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Microsoft today announced that it has acquired Ally.io, a software service that helps companies measure their progress against OKRs (Key Goals and Results), a common way for management to measure the progress of individuals and businesses. The two companies did not share the purchase price.
Microsoft plans to integrate Ally into its Viva family of employee experience products. Microsoft says the idea behind Viva and the Ally acquisition is to provide a more transparent way to communicate company goals and objectives to employees.
“Aligning the work of employees with the strategic mission and core business priorities is a priority for every organization. To do this, leaders need to invest in tools that communicate transparency around big business betting and create ways to cascade ambitious goals and report results at all levels of an organization, ”Kirk Koenigsbauer, director of operations and corporate vice president of experiences and devices wrote in a blog post announcing the deal.
As for Ally, CEO and founder Vetri Vellore says it will allow his company to develop the product much faster under Microsoft than it could on its own. “As a member of Microsoft Viva, Ally.io will continue to empower leaders, teams and individuals to align and focus day-to-day work on the most important business goals. We’ll help you bring goals and objectives to wherever the team works, including Teams, Outlook, Slack, and the other systems you use every day, ”Vellore wrote in a blog post on the website. Ally.
Understanding your work goals and how they fit into larger business goals has become even more important in an age when many more people are working from home and not sitting face to face with management. Defining and incorporating these goals and expectations into the work tools people use as remote employees should help everyone stay on track and point in the same direction.
While Microsoft declined to share the price of the deal, data from PitchBook indicates that Ally last raised capital at a post-currency valuation of $ 345 million. That price was set when the company raised $ 50 million earlier this year for a total of $ 76 million.
Ally’s exit to Microsoft could mark the start of a consolidation phase in the OKR-focused software market. There are many players vying for the top spot, including WorkBoard, Koan, Gtmhub, Perdoo, and WeekDone.
As a cohort of startups, they’ve been incredibly successful in attracting venture capital and increasing startup income. And now, with an exit under their belt, all companies will have to choose to keep their approach to venture-funded growth intact or move to two-track private towers with possible exits to mega-sized companies. -technology.
With Microsoft’s purchase of Ally, which is also headquartered in Washington state, this could pave the way for other major platform players to buy and offer similar tools. It’s not impossible to imagine one of the other usual acquirer suspects – from Salesforce to ServiceNow to SAP – considering taking a similar step and taking one of these properties off the market.
For now though, only Ally is off the board, and we’ll have to watch to see how the rest of the market develops as a result of this move.
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