivan Customer Value Enhancement Award and the Parature Social Monitor was a finalist for the 2013 TMC Social Business Award.

Parature solutions include a monitoring and response solution for customer service teams called the aforementioned Parature Social Monitor, and the Parature Facebook Portal, which seamlessly integrates customer support including a self-service knowledge base, help desk ticketing and live chat into a company’s Facebook presence. The capabilities complement the existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM customer-care solution with core strengths in workflow, extensibility and process-driven user experiences that allow contact center agents to do their best work.  That is the long explanation that Parature expands in a significant way the number of touch points.

Terms of the agreement are not being disclosed. However Microsoft is promising more info, including product integration plans and timeline, that will be shared at Parafest 2014 (Feb. 24–25) in Las Vegas and Convergence 2014 (March 4–7) in Atlanta.

As I noted in my tech predictions for 2014, the year ahead is going to see an increase in M&A activities. While each sector has a reason for this, two big drivers are the enterprise side of things will drive the a robust deals environment.  First, preferred vendor lists are getting shorter, as IT departments large and small look to take the complexity out of vendor management. Second, the need for speed to lock-in contracts, as a corollary to the previous point, means portfolio holes must be filled and that dictates if you can build it, buy it.

This acquisition therefore fits the bill, plus it is cloud-based and the additional capabilities come with named and valued reference accounts. At least in the customer experience market we are starting with a band and not a whimper, and there is reason to believe the shakeup/shake down process is likely to  pick up momentum from here.  




Edited by Cassandra Tucker



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