Pipeliner CRM relaunched in April as Coevera, reflecting the company’s effort to reposition itself beyond traditional customer relationship management software.
The company says its redesigned platform combines CRM functions with training, professional development, and AI-assisted sales support. The goal is to place greater emphasis on salesperson development while continuing to provide the reporting and visibility managers require.
Kimla describes the relaunch as more than a rebranding effort and argues that it reflects a different approach to how CRM platforms should support sales organizations. By adopting the Model Context Protocol (MCP), Coevera is positioning itself around open interoperability rather than the more tightly integrated ecosystems offered by larger CRM vendors such as Salesforce and Microsoft. He likens the approach to USB-C, allowing organizations to connect their choice of AI tools to CRM data through a common standard.
According to Kimla, Coevera’s architecture challenges a long-standing CRM focus on measurement and oversight rather than salesperson development. In his view, that emphasis on oversight has done little to address the underlying challenges salespeople face.
Rather than building AI features within a closed ecosystem, Coevera’s MCP-based platform is designed to connect with multiple AI assistants through an open architecture. The approach reflects Kimla’s belief that sales organizations must adapt to changing human behavior rather than rely on rigid processes.
He believes buying behavior has evolved. For decades, CRM designs have supported the idea of a linear sales pipeline, in which deals move through the sales process step by step.
“But modern buying behavior is not linear. Decisions happen across stakeholders, evolve, and are influenced by signals that no longer fit neatly into pre-defined stages,” he explained.
Sales Is No Longer Linear
According to Kimla, the company’s new direction reflects the growing complexity of modern buying decisions. He said CRM platforms must account for buying processes that involve multiple stakeholders and decision points, rather than a predictable sequence of steps.
He refers to traditional CRM systems as a “CRM Albatross” — heavy, expensive platforms that he believes can hinder sales productivity. In Kimla’s view, those systems emerged because traditional CRMs served management’s reporting needs first and sales professionals’ workflows second.
“What we’ve done with our system is remove that burden by redefining who and what it’s designed for,” he countered.
By combining CRM functions with professional development tools, Coevera aims to provide salespeople with additional support while still giving managers access to performance data and reporting.
Frees Vendor Data From Walled Gardens
CRM is an industry where vendors typically fight to keep data within their own ecosystems. Coevera is promoting an open standard designed to connect CRM data with AI assistants such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini.
“Closed systems are incompatible with the rapid evolution of AI and the speed at which it is moving. Every major AI provider is moving toward interoperability. MCP is emerging as the standard that allows systems to connect once and everywhere,” Kimla said.
He maintained that locking sales data into proprietary ecosystems limits how organizations can use emerging AI tools and reduces flexibility as technology evolves.
“That can’t happen if it’s captive. MCP allows sales organizations to use whichever AI assistant best fits their workflows while still operating on a single, consistent data layer. It’s designed to be future-proof,” he said.
Open Alternative to Proprietary AI Strategies
Many established CRM vendors have invested heavily in proprietary AI capabilities over the last several years. Kimla does not believe building an MCP server means proprietary AI models will disappear. Instead, he sees them becoming secondary as AI models continue to commoditize.
“The better way to think of it is that the landscape is shifting from who owns AI to who enables the data. We’re building for that second reality,” he argued.
In Kimla’s view, the real asset is high-quality, well-structured, permission-aware data. If that data is accessible and interoperable, organizations can use any current or future AI model.
“If it’s locked, you’re dependent on a single vendor’s system. For sales teams, this will become increasingly limiting as AI becomes more deeply integrated into day-to-day workloads. By building Coevera with an MCP server, our solution becomes a much more flexible piece of their broader tech stack,” he explained.
Why Coevera Is Betting on MCP
Coevera’s adoption of MCP reflects its preference for open standards and interoperability. Under that approach, CRM functions as one component within a broader technology ecosystem rather than serving as the center of every workflow.
Kimla argued that monolithic CRM systems built around a centralized data model do not hold up well in an AI-driven world. Coevera’s design allows for an open, interoperable environment built on open standards and open-source principles. The goal is flexibility.
“We’ve seen firsthand that when technology shifts, rigid systems break. Flexible systems adapt,” he observed.
MCP enables Coevera to function as a single component within a modular system, allowing data to flow securely between platforms and AI agents without custom integrations.
“It becomes the authoritative data layer, while everything around it can plug in and evolve independently,” Kimla said.
Beyond AI Feature Overload
Kimla believes many organizations are growing frustrated with AI features that are added to existing systems without addressing broader usability challenges. “Adding AI features to legacy systems does not solve the underlying problem — outdated systems and clunky interfaces — and the need for multiple integrations and plugins to achieve usability. It only adds more complexity,” he explained.
Looking ahead, Kimla expects CRM platforms to place less emphasis on rigid sales processes and standardized workflows. Future systems, he believes, will focus more on helping salespeople navigate increasingly complex buying environments while continuing to support traditional CRM functions.
“Sales teams will leverage adaptive solutions like Coevera to return to the human element of sales and deliver personalized experiences. KPIs will shift from quantitative to qualitative, and CRM systems will be judged not by how much they track, but by how much they improve performance,” he predicted.
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