Sonata Software today announced signing of definitive agreements to  acquire GAPbusters Limited (GBW), the Melbourne headquartered company that has been amongst pioneers in the CX domain serving renowned brands globally for nearly thirty years.

As companies are increasingly focusing  on  measuring and  managing  customer experience to stoke their growth, CX solutions are playing a significant part in most organizations’ digital transformation initiatives. As per Fortune Business insights, “The demand for customer experience management systems is rising across various industries and its market is expected to gain significant traction owing to the recent technological advancements. According to a new study by Fortune Business Insights, the global customer experience management market is anticipated to be worth USD 23.9 Billion by 2026, as against USD 6.2 Billion in 2018, growing at a CAGR of 18.5% “

While GBW has for long been known for its Mystery shopping, Brand /Compliance Audits & Competitor benchmarking programs, over the last few years, the company has taken a platform based approach   for its new solution offerings in employee survey, feedback management, voice of customer programs to widen its CX bouquet leveraging advanced AI & ML capabilities to deliver insightful & actionable recommendations for its clients with more evolved CX requirements.

Commenting on the acquisition Srikar Reddy, MD & CEO, Sonata Software said, “This acquisition is exciting for Sonata as it is a reaffirmation of our Platformation  led approach to digital transformation adding a major platform led  customer experience offering  to our current solutions, creating substantial value to our existing & prospective clients by  providing a more comprehensive  digital transformation  offering covering 360 degrees of the customer journey, possibly making Sonata very unique in its ability to offer such a unified experience across the customer life cycle.” Further elaborating  Srikar Reddy said “In-fact, in the Retail, CPG, Service & Travel Verticals which has been one of our focus areas, given our own IP’s, we will now be able to offer a one-stop-shop with the CX solution offering to go with the IP’s & all our Clients and prospects who are constantly looking to monitor, measure, garner insights and improve their services need not go looking for proven, trustworthy & best in class CX solutions with deep industry insights as a big plus”.

The GBW acquisition, coming as it does on the back of a previous acquisition last year of Scalable Data Systems, a Brisbane headquartered company, amongst the other acquisitions & investments that Sonata has made over the last 24 months, not just strengthens Sonata’s footprint in Australia but also opens up new geographies in South East Asia & Europe where GBW has large clients in the QSR, retail, automotive and oil & gas space.

Grant Salmon, CEO of GBW commented, “We are excited being part of Sonata. We see an opportunity to differentiate ourselves through adopting the Platformation^TM approach and to further enrich and enhance our offerings leveraging Sonata’s world class capabilities in AI & other cutting edge technologies. Our existing clients too will be delighted as they will continue to get the high service quality they are used to, besides gaining access to a wider set of capabilities through the financial strength, stability and global footprint that Sonata brings.  We would now not only be able to invest quickly to scale our business in terms of reach, capability and service, but also leverage Sonata’s global presence to access and service new markets. Our people will have opportunities for a more diverse choice of solutions and to develop their careers, while opening up the scope to extend these virtues to newer markets and geographies”

The legal, regulatory & commercial aspects of the acquisition will be completed in due course.

For more information on GBW please visit www.gbw.solutions