Integrated Research Acquires IQ Services
Integrated Research (IR), an Australian provider of performance management software for IT, payments, and communications systems, has acquired IQ Services, for $1.5 million. The deal also includes additional earn-out payments based on the company’s earnings for up to $3.5 million, bringing the total possible price to $5 million.
Through the acquisition, IR gains access to IQ Services' integrated systems management and testing suite for a number of unified communications systems, including those from Avaya, Cisco, and Microsoft Lync/Skype for Business. The deal will also allow IR to expand its Prognosis product line to troubleshoot customer service problems in unified communications and contact center systems, including Web real-time communication (WebRTC), software-defined networks (SDN), and session initiation protocols (SIP).
IR will also be able to focus on developing WebRTC technologies, which it expects to account for 15 percent of enterprise voice and video communications by 2019, up from just 1 percent now.
"Organizations must ensure that their contact centers offer the highest possible quality of customer interaction if they are to remain competitive," said Darc Rasmussen, CEO of IR, in a statement. "The complementary nature of Prognosis' performance management and IQ Services' testing will provide unprecedented levels of insight into unified communications and collaboration and contact center ecosystems. Customers can quickly take advantage of the integrated solution to make decisions faster, resulting in fewer outages."
"We are extremely proud of what the employees of IQ Services have achieved to date, especially our customer-centric approach and deep domain expertise," said Russ Zilles, CEO of IQ Services, in a statement. "The acquisition by IR will mean that we can continue to develop this passion with new like-minded colleagues and take our services to a broader market. We are excited by the possibilities that this brings to our customers, partners, and employees."
"The addition of IR's internal performance metrics to IQ Services' outside-in, customer perspective regarding system availability, functionality, and performance will enable you to better understand how well your contact center and UC&C systems are functioning prior to going live, as well as during ongoing operation. With one easy workflow, decisions can be made faster, and your customers' experience can be measured, without impacting real-time customer satisfaction," Zilles said further.