Press Releases
ICON Corporate Finance has successfully advised on the sale of Practique Associates to Merced Systems, a Silicon Valley based software company.
June 2008
Merced Systems, Inc. Acquires Practique Associates, Europe's Leading Sales Performance Management Vendor
Redwood Shores, CA, June 2008 — Merced Systems, the leader in Sales and Service Performance Management software, announced that it has acquired Practique Associates, a privately held, UK-based company, and European market leader in Incentive Compensation Management (ICM) solutions.
Practique Associates will operate in Europe as a wholly owned subsidiary of Merced Systems, allowing the company to continue its impressive track record of growth and profitability. Combined, the two companies offer the only performance management solution on the market today that serves both sales and service organizations in a unified fashion. These sales and service organizations include contact centers, field sales, retail sales, partner operations, back office functions, and field service groups, and carry the critical responsibility to acquire, support, and ensure the loyalty of customers.
Sales and Service Performance Management enables organizations to drive performance across all customer-facing functions and dramatically improves customer lifetime economic value. Sales and Service Performance Management capabilities including incentive compensation management, consolidated reporting, dashboarding, analytics, coaching and other applications that drive behavior change among customer-facing and servicing staff.
Sales and Service Performance Management is one of the least penetrated and fastest growing sectors in the Performance Management market.
"Merced is uniquely positioned to help sales forces and service organizations drive improvement" said Merced Systems CEO, Matt Glickman. "With the acquisition of Practique, Merced provides a combined and integrated performance offering that encompasses all customer-serving operations within a single family of applications. Our broad portfolio of products drives core behavior change at the front line of sales and service organizations which boosts customer experience, operational efficiency, revenue generation, and employee engagement."
The marriage of these two sector leaders will result in an unparalleled Performance Management company. Bringing together two critical product categories and two expert teams, strength in multiple geographies, and a common vision, the acquisition uniquely positions Merced Systems in the market. The company can now provide greater business impact by adding new capabilities to the traditional Sales Performance Management category, including coaching, and advanced analytics. Additionally Merced Systems' category leading service performance management offering is strengthened by the addition of world-class Incentive Compensation Management. The result is a powerful and comprehensive performance management portfolio.
Jo Walker, Managing Director of Practique said: "Both Practique and Merced have a reputation for quality, strong leadership, and forward-looking visions in their respective markets. The marriage of Merced Systems and Practique is powerful. It quickly became apparent that we share certain core values about how to grow our business and how to treat our customers and employees. The acquisition makes sense not just because there is a growing market need for a dual Sales and Service Performance Management solution, but because the companies share a similar heritage and have each developed their respective businesses with similar values and goals."
Eddie Harding of ICON Corporate Finance who ran the sale process on behalf of the management of Practique and identified Merced as the acquirer said: “We are delighted to have completed the cross border sale of Practique to Merced, an exciting high growth Silicon Valley based software business with global growth aspirations. There are significant synergies to be derived from combining Practique’s market leading Incentive Compensation Management software with Merced’s own Sales Performance Management product offering. The acquisition also provides Merced with a strong established base of operations in Europe from which to sell its products.”
About Merced
Merced Systems is the leading provider of Sales and Service Performance Management applications focused on improving operational effectiveness of sales forces and service organizations across a range of vertical industries. Merced Systems' award winning products serve Global 2000 customers, and include advanced analytics and reporting, incentive compensation management, coaching and other performance execution applications, With a strong track record of growth and delivering business impact to its customers, Merced Systems has been profitable for the past 5 years. Merced Systems is a privately held venture capital-based company headquartered in Redwood City, CA., with major operations in the UK . For more information on Merced Systems, please visit:
About Practique
Practique is Europe’s leading specialist vendor of Enterprise Incentive Compensation Management (ICM) software. Its flagship web-based application, INCA automates sales commission and bonus and is responsible for managing the commission of over 120,000 employees and channel partners across Europe every day.
Practique offers clients an end-to-end solution from strategic planning through to deployment and after sales. Practique understands clients invest in enterprise ICM solutions with a long-term view and we evolve and develop our software upgrades to continually meet your business needs. Emphasis is also placed firmly on education and training in addition to assisting with communication to staff.
INCA embraces all aspects of performance incentive programmes and so presents a compelling argument for any business operating variable pay. It has been proven to drive sales performance, motivate employees, influence sales behaviours and it positively impacts the business bottom line. INCA reduces costs such as compensation overpayment and unnecessary administration overheads and directly links performance measures to top line company growth targets. For example, one of Practique’s clients cut its operational costs by 37% and drove up sales volume by 22% within 12 months of implementing INCA.
Practique, a UK-based, privately owned organisation, has implemented its software across a broad range of industry sectors. It has successfully deployed INCA into many industry-leading companies, including The Carphone Warehouse, O2 UK and Germany, Cable & Wireless, seven separate divisions of BT, The Royal Bank of Scotland and British Gas Business part of Centrica Plc. For more information, please visit:
