INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Zendesk has mostly confined itself to customer service scenarios, but it seems that not enough anymore
If you want to truly know the customer behind the interaction, you need a customer system of record to go with the customer service
To fill that need, Zendesk announced it was acquiring Base, a startup that has raised over $50 million.
The companies did not share the
purchase price, but Zendesk did report that the acquisition should not have a significant impact on revenue.
While Base might not be as
well known as Salesforce, Microsoft or Oracle in the CRM game, it has created a sophisticated sales force automation platform, complete with
its own artificial intelligence underpinnings
CEO Uzi Shmilovici claimed his company AI could compete with its more well-heeled competitors when it was released in 2016 to provide
salespeople with meaningful prescriptive advice on how to be more successful.
Zendesk CEO Mikkel Svane certainly sees the value of adding a
company like Base to his platform
&We want to do for sales what Zendesk has already done for customer service: give salespeople tools built around them and the customers they
serve,& he said in a statement.
If the core of customer data includes customer service, CRM and marketing, Base gives Zendesk one more of
those missing components, says Brent Leary, owner at CRM Essentials, a firm that keeps close watch on this market.
Zendesk has a great
position in customer service, but now to strengthen their position with midmarket/enterprise customers looking for integrated platforms,
Base adds a strong mobile sales force automation piece to their puzzle,& Leary told TechCrunch.
As he points out, we have seen HubSpot make
a similar move with HubSpot Apps, while SugarCRM, which was recently sold to Accel-KKR, could be shopping too, with its new owner deeper
&This is almost like a CRM enterprise software Hunger Games going on,& he joked
But he indicates that we should be expecting more consolidation here as these companies try to acquire missing pieces of their platforms to
offer more complete solutions.
Matt Price, who previously had the title of senior vice president for product portfolio at Zendesk will lead
the Base team moving forward.
Base was founded in 2009 and boasts more than 5,000 customers
It worth pointing out that Base was already available for sale in the company app marketplace, so there was some overlap here, but the
company intends to try to move existing customers to Base, of course.
Zendesk has indicated it will continue to support all Base customers
In addition, Base 125 employees have been invited to join Zendesk, so there will be no blood-letting here.
