BrazilWipro buys customer experience consultancy Rational Interaction
The digital business wing of Indian ICT services and consulting firm Wipro has purchased US-based customer experience consultancy Rational Interaction.
Wipro has joined in on the recent acquisition action among Indian ICT players with the purchase of Rational Interaction, a full-service digital customer experience firm with an APAC office in Sydney. To be housed within Wipro’s digital business unit Wipro Digital, the acquisition adds a team of around 330 CX experts and was reportedly valued at $52 million. It follows other recent pick-ups from Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Cognizant.
“This acquisition comes at a time when companies increasingly compete solely on CX, and the market for CX spending is growing exponentially,” said Wipro Digital president Rajan Kohli. “Discovering, refining and optimising the customer experience from first impression through repeat sale requires best-in-class talent, unique marketing technologies and methodologies, and the ability to scale and demonstrate payback quickly.”
Established in 2009, Rational Interaction describes itself as woman-founded and woman-led, with the advisory offering a full suite of CX services and solutions, including strategy & insights consulting, customer acquisition and life-cycle management, experience design, and digital engineering and transformation. According to the firm, these areas of expertise will now be complemented by Wipro’s capabilities in digital engineering, architecture and design.
“Wipro’s global presence and partnerships with industry leaders provides an opportunity to scale Rational Interaction's CX offerings, building on our success in developing and launching brand-defining campaigns,” said Rational Interaction CEO Kahly Berg. “As companies continue their digital transformation journeys, we see CMOs increasingly stepping in as the leaders of these initiatives, tasked with representing the voice of the customer.”
Those customers should be feeling particularly valued at the present. Last year, global professional services firm PwC contended that companies should consider instituting a new metric; ‘ROX’ – or Return on Experience, which broadens traditional return on investment measures to include a greater focus on CX. Those which can provide a superior customer experience, the firm stated, will ultimately run out the winners.
This view appears to be backed by the Wipro’s Technology Business Unit global head and senior vice president, Nitin Parab. “Rational Interaction’s and Wipro’s combined capability provides an end-to-end solution for clients, who know they have to compete on customer experience. Capturing customer sentiment in real time and using AI to engage with customers in more meaningful ways will drive higher engagement, purchase and loyalty.”
Meanwhile, Wipro’s latest acquisition – closed at a time when the ICT giant is on the hunt for a new CEO – follows a flurry of recent activity among competitors, particular in the customer relationship management space. Earlier this month, Infosys forked over a reported $250 million for US platinum Salesforce partner Simplus, while Cognizant at the same time picked up French Salesforce specialist EI-Technologies and Code Zero Consulting of the US.
