Our Dynamics CRM team visited Microsoft Gulf offices yesterday for the official launch of CRM 2013 for this region. As readers of this blog know we were working on this version throughout the last quarter and eagerly awaiting its official release.
Aishwarya updated me on the announcement made at the meeting that Microsoft has acquired Parature . Parature is a 13-year-old company that delivers Web- and mobile-access knowledge-bases, live chat, survey and feedback systems, and social monitoring and response functionality. The Herndon, Va.-based firm has more than 500 customers with over 70 million end users licences.
About 13 years ago, a group of five Cornell University undergraduates started a business out of their dorm, based on one simple product: a free Internet-based instant messaging service. That company, Parature, has now built a strong foothold in key industries such as: education, gaming, high-tech, non-profit associations, online media, public sector, and travel.
Major brands include: Ask.com, Asure Software, ATRA, Brenau University, BuilderMT, CompTIA, e-MDs, EPA, Florida Atlantic University, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, IGN Entertainment, iWin, NASA SEWP, PlayFirst, SoftChalk, Threadless, Top Down Systems, TMA Resources, and Travel Lodge UK.
Parature is the industry’s leading provider of cloud-based customer engagement solutions and it takes a personalized approach to web-based customer service & help desk software. It provides:-
1. Key, self-service, knowledge base software
2. Core customer service
3. Live chat
4. Mobile access
5. Survey and feedback capabilities
6. Social monitoring
7. Facebook portal capabilities
8. Automated customer service
9. Ability to manage online discussion boards
10. On-line surveys
Parature, will integrate multiple channels, such as social, email, Web-based chat, and Web self-service. The two companies have already partnered for more than a year, so a pre-built integration is already available to connect Parature’s cloud-based apps to Dynamics CRM.
This is addition to Microsoft’s acquisitions last year of NetBreeze and Marketing Pilot.
