Let’s face it — the economy is a mess. Cost of living is up, stock shares go on hourly roller coaster rides you normally have to wait in line for hours to ride at Six Flags, and now people are trying to figure out how to buy gifts this holiday season while still being able to keep the lights on. In sum, consumers are impatient, perturbed, and trying to find exactly what they need when they need it.

For companies, this means personalization — and St. Louis-based customer experience systems provider Amdocs is looking to meet this growing need, particularly in the mobile phone world with its acquisition of Dublin, Ireland-based ChangingWorlds for $60 million, which is expected to close during Amdocs’ fiscal quarter ending December 31.

ChangingWorlds’ mission, according to its Web site, is to “pave the way for all types of personalized information services over mobile, from personalized portal navigation to smarter search and highly targeted mobile advertising to ensure that mobile subscribers enjoy content and services that are relevant to their true needs.”

Judging by the fact that the term “mobile” is mentioned three times in a single-sentence statement, ChangingWorlds is focused on that customer touchpoint. However, James Patmore, vice president of EMEA and Asia Pacific for Amdocs stresses that this move is not solely for the sake of mobile content. “This is about adding relevancy and personalization for all of the touchpoints a user might have with a service provider,” he says. “One is mobile, but others can be with a customer management team in the call center or the experience they might have purchasing [or updating] a service plan by using the online portal. ChangingWorlds’ business is really an expansion on what we bring to personalization technology.”

Elisabeth Rainge, director of next generation networks operations at Framingham, Mass.-based global market intelligence firm IDC, believes this is a smart move for Amdocs. “It’s about expanding the reach of the [the customer experience systems provider's] platform and providing more value to the consumer by being responsive in the way the subscriber prefers to interact,” she says. “It’s a bigger competitive footprint for Amdocs … but one with more values for [its clientele].” Rainge sees this as a largely technological acquisition, and as a result expects ChangingWorlds’ capabilities to be integrated into Amdocs’ core assets.

Consequently, Patmore does not foresee any massive layoffs and believes this is a way to also expand ChangingWorlds’ — there are no plans to change the company name at this point according to Patmore — competitive footprint. “This is an accretive acquisition,” he stresses. “The people are the key assets and we expect to assimilate all the employees into our organization.”

Rainge believes this move is well-timed and will force Amdocs’ competitors to rethink how they are providing personalization. “This shows [the company] is paying attention to the subscriber which is so important because sometimes the discussion becomes one of efficiency,” she says. “The kind of challenge operators face today in this economic climate is that they need to touch their customer as best they can with as rich an experience and reliable system possible.”