E.Piphany accused of integration failure

CRM provider E.Piphany has been accused of failing to integrate its numerous acquisitions and supplying customers with an "eggshell-thin" solution.

Marcel Holsheimer, president and founder of analytics CRM player DataDistilleries, said E.Piphany had spread itself thinly and was unable to concentrate R&D into developing its products for clients.

Holsheimer said of the bigger company: "E.Piphany try to do everything. They acquired companies but didn't integrate anything and they are still unable to get integrated."

Kevin Lucas, senior analyst at AMR research, agreed: "E.Piphany is still not integrated. It always takes a lot longer than companies think. Part of its R&D work is integrating products, which will inevitably slow down the process further."

Holsheimer added: "E.Piphany has an overall solution but only an eggshell of R&D. It tells clients to rip their legacy systems out and replace them with its own but end-to-end solutions don't work well in Europe because of multiple suppliers."

E.Piphany spokesman, Tony Leach said in defence: "To say we pull out systems is as far away from the truth as you can get. We extract data from sources."

The company's weak share price is a cause for concern stated Lucas, who warned E.Piphany may be bought by another organisation.

E.Piphany's recent job cull in Germany was also criticised by Holsheimer, who said: "With products that aren't well integrated like E.Piphany's you need a lot of support. This will definitely be a problem for German customers."

Leach retaliated: "Productivity in Germany was not at the level we expected. There is no issue that any clients in Germany will lack service."