Sabio moves for Salesforce partner makepositive

It would feel almost unusual if the week did not start with evidence of further consolidation in the channel, and Sabio has kept the momentum going with a move to pick up makepositive.

For customer experience specialist Sabio, the acquisition of well-regarded platinum Salesforce partner makepositive should expand on its ability to help users, particularly those looking at improving the individual contact with customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but makepositive comes with 180 staff operating out of offices in London and Manchester and a development centre in India. Its workforce includes 120 Salesforce-accredited consultants and a customer reference list that is packed with household names.

“With AI [artificial intelligence] and conversational technologies now handling many routine CX [customer experience] enquiries, contact centre advisors handle a greater proportion of complex customer interactions. This has introduced more complexity on the advisor desktop, increasing the need for assistive human service solutions that offer true real-time digital support for advisors,” said Sabio Group CEO Jonathan Gale.

“Salesforce is a driving force in this space as traditional contact centre technologies merge with the customer engagement centre market. Acquiring makepositive and bringing its proven design, implementation and maintenance skills across multiple Salesforce clouds into Sabio Group is an important and timely move,” he added.

The CEO of makepositive, Mark Richards, was upbeat about the move, pointing out that it would be able to offer customers more as a result of being part of a larger operation.

“Sabio will be key to helping makepositive extend its footprint and take advantage of the growing demand for solutions that deliver exceptional customer and employee experiences,” said Matt Cooksley, makepositive’s chief operating officer. “For the past 10 years, our focus has been on becoming a leading independent Salesforce consulting partner in the UK. We are now looking forward to expanding that journey with Sabio as we increase the reach and depth of our customer offerings.”

The deal also got the thumbs up from Salesforce, with Leon Mangan, senior vice-president alliances and channels for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Latin America (LATAM) at the vendor, commenting: “Salesforce is investing for growth in the UK, and our partner ecosystem is an essential driving force behind this. It’s great that makepositive, a leading UK Salesforce consulting partner, is taking its business forward to the next level as part of the Sabio Group.”