Jive Software acquires Social Media Monitoring innovator Filtrbox. Acquisition expands Jive's vision of Social Business Software as the real-time business hub of the enterprise.

Jive Software has acquired Filtrbox, a social media monitoring (SMM) innovator, whose service enables companies to monitor conversations on the real-time web. A privately held company located in Boulder, Colorado, Filtrbox is a pioneer in the delivery of real-time social media monitoring as on-demand software as a service (SaaS). Filtrbox first offered their service in June of 2008 and today has over 200 customers, many of them leading brands.

The acquisition of Filtrbox enables Jive to broaden the reach of our top-rated Social Business Software with a highly complementary technology. Initially, we will integrate Filtrbox technology into our Jive Market Engagement solution, which is the first solution to combine social media monitoring with the power of collaborative Social Business Software to implement a unified social media engagement strategy. Subsequently, Jive will drill deeper to drive business value from the real-time web with unique applications to bridge related internal activities and market-facing activities. New applications will use social intelligence to enrich the internal decision support process, fundamentally changing the way companies develop business initiatives, cultivate product innovation, and go to market. Other market-facing applications will use social intelligence to engage with customers and enrich the customer experience, helping companies establish clear competitive differentiation.

More details about the acquisition:

FAQs

What are the market realities driving the acquisition?

The need to monitor conversations on the real-time web has reached critical mass. Facebook recently registered its 350 millionth member. If it were a country, Facebook would rank only behind China and India as the most populous. The conversations taking place among Twitter's estimated 70 million users, while smaller in number, are poised to have even more impact. Increasingly, Twitter serves as an instant news wire about subjects both large and small. The power of the real-time web to impact businesses both negatively and positively has proven real and demonstrable. Negative publicity can spread like wildfire: just ask Domino's Pizza and United Airlines about the impact of videos on YouTube. This past holiday season, big retailers such as Target and Toys R Us used tweets and Facebook fan pages as direct marketing tools. A follow-up survey showed that 28% of early holiday shoppers were influenced to buy a gift through social media.

What business problem does Filtrbox solve?

Companies use Filtrbox's service to filter web conversations in real-time to capture sales opportunities, identify market trends, understand conversations around their brand, and follow the activities of customers, partners, and suppliers. The impact of the real time web can no longer be ignored:

75% of business executives rely on professional networks to support business decisions
83% of business professionals say they trust information obtained from online networks
The average business professional belongs to 3-5 online networks for business use

Source: Society for New Communications Research

How does Filtrbox stand out?

Filtrbox's fresh user experience and attractive pricing model brings social media monitoring out of the closet for deployment broadly across the enterprise. And its unique, cutting-edge architecture lets them process large volumes of data faster and at less cost than any other vendor. Social media monitoring is as much about prioritizing conversations as finding them, separating the wheat from the chaff of all the buzz that takes place online. Filtrbox differentiates themselves with an accessible technology that makes it easy to prioritize feeds and dial the "noise" up or down to manage information overload. Their product also pays attention to how you interact with the data and uses that information to adjust the ranking of what it delivers. Filtrbox's value proposition is realized when discovered conversations are shared as business-critical intelligence with the appropriate audience within the enterprise. Powerful filtering features allow Filtrbox users to sort information by department, if they are an enterprise, or by client, if they are an agency. Periodic email snapshots keep users up to date without logging onto the service. Filtrbox also provides the ability to analyze "influencers" in the marketplace, a very hot area of focus today.

What got Jive excited about Filtrbox?

Jive evaluated all the players in the market and became very excited about Filtrbox for a number of reasons:

Filtrbox's passion to build great products that people love to use, which is a passion we share
Filtrbox's attractive pricing model, which makes it well suited for broad deployment across organizations
Filtrbox's intuitive, "no manual required" fresh user experience, which fits like a glove with Jive's "most refined interface out of the pack" (Forrester)
Filtrbox's scalable, unique, cutting edge architecture, which allows them to process large volumes of data faster and at less cost than any other vendor
Filtrbox's on-demand business model, which fits into Jive's strategy for expanding its cloud footprint
Filtrbox's vision around "social media engagement" and "empowering the workforce," which aligns very well with Jive's vision

How does the acquisition align with Jive's product road map?

