The technology supports forecasting for budget planning and optimisation, and within Hybris marketing will provide the data to understand and automate marketing opportunities. While the Abakus software will continue to be available as a stand-alone product, the integration of the Abakus technology will assist CMOs and CFOs to understand customer interactions across all devices and the incremental value of marketing on business outcomes.

“Our goal is to offer the first omni-channel customer engagement solution on the market that helps our customers drive contextual experiences that lead to measurable business value,” said Brian Walker, chief strategy officer. “Marketers need a trusted solution to understand what is driving sales – one based on real data, not ad-hoc models – to ensure they are using the optimal mix of marketing channels and messages.”

According to SAP Hybris, with the integration of Abakus, customers will benefit from an end-to-end marketing cloud solution that provides a single unified view of the customer across disparate systems, automation of planning, personalisation and optimisation, and advanced analytics attribution to show what is driving sales.

“We are delighted to join the global SAP family and look forward to integrating Abakus with SAP Hybris Marketing,” said Alex Saldanha, CEO and co-founder, Abakus. “The acquisition is a result of the alignment of our two companies’ visions to solve for customer centric marketing performance through real-time software. We look forward to delivering even greater value to Abakus and SAP customers through this merger.”

The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017, with the Abakus technology to be integrated into Hybris at this time.

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Lucas joins the Marketo team from his most recent position as SAP’s president, enterprise platform and analytics, where he drove innovative strategies to accelerate enterprise and analytics offerings from inception to market. During his SAP career, he held progressively more senior global leadership positions in their business analytics database and technology, BusinessObjects, and corporate strategy and market development organisations. Lucas was previously the force leading growth and expansion at Salesforce.com as senior vice president, platform marketing and Force.com.

“I am excited to join the company as Marketo accelerates its growth through enterprise expansion, its unprecedented next-generation marketing platform, and its robust partner ecosystem,” said Lucas. “I look forward to leading this incredible organisation and enabling anyone using these market-leading solutions to innovate faster and accelerate their digital transformation through marketing, all with a firm commitment to Marketo’s unique culture that champions diversity, inclusion, and social responsibility.”

The move cements San Mateo-based Marketo’s commitment to accelerated growth and innovation in engagement marketing software and solutions designed to help marketers develop long-term relationships with their customers. The company is looking to leverage Lucas’ extensive experience in selling data analytics, cloud services, database, and mobile applications.

Marketo’s founder and current CEO Phil Fernandez is stepping down immediately, after 10 years during which he led the company through launch, a successful IPO and the recent acquisition by Vista Equity Partners.

“I founded Marketo with a bold vision that marketers would take on a powerful new role within their organisations, owning customer engagement and digital transformation,” said Fernandez. “I am confident that the Marketo team under Steve’s leadership will maintain and extend our commitment to innovation, integrity and customer success, as well as to the thousands of successful, passionate individuals who are the heart of the Marketing Nation.”

Martin Taylor, principal at Vista Equity Partners and Marketo director said,”I want to welcome Steve to the leadership team as Marketo CEO and thank Phil for his instrumental role pioneering a new industry and building Marketo into a world-class brand that serves nearly 5000 customers and more than 650 partners around the globe.”

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