Empyrean Acquires Enspire, and Launches New Integrated Solution
Empyrean, the human resource technology and services company, has acquired communication and engagement platform Enspire.
Based in Houston, Texas, Empyrean is best known for its proprietary AI-enabled benefits technology, which provides employees with personalized benefits recommendations and guidance based on the individual’s own health data, while also offering visibility into likely future healthcare needs and associated costs. Enspire, headquartered in Austin, Texas, provides workers with a single connection point for all HR initiatives and uses a simplified, self-service digital hub to deliver personalized employee notifications.
With the acquisition, a new solution called +YOU integrates Empyrean’s benefits administration platform with Enspire’s employee communication and engagement technology to create what the two organizations describe is a fully customizable and employer-branded people experience—a single front door, so to speak, to an employer’s suite of tools for employee productivity, wellness, communications, and benefits.
The new solution will also enable employers to have access to advanced data analytics that track employee engagement, retention, satisfaction, and benefits utilization. Ultimately, the integration of technology from both companies will create more opportunities to connect people to the benefits they need, at the time that they need them, through a mobile application that can be used every day, the two organizations say.
Already, clients using Empyrean’s benefits technology report twice the adoption rate of voluntary benefits offered, and the company expects user engagement to rise with the new +YOU capabilities.
Zoho Announces Investment for Expansion in the UAE
Zoho, the multinational technology company that makes software and web-based business tools headquartered in Chennai, India, has announced an investment of 100 million Emirati dirhams (equivalent to $27.2 million) for expansion in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Zoho did not provide any details on its plans for expansion in this country of 9.2 million located at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula, but the company has provided monetary contributions to government organizations and educational institutions in the UAE on various initiatives, ostensibly to build goodwill in the areas where it operates.
Zoho worked with the UAE Department of Economy and Tourism to make enterprise technology available to businesses, and it teamed up with the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) and Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management (EAHM) to offer upskilling courses. Its other benevolent initiatives include helping more than 3,500 local subject matter experts (SMEs) gain access to its cloud technology through various partnerships, investing 20 million dirhams ($5.4 million) in wallet credits. It also invested 4.5 million dirhams ($1.2 million) in upskilling initiatives on imparting digital literacy to more than 200 students and 300 companies.
Sridhar Vembu, co-founder and CEO of Zoho, says it is the company’s tradition to give back to the community when it expands into a region. “We will continue to invest in growing our footprint in the country through hirings, upskilling programs, localization of products, integrating our solutions with local vendors, and partnering with organizations to help local businesses in their digitalization efforts.”
Founded in 1996 and best known for its Zoho Office Suite product, Zoho enjoyed growth on various fronts last year in the UAE, which serves as the headquarters for its Middle East and Africa (MEA) operations. Revenue rose 45%, and the company doubled its employee count and grew its partners network by 50%. Since starting operations in the UAE five years ago, Zoho has grown by a factor of 10, or a 5-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 60%.
GoCo Snaps Up WFHomie to Expand Product Offerings
Human resources (HR) software firm GoCo is acquiring WFHomie, an employee experience (EX) and people analytics platform built for remote-first companies. The acquisition is GoCo’s first and follows a $15 million funding round that the Houston-based company completed in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Based in Houston, GoCo aims to empower HR professionals and make work a better place. Its employee management platform is designed to automate manual HR tasks so that HR teams can prioritize strategic initiatives. With HR professionals feeling more pressure from leadership to retain top talent, GoCo executives say the company is eager to expand its suite of employee management solutions with even more products and services aimed at enhancing EX and providing valuable people analytics for measuring engagement.
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The acquisition of WFHomie and the addition of its products to GoCo’s portfolio are key steps in that direction, both organizations say. WFHomie, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, operates a platform for EX that provides distributed and hybrid companies with virtual experiences, employee recognition software, and people analytics tools to keep remote-first teams productive and engaged.
Sendinblue Acquires Neighboring Parisian Player Captain Wallet
Paris-based email solutions firm Sendinblue has acquired fellow Parisian firm Captain Wallet, a pioneering startup and provider in mobile wallet marketing. Showcasing a new strategic direction for Sendinblue, the acquisition aims to address the needs of retailers and large accounts by adding a customer loyalty and retention channel.
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Captain Wallet offers brands the ability to dematerialize marketing materials such as loyalty cards, which can be used to send customers real-time updates via mobile devices to better capture their attention. The solution uses native Apple Wallet and Google Wallet applications to dematerialize loyalty cards, offers, membership cards, relational cards, and gift cards.
Once added to the wallet, brands can easily update a card’s content and send push notifications that can be automated, scheduled, and geolocated via the Captain Wallet platform. Each dematerialized card in the wallet is personalized, allowing brands to inform all or part of their wallet customers of current offers relevant to the customer’s specific interests. The capability empowers brands to strengthen customer relations via mobile, which is also the most viewed and preferred screen among digital consumers today.
Mickael Arias, chief revenue officer and head of enterprise solutions at Paris-based Sendinblue, says the acquisition enhances the value provided by the company through a new mobile marketing channel that allows better engagement with customers. “We are excited about bringing a turnkey solution to retailers and retail brands of all sizes to help them easily and effectively manage all of their activation and customer loyalty programs within the same platform,” Arias remarks. “With a centralized solution, marketing campaigns and loyalty programs are effortlessly managed and easily tracked against strategic goals.”
GSoft Buys Fellow Canadian Outfit Didacte
GSoft, the Montreal, Canada-based provider of software for improving employee experience (EX), has acquired Didacte, the company offering a corporate learning management system for professional development headquartered in Quebec City.
Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed, but the acquisition is an important step in GSoft’s strategy to further expand its product offerings and deliver more value to clients. Didacte will also be an essential addition to the GSoft portfolio, helping clients enhance the EX for their workforce by providing them with learning opportunities.
With the acquisition, Didacte will now enable GSoft to offer clients an online learning platform to create and distribute training courses; organizations can use the new product to host corporate learning modules or to offer external modules to customers and business partners. A learning management system (LMS) supplies a central location for storing and distributing learning materials while also furnishing tools for reporting, tracking participation, and assessing performance.
Martin Gourdeau, president and general manager at GSoft, says adding an LMS product to the GSoft family is an important milestone toward the company’s objective of developing an ecosystem of interconnected products. “Acquiring Didacte is a key step in executing our growth strategy, which consists of expanding GSoft’s presence while gaining market share in existing and new markets. We are in a strong and powerful position and are confident that we’re on the right path to achieve our growth objectives in the coming months and years.”
Author Information
Alex is responsible for writing about trends and changes that are impacting the customer experience market. He had served as Principal Editor at Village Intelligence, a Los Angeles-based consultancy on technology impacting healthcare and healthcare-related industries. Alex was also Associate Director for Content Management at Omdia and Informa Tech, where he produced white papers, executive summaries, market insights, blogs, and other key content assets. His areas of coverage spanned the sectors grouped under the technology vertical, including semiconductors, smart technologies, enterprise & IT, media, displays, mobile, power, healthcare, China research, industrial and IoT, automotive, and transformative technologies.
At IHS Markit, he was Managing Editor of the company’s flagship IHS Quarterly, covering aerospace & defense, economics & country risk, chemicals, oil & gas, and other IHS verticals. He was Principal Editor of analyst output at iSuppli Corp. and Managing Editor of Market Watch, a fortnightly newsletter highlighting significant analyst report findings for pitching to the media. He started his career in writing as an Editor-Reporter for The Associated Press.
