Mitel Networks of Ottawa acquired one of its top suppliers, prairieFyre Software Inc., a privately held vendor of contact center, business analytics, and workforce optimization software.
The net cash cost to Mitel for the acquisition of prairieFyre is approximately $20 million. The deal is expected to be accretive in the first year. PrairieFyre is an OEM that has supplied Mitel with its existing contact centre technology. The acquisition is expected to help Mitel’s position in the contact centre market, estimated at over $3 billion annually but is highly competitive.
The acquisition coincides with the increasing influence of customer facing contact centre applications as a revenue engine for many organizations and a key factor in building and maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty. Additionally, the acquisition provides Mitel a development platform to address increasing demand for cloud-based contact centres. The company also believes this deal creates strong pull-through opportunities for associated sales of Mitel’s core IP telephony and UC solutions.
Richard McBee, president and CEO of Mitel, said many of the IT resellers have started building out specialized contact centre practices and are asking for a solution tightly integrated and aligned with Mitel’s product development and roadmaps. The company believes the highly integrated nature of existing OEM relationships such as prairieFyre prior to the acquisition makes this a low risk, high reward and compelling opportunity to immediately capitalize on market demand, expand revenue and margins, and positions Mitel for ongoing growth.
The contact centre group will continue to be led by prairieFyre CEO Chris Courneya in his new role as vice president and general manager, Mitel Contact Centers.
Courneya said the challenging economic climate during the last few years has dramatically heightened the need for business solutions that drive hard ROI and strengthen customer interaction. Contact centres facilitate and create a natural connection point for customer engagement, sales and support, positioning our applications as critical enablers for customer purchasing decisions.
“The integration of prairieFyre into Mitel at this point in the market gives both organizations the scale and skills to more effectively meet this demand, and grow our contact center business,” he added.
