This moniker will need to be earned, since Escalate had been falling short in the "delight" department, as falling sales have indicated. RedPrairie, on the other hand, has been performing well, growing it's retail base with the recent acquisition of SoftTechnics and the previous acquisitions of BlueCube and StorePerform.

This acquisition really seems like a win-win-win-win situation. RedPrairie is promising to breath new life, by investing in the Escalate products, which benefits existing customers of Escalate and it's growth potential. Golden Gate Capital benefits because they finally shed themselves of Escalate, which was far from meeting their expectations, enabling them to focus on other investments, including Infor. RedPrairie customers benefit, if they aspire to add customer facing omnichannel commerce capabilities.

And of course, for RedPrairie, the addition of the Escalate product set, puts them in the position to go to market with a wonderfully timely combination of omnichannel commerce and fulfillment capabilities. Customers that might have considered defecting from the Escalate GERS or BlueMartini applications in search of better integrated, more innovative and better supported applications, may find that RedPrairie makes the investments in these products that have been sorely needed. New Mountain Capital, who acquired RedPrairie in February 2010 will benefit from this acquisition, since in this case 1+1 potentially equals 3.

What's most interesting about this combination, is that if I were a retailer, looking for applications for the first time to meet all of my omnichannel needs, from providing a fabulous and consistent customer experience across channels to making sure that customers get the merchandise the way they want it, when they want it, this would be a viable option. I do not mean to imply that this is a solution that will work for all retailers, but at minimum it certainly will work for furniture, department store, big and small box specialty and apparel and footwear retailers.