Enterprise, Mergers and Acquisitions

Zendesk Acquisition Blends IT Service Desk, Customer Experience Solutions

Amid growing quarterly revenues, IT help desk software company Zendesk has acquired Outbound. The goal: Expand Zendesk from IT service desk solutions to complete customer experience solutions.

Zendesk appears to have momentum. The company's most recent quarterly revenues were $93 million, up 36% from the corresponding quarter last year.

For years, Zendesk has provided tools and services to help organizations engage with customers, but for the most part, only after a problem has been identified. In October of last year, it started offering a solution to help customers predict potential problems.

The Outbound acquisition will further help improve overall customer support and customer interactions by allowing brands to proactively identify trouble spots, Zendesk asserts.

Zendesk Certification Program

The earnings and acquisition news came on the heels of the company announcing its first certification program as it tries to get more people trained on its software.

Zendesk says folks who receive the certification “will have demonstrated foundational knowledge of Zendesk Support, Zendesk’s system for tracking, prioritizing, and solving customer support tickets, and validated their ability to maximize product use for delivering exceptional customer service.”

The San Francisco-based company was founded in Copenhagen in 2007 by CEO Mikkel Svane, CTO Morten Primdahl, and CPO Alexander Aghassipour. Now Zendesk's platform is used in more than 150 countries and it has operations in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America.

IT Service Desk Market Shifts

Multiple IT service desk providers are evolving rapidly beyond ticketing and help desk systems. Much of that work will be on display at ServiceNow's Knowledge 2017 conference this week in Orlando.

Among the key moves worth tracking: ServiceNow is expanding from big MSPs and global systems integrators (GSIs) down to small, regional partners. The company also has diversified from IT service management toward HR, finance and security management. 

Somewhat similarly, PSA (professional services automation) companies like FinancialForce are blending the lines between IT service management, project management and Salesforce's CRM system.

We'll be watching to see how Zendesk's evolution plays out amid these market shifts.

Additional insights from Joe Panettieri.