Salesforce InStranet and Sinequa Connection
September 13, 2008
In August 2008, Salesforce.com paid about $31.0 million for InStranet, according to eWeek here. Salesforce.com is the high flying cloud computing vendor. InStranet, founded in 1999, was generating a fraction of the Salesforce.com revenue. The principal business of InStranet’s technology provides customer support and contact center systems and tools. You can find more information, including white papers, here. InStranet calls its solutions “multi channel knowledge applications.” The idea is that a customer searches for information or looks at suggestions for links that can resolve a customer support issue.
Why am I writing about this modest acquisition that has been overlooked by most Web logs and trade news services? The answer is that Sinequa, the French search and content processing vendor, provides the search and finding technology included in some of InStranet’s customer support solutions. After four weeks of waiting, Sinequa learned that its deal with InStranet will not be affected by the Salesforce.com buy out of InStranet. You can read Bios Magazine’s report here.
Will Salesforce.com leverage Sinequa’s search and content processing technology? I will keep you posted.
More information about Sinequa is here.
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2 Responses to “Salesforce InStranet and Sinequa Connection”
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Steven,
I didn’t know that Instranet was using Sinequa’s stuff, but it doesn’t surprise me.
There’s a pretty small French software mafia (in which I was a part at Business Objects in the early Paris-based days) and a reasonably strong buy-local ethos.
My take from my ex-Business Objects French software mafia is that Salesforce bought Instranet for their call center support and my guess is they’d move it to a more standard search product over time.
Dave Kellogg
The information in this Web log comes mostly from secondary sources. I just report what I find interesting. My source could be more addled a goose than i am. Verify anything you read in this diary-notebook.
Stephen Arnold, October 8, 2008