In another development that signals social media monitoring is becoming a bona fide must-have for CRM software purveyors, Lithium Technologies announced today that it will acquire Scout Labs, which makes technology to help manufacturers and other businesses assess the influence of customers who congregate online. Lithium did not disclose the transaction price.
Lithium and Scout Labs offer similar technologies with a subtle twist. Lithium’s specialty, housed under its Social CRM umbrella, is software that helps a company draw insight from conversations that occur in specific online customer communities — for instance, a gated knowledge base for product issues and suggestions. Scout Labs’ technology takes a broader view of customer influence, tracking mentions of a company’s products across a variety of social networks, blogs, forums, and other online sites.
“Together [the two technologies] create a strategic platform for listening, engaging, and acting on customers’ conversations wherever they occur,” Lithium said in a statement announcing the deal. Lithium will integrate Scout Labs’ monitoring and analytics tools into the Lithium portfolio, but will also offer the Scout Labs software separately.
In a blog post today, Scout Labs founder and CEO Jennifer Zeszut said the tie-up addresses a gap in Scout Labs’ customer-focused offerings.