Marketing software vendors

MyCustomer.com provides a rundown of the key vendors operating in the marketing software space.

Founded in 1997, Alterian is focused on delivering marketing platforms through a network of marketing service providers and agencies. The firm has grown a global community of over 70 marketing service providers, agencies, and systems integrators such as Accenture, Acxiom, Allant Group, Carlson Marketing, Experian, Epsilon, infoUSA, Merkle, Ogilvy One and Euro RSCG Worldwide who deliver Alterian software alongside their own value added services.

Aprimo entered the marketing platform market in 1998. Aprimo provides an Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM) product to leading marketing organisations around the world. Aprimo's software is built on its visionary Enterprise Marketing Backbone which uses a services oriented architecture (SOA) that the firm says “eliminates marketing as an island of automation”.

Infor acquired SSA Global in May 2006, shortly after the latter’s August 2005 acquisition of Epiphany. It addresses 3 components: Inbound Marketing that creates real-time customer profiles based on historical, personal, and contextual data; Outbound Marketing that provides an integrated database marketing solution for planning, executing, and monitoring permission and event-based campaigns across all touch points; and Marketing Resource Management to deliver visibility into marketing activities.

Oracle has selected the Siebel product suite as its standard for marketing and loyalty following the acquisition of the firm in January 2007. Siebel MRM automates key processes, from planning to financial analysis, helping marketing users across the enterprise manage activities more effectively and optimise the use of marketing resources.

In 2006, SAS bolstered its existing marketing resource management (MRM) capabilities with the acquisition of Veridiem. In addition to integrating Veridiem into the SAS Customer Intelligence suite of marketing solutions SAS has introduced several new MRM modules including SAS for Marketing Performance Management and updates to its financial management modules. SAS’ marketing resource management capabilities are part of SAS’ broader customer intelligence suite of solutions which span campaign management, cross-sell/up-sell, customer retention, customer segmentation, e-mail marketing, event-driven marketing, campaign optimisation, marketing mix analysis, marketing performance management and Web analytics.

SAP CRM supports critical marketing processes, including Marketing Resource Management; segment and list management to manage enterprise customer and prospect data without the need for IT support; campaign management to enable relevant and personalised real-time offers through inbound marketing channels and execute marketing activities through all inbound and outbound interaction channels including direct mail, e-mail, phone, web, fax, and SMS; trade promotion management; lead management; and marketing analytics to enable understanding of the effectiveness of marketing activities and gain insight into why marketing activities did or did not work.

Teradata, a division of NCR until it was spun off last year, entered the marketing software category in 1999. It has established OEM relationships with Infor and Assetlink to bolster its own functionality and create Teradata MRM. Teradata MRM complements Teradata's CM portfolio, which includes dynamic direct marketing capabilities, as well as tools for real-time interaction management.

Unica's Enterprise Marketing Management offering – Affinium - streamlines the entire marketing process for brand, relationship and internet marketing — from planning and budgeting to project management, execution and measurement. Offered on premise or on demand, Affinium delivers key EMM capabilities including: web and customer analytics, cross-channel lead and campaign management, and MRM.

Other articles in this focus report:

• The market for marketing software


• The secrets to successful emarketing


• Web 2.0: A mixed blessing for marketing?


• If you aren't using analytics, you’re not really marketing


• Marketing software in action