Rainmaker Systems

Rainmaker Systems, Inc. operates as a business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce and sales solutions provider, focusing on helping organizations monetize customer relationships and generate new revenue streams. The company was founded by entrepreneur Michael Silton, who established the firm as UniDirect in 1991 before rebranding and taking Rainmaker Systems public on the NASDAQ exchange in 1999. Silton, a serial entrepreneur with a history of founding and selling tech companies like UniDirect, steered the company as CEO for more than a decade, growing it to over 1,500 employees.

The company's business model centers on offering a combination of a proprietary cloud-based e-commerce platform and outsourced sales execution services. It primarily serves large multinational technology corporations such as Microsoft, HP, and Oracle, as well as small-to-medium-sized businesses. Revenue is generated by managing the complete sales process for service contracts, subscriptions, and product renewals on behalf of its clients, effectively functioning as an outsourced sales and marketing arm. This approach allows clients to tap into revenue from customer segments that their traditional sales teams might not reach efficiently.

Rainmaker's core offering is its SaaS platform, which provides a flexible, global solution for automating recurring revenue models. Key features of the platform include management of the entire subscriber lifecycle, from automated quoting and reminders to payment processing in multiple currencies. The system integrates with clients' existing CRM platforms and provides portals for sales teams, distributors, and end-customers, offering full visibility into sales opportunities through web-based analytics. This technology is augmented by a team of global sales-assist agents who provide localized support in numerous languages, handling everything from inbound customer care to outbound telemarketing and lead generation.

Over the years, the company expanded its capabilities through strategic acquisitions, including an offshore call center in the Philippines to enhance its global, low-cost service delivery. In 2014, certain assets of Rainmaker's Global Commerce Services business were acquired by N3, LLC, a firm specializing in sales execution and demand generation.

Keywords: B2B e-commerce, recurring revenue, subscription management, service contract renewals, sales outsourcing, channel sales, lead generation, customer lifecycle management, revenue generation, sales automation, global commerce, payment processing, BPO services, SaaS platform, sales and marketing solutions, telesales services, customer retention, multi-channel sales, enterprise software sales, technology sales