CDC Responds With an Acquisition

CDC Software announced today its acquisition of Respond Group, a British provider of enterprise complaint and feedback management software to the financial services industry. The acquisition marks a move by CDC to incorporate more vertical-specific functionality. Respond Group's applications are highly complementary to CDC Software's Pivotal CRM solutions, and will bring more than 800 new customers to the CDC Software customer base of more than 5,000, according to CDC. The purchase will add such customers as AXA Insurance, Barclays, and Aegon to CDC's client portfolio. Respond solutions are also widely deployed in government organizations, which should create opportunities for cross-selling Pivotal CRM applications, according to CDC. The importance of complaint management and customer feedback in the home building and real estate industries, two verticals where Pivotal CRM sells well, is expected to create additional cross-selling opportunities for Respond applications, says James Heavey, CEO of Respond Group. In addition to product synergies, both CDC and Respond are Microsoft Certified Partners, and the respective application share complementary architectures based on standard Microsoft platforms. "The combination of Respond and CDC is an excellent business decision from all perspectives," Heavey says. "As a company focused on delivering industry-specific solutions and services, CDC has been building momentum in the enterprise software segment. We mirror that industry focus with applications that will create a variety of choices and expanded set of solutions for both customer bases." Robert Bois, research director at AMR Research, says that CDC is no stranger to acquisitions, with both Pivotal and Ross ERP now helping to hold up its corporate umbrella. CDC also attempted to acquire Onyx before that company was finally purchased by M2M in June of last year. "CDC is wisely looking to acquire a bigger footprint in CRM, with more capabilities," Bois says. "This is definitely a land grab." "CDC, and Pivotal before that, have been making an effort to push their CRM upstream," Bois says. "Meanwhile, companies with on-demand software-as-a-service offerings like Salesforce.com are coming out of the woodwork to serve accounts of a few dozen people at a time. This left a void in certain industries and segments, so CDC is ultimately looking to fill the space they left." Related articles: CDC Gobbles Up MVI Technologies CDC Ups the Ante For Onyx, Again CDC Software Is Back With a Higher Bid