Unit4 has acquired Assistance Software, a PSA (professional services automation) developer that integrates closely with Microsoft Dynamics 365. Although Assistance Software hasn't aggressively pursued IT service providers to date, we heard rumors in February that such a move was coming.
Unit4, backed by 4,200 employees worldwide, focuses mainly on enterprise applications that empower people in service organizations. The company's annual revenues are at least 500M Euro (approximately US$533 million).
Assistance Software, headquartered in Naarden, is privately held with customers in Europe and North America, including Fugro, RSM, Grant Thornton, Eiffel and KPN.
Unit4 PSA Strategy
Unit4 says the company's PSA suite specifically targets professional services organizations (PSOs) -- though Assistance Software hasn't made PSA moves in the MSP and VAR markets vs. entrenched players like Autotask and ConnectWise.
Still, that could be set to change. ChannelE2E around February 24 heard rumors about Assistance Software preparing to more aggressively engage IT service providers. We trust the sources. (Ahem, see item 3 here, Shirley you read our 5 Channel Partner Updates each morning.) The competition could also involve midmarket and enterprise platforms like ServiceNow and FinancialForce (built for Salesforce.com), we've also heard.
Unit4 says the PSA platform offers five key benefits:
- True visibility into their services pipeline;
- Engagement with opportunities earlier in the sales cycle, improving both win rates and utilization rates;
- Better transition from sales into services for a seamless customer experience;
- The ability to determine the types of clients and projects that are a best fit; and
- A full 360-degree view of the customer through the sales and services cycle.
Assistance Software’s PSA Suite is one of the most widely used by the PSOs, according to Service Performance Insight, a benchmarking organization. Still, we don't have actual deployment figures at our fingertips.
