Appspace Buys Workplace Communications Firm Beezy To Boost Workplace Experience Offer

October 20, 2021 by Dave Haynes

There has been quite a bit of news lately about digital signage companies being acquired or getting major cash infusions, but here’s a variation on that – a digital signage CMS company buying a company outside the industry to bolster its vertical market capabilities.

Dallas-based Appspace Inc. has acquired Beezy, described as a leading digital workplace and intelligent intranet solution, with the idea of creating and delivering “the first unified workplace experience platform. Together, Appspace and Beezy will provide new opportunities for organizations to better engage employees, regardless of where or how they work.”

Appspace, in the announcement, says integrating into its workplace-focused offer “means organizations will be able to replace disjointed products with one comprehensive workplace experience platform that’s simple to manage and easy to use. The result is a more informed and connected workplace that increases employee productivity, wellbeing, and alignment.”

Appspace started out as a more broadly defined digital signage solution, but has always been close to companies like Cisco and later Google who had substantial, long-term IT solutions business with Fortune 500s. The company has evolved evolved its marketing pitch and product to describe itself as workplace experience software instead of digital signage.

“The addition of Beezy to the Appspace platform enables us to deliver an industry-first platform for a superior employee,” says Brandon Miles, CEO and Co-Founder of Appspace. “The Beezy team has developed an intranet solution with unrivaled functionality, security, and scalability and their recent leadership acknowledgement by IDC in the 2021 report is further validation of our decision to bring this award-winning product into our portfolio. I look forward to collaborating and innovating with Beezy as we help redefine the future of work.”

Beezy’s customers include some of the world’s largest banks, manufacturing, mining, and construction firms – a perfect complement to the over 3,000 global customers that Appspace serves, including over 150 of the Fortune 500.

“Appspace’s acquisition of Beezy is truly exciting, as our unified offering addresses critical gaps in workplace technologies and signals the end of disjointed product experiences in how companies communicate with employees and how employees connect and share information,” says Jordi Plana, CEO and co-founder of Beezy. “We share Appspace’s vision of a truly connected workplace that employees can rely on to get work done, all while providing a completely personalized experience, no matter their location or device. We’re looking forward to working with the Appspace team and unlocking the value of our integrated solution as we forge a new path of digital transformation together.”

The first release of integrated product capabilities is expected later this year.  

Beezy is labelled as being based in Silicon Valley, but it looks like there are substantial technology offices in Spain, as well as people in the Kitchener, Ontario area.

Appspace had earlier acquired the workplace messaging company The Marlin Company, so it is clearly focused heavily now on workplace messaging.

Some other companies familiar to to the digital signage ecosystem have also pivoted hard in that direction:

• Denver-based Four Winds Interactive, which has not gone all-in on workplace but does say on its landing page online: Digital Signage Software & Employee Experience Applications for the Corporate Enterprise. Back in March, FWI merged with an Irish company – Poppulo – that does email and mobile communications for the workplace.
• On the heels of merging with the smart building platform LCS last year, the Dutch software firm NDS has started calling its main product, PADS4, a user experience platform focused on intelligent building management. That platform now has modules for workspace, wayfinding, IoT and digital signage.