RightNow has unveiled what the software-as-a-service provider is describing as a ‘customer experience cloud platform’ to enable clients to build, run and manage their own add-on CRM applications using its infrastructure.

The CX Cloud Platform comprises four elements – ‘App Builder’ tools; a ‘Knowledge Foundation’; ‘Mission Critical Operations’ infrastructure and a ‘Cloud Services Portal’.

David Vap, the firm’s chief solutions officer, said: "With RightNow CX Cloud Platform, our clients and partners can augment our industry-leading, packaged customer experience applications with functionality and processes specific to their unique customer experience strategies."

App Builder comprises development tools to enable users to create, extend, configure and integrate their CRM applications with RightNow’s existing offerings. The toolset includes Connect, which enables developers to integrate desktop and web applications as well as back end and telephony systems with their SaaS packages using the vendor’s application programming interfaces.

Experience Design consists of visual design tools and standard web languages to enable business analysts and designers to both configure their applications to run on CX and tailor workflows, workspaces, business rules and process definitions to work across multiple channels.

Custom Objects functionality, which is scheduled to ship in November this year, will likewise enable developers to create and customise business objects found in the firm’s database schema. This means that they can be used to create new components and applications that run in the vendor’s environment.

The Knowledge Foundation piece, meanwhile, comprises a knowledge base and authoring tools. It enables marketers to write answers to frequently asked questions and to embed or link to consumer-generated content from RightNow-hosted communities. The Knowledge Foundation can also be accessed via search engines and web pages using knowledge syndication techniques.

Mission Critical Operations, on the other hand, consists of six geographically-dispersed data centres to run the applications that customers have developed, while the Portal enables them to monitor, measure and manage their performance.

RightNow claims that, unlike rival offerings, its portal provides near real-time visibility into operational metrics, which include performance, availability, reliability and scalability. The aim is to provide IT professionals with the specific, actionable information required to analyse trends and react quickly to changing conditions.