Unified communications (UC) vendor Mitel has completed the acquisition of one of its key suppliers, prairieFyre Software, a privately-held global provider of contact centre, business analytics and workforce optimisation software and services.

The net cash cost to Mitel for the acquisition of prairieFyre is approximately $20-million. The deal is expected to be accretive in the first year.
prairieFyre is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that has supplied Mitel with its existing contact centre solution.

The acquisition is expected to further strengthen Mitel’s position in the growing contact centre market, estimated at over $3-billion annually. The acquisition co-incides with the increasing influence of customer facing contact centre applications as a revenue engine for many organisations and a key factor in building and maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty.

In addition, the acquisition provides Mitel a cornerstone development platform to address increasing demand for cloud-based contact centre solutions and creates strong pull-through opportunities for associated sales of Mitel’s core IP telephony and UC solutions.

“Mitel’s strategy centres on delivering profitable growth to our customers, partners and shareholders. In response to customer demand, many of our IT resellers have started building out specialised contact centre practices and are asking for a solution tightly integrated and aligned with Mitel’s product development and roadmaps,” said Richard McBee, president and CEO of Mitel.

“We believe the highly integrated nature of our existing OEM relationship with prairieFyre prior to the acquisition makes this a low risk, high reward and compelling opportunity to immediately capitalise on market demand, expand revenue and margins, and positions Mitel for on-going growth.”

According to Andy Bull, MD of Mitel SA, Mitel has been highly successful in the contact centre market in South Africa. “We believe this acquisition will strengthen our local leadership position,” he says.

The contact centre group will continue to be led by prairieFyre CEO Chris Courneya in his new role as vice-president and GM of Mitel Contact Centres.