Graham Technology (News - Alert) has been acquired by international IT company Sword Group. "It is expected that the acquisition will help drive global uptake of Graham Technology's flagship customer interaction platform, ciboodle," Graham officials say.

 

With offices in 16 countries, Sword employs over 2,000 people worldwide and has expertise in sectors including banking, insurance, energy and telecoms. Through the acquisition, Graham Technology officials say they expect to be able to use Sword's resources to "maximize" the company's geographic reach.

 

"We are delighted to be joining the Sword Group," said Mike Hughes, Managing Director, Graham Technology. "Aligning ourselves with Sword gives us the opportunity to take ciboodle to a wider audience using Sword's presence in new markets."

 

"This is an excellent alignment for Graham Technology and Sword alike, enhancing our range of offerings and providing a contact center CRM product relevant to many of our existing markets and customers," said Tony Holland, Chief Operating Officer at Sword Group's software division.

 

Sword is an IT company specializing in the delivery of software and services to regulated industries. It sells Governance, Risk and Compliance Management products to energy, travel and transportation, healthcare, insurance, banking, telecoms and government.

 

Last month officials from Glasgow-based Graham Technology announced that the firm is working with a UK-based customer management outsourcer, Ventura, which has chosen Graham's customer interaction platform, ciboodle, to "add features and benefits to its current service offering."

 

Ventura provides CRM, collections and back office outsourcing products. The company employs 11,000 staff across seven UK sites and one in India. Its 25-strong client portfolio includes such organizations as O2, DWP, Sky and Next Directory.

 

Ciboodle will give Ventura the ability to offer its clients "the product's broad array of process-driven customer interaction capabilities," according to Graham officials: "With a set of contact center-specific features, ciboodle provides an alternative to the rigid CRM and telephony software packages in today's call centers."

 

Alan Linter, Business Solutions Director, Ventura, said the vendor chose ciboodle for its "process focus," and because of "its multi-channel capabilities. In terms of both speed and cost, we see tremendous value in being able to offer such an advanced product to our client base."