Enablement platforms Highspot and Seismic announce merger

Enablement platforms Seismic and Highspot today announced a definitive agreement to merge.

The companies are two of the leaders in sales enablement software. Once the merger closes, the combined company will operate as Seismic and be led by Seismic CEO Rob Tarkoff. Robert Wahbe, founder and CEO of Highspot, will join the board of directors of the combined company. 

Permira, through funds that it advises, has invested in Seismic since 2020 and will remain the controlling shareholder following closing.

Dig deeper: Revenue teams struggle with execution, despite widespread AI adoption

What’s the future of enablement platforms?

Most enablement platforms started as sales enablement platforms and included four core capabilities: content management for sales teams, readiness, guidance and workflows and analytics. 

As revenue organizations evolved, firms like Forrester started referring to the category as revenue enablement, in a nod to the need for marketing, sales, customer success and other pre-sales roles like business development reps to collaborate within the platforms. 

It’s a tricky area for vendors to demonstrate ROI. The effectiveness of these platforms depends heavily on teams’ willingness to use the features properly and regularly. 

In large, global organizations, enablement platforms need to understand local governance and multilingual and multicultural content needs. 

Then, of course, there is the integration challenge. Among the tools that need to connect to modern enablement platforms are CRM, email, meeting applications, chat apps, content management systems, digital asset management, learning management systems, conversational intelligence and more.

In announcing the merger, Highspot and Seismic both pointed to continued development of AI features, which could help users more easily navigate through enablement systems and help with integration and data silos.