Microsoft Buys FieldOne for Mobile CRM, Adallom for Cloud App Security

Microsoft (MSFT) made two mobile/cloud/security strategic purchases in the past few days, the first a $39 million deal to buy New Jersey-headquartered FieldOne Systems, which makes field service management solutions, and a second to buy Adallom, a cloud app cybersecurity provider, for some $320 million.

Microsoft sees FieldOne’s mobile apps and cloud services aimed at remote workers, including automated scheduling, dispatching, work orders, inventory contracts and collaborating, as offering another element to an end-to-end enterprise solution with its Dynamics platform.

“FieldOne is a great fit for Dynamics CRM adding to our extensive customer service capabilities, which includes chat, knowledge management and self-service functionality from Parature which we acquired in January of 2014,” wrote Bob Stutz, Microsoft Dynamics CRM corporate vice president, in a blog post.

“FieldOne was built from the ground up to leverage Dynamics CRM, and this means that our customers can take advantage of its capabilities right away,” he said.

What keyed Microsoft’s interest in FieldOne was the mobile component. Param Kahlon, Microsoft Dynamics partner group program manager told GeekWire that mobile customer service technology is “one of the key areas that will drive the growth of Dynamics CRM.”

“The future is very bright for the field service management software industry,” Shloma Baum, FieldOne founder, president and chief technology officer (CTO), wrote in a blog post. “Evolutions in technology are fueling rapid advances in the IoT, cloud, and big data. Companies need to shift from reactive to proactive service mode or they risk losing their customers,” he said.

“The need is blatantly obvious and with Microsoft’s resources and vision we will be taking field service to a whole new level and look forward to sharing our new developments with you,” Baum said.

All 53 of FieldOne’s employees reportedly will join Microsoft with the deal.

Adallom adds to Israeli haul

Separately, Microsoft plunked down $320 million for 90-person cloud cyber security provider Adallom, said to be the vendor’s largest-ever acquisition in Israel according to Globes, an Israeli business news outlet. Adallom’s headquarters are in Palo Alto, CA and the vendor also maintains a development center in Israel.

The company’s solutions to secure cloud-based apps work across Microsoft’s Office 365, Google (GOOG) Apps as well as Salesforce.com and ServiceNow apps.

Adallom, founded in 2012 by Adam Rappaport, Ami Luttwak and Roy Reznik, all alumni of the Israeli Intelligence Corps., has secured some $49.5 million in venture backing to this point, including an investment from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) in April, according to Crunchbase.

Microsoft hasn’t confirmed the deal but if completed it will be the vendor’s fourth acquisition in Israel this year, Globes reported. Prior purchases include cyber security vendor Aorato for $200 million, text analysis provider Equivio for $200 million, and N-trig, a digital pen maker, for an undisclosed price said to be “several tens of millions of dollars,” the report said. In 2009, Microsoft bought Israeli firm 3DV Systems $35 million.

Adallom reportedly will continue its Israel development operations.