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SAP Renews Focus On Customer Experience Business

In October, SAP announced the global launch of its customer data platform (CDP), a next-generation CDP that enables organizations to redefine the customer experience across every engagement, whether that’s commerce, marketing, sales, or service.

This announcement signaled the company’s focus on customer experience, which began in 2018 following its acquisition of Qualtrics for $8 billion.

Now, SAP is continuing its investment in the customer experience space with the acquisition of Austrian firm, Emarsys, the largest independent marketing platform company in the world. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though it’s estimated to be around $500 million. SAP announced that the deal, which was revealed in October, closed November 5.

Emarsys' platform helps companies deliver personalized customer interactions across channels, including email, mobile, social, SMS and the web. Its platform is used in more than 1,500 marketing networks and e-commerce sites, such as Samsonite, Wizz Air, Karl Lagerfeld, and others.

SAP said Emarsys' operations will become part of its customer experience business unit, which is anchored by the Qualtrics platform.

“With Emarsys now an official part of SAP Customer Experience, we look forward to working together, learning more about each other and creating a product portfolio that is more than the sum of its parts,” SAP Customer Experience President Bob Stutz said. “With the strengths of our current solutions and the integration of Emarsys, SAP Customer Experience will power a foundation of omnichannel personalized engagement, meeting customers where and when they choose to engage, on their preferred channels and on their terms.”

Meanwhile, Emarsys has been making its own deals. A few days before the SAP deal closed, the Austrian company announced it is set to acquire Loyalsys, an Israel-based Austrian incorporated startup that offers actionable insight to brands for better customer retention and loyalty programs.

Founded in 2018, Loyalsys provides brands with loyalty programs and membership clubs for the purpose of driving brand-to-customer collaborations, retaining customers, and optimizing marketing budgets. Following the acquisition, the company intends to recruit additional development talent for the Israeli office.

Both Emarsys and Loyalsys will work under the SAP umbrella.