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Today, prominent customer communications management (CCM) leader Smart Communications, long considered to be the cloud pioneer in that space, announced the acquisition of digital transformation software firm Intelledox. At the time of the announcement, the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Building upon their existing partnership, this latest purchase by Smart Communications brings together two powerful cloud-first platforms under one organization, which is of particular note since some pundits out there classify Smart Communications’ cloud positioning as far ahead of the market.
“Intelledox is a cloud-based forms technology company that specializes in offering on-demand, mobile-first communication software that is often used by their clients to digitally transform enrollment, activation, or sign-up processes,” explains Kaspar Roos, Founder of Aspire, a consulting firm specializing in the CCM and digital customer experience (DCX) industries. “This acquisition boosts Smart Communications’ mobile forms and enrollment-type workflow capabilities, while it provides much broader sales opportunities to Intelledox who sees most of its success today in the Australian and US markets.”
Founded in 1992 by Phil Williamson and Michelle Melbourne, Intelledox has been in the midst of expanding beyond its Australian roots for the last five years and set up a US-based headquarters in Dallas, Texas, along with offices in Singapore and Ireland. Intelledox brings with them a reported 22 million users globally.
In a statement to DOCUMENT Strategy regarding how they plan to integrate Intelledox’s cloud platform, Smart Communications CEO James Brown said, “The guiding principle of our integration plans is to bring maximum value to our customers. The great news is that Intelledox is already a Smart Communications partner with joint customers benefiting from the ability to enhance their customer communications efforts by digitally transforming traditional forms-based processes into intelligent, conversational user experiences.”
Smart Communications is a unique provider in the often-crowded sea of suite providers out there in the market, as they are solely focused on CCM research and development. Purchased by Accel-KKR, a private equity firm, in 2016, Smart Communications shortly thereafter installed James Brown as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who brought with him deep experience in the software as a service (SaaS) business. This strategy seems to be paying off, with the company reporting a 50% growth in new business over the previous year and continued accolades for their SaaS and hybrid cloud offerings, open API architecture, and ease of integration.
Intelledox Co-Founder Michelle Melbourne is expected to join the Board at Smart Communications, and current CEO Ray Kiley, who took over the helm in 2017, will also continue to lead the Intelledox team. According to executive leadership at Smart Communications, reporting lines will be unchanged at the present.
“We are thrilled for this next step as a company and for what our joint commitment to enhancing enterprise communications will mean for businesses that are ready to embrace a digital-first, customer-driven future,” said Michelle Melbourne, Co-Founder of Intelledox.
Allison Lloyd serves as the Editor of DOCUMENT Strategy Media. She delivers thought leadership on strategic and plan-based solutions for managing the entire document, communication, and information process. Follow her on Twitter @AllisonYLloyd.
