ResearchPublication Date: 27 March 2006 ID Number: G00138536

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Marketing Resource Management Vendors Differ on Functionality Kimberly Collins

MRM represents a broad set of marketing competencies with a variety of vendors providing solutions. Determine which vendors meet your requirements in areas such as planning, program management, knowledge management, fulfillment and analytics.

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Different classes of marketing resource management vendors offer different value propositions. Breadth and depth of MRM capabilities also vary. Select vendors and solutions based on your requirements by MRM competency area, balancing trade-offs between functionality, integration to other business applications, usability, marketing domain focus and level of engagement.

ANALYSIS

Marketing resource management (MRM) is a set of processes and capabilities that aims to enhance a company's ability to orchestrate and optimize internal and external marketing resources (see "The Future of Marketing Automation Arrives With MRM" and "Marketing Resource Management Is Key to a Successful CRM Strategy").

MRM applications enable companies to:

Plan and budget

Create and develop marketing programs and content

Collect and store content and knowledge

Fulfill and distribute marketing content and collateral

Measure and optimize marketing performance

In "Magic Quadrant for Marketing Resource Management, 1Q06,") we evaluated vendors on their ability to execute and completeness of vision for MRM. An area that received one of the highest weightings was the vendors' products/solutions. Vendors were evaluated on their functionality for each of the five MRM capabilities mentioned above, as well as their product architecture. Determining your MRM functionality requirements and approach is critical to selecting the right MRM vendor and solution (see "Determine Your Approach to Marketing Resource Management").

We compare vendor competencies (best-of-breed, robust, capable, usable and none) by vendor for each of these five MRM functionality areas (see Note 1).

Marketing suite vendors (Aprimo and Unica) provide MRM suites in addition to one or more other marketing applications (for example, campaign management, lead management and event management) but do not provide software that supports other business functions for example, sales force automation (SFA), contact center, finance, supply chain management (SCM) and ERP. MRM is a critical focus for these vendors to build an enterprise marketing management (EMM) platform that supports planning, performance management and operational process efficiencies. They have a broad vision for MRM, although depth of actual MRM capabilities may vary depending on MRM focus and core competencies.

These vendors also provide strong integration with other marketing modules, such as campaign and lead management. They will increasingly be challenged by the entry of enterprise CRM suite players (see Figure 1). The value proposition of marketing suite vendors is their strong focus on the marketing buying center, usability and functionality requirements of marketing.

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Figure 1. Marketing and Enterprise Suite Vendors' MRM Competencies

NoneUsableCapableRobustBest of Breed

*Acquired by Oracle

Plan/Budget

Create/Develop

Collect/Manage

Fulfill/Distribute

Measure/Report

Aprimo

Unica

Marketing Suites

CRM and Enterprise Suites

Oracle

SAP

Siebel Systems*

NoneUsableCapableRobustBest of Breed

*Acquired by Oracle

Plan/Budget

Create/Develop

Collect/Manage

Fulfill/Distribute

Measure/Report

Aprimo

Unica

Marketing Suites

CRM and Enterprise Suites

Oracle

SAP

Siebel Systems*

Source: Gartner (March 2006)

Aprimo has the broadest set of MRM functionality, with capabilities in each of the five components, including deep functionality in planning and budgeting, and robust functionality for managing creative development and marketing fulfillment. It has decent capabilities for content management.

Unica provides clients with robust capabilities for planning and financial management, with decent capabilities for managing creative development. Unica does not support marketing fulfillment, and its content management capabilities are limited. In 2005, Aprimo launched its MPM product, providing dashboards and analytics to marketing managers. Unica still relies primarily on standard reporting within its MRM solution. Neither company has pre-defined MRM optimization models.

Action: Consider marketing suite providers for their strong marketing focus, usability and where MRM is part of a larger EMM platform. Evaluate solutions based on the depth of capability needed to meet requirements. Look to other best-of-breed vendors to support more-complex optimization models.

