Episerver Acquires Omnichannel Campaign Management Vendor Optivo

Empowers Marketers to Orchestrate, Execute and Optimize Immersive Experiences Across Channels

Episerver, a provider of a single platform to smartly manage digital content, commerce and marketing in the cloud, recently announced the acquisition of Optivo, a provider of omnichannel campaign management and customer intelligence solutions.

Leveraging Optivo’s omnichannel campaign management capabilities, Episerver customers can now create and execute more contextually relevant customer interactions across channels, ensuring that the right message is sent to the right customer when and where it should. With the addition of Optivo, digital marketing and commerce professionals using Episerver can now manage and optimize the way customers respond to their campaigns across channels, by simultaneously tracking and predicting their behavior. In doing so, Episerver customers can achieve continuous one-to-one engagement.

“The acquisition of Optivo, which has emerged as a true visionary in terms of real-time customer interaction across channels from a history of dependable and scalable email marketing, is an essential next phase for the Episerver Digital Experience Cloud platform,” said Mark Duffell, President and CEO of Episerver. “Not only will Optivo help our customers envisage and then execute their marketing and merchandising strategies faster and more effectively, it also elevates the customer journey to the next level to help organizations attract, engage, convert and care for customers in real-time.”

This announcement comes on the heels of Episerver’s acquisition of Peerius, an enterprise provider of intelligent omnichannel personalization in the cloud. That acquisition advanced Episerver’s vision for autonomous personalization, empowering brands to anticipate behavior and intent in order to engage one-to-one with customers across channels, and to engage anonymous visitors through personification.

Episerver expects Optivo’s multidimensional segmentation and event triggering to complement Peerius’ machine learning-based predictive analytics and real-time decisioning. Simultaneously, Optivo will significantly enhance Episerver’s omnichannel campaign management and email marketing capabilities. Completing the picture, Episerver’s content management, commerce, social and mobile marketing strengths will combine with Optivo to truly enable omnichannel immersive experiences.

“We are delighted that Optivo will become a key part of Episerver's Digital Experience Cloud, which correspondingly complements our omnichannel and email marketing solutions perfectly,” said Dr. Rainer Brosch, CEO of Optivo. “We will retain our core strength and focus for the benefit of our customers, and yet be in a position to act even more globally in the future. Together, we expect to accelerate our market presence and reach through Episerver's extensive global footprint, large customer base and comprehensive partner ecosystem.”

The acquisition addresses marketers’ greatest needs. According to a recent survey by Forrester, 52 percent of marketers cited understanding customer behavior across channels and devices as the biggest challenge they expected to face in the next two years. Survey respondents also noted as important increasing or enhancing customer engagement, education or loyalty (38%), integrating online and offline interactions (38%), and attributing marketing performance across interactions (40%).^[1]

The newly acquired entity will continue existing operations as Optivo, an Episerver company, while providing infrastructure for Episerver’s continuing expansion into the DACH region, and Optivo managing directors Dr. Rainer Brosch and Thomas Diezmann will remain in their current roles. For more information, visit www.episerver.com.

About Episerver
Episerver connects digital commerce and digital marketing to help organizations create unique digital experiences for their customers, with measurable business results. The Episerver Digital Experience Cloud combines content, commerce, multi-channel marketing, and predictive analytics in a single platform to work full-circle for businesses online – from intelligent real-time personalization and lead-generation through to conversion and repeat business – with unprecedented ease-of-use. Sitting at the center of the digital experience ecosystem, Episerver empowers digital leaders to embrace disruptive, transformational strategies to deliver standout experiences for their customers – everywhere they engage. Founded in 1994, Episerver has offices in Australia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, UAE, UK and the USA. For more information visit www.episerver.com

About Optivo
As a global leader in omnichannel campaign management and email marketing solutions, Optivo helps brands engage one-to-one in real time with their customers across all channels. Optivo's omnichannel solutions and services empower marketers to create, orchestrate, execute and measure campaigns based on a rich and continual dialogue with customers via email, print, push, SMS, fax, web and beyond. By delivering contextually relevant customer experiences continuously via multi-dimensional segmentation, Optivo clients increase effectiveness of campaigns, conversions and sales while building a foundation for long term customer loyalty. Trusted by leading brands, Optivo – an Episerver Company, partners with organizations like Accor, Air Berlin, Babbel, Best Western, Bosch, Deutsche Bahn, Henkel, HolidayCheck, InnoGames, Jack Wolfskin, Olympus, PAYBACK, QVC, TUI, WWF, and Zooplus to deliver outstanding results worldwide. For more information visit www.optivo.com

^[1]The Forrester Wave: Cross-Channel Campaign Management, Q2 2016, Forrester Research, Inc., May 31, 2016