SAP Labs Israel and Gigya, Now a Part of SAP — Building a Brighter Digital Future

As one of the co-founders of Gigya, now a part of SAP, I’m looking forward to collaborating with SAP Labs Israel – a dynamic and agile environment for innovation, and one of SAP’s core strategic development centers. By end-of-year, 2018, all Gigya developers will officially become part of SAP, although Gigya’s culture and focus will continue to flourish within the new framework.

We are confident that combining the collective knowledge of the Gigya teams with that of SAP Labs Israel will lead to new and exciting innovations, as we continue to redefine the front office technology suite to drive a next-level customer experience based on transparency and trust.

Gigya, now a part of SAP, was founded in late 2006 by Eran Kutner, Eyal Magen and myself. At the time, the three of us recognized how the internet was changing from being yet another media format into a dynamic, living space where people from all walks of life could conduct more and more of their lives within and connect with and communicate with each other freely across borders. Eran, Eyal and I agreed that one of the most important and powerful elements of this transformation was the increasingly vital role that digital identity played, and decided to build solutions that address this phenomenon, leading us to eventually focus on developing a next-generation platform for managing all aspects of online identity.

Patrick Salyer joined the company early on, took the reins as CEO a few years later, and helped grow Gigya from a point solution provider to the leader in the customer identity management category we ourselves defined, culminating in the company’s acquisition by SAP in November, 2017 as part of the SAP Hybris business group.

From an announcement by Patrick on the Gigya / SAP Hybris partnership:

“I couldn’t be more excited to announce that Gigya is now part of SAP. On November 1, 2017, SAP and Gigya completed the acquisition process that both companies made public in a press release on Sept. 24. Gigya is coming together with SAP Hybris, opening up huge possibilities for our platform and our clients.

With the combined Gigya-SAP Hybris team, we intend to become the first organization to offer a cloud-based data platform enabling companies to profile and convert new customers, gather accurate conclusions from disparate consumer engagement sources and collect data for enhanced consumer choices that are in line with regulations.

IDC analysts Henry Morris and Gerry Murray did a great job of describing these benefits in a research note (available in full here) that says the acquisition is a ‘tremendous strategic move for SAP Hybris as data has become even more valuable to marketers than the systems through which it runs. Data-driven insights into customer behavior are so critical to improving customer experience and marketing efficiency that the brand with the best data often wins . . . SAP’s acquisition of Gigya has the potential to create an enhanced opt-in platform with transparency that encompasses base and derived customer data and the customer-facing applications using it.’

The intellectual and financial resources of SAP will greatly accelerate Gigya’s efforts to serve our clients – while Gigya’s solutions will continue to integrate with vendors up and down the customer engagement technology stack – across three fundamental dimensions:

• Providing a secure, flexible, multi-tenant cloud database that makes it easy for individuals to create relationships with the brands they admire.
• Give customers full transparency and control over how their personal information will be used, while complying with privacy laws such as the European Union’s upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
• Enable brands to progressively develop insights into their customers’ interests, preferences and activities, then utilize these insights across the brand’s customer engagement systems.

It’s been an honor to share this milestone with the many Gigyans out there – current and alumni. I’m deeply thankful that each of you put your heart, talent and time into building Gigya. I’m thankful for our former board members – Michael Eisenberg, Navin Chaddha, Phil Fernandez, Jake Winebaum, and our investors for their endless support and guidance.  And of course, I’m thankful for our clients who continue to put their faith in us as we get ready to run faster under the SAP banner.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself, Patrick!

And, I too am excited for the future of Gigya, SAP Hybris and the entire global SAP organization, as we follow through on our mission to be a business that truly makes the world run better.