InflowCX Buy Gives Amplix In-House CCaaS Talent, Services
Amplix leaders said they believe the CX resources, talent and services from InflowCX will help them get stickier customers.
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In addition to bolstering Amplix's talent for CX and CCaaS consulting, InflowCX gives the company the ability to provide services beyond the sale.
Channel partners have pointed to a persistent gap that exists between the sale and implementation of as-a-service software. Many partners have learned how to do more project management and even implementation services for unified communications as a service (UCaaS), but CCaaS represents an area of deeper complexity.
Amplix president Dan Gill said InflowCX helps Amplix extend its value beyond the "traditional evaluation period" common to most technology advisors. The combined company will implement the CX/CCaaS solutions it sources and then "optimize that over time," Gill said.
"The most important business outcomes people have are tied to their customers and their revenue. Being able to provide that full life cycle has really set InflowCX apart," Gill said.
Amplix has touted its Total Care practice, which came in part through its acquisition of Net7 and the Baseline IT platform that came from legacy ROI Communications. That entailed tracking tickets and resolutions on behalf of customers as well as helping customers with strategic sourcing like RFPs.
InflowCX comprises several companies that have come together over the years.
Inflow Communications launched 1997, headquartered out of Beaverton, Oregon. The company made a name for itself as a leading ShoreTel partner for contact center and unified communications.
Lower middle market private equity firm Renovus bought Inflow in 2020. Then Renovus bought Denver-based PeakView Communications, a cloud contact center-focused consultancy (and a high performer in the agency space), and merged it with Inflow.
InflowCX went on to buy three companies: business process outsourcing (BPO) provider BPO Partners, consulting company Epic Connections and most recently software development company NetFore.
Gill added that buying Denver-based InflowCX firmly establishes Massachussetts-based Amplix as a national force.
"Now we've got customers and employees in dozens of states and the ability to touch customers very easily all around the country to bring value," Gill said.
InflowCX's customers include Seagate, Domino's Pizza and Zillow. Renovus stated that InflowCX serves more than 1,000 customers. Amplix stated that it serves more than 2,500, bringing the combined customer base beyond 3,500.
Amplix is keeping its Norwood, Massachussetts, headquarters.
Renovus completed the sale of InflowCX to Gemspring. It did so with the financial advisory of Lazard.
Renovus founding partner Jesse Serventi praised the three years of Inflow as a portfolio company.
"During our ownership period, InflowCX completed the PeakView acquisition as well as three additional acquisitions, grew revenue and EBITDA substantially, and built a reputation of excellence in the market," Serventi said. "The business is exceptionally well positioned for continued growth under Gemspring's ownership, and we wish the entire InflowCX team continued success in the future."
Gemspring managing director Zubin Malkani said the merger "will be transformational."
"We share a vision with the entire management team to be the premier provider of technology advisory services, and we are confident this step will position the business for accelerated growth and long-term success," Malkani said.
Amplix CEO Joe DeStefano said the company cultures will eventually merge. But he said Amplix wants to take a patient approach.
"When it comes to the customer-facing dynamic, it's going to be a work in progress, and we'll do it thoughtfully over time," he said.
InflowCX Ken Smith called cultural alignment is "paramount to success" for combining two companies. And Smith said the two entities are ontrack so far with their alignment.
"Yes, we can tout the real advantages of bringing together specific areas of domain expertise, and they are significant. However, it was obvious early on in our discussions between our companies that our management philosophies are very much in sync," Smith told Channel Futures.
"Leadership from both companies took the time to get to know each other on a personal level, and paid attention to important metrics like employee retention and career development. Inflated egos are a danger to any business plan, and those simply don’t exist at either company. Our focus is fully on delivering for, and doing right by, our employees and customers," Smith added.
InflowCX holds strategic partnerships with several large vendors in different technology buckets, including contact center, customer experience, workforce management and unified communications. Those vendors include Five9, RingCentral, Zoom and Nice.
Smith called thse supplier relationships "incredibly solid and strategic." Moreover, he said these vendors are giving their blessing to the acquisition.
"Several of them were privy to Amplix and InflowCX joining together ahead of completing the deal, and to the person, they all expressed their excitement and support," Smith said. "The combined teams of Amplix and InflowCX bring over 3,500 customers, as well as a robust direct sales organization. This will certainly result in incremental business and accelerated growth for those partners, so their enthusiasm is warranted."
