Dive Brief:
- IBM announced Friday that it purchased United Kingdom-based Optevia, a company focused on cloud-based CRM solutions for the public sector.
- With its acquisition, IBM hopes to grow Optevia’s offerings and expand them beyond the U.K. to the global market.
- Optevia will become a part of IBM’s Global Business Services, its division dedicated toward consulting services, according to a TechCrunch report.
Dive Insight:
IBM has made a large number of acquisitions in the last year as it continues its efforts to refresh its products and business strategies. Despite falling revenues, executive departures and mass layoffs, IBM purchased IRIS Analytics, a German company that specializes in preventing payment fraud through the use of analytics, and digital marketing creative agency Resource/Ammirati in January.
Optevia specializes in customer relationship management solutions, particularly around implementing Microsoft Dynamics CRM in the public sector. Joanna Davinson, IBM’s public sector leader in Europe, said in a statement that acquiring Optevia will allow IBM to provide public sector clients with industry focused, customer relationship management solutions.
The acquisition comes as IBM has continued to grow its capabilities beyond its legacy offerings. But right now, Salesforce currently dominates the CRM market. Salesforce recently forecasted full-year revenue between $8.08 billion and $8.12 billion. And during the past year, Salesforce raised its revenue forecast several times as companies continue to lean toward cheaper cloud software services, foregoing the more traditional CRMs from companies like Oracle and SAP.