Jive believes that the proactive use of this technology is a "must-have" for companies that put their enterprise onto a Social Business Software platform. Owning the technology allows Jive to shape it to fit our long-range product road map. Jive first signaled its belief in the power of harnessing authentic conversations on the real-time web earlier last year, when it announced its Jive Market Engagement solution. The Filtrbox acquisition reflects Jive's ability to leverage its market leadership position to quickly expand the footprint of its Jive SBS platform. Jive will continue to grow its product portfolio organically through partnerships as well as acquisitions.

How is Jive uniquely positioned to take SMM to the next level?

By expanding our core platform to drive proactive engagement with the real-time web as well as monitor social media, Jive will be able to offer business-critical solutions with massive, enterprise-wide application beyond managing brand disruptions. As the social layer that connects people, content, and activities across the extended enterprise, Jive Social Business Software serves as the business hub for leading brands that power the global economy. Increasingly, the global economy is a conversation economy, where the social web fuels business choices. These conversations have reached a critical mass and have far-reaching business implications. The application of social media monitoring today as a listening platform is simply the tip of the iceberg and the first phase of a sea change in how businesses will derive value from the real-time web. Jive believes that any business decision or action that can be enhanced by tapping into the power of social media is a potential application.

How will the combined Jive / Filtrbox solution stack up?

The combined Jive / Filtrbox solution will be unique in the marketplace. With the explosion of social media and its ability to virally enhance or damage a company's reputation, the requirement for robust social media monitoring solutions has reached a crescendo. Companies are anxious to move swiftly in moments of pain and opportunity. However, because of their complexity and cost, social media monitoring capabilities are confined to a handful of business analysts or left to PR agencies. And the capabilities of most SMM offerings are limited to "listening" and "measuring." With the exception of Jive, no social software provider integrates SMM, much less extends its capabilities beyond listening and measuring to include sharing what you learn internally and engaging in the conversation in real time. And it goes without saying that no other vendor besides Jive is looking at real-time conversations across the web as a largely untapped resource that companies can use for competitive advantage and decision support.

I'm a Jive customer: why is this acquisition good for me?

Every day there is a greater sense of urgency around tapping into the potential of the real-time web and putting its deep reservoir of social intelligence to work for the enterprise. The acquisition of Filtrbox helps Jive accelerate its ability to provide solutions in this arena for internal decision support as well as solutions for engaging with customers and enriching the customer experience.

I'm a Jive customer looking at Jive Market Engagement: should I wait?

No, you should not wait. If you are looking at Jive Market Engagement today, SMM is an important initiative for your company, and business initiatives typically do not benefit from delay. You should continue to work with your Jive sales rep to move your project forward.

I'm a Filtrbox customer: what does this acquisition mean to me?

First, there will be no disruption in your relationship with Filtrbox or their service processes. Filtrbox's services are a natural fit with our portfolio, and you are now aligned with a well-established company and market leader that can rapidly add additional resources to enhance the value of Filtrbox's platform and services. Also, as pioneers in our respective, closely related fields, we share a vision for powering the value of the real-time web, which can only benefit Filtrbox's current customers.

I'm evaluating Filtrbox's G2 product: should I wait?

No, you should not wait. If you are looking at Filtrbox today, social media monitoring is an important initiative for your company, and business initiatives typically do not benefit from delay. Filtrbox stands out in the marketplace with its fresh user experience and attractive pricing model, which allows companies to bring social media monitoring out of the closet for deployment broadly across the enterprise. And Filtrbox's unique, cutting-edge architecture lets them process large volumes of data faster and at less cost than any other vendor. You should continue to work with your Filtrbox sales rep to move your project forward.