DeSilva+Phillips client Vision Critical, a global leader in customer intelligence software and support, announced it has reached an agreement to spin off its North American Research Consulting division with a sale to MARU Group.

The new business will operate as a standalone entity within MARU Group as MARU/VCR&C, under the leadership of the current Vision Critical research consulting executive team. The transaction enables Vision Critical to focus exclusively on driving innovation in the fast-growing ecosystem of customer intelligence technology, expanding how companies listen, learn, and distribute customer insight throughout the enterprise.

Vision Critical combines a proprietary, cloud-based software platform with a support team that leads the industry in delivering insight from large, highly engaged communities.The integrated offer empowers companies with the ongoing intelligence they need to drive more confident business decisions. Following the transaction, Vision Critical will work in close collaboration with MARU/VCR&C via a value-added reseller and strategic partner agreement. As independent companies, each will be positioned to excel with their unique yet complementary mandates, united by a shared objective of continuing to deliver world-class customer intelligence to the world’s leading brands.

More than 700 high-performing global enterprises, including Adobe, DEWALT and Univision Communications Inc., use Vision Critical’s customer intelligence software solutions to engage their customers for trusted insight to help them build better products, launch more effective marketing campaigns, improve customer experience and enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Scott Miller, CEO at Vision Critical said: “We are embarking on the logical next step in Vision Critical’s evolution, from our pioneering creation of Insight Communities to defining the future of customer intelligence inside the enterprise.

“More and more, our customers are pushing to expand the scale of their communities from tens of thousands of people to much larger groups of their customers. Because of this rapid growth in demand, focusing our efforts across three dimensions is imperative: continuing innovation in our software platform; helping our customers drive engagement and insight through best-in-class community intelligence services; and expanding our partner ecosystem around the world.

“This transaction enables Vision Critical to deliver a more comprehensive, integrated customer intelligence platform for our customers and upon which strategic partners like MARU/VCR&C will deliver a complete, world-class research consulting experience.”

About MARU Group
MARU Group is a customer intelligence information and insight services firm. Operating in multiple countries, MARU Group provides research, insight and advisory services to large enterprises across a broad spectrum of industries and markets. Founded in 2016, MARU Group’s core area of expertise is providing fast and strategic customer feedback to corporations through a variety of technology platforms. Led by market intelligence industry veteran Ged Parton, MARU Group is backed by Primary Capital Partners LLP, a provider of private equity finance for high potential and growth companies.

Learn more at www.maruvcrc.com. Follow MARU on Twitter at http://twitter.com/maru_vcrc.

About Vision Critical
Vision Critical provides a cloud-based customer intelligence platform that allows companies to build engaged, secure communities of customers they can use continuously, across the enterprise, for ongoing, real-time feedback and insight. Designed for today’s always-on, social and mobile savvy customer, Vision Critical’s technology helps large, customer-centric enterprises discover what their customers want so they can deliver what they need. Unlike traditional customer research, which is slow, expensive and gathers dust on a shelf, Vision Critical’s customer intelligence platform replaces static data and cumbersome reports with real-time actionable customer intelligence that companies need to build better products, deliver better services and achieve better business outcomes.

Hundreds of high-performance organizations use Vision Critical’s technology. Follow Vision Critical on Twitter at https://twitter.com/visioncritical.

“Vision Critical” and “Sparq” are trademarks of Vision Critical Communications Inc. Other product or service names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.