Contact: Scott Denne
Communications hardware and software vendor Mitel Networks has extended its call-center software portfolio by acquiring call-recording software provider OAISYS. This is Mitel’s second call-center-related acquisition in the past year, and follows a wave of consolidation in the sector.
Last summer, Mitel spent $20m on its OEM partner prairieFyre Software to get directly into the call-center software business. Before that purchase, its only call-center offering was automated call routing. OAISYS, with 50 employees, provides call-recording and quality assurance software and, like prairieFyre, has a long-standing OEM partnership with Mitel. OAISYS was founded in 1996 and is based in Tempe, Arizona.
Historically, Mitel has struggled to sell its products, with revenue ebbing and flowing for several years. The company is trying to change that by selling applications that complement its PBX software and hardware products, which are experiencing pricing pressure from competitors. (Mitel is also spending to increase its traditional business, picking up Aastra Technologies, its European counterpart, in a $375m deal last year). The OAISYS buy is an attempt to move deeper into call-center software, which is seeing increasing interest lately.
Mitel’s competitors have been active acquirers in the call-center market lately. In just the past two years, Verint purchased four call-center software vendors, including the $514m pickup of KANA in January. Enghouse Systems has done eight deals in that time, including one announced this week, and Genesys Telecommunications has bought seven companies since Permira carved the company out of Alcatel-Lucent in 2012.
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