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Visit Indy has sold its proprietary customer relationship management software platform, Jupiter, to a Philadelphia firm which plans to incorporate it into a future version of its own CRM platform.
Philadelphia-based firm Tempest, which offers website development, digital marketing and other services for the travel and tourism industry, acquired Jupiter in late February. Tempest CEO Alex Heimann said his firm plans to launch the next generation of its own CRM platform early next year, and that version will include some features from Jupiter’s platform.
Generally speaking, CRM platforms allow users to keep track of their communications with customers and sales prospects. Salesforce and HubSpot are among the companies that offer such software.
Visit Indy first developed Jupiter about 20 years ago because none of the commercially available CRMs at the time fit the organization’s needs, said James Wallis, Visit Indy’s chief operating officer. Over time, Visit Indy has upgraded the platform and added features.
Visit Indy, which promotes local tourism and works to court convention business, uses Jupiter to communicate with local hotels about room demand for future events; research room rates in other cities; and calculate the expected economic impact of particular events.
“It’s just a way to help our team manage a lot more data a lot more quickly,” Wallis said. “We think that having this software has really helped us be successful in the long run.”
Visit Indy continues to use Jupiter, but now it’s doing so as a Tempest customer. Visit Indy has also joined Tempest’s customer advisory board, which will provide the company with product development insights and advice.
Visit Indy and Tempest declined to share financial terms of the transaction.
But Wallis said the divestiture will create considerable savings for Visit Indy over time. The organization had been spending in the “low six figures” annually to maintain Jupiter. In comparison, Wallis said, Visit Indy anticipates spending an amount in the “low five figures” on software subscription fees to access Jupiter.
For his part, Heimann said Jupiter was an attractive acquisition because “we were impressed by some of the features, the technology in it.”
As one example, Jupiter allows users to estimate the economic impact of a specific event. That can be helpful after the fact, Heimann said, but it can also be useful on the front end: Knowing the projected economic impact of various events can help an organization decide which conventions or gatherings it should court.
Tempest’s customer base includes about 320 city, state and provincial tourism organizations across North America.
Visit Indy is Tempest’s first Indiana customer, but Heimann anticipates the Jupiter deal will lead to more business here. His rationale: Most of Tempest’s new business comes through referrals and word of mouth, and Visit Indy is a well-respected organization within the industry.
“I think it’s very safe to say that that will open up doors,” Heimann said.
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