History
Founded in 1996 by Mark Gainey as KANA Communications, KANA Software began as an e-mail management software company, with a focus on customer service. At the time, many companies were more or less ignoring customer e-mail, as there was no robust software for managing these communications. KANA was founded to answer this challenge, by offering a tool to help businesses communicate with customers via e-mail as well as Web-based channels.
Its success was demonstrated by solid organic growth, complemented by the addition of new modules to the core customer management system (CMS):
• KANA Direct, for building customized e-mail lists and for more precise targeting
• KANA Classify, for analyzing and sorting messages
• KANA Link, for integrating with customer databases
KANA became a public company in 1999, and later acquired the companies Connectify, Business Evolution, and NetDialog. In 2000, KANA merged with Silknet Software (a vendor offering a complementary e-business solution), and in 2001 acquired Broadbase Software (a customer analytics software vendor). In 2004, KANA acquired Hipbone, a chat and co-browse solution.
Since 2010, KANA has been owned by Accel-KKR, a technology-focused equity firm. In the fourth quarter of 2010, KANA acquired government customer relationship management (CRM) software vendor Lagan Technologies, based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. And in quarter one 2011, KANA acquired Overtone, a social listening and insight platform. In the second quarter of 2012, KANA acquired cloud customer service company Trinicom and CRM specialists Ciboodle.
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