Customer support companies are diversifying rapidly into related industries, and last week San Jose, California-based Clarify Inc announced that it is to acquire sales force automation software company Metropolis Software Inc in a share swap deal which values the Palo Alto, California-based company at $13.2m. It’s partly a catch-up play by Clarify, which doesn’t currently have a field sales process application as do rivals Vantive Corp and Scopus Technology Inc. Clarify executives told us that it closed down an internal development project in the area in favor of the Metropolis software. Recently-quoted Clarify will report a one- time charge of $1.5m to $2.0m for the acquisition of Metropolis – which made a loss on turnover of $3.5m last year – in its second 1996 financial quarter. The share swap will leave Metropolis holders with 4% of the enlarged company. Clarify’s re-stated 1995 results will show net profits of $950,000 on turnover of $24m. Earnings per share will fall to $0.11 from $0.19 and the company expects its first and second quarter earnings to be around three cents lower than original estimates, recovering in its third and fourth quarters. It says its 1997 turnover and profit plans could increase by up to 15% as a result of the acquisition. Metropolis’s 40 staff will be relocated to San Jose and Craig Jorasch, Metropolis co-founder and chief executive becomes Clarify’s vice-president business development. The Metropolis Sales suite of sales process management applications is being renamed ClearSales. ClearSales is being integrated with Clarify’s ClearHelpdesk, ClearSupport and ClearQuality modules though it is expected to take between three and six months to get it working off a common Clarify database. Metropolis also brings its laptop property management software, which Clarify will use to enhance its mobile offerings. Though it is playing catch-up in field sales automation, Clarify says its new logistics and Internet- based product offerings put it ahead of the customer support pack overall. It counts Microsoft Corp as one of its big customer wins. The hot topic in customer support systems this year is going be Internet-Intranet support and proactive customer management utilities, Clarify believes.
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