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CM.com’s acquisition of TraceDock:
Perspectives from TraceDock's founders
Earlier in the summer, we were delighted to announce that TraceDock has joined forces with CM.com as part of an exciting strategic acquisition. This development presents an important alliance between our two companies; one that has significant benefits to the customers and partners of both TraceDock and CM.com, and one that offers a number of exciting opportunities for the future. Here’s the story of TraceDock's founders, Boris Schellekens and Jaap Breeuwer, so far.
In 2019, TraceDock was successfully launched. Back then, due to the use of ad blockers, marketers were missing out on valuable marketing data in their Google Analytics. Data they needed to effectively analyze their websites and campaigns.
With the support of our team, we built a plug-and-play solution by which marketers could recover that data in a privacy-friendly way. In the years that followed, the challenges for our clients grew. In addition to ad blockers, marketers had to contend with the advent of browsers with tracking prevention and privacy legislation. This further confirmed the need for a service that would give marketers the complete picture, while safeguarding the privacy of their users.
Forging an alliance based on a shared mission
To optimize the value of these insights, we needed to find a partner that could help us to do something meaningful with the first-party marketing data. This would enable our clients to get a clearer picture of how their customers were finding them, which would then help them to increase conversions, and attribute their budget more effectively. TraceDock started the conversation with CM.com. Both CM.com and TraceDock quickly realized there was a strong synergy between our two companies. We soon began moving towards the acquisition.
But it wasn’t just the technical expertise that attracted us to CM.com. It was the full alignment of values; how we operate and how we want to grow our companies. TraceDock was born from a desire to work differently. To build a workforce that doesn’t work within constraining hierarchies. Where an ethos of promoting plenty of trust and freedom breeds responsibility and fosters creativity. Both TraceDock and CM.com walk the talk with this ethos – encouraging our people to do what they like, and what they are good at ensures they make the best contribution possible, for both our products and our customers.
The acquisition means our team at TraceDock can produce products faster and respond more swiftly to the changing requirements of our customers. It means we can combine skills and create even more exciting innovations. It means we can continue to protect our customer’s data and ensure their privacy. We wanted to work with the experts and CM.com was the perfect fit.
Visualizing the future
We are already making exciting plans for what comes next. Ethically providing accurate data was always our primary goal. Furthermore, we are going to leverage all the strengths that CM.com offers, thereby giving our customers all the tools they need to shape and deliver the ultimate customer experience. Thanks to the power of TraceDock this can be done by measuring everything from the first ad click to the last interaction.
We are continuing to scale up our services and will soon be able to offer TraceDock’s customers access to several CM.com integrations such as Mobile Marketing Cloud and Ticketing. We are also able to scale our sales efforts in Belgium, Denmark, and Germany and offer the combined solutions of our allied companies. This is great news for our current customers and partners, as well as CM.com’s customers, as they scale up and grow their businesses.
TraceDock customers
For current TraceDock customers, the basic service will not change. Over the next few months, customers will be contacted regarding the ability to get Mobile Marketing Cloud that includes a Customer Data Platform plug-and-play for their TraceDock integration. This means they can measure the entire customer journey, end to end – every communication and transaction – and get the acquisition insights needed to accurately assign marketing budget and improve the customer journey.
CM.com customers
The acquisition will enable CM.com customers to complete the setup of TraceDock within the CM.com platform in a matter of minutes. This means that they will benefit from first-party data collection and service-side transaction tracking, seamlessly linked with their CM.com solutions such as Mobile Marketing Cloud.
Partners
The acquisition means that TraceDock’s valued partners can enjoy the considerable benefits of scaling up internationally. Partners can be connected with CM.com’s French, German, Danish and Belgian colleagues, for example, and explore how they can grow their business in these new territories and beyond.
Partners can also offer their customers added value through a wide range of market-leading conversational commerce solutions through CM.com. This includes ticketing software, chatbots, in-app payment solutions, Mobile Marketing Cloud, Mobile Service Cloud, and much more. You can find out more on the CM.com solutions page and CM.com product page. By offering a wider range of solutions, partners can build loyalty, increase customer satisfaction, and – of course – boost sales.
FAQ
We’re so excited about the future, and we can’t wait to share it with our customers, partners, and community. Here are some FAQs to explain the next steps. If you have further questions, please reach out to our team. They will be happy to help.
The TraceDock and CM.com platforms will be fully integrated by the end of 2021, and the ticketing solutions will be available to all customers. Next year, more analytics will be set up in the CDP.
There will be no change to current TraceDock contracts and customers will continue to have access to the core TraceDock functionalities.
TraceDock customers will continue to have access to all the products. CM.com’s product range will be made available over the coming months.
As development progresses, TraceDock’s look and feel will move over to the CM.com branding, but the same functionality will remain.
Yes. The TraceDock support team will be integrated with the team at CM.com. Both companies will continue to offer the same great customer service.
TraceDock will be seamlessly integrated with the CM.com platform. The two companies will continue to develop and launch products that enhance the analytic capabilities of global e-commerce brands of all shapes and sizes.
All customers will receive the same great service, whenever they need it. As part of our ambitious expansion and development plans, we will be growing the expert support team to ensure we can deliver the service our customers and partners expect. Customers and partners will be informed about any changes with their support team with plenty of notice.
