Industry experts are of the opinion that the world-wide Customer Relationship Management (CRM) opportunity is in excess of $23B, with cloud-based CRM solutions expected to surpass 50 percent of that total. Hence the acquisition of Optevia will help IBM establish itself as a premier SaaS and digital consultant and accelerate leadership in CRM solutions.
This move was made to help IBM expand its operations in providing cloud services for government and other public sector organizations. IBM anticipates that the acquisition will allow the company to boost Optevia’s solutions across other areas, where Optevia’s software, assets, specialized workforce, and expertise could be best utilized to scale up IBM’s current capabilities.
“By acquiring Optevia, IBM will be able to provide Public Sector clients and prospects with a range of unique, industry focused CRM based solutions,” said Joanna Davinson, IBM Public Sector Leader – Europe. “This strategic acquisition will help strengthen IBM as a SaaS provider and Global Software Integrator.”
Since last year, IBM has made a large number of acquisitions including its recent acquisition of Truven Health Analytics, reportedly for $2.6 billion in order to replenish its efforts and redefine its products and business strategies. In January this year, IBM acquired IRIS Analytics, a German company that specializes in preventing payment fraud through the use of analytics despite incurring multiple losses, executive departures and mass layoffs.
Although IBM reported its revenues to be over $22 billion in the last quarter, its sales figures have been confronting a consistent decline for years now. By acquiring talent to build cloud-based CRM solutions, the company has been making a big effort to boost new areas of growth to offset older parts of its IT operations. On the other hand, Salesforce recently forecasted full-year revenue between $8.08 billion and $8.12 billion. With companies like Salesforce and Oracle currently dominating the CRM market, it’s notable that IBM is ramping in CRM services with innumerable acquisitions to bring some of that talent in-house.
