I'm thrilled and proud to announce Merced's first acquisition in our company's seven year history (to read more about the acquisition, click here). This is an exciting acquisition for three reasons:

First, the addition of incentive management technology is a great complement to our existing strength in performance management.

Merced's heritage has been rooted in helping companies better measure, manage and improve their operational performance. Our software has been built from the ground up to address the unique challenges in driving performance in complex, customer-facing operating environments, and our traditional focus has been on behavior change at the front line - agents, sales reps, field technicians and their supervisors.  This has been the key to generating significant performance improvements for our customers.

I believe that there is incredible value in integrating incentive and performance management technology.  Simply put, too many companies today are forced to design and manage incentives in one system and to track and manage performance in another. This siloed approach leads to wasted incentive dollars and missed opportunities to motivate employees and drive performance aligned with company goals.

Second, for customer-centric organizations, there is measurable value in having an integrated sales and service solution - currently, there is a burning need for this in the market.

In working with some of the largest sales and service operations around the world, I'm convinced there's a missing link.  While the market has software to help organizations coordinate transactional management across sales and service functions (CRM), it doesn't have software designed to drive employee behavior change and improve execution across all customer touch points. This lack of unification across multiple functions leads to a double whammy of poorly served customers and large cost inefficiencies. To be truly customer-centric, companies need to measure, manage and motivate in an integrated fashion across all customer-facing outlets.

Third, in Practique, we've found a company with a similar vision and set of values.

Over the years, I've seen first-hand how hard it is to build great performance management technology. It turns out that constructing the correct data models, distributing the data, and providing the means to take action, require A LOT of complex technology. We've been perfecting that same technology over the last 7 years and will continue to do so in the future. It also turns out that it takes a lot of domain expertise to help companies generate real results from their technology investment - and that's what Merced Systems specializes in.

So when we first talked with Practique, our number one priority was making sure that they had the technological strength to truly solve the often arcane but fundamentally important foundational problems of incentive management, and that they had the capability and track record of standing by their customers to ensure achievement of  desired results.

Practique has invested a lot in making their technology first-class over the last 11 years.  But more importantly, they've paired their superior technology with a committed team of experts who know that what customers ultimately care about is not buying technology, but about getting a problem solved and achieving results. This is why I'm so excited about our collaboration - Merced and Practique are two companies who share similar values and cultures centered around building great technology, assembling great teams and serving our customers.

Combined, we now offer the most comprehensive solutions that will allow you to better acquire, retain, and serve your customers.