Verint Systems announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire KANA Software, a provider for customer service solutions delivered both on-premises and in the cloud. The acquisition would form a unique combination that would likely extend Verint's Actionable Intelligence strategy. The collective solutions from Verint and KANA would enable organizations worldwide to implement a single-vendor suite to help transform customer engagement. The acquisition of KANA, a portfolio company of Accel-KKR, is expected to be completed in Verint's first fiscal quarter ending April 30, 2014.
Verint Systems announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire KANA Software, a provider for customer service solutions delivered both on-premises and in the cloud. The acquisition would form a unique combination that would likely extend Verint's Actionable Intelligence strategy. The collective solutions from Verint and KANA would enable organizations worldwide to implement a single-vendor suite to help transform customer engagement. The acquisition of KANA, a portfolio company of Accel-KKR, is expected to be completed in Verint's first fiscal quarter ending April 30, 2014.
“We believe that acquiring KANA would allow Verint to offer a holistic customer engagement strategy powered by Actionable Intelligence, providing significant value for our customers and partners. Our complementary solutions represent a comprehensive offering to help optimize customer engagement. We have been impressed with KANA and share a common vision for our respective markets, including a firm commitment to our customers,” says Dan Bodner, CEO at Verint.
“We also believe there is a strong cultural fit between the 2 companies and a foundation for a successful future together, for both our current and prospective customers, as well as our employees. We look forward to completing the transaction and welcoming KANA into the Verint family,” he continues.
KANA would bring its approximately 900 global customers to the greater Verint organization, which already has the benefit of more than 10,000 customers worldwide. The combined customer base, which includes some shared customers, can benefit from a broader, complementary solution set from a single global provider.
“Our management team is excited about the opportunity to join a global technology leader like Verint, and we have every expectation that our customers will be excited as well, especially as they learn more about how Verint and KANA can provide a lens into who is doing what, when, how and why in day-to-day engagements with their customers,” says Mark Duffell, CEO at KANA.
Optimizing Customer Engagement
Together, the combined product suite of collective solutions is expected offer global enterprises the ability to capture and manage cross-functional information around customer interactions, business processes and workforce performance to improve operational efficiency, reduce risk and enhance customer loyalty, while driving revenue performance.
Further, guided business processes and recommended dialogues provided by the combined solutions could help deliver faster, more precise, personalized service—from next best action, to next best offer. By fusing advanced customer service suites from KANA with Verint Actionable Intelligence, organizations would be able to connect and optimize multiple channels to create valuable, consistent and contextual experiences that count when customers engage.
Managing Customer Engagement Holistically Across Channels
Contemporary organizations generate massive volumes of Big Data from engagement with customers and employee activities—much more data than they can collect, correlate and assess. The quantity and speed with which data is generated, as well as the diversity of that data—much of which is unstructured and difficult to analyze—can create a challenge for organizations and minimize their opportunity to take timely action and increase profitable outcomes.
In addition, the rise of mobility and proliferation of communication channels has made it even more difficult for organizations to manage the people and processes required to respond to consumer expectations in a consistent, personalized and contextual manner. Many organizations are struggling to become more customer-centric because information does not always easily flow from one channel to another. To drive top-line revenue at a reasonable cost and enable long-lasting customer relationships, they need to manage customer engagement holistically across multiple touch points and create greater value from their resources.
Verint and KANA are hoping to address these challenges together through a robust blend of software and services that span workforce optimization (WFO) and customer service and support offerings. Verint offers market-leading WFO and Voice of the Customer Analytics capabilities—including voice recording, voice biometrics, quality monitoring, speech analytics, text analytics, enterprise feedback management, workforce management, performance management, desktop and process analytics, elearning and coaching. KANA offers compelling customer service solutions, such as agent desktop, case management, knowledge management, and email, chat and social media response management.