Telligent Systems

About Telligent Systems

Telligent Systems was established in 2004 as a provider of enterprise collaboration and community software. The company was founded by Rob Howard, who had previously been a foundational member of Microsoft's ASP.NET team, where he was instrumental in building its online community. This experience directly shaped Telligent's direction. Howard, along with Jason Alexander and Scott Watermasysk, merged their popular open-source ASP.NET projects—Forums, nGallery, and .Text respectively—to create Telligent's first product, Community Server.

The initial product, Community Server, launched in the fall of 2004, integrated features like blogs, forums, wikis, and user profiles into a single platform. This offering targeted businesses seeking to build external-facing communities for purposes such as digital marketing and customer support. By 2006, the company had secured major clients like Dell and Myspace. A significant milestone occurred in 2008 when Intel Capital became the company's first major capital partner. In response to client demand for an internal-facing solution, Telligent introduced Telligent Enterprise in 2008, designed for employee collaboration and private B2B communities. The company also expanded its product line with Telligent Analytics, a tool for analyzing data generated within its platforms. The business model centered on selling its software, which could be installed on-premises or accessed through hosting providers.

The company's flagship product, later rebranded from Community Server to Telligent Community, was built on the Telligent Evolution platform using technologies like ASP.NET, C#, and Microsoft SQL Server. It provided a suite of applications for building online communities, including forums, blogs, media galleries, and wikis, with the ability to integrate third-party applications via APIs. In a strategic move, Telligent acquired Zimbra from VMware in 2013 and briefly changed its name to Zimbra, Inc. However, this was a short-lived phase. On August 17, 2015, Verint Systems acquired Telligent for an undisclosed amount, adding its community software to Verint's broader customer engagement optimization portfolio. Following the acquisition, Telligent continued to operate as an independent business unit within Verint, and its core product is now known as Verint Community.