Over the past two weeks, the EFM vendor landscape has heated up once again with a round of mergers and acquisitions. Last year, we saw the mergers between Vovici and Verint and Globalpark and QuestBack. Now we have news of SMG and Locately (August 16) and Confirmit and CustomerStat from MarketTools (August 22). These mergers make sense and are in line with how I see the EFM vendor landscape evolving.
Part of this evolution revolves around enhancing the EFM suite of products and bringing new feedback channels into the mix — like mobile. This goes beyond purely enabling the viewing of online surveys on a mobile browser. It encompasses offering mobile apps, enabling the collection of qualitative data, capturing mobile behavioral data, and even leveraging location to unearth insights about consumers. That is exactly what SMG, an EFM vendor that focuses on customer experience analytics, did by acquiring location analytics market research firm Locately. Confirmit did the same last year by acquiring Techneos to create a stronger mobile offering for its customers.
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