Business software maker Qualtrics International Inc., whose technology is used by many of the world’s largest enterprises to measure employee and customer sentiment, today named Amazon Web Services Inc. its preferred cloud provider.

Qualtrics went public earlier this year in a listing that raised more than $1.5 billion. The company, led by Chief Executive Officer Zig Serafin (pictured), provides a cloud-based experience management platform that helps enterprises gather feedback from employees and customers. A software firm, for example, can leverage Qualtrics’ platform to gauge user responses to a new feature before deciding whether or not to release it into general availability. 

Qualtrics has partnered with AWS to modernize several key components of its information technology infrastructure. As part of the collaboration, the software maker is moving both internal IT systems and customer-facing workloads to the Amazon.com Inc. unit’s public cloud. 

Qualtrics is using a mix of AWS services to power its shift to the cloud. One of the services the company has adopted is Amazon DynamoDB, a managed NoSQL database that can store petabytes of information. For particularly demanding applications, DynamoDB provides an in-memory cache called DAX, which makes it possible to retrieve records in microseconds. 

AWS said that Qualtrics is using DynamoDB to power the XM Directory tool in its experience management platform. XM Directory makes it easier for companies to store customer data and also simplifies some of the other tasks involved in collecting feedback from users. 

Qualtrics is separately using AWS technology to power Qualtrics iQ, another component of its platform that uses machine learning to help enterprises understand customer sentiment. Qualtrics iQ can automatically analyze survey responses to identify trends in customer sentiment that may require a company to adjust its business strategy. To help enterprises better react to market developments, Qualtrics iQ can point out which actions make the most positive impact on user experience. 

Qualtrics is using the Amazon SageMaker service to power Qualtrics iQ. SageMaker provides features that enable workers to build and train artificial intelligence models in the cloud.

AI has become a bigger focus for Qualtrics recently. In July, the company inked a $1.5 billion agreement to acquire Clarabridge Inc., a competing experience management provider that provides AI features software for measuring customer intent. The deal is part of a broader trend of enterprise software companies incorporating more machine learning features into their products to automate repetitive tasks for users.

“Using AWS’ global infrastructure and breadth of machine learning and cloud capabilities will help us surface actionable insights at the speed that our customers, including Amazon, know and expect,” said Qualtrics Chief Technology Officer John Thimsen. “More than 13,500 organizations rely on Qualtrics to deliver incredible customer and employee experiences, and we are continuously innovating on our technology to help customers unlock new growth opportunities in the experience transformation era.”

In parallel with Qualtrics standardizing its IT infrastructure on AWS’ cloud, AWS parent Amazon plans to implement the company’s experience engagement platform internally. The technology giant will use the platform to support its customer and employee feedback programs. Amazon measures customer and employee sentiment on a larger scale than most enterprises: It had more than 1.3 million workers worldwide as of July. 

“Data is foundational to helping enterprises understand their operating landscape and improve the overall experience for their customers,” added Matt Garman, AWS’ senior vice president of sales and marketing. “The strength and scale of this relationship will also help global companies such as ours use Qualtrics to deliver insights that can lead to improved outcomes around the world.”

Before listing on the Nasdaq earlier this year, Qualtrics operated as a subsidiary of enterprise software maker SAP SE. Qualtrics became part of SAP through an $8 billion acquisition in 2018. 

Photo: SiliconANGLE