Pegasystems

Pegasystems Inc. (Pega) is an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1983, Pegasystems develops software for customer relationship management (CRM) and business process management (BPM). The company has been publicly traded since 1996 as PEGA (NASDAQ). Pega is a low-code platform for workflow automation and generative AI-powered decisioning that helps businesses move towards becoming autonomous enterprises.

1983–2002
Alan Trefler founded Pegasystems in 1983 at the age of 27, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Prior to founding the company, in the early 1980s Trefler had developed computer systems that could play chess. During the company's early years it focused on providing case management, namely for companies such as American Express. The company went public in 1996 with initial and secondary public offerings, and began trading on NASDAQ under the symbol PEGA.

2010–2020
In March 2010, Pegasystems acquired the enterprise software company Chordiant for around $161.5 million. The acquisition gave Pegasystems access to new markets such as online training, telecommunications and healthcare, with Pegasystems integrating Chordiant and its customer relationship management (CRM) technology into its existing operations. Pega Cloud was introduced using Amazon Web Services in 2012, and in October 2013, Pegasystems acquired the mobile application developer Antenna Software for $27.7 million. Located in New Jersey, Antenna also had bases in Kraków and Bangalore.

In 2014, Pegasystems invested in network operations in North America and India to support its cloud services. In May 2014, Pegasystems acquired the Bangalore-based MeshLabs, a text mining and analytics software startup. Pegasystems acquired Firefly in June 2014, a co-browsing tool funded by First Round Capital.

As of February 2015, the company had active partnerships with IT outsourcing companies such as Hexaware, NIIT Incessant Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Accenture and Cognizant. Between 2005 and 2015, Pegasystems had average sales growth of 21% per year. The company Pegasystems acquired OpenSpan Inc., an Atlanta based company specializing in robotic process automation and workforce analytics software.

In 2016, Pegasystems announced training and certification on the Pega platform for educators and students.

In February 2019, Pegasystems purchased Infruid Labs, a business analytics and data visualization software company. In May 2019, the company bought In The Chat, a digital messaging platform.

In May of 2020, Pegasystems sponsored a Boston-based punk band, the Dropkick Murphys, for a benefit concert that took place at Fenway Park. The Dropkick Murphys also had Bruce Springsteen virtually call in on the outfield screen to play alongside the band. The concert was live streamed and helped raise more than $700,000 in COVID relief funds as well as benefiting Habitat for Humanity, Feeding America and the Boston Resiliency Fund.

2021–present
In January 2021, the company announced it had acquired Qurious.io, which provides a cloud service that analyzes voice calls in real time to support customer service representatives.

In June 2021, Pegasystems became the official supplier of the Ryder Cup. The company also sponsored pro golfers Marc Leishman and Mel Reid. In June 2021, Reid wore Pegasystems' Pride logo, one of the first times a pride logo has been worn in professional golf.

In May 2022, a jury verdict awarded Appian Corporation $2.036 billion in damages for trade secret misappropriation and a damages award of $1 for a violation of the Virginia Computer Crimes Act. The company will not be required to begin paying the judgement until all avenues of appeal have been exhausted. In February 2023, Pega filed an appeal asking the court to overturn the previous judgement and either rule in Pega’s favor or order a new trial.

In 2022, Pegasystems acquired Everflow, a Brazilian process mining company to support their process mining and hyper automation goals.

In 2023, Pega GenAI, a set of 20 generative AI boosters were integrated across Pega’s portfolio of products, Pega Infinity.

Products and services
The company's core software product is the Pega Platform, part of its Pega Infinity portfolio of applications for customer engagement and digital process automation, which are designed to connect customer interfaces with back-end process automation. Its applications are certified to work on Google Cloud and other public cloud platforms, including Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Pivotal’s Cloud Foundry. Various Kubernetes environments are supported.

In March 2016 Pega introduced the Pega Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) application. The company added artificial intelligence into its customer service software to allow interactions to occur on multiple communication channels at once. The company’s low-code development platform was highlighted in a 2018 Wall Street Journal article.

In 2018 Pega released platform additions that used artificial intelligence for marketing campaigns, customer interfaces, and robotic automation, as well as a Blockchain kit for Ethereum.

In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Pegasystems launched an application for financial institutions to manage emergency loan applications from small businesses seeking COVID-19 financial relief. Throughout 2020, Pegasystems helped several of its clients, including the Bavarian government and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, develop apps to manage issues that arose because of COVID-19.

Pega’s Voice AI and Messaging AI analyze live customer service conversations in real time to help service agents resolve service requests with reduced manual effort.

Pega Infinity ‘23 integrated Pega GenAI, 20 new generative AI-powered boosters that also offer a plug and play architecture for low-code development of AI prompts.

Pega Infinity ‘23 also included updates to the Pega Platform, Pega Customer Decision Hub and Pega Customer Service.

Clients and projects
Pegasystems provides services in the fields of financial services, insurance, life sciences, healthcare, government, manufacturing, high tech, communications and media, energy, and utilities. Pega clients include ING, Lloyds Banking Group, BAA, the state of Maine, PayPal, Cisco Systems, Philips, and BNY Mellon, Verizon and Aflac.

As of 2013, other clients included "largely Fortune 500 companies" such as The Brass Rail, Toronto, Lloyds Banking Group, BAA, and the state of Maine, which commissioned Pegasystems to create a BPM system to cut administrative costs. By July 2014, PayPal, Cisco Systems, and Philips were using Pegasystems’ CRM software, and BNY Mellon announced they would be integrating Pega into its operation.