One of the announcements Microsoft dropped at Convergence last month was a Parature integration that will be arriving with the Spring release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Bob Stutz, corporate vice president of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, wrote in a blog post, “The Spring ’15 release marks the start of Parature’s integration with Dynamics CRM for knowledge management. Customer service agents will have knowledge integrated into their daily service interactions out of the box.”
Microsoft acquired Parature last year with this day in mind. Parature was an independent software vendor (ISV) product that was built to work with Microsoft Dynamics CRM to deliver a self-service knowledgebase to connect with customers across multiple channels, including email, the web, chat, or social media. Parature is a cloud-based solution, and was a software as a service (SaaS) product.
Parature gives Microsoft Dynamics CRM a complete method of serving those customers who prefer to solve their own problems to calling a customer service representative. Microsoft considered Parature’s knowledgebase architecture to be the best on the market, and thus the acquisition. Parature’s knowledgebase integrates context, search, prediction, and learning. It connects social data with processes to get the right information to the right people.
Customers are more connected and better informed than ever before, and organizations are looking for ways to strengthen their ability to connect with customers on their own terms, using whatever devices and whatever channels they prefer. And with out-of-the-box integration with Parature coming soon, organizations need look no further than Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
