Sabio Group has sold its UK Salesforce practice – formerly Makepositive – to another company just three years after acquiring it.
European CX provider and contact center specialist Sabio had acquired Makepositive in March 2021 with the aim of shifting focus to CRM, but now, after just under four years, the newly-acquired Salesforce practice is being handed off to Nextview Consulting.
A Win-Win Partnership?
The two companies are entering a partnership agreement that will see Nextview entering the UKI market by taking over Sabio’s UK Salesforce Practice (Makepositive). Nextview will provide complementary Tier 3 support to existing Sabio Managed Services on accounts that use Salesforce.
A spokesperson told Salesforce Ben that the partnership also involves Sabio and Nextview working closely together to continue to support some customers, with some transitioning to Nextview for “delivery” while Sabio continue to provide “Managed Service”.
As part of the agreement, Sabio and Nextview have entered a preferred partnership to deliver Service Cloud Voice, contact center, AI, data solutions, and Salesforce Cloud capabilities to customers in the UK and mainland Europe, the companies revealed in a press release.
Makepositive had offices in London and Manchester as well as an R&D facility based in Gurgaon, India when Sabio took over.
Veteran Salesforce ecosystem executive Will Lamb has been made Managing Director UKI.
“Nextview’s ethos is second to none, offering inspiring workplaces, caring for its people, and delivering unparalleled vision and impact to its customers. I am proud to lead its mission in UKI, excited to welcome the Sabio Salesforce Practice team, and look forward to partnering with our customers.”
Will Lamb, Managing Director UKI, Nextview
A source close to the matter told Salesforce Ben that Sabio had originally wanted a “share of the Salesforce market that covers contact centers”, particularly regarding Service Cloud Voice and contact center technology, when it first acquired Makepositive.
“They got Makepositive because Makepositive had a lot of clients on Service Cloud,” the source, who wishes to remain anonymous, said.
“But Makepositive have a much bigger pie to eat, out of big tech, out of other industries that don’t really leverage Service Cloud that much or Service Cloud Voice.”
In time, as often happens with acquisitions, a lot of the “good people” left the company, but Sabio still managed to “take its share” of Service Cloud Voice solutions, the source claimed.
“They realized they were losing control of what the Salesforce practice has to offer or any other product other than Service Cloud Voice or other than the contact center related product,” the source said.
“They decided that their best interest is to keep a few people that are going to work with the Service Cloud Voice product and for the rest of the clients and the business they acquired from Makepositive to just give it away to someone that’s going to be able to handle things a lot better.”
“The Vibe Is Pretty Positive”
Regarding the new acquisition – particularly knowing that the office will be led by sector veteran Will Lamb – the source said that “things are going to look a lot brighter from now on”.
“I really believe there’s a lot to win for Nextview, and for Sabio who are out of this. The vibe is pretty positive in the company actually,” they said.
Sabio Group specializes in digital CX transformation, along with contact center, AI, CRM, and data insight solutions. It has major operations in the UK, Spain, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, and India.
“Sabio has developed unmatched expertise in Service Cloud Voice combined with platforms like AWS Connect and Genesys Cloud. We see growing demand for our expertise in this space, especially when combined with Salesforce’s groundbreaking Einstein AI and Agentforce solutions. This partnership will strengthen our position as Salesforce’s leading contact center partner in the UK and mainland Europe.””
Stu Dorman, Chief Innovation Officer, Sabio
Nextview Consulting, founded in 2009, is a leading European Salesforce partner which “guides businesses through digital transformation”.
It has a team of 200 employees active across seven European countries, and is one of Europe’s largest Salesforce consulting firms. Its client base includes names like Svea Solar, Boels, Swiss Sense, KLM, Booking.com, Mensch und Maschine, and Santander.
Final Thoughts
While Sabio has decided to sell its UK Salesforce practice just thre years after acquiring Makepositive, it has made clear that it is only the British arm that has been sold.
This handover can be seen as part of a broader partnership deal with Nextview, with the two companies planning to work together to support customers. Sabio and Nextview will collaborate to deliver Salesforce Cloud capabilities and other services to customers in the UK and mainland Europe.
As our source said, there may be “a lot to win for Nextview, and for Sabio”.
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