| Type | Public (NASDAQ: RNOW) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer software |
| Founded | Bozeman, Montana (1997) |
| Headquarters | Bozeman, Montana |
| Key people | Greg Gianforte, founder/CEO |
| Products | Customer relationship management software |
| Revenue | US$185.5 million (2010) |
| Employees | >1000 (2011) |
| Website | www.rightnow.com |
RightNow Technologies (NASDAQ: RNOW) is a U.S. software company that develops customer relationship management (CRM) software for enterprise organizations. It is incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Bozeman, Montana.
In spite of multiple assurances by the founder/CEO to the employees that the company was not for sale, on October 24, 2011, Oracle Corporation announced it had agreed to buy RightNow Technologies for $1.5 billion.[1][2]
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The company was founded in 1997 by Greg Gianforte in Bozeman, Montana.[3] Additional offices have opened in California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Texas, Illinois, Washington, DC, Colorado, Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia.[4] The company employs over 1000 people worldwide.[5]
RightNow is primarily known for its business model of offering its software as a hosted service in the cloud. As of November 2009, the company has nearly 2000 customers, including Australia Post, British Airways, Iomega, Continental Tire NA, Linksys, Nikon, iRobot, British Telecom, Motorola, Black and Decker, Overstock.com, Electronic Arts, NC Soft, GameFly, Bank of New Zealand, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Department of Education, the Social Security Administration, Australian National University, the University of South Florida, Quicken, Telstra, Fandango, and Columbia University.[6]
Greg Gianforte started the company in 1997 with no investor money [7] and created a software product that was initially focused on customer service with an integrated knowledge base. As the company grew, it added marketing and sales functionality, voice automation, customer feedback management, analytics and a social platform to its product, creating a full customer experience suite.
RightNow CX, a customer experience suite, is the software offered by RightNow Technologies. RightNow CX is divided into RightNow Web Experience, RightNow Social Experience, RightNow Contact Center Experience, and RightNow Engage. [8]
RightNow has an extensive partner network including Solution Partners, Contact Center Partners, Implementation Partners, and Technology partners. Major solution partners include IBM, CapGemini, and Deloitte. Major technology partners include Birst for business intelligence. AmberLeaf is used as a systems integrator.
In 2009, RightNow Technologies acquired social networking company HiveLive;[9] in 2011, the company acquired Q-go for $34 million.[10]