NICE Acquires Eglue

Speech analytics and business intelligence solutions provider NICE Systems today acquired eglue for $29 million, though that amount may be increased by $6 million depending on performance criteria.

Since eglue manages interactions in real-time, NICE hopes the addition of the Hoboken, N.J.-based company will make it more efficient, especially in regards to back-office operations compliance.

To optimize customer dynamics, agents will now receive more detailed information on callers who have made previous complaints. The agents will receive an alert containing the previous interactions, even if they occurred over various media outlets (the Web, chat, text, etc.). Additionally, the agent will get information on how she might resolve an issue as well as opportunities for cross-selling or upselling.

"A major trend that will dominate customer service strategies over the next five years is providing contact center agents a combination of business rules and business knowledge in real time," says Michale Maoz, research vice- resident at analyst and advisory firm Gartner, in a statement. "The ability to impact interactions based on analysis of the most relevant customer and interaction date is key to delivering an excellent customer experience."

Eglue states that the acquisition will be mutually beneficial: "Joining NICE is an important and exciting step for eglue and its customers," said Omer Geva, co-founder and CEO of eglue, in a statement. "Together we'll expand our global outreach to support the evolving needs of customers in both the contact center and back-office arena worldwide. Being part of NICE will enable us to provide unmatched capabilities to our customers by addressing their most pressing business challenges."

"The joint eglue-NICE SmartCenter solutions close the loop on key business improvement processes required by enterprises worldwide, turning business insights into impact in real time," said Zeevi Bregman, NICE's president and CEO, in a statement. "Together, we will further advance NICE's innovative customer dynamics strategy to improve the complex, ongoing exchange between companies and their customers, as companies strive to gain a competitive edge, retalin satisfied loyal customers, while operating in the most efficient and profitable manner.

"We are excited about the many opportunities presented by this strategic move. With eglue's real-time decisioning and guidance offering, we augment our intent-base solutions—a major growth driver for NICE—as well as extend our reach into back-office operations, which today is a significant and underserved market," Bregman continued. "We expect that the addition of eglue will contribute to NICE's growth and profitability in the years to come. We look forward to having eglue's strong management and professional teams join NICE."