Sidetrade acquires IKO System, start-up specialized in predictive sales automation solutions


Less than a month after the acquisition of BrightTarget, a provider of Artificial Intelligence solutions for B2B Sales & Marketing, Sidetrade adds another brick to its offer: predictive sales automation. Sidetrade strengthens its predictive offer with two of the most innovative European start-ups, according to Gartner's study "Market Guide for SaaS Based Predictive Analytics Applications for BtoB Sales and Marketing 2016".

Marc Rouvier and Nicolas Woirhaye, founded IKO System in 2010 in Paris. IKO System's solutions already work with many European companies such as Anaplan, Bertelsmann, or Talend. The solution allows them to:

  • Identify companies which have the higher propensity to convert to customers
  • Prioritize sales actions with a reachability score on decision-makers
  • Multiply communications with decision-makers by automating sales engagement
  • Evaluate prospects' interest through algorithmic analysis of sales interactions.

IKO System's predictive algorithms and machine learning technologies allow sales forces to multiply their capacity to engage with thousands of targeted prospects while improving their conversion rate. These predictive technologies are based on millions of interactions between sales forces and decision-makers to anticipate the behavior of buyers and the best way to optimize the sales relationship.

With this new acquisition, Sidetrade becomes the first global player to provide Artificial Intelligence solutions to improve the performance on the entire Sales-to-Cash cycle.

Marc Rouvier, co-founder of IKO System, says: "Reaching out to prospects or clients is one of the main issues for every company. Today, 8 to 12 attempts are necessary to reach out to a decision-maker. Our solution uncovers the reachability of decision-makers and how they react to prospecting. Intelligent and personalized automation indulges a significant gain of efficiency for marketing, prospecting, customer follow-up and even financial relationships. With the convergence between BrightTarget (upstream) and Sidetrade (downstream), a unique industrial vision is taking form: create the first player offering Artificial Intelligence at each stage of the relationship with customers.

Olivier Novasque, CEO of Sidetrade group, states: "IKO System uses the latest machine learning technologies to solve the eternal challenge of sales development. With BrightTarget, IKO System and Sidetrade's solutions, we can now build a single platform using Artificial Intelligence to create value on the entire Sales-to-Cash cycle. By now, we can tell a company: we know which prospect or which client to target first and foremost, how to engage decision-makers and what their payment behaviors are. To sum up, we allow our clients to significantly increase their turnover while accelerating their cash generation."


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