Upon closing, expected to be completed in second quarter 2009, these SupportSoft suites’ product lines will continue to be sold, enhanced, maintained and supported by Consona (News - Alert) Corporation, both separately and as part of Consona’s Knowledge Driven Support solution. Each product line will have dedicated sales, product management, development, customer support, and professional services teams.
These enterprise SupportSoft solutions include:
- Proactive Service, which automatically repairs computer issues before anyone realizes there are problems
- Self-Service, which empowers users to correct problems; the software analyzes issues and provides remedies that are easy for users to apply on their own
- Assisted Service, which connects users to help desks for remote diagnosis and repair through real-time tools like chat and remote control to fix problems without requiring an on-site visit
The deal is the latest of many by Consona, which has aggressively and successfully grown and broadened its CRM business. Among the firms it has purchased and integrated are KNOVA Software, Made2Manage, and Onyx Software (News - Alert).
The SupportSoft solutions will enable Consona to further differentiate itself from other CRM suppliers by offering robust applications that can quickly identify and fix issues within contact centers. These tools minimize glitches, decrease costly downtimes, and improve performance and cost effectiveness. Consona says that Consona CRM and SupportSoft can offer an extremely powerful integrated solution set, or even just point solutions, that will help companies focused on driving the customer experience, specifically in after-sale interactions in service and support.
“The transaction is an important step for Consona as we continue to pursue our vision for profitable growth as a service and support specialty vendor within an increasingly consolidating software market space,” says Jeff Tognoni, CEO of Consona Corporation (News - Alert). “In addition to an extended solution offering, customers also gain broadened worldwide sales and services presence, expanded industry, product and process expertise, cross-selling opportunities across an expanded customer base, and substantial resources for growth.”
Tim Hines, vice president of product management for Consona CRM, noted that SupportSoft’s Intelligent Assistance Suite is completely complementary to the Consona CRM service and support suite. There is a high degree of overlap in their target markets, as they are built for organizations that are required to service and support complex, high technology products and services to maintain long-term customer relationships. Examples include cable, telecom and software companies; managed service providers; and large IT helpdesks.
“The solutions extend the value propositions of one another and should be extremely appealing to their shared markets” says Hines. “It is our view that the combined solution sets, encompassing case management, knowledge management, self-service, chat, collaboration, and diagnostics and repair, will further distance both vendors from the rest of the CRM marketplace.”
SupportSoft sold the enterprise division to Consona to enable it to focus on the consumer/SOHO business, where it sees strong growth potential. The proceeds from the sale will, it says, accelerate its transformation into a leading provider of premium technology services for those markets. Increasingly sophisticated technology in homes and small businesses, and more mobile work and teleworking require on-demand product/supplier-agnostic corporate-quality support. Outsourced customer support builds brand loyalty for retailers while allowing them to concentrate on sales.
“This transaction represents a compelling opportunity to drive long-term value for our stockholders, customers, and employees,” says Josh Pickus, CEO of SupportSoft. “Over the past year, we have taken steps to separate our Consumer and Enterprise businesses in order to sharpen our focus and realize the value inherent in each. The transaction allows us to focus on growing our Consumer business while enabling our Enterprise business to flourish within Consona.”
Brendan B. Read is TMCnet’s Senior Contributing Editor. To read more of Brendan’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Jessica Kostek
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