When asked if Amplix will maintain the services InflowCX was providing on behalf of other technology advisors, DeStefano and Gill said they don't want to change the way InflowCX conducts its business.
Moreover, they both said they want to participate in a "rising tide" that benefits other technology advisor businesses.
"As an industry, we're still scratching the surface in the spend and applications that are out there to go get. The more we help each other and the more all of us do well, the better it is for all of us. We want this to be the primary way people make technology investments," Gill said.
Buying Inflow represents a vertical move of sorts – bringing in services that typically exist beyond the advisor's place in the value chain.
Gill compared it to Amplix' purchase of Corporate Accessories Group, which has given the company an in-house mobility management play.
"In our approach, it's been a lot of focus. Not just buying companies for financial reasons, but also capability enhancement. Extending the life cycle of value within an investment, being able to get stickier, deeper and wider inside a customer," Gill said.
"I think we've taken a methodical approach to that. And I think this is a great example of really digging in and being smart about an area that's really key to the business going forward, and a set of capabilities that are important going forward and make us a bit different than everyone else."
Buying Inflow represents a vertical move of sorts – bringing in services that typically exist beyond the advisor's place in the value chain.
Gill compared it to Amplix' purchase of Corporate Accessories Group, which has given the company an in-house mobility management play.
"In our approach, it's been a lot of focus. Not just buying companies for financial reasons, but also capability enhancement. Extending the life cycle of value within an investment, being able to get stickier, deeper and wider inside a customer," Gill said.
"I think we've taken a methodical approach to that. And I think this is a great example of really digging in and being smart about an area that's really key to the business going forward, and a set of capabilities that are important going forward and make us a bit different than everyone else."
Private equity company Gemspring Capital Management is buying customer experience (CX) and contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) partner InflowCX and merging it with Amplix, the Massachusetts-based technology advisor company.
The deal, whose financial details the companies does not disclose, brings InflowCX's consulting, professional and managed services around CX technology to Amplix's bench. InflowCX CEO Ken Smith is moving to the board of directors for Amplix, while InflowCX president Adam Rennert will take the helm of Amplix's customer experience division.
Renovus Capital Partners, which bought Inflow in 2020 and later Peakview Communications, is selling the company to Gemspring.
The leaders at Amplix, which emerged late in 2023 through the merger of three New England-based agencies, said the acquisition significantly deepens Amplix's CX practice.
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Amplix's Joe DeStefano
"We're subject-matter experts when it comes to connectivity and mobility. When it comes contact center as a service, we've been very opportunistic in the past but really haven't had the engineering, professional services and implementation services that they bring to the table," Amplix CEO Joe DeStefano told Channel Futures. "It really gives us a deep knowledge of that space. It will be a lot more valuable to our enterprise customers that have large contact centers."
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Amplix's Dan Gill
Amplix leaders stress the importance of in-house engineering talent. President Dan Gill said the company views customer experience (CX) and cybersecurity as two areas where adding resources will create sticker clients. Gill said suppliers, distributors and end customers Amplix works with have lauded InflowCX's expertise around CX.
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Inflow's Ken Smith
While InflowCX often sourced and serviced contact center software for its own customers, the company helped many technology advisor (agent) firms in the channel to ensure smooth implementations. Ken Smith said that although his company hasn't partnered with a technology advisor of Amplix's scale, "numerous" agents have brought InflowCX into their deals.
"Several of the trusted advisors had previously attempted to drive a successful outcome for CCaaS engagements but could not get the client to commit the resources and budget for the projects," said Smith. "Our expertise in the process, including a robust ROI/TCO model, plus our ability to directly own the implementation and subsequent managed services, enabled us to jointly win deals. Having the ability to programmatically take that approach in the new combined company will result in significant opportunities."
PPT Solutions, another CX-focused consultancy and services firm, sold to Bridgepointe late in 2022. PPT, like Inflow, operated as both an agency for end-user customers and a strategic supplier for channel partners. Bridgepointe retained its partnerships with technology services distributors (TSDs), and early indications are that Amplix will maintain those relationships in the channel.
"[InflowCX] has a very successful business. They have great leadership. They know how to run that practice, and it's not in my DNA to fix something that's not broken," DeStefano said. "That's something that I feel pretty strongly about. And additionally, a rising tide raises all boats. So if we're able to help out our brethren on a contact center solution, I think that's pretty cool."
Read about the details and implications of the deal in the slideshow.
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