Decoding the Qualtrics deal: Was the firm a good fit for SAP?

“Post the ownership change, it should be easier for CIOs to integrate the survey tools across the experience related applications (customer, employee, and product) they have in their portfolio along with analytic capabilities that are specific to experience management such as complex conjoint analysis,” Parker said.

However, heavy Qualtrics users are likely to see an increase in connections, APIs and ecosystem partner integrations as the company actively builds out its marketplace and ecosystem beyond SAP, Constellation Research’s Miller said.

What does the new deal mean for Qualtrics?

SAP’s stake sale in Qualtrics comes at the right time for both organizations as they can double down on their core products while leveraging the connections they forged during their time together, analysts said.

“The leadership doesn’t see any change for Qualtrics’ strategy as a result of the acquisition. In fact, they are more focused on their core growth with the XM (experience management) platform by offering a unified strategy across customer support, customer success, and scaling go-to-market through a partner-first strategy,” said Sudhir Rajagopal, research director at IDC.

In addition, CX remains a critical investment area for companies across industries and this should be a growth opportunity for Qualtrics post SAP’s divestiture, according to analysts.  

“Based on the customers I spoke with, there are still a lot of them who still only use their survey functionality, there is a great amount of growth still to unlock in their current customer base,” said Lou Reinemann, research director at IDC. 

Qualtrics has room to expand its data usage to support machine learning and contextual analytics use cases, Park said. The company is already working towards adding machine learning and AI-powered tools to its product portfolio.

Last week, Qualtrics unveiled Frontline Care — an omnichannel analytics and AI-powered tool, designed to aid customer-facing employees understand customers’ needs and actions along their journeys and respond proactively.

“This is notable, as enabling deep, real-time customer insights is the key to solving the omnichannel dilemma and improving CX,” Omdia’s D’Antonio said.