InflowCX Buy Gives Amplix In-House CCaaS Talent, Services

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.

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."

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.

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.