CRM and enterprise suite providers for example, Oracle, SAP and Siebel Systems (which was acquired by Oracle) offer MRM applications in addition to other CRM functions (for example, campaign management, SFA and contact center) and other business applications (for example, corporate performance management, ERP, SCM, HR and procurement). These vendors offer a breadth of MRM capabilities typically built from core technologies (for example, content management, project management, workflow and business intelligence) but may lack depth in certain areas. They offer a strong value proposition around integration to other business applications and have the ability to cross-sell into respective large client bases. They are challenged to keep pace with the breadth of functionality from marketing suites and the depth from best-of-breed component providers. However, SAP and Siebel have developed industry-

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specific capabilities in trade promotion management, for example, which is a differentiator for certain industries.

Oracle and SAP's MRM applications have traditionally leveraged core technologies to support project management, content management, marketing fulfillment and analytics. Oracle still relies on these core technologies in areas such as planning and budgeting, content management and analytics, which enable marketing users to leverage its solutions; but Oracle does not get high marks in terms of usability.

SAP's MRM strategy has been to focus on industry-specific capabilities through solutions around brand management for consumer goods and retail, marketing development funds for high technology, product development management for high technology, manufacturing, consumer goods and services. During the past few years, SAP has partnered with key clients to add new, more-marketing-specific functionality. New MRM capabilities in mySAP CRM Marketing 5.0 include digital asset management (video and audio streaming), giving it a robust rating in this area. New capabilities for agency management, marketing funds development, product development management, along with analytical dashboards and scenario planning, have made marketing planning and budgeting, project management and MRM analytics more "capable."

The Siebel solution (acquired by Oracle on 31 January 2006) offers capabilities in four of the five MRM capabilities. However, it requires integration with another asset or content management solution, and capabilities for creative management remain limited. Through partner relationship management, it offers decent marketing fulfillment capabilities. With robust planning, budgeting and analytic capabilities, its real value proposition lies in using analytics to close the loop in planning and budgeting. It also offers industry-specific capabilities, such as trade promotion management and marketing development funds management. A combined Oracle/Siebel solution would offer greater breadth and depth of MRM capabilities, particularly integration of Oracle's content management capabilities.

Action: Consider enterprise suite vendors if you already use a large number of other business applications from the same provider and are looking for MRM solutions that integrate with those applications.

MRM suite providers offer solutions with a broad set of MRM capabilities, although depth may vary (see Figure 2).

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Figure 2. MRM Suite Vendors' MRM Competencies

NoneUsableCapableRobustBest of Breed

MRM Suites Plan/BudgetCreate/Develop

Collect/Manage

Fulfill/Distribute

Measure/Report

AssetLink

Citat

Marketingisland

MarketingPilot

nvigorate

Xeed

NoneUsableCapableRobustBest of Breed

MRM Suites Plan/BudgetCreate/Develop

Collect/Manage

Fulfill/Distribute

Measure/Report

AssetLink

Citat

Marketingisland

MarketingPilot

nvigorate

Xeed

Source: Gartner (March 2006)

The initial value proposition of these vendors typically falls along one or more of the following dimensions:

An alternative focused specifically on MRM for large, global enterprises (for example, AssetLink and nvigorate)

Midmarket focus with a lower-cost solution (for example, MarketingPilot) or geographical focus with local resources and expertise (for example, Citat and Xeed in Europe, and Marketingisland in Canada).

These vendors are challenged to keep pace with the marketing suite vendors that typically have a larger set of resources and a broader client base. They also have to differentiate their solutions based on usability from enterprise suite vendors that have a comparable level of functionality but less focus on the marketing buyer, which manifests itself in the user interface. The value proposition for these vendors is their strong focus on MRM, and customer engagement around MRM requirements.

AssetLink and Citat provide a broad MRM solution across all five MRM competencies, with depth in a couple of different areas. AssetLink offers capabilities across all five MRM functionality areas with strong capabilities for planning, budgeting and managing the creative process. Its origins as a digital asset/content management vendor make it stronger in that area than many of the other MRM vendors. Citat offers strong capabilities for content management and marketing fulfillment.

Marketingisland, MarketingPilot, nvigorate and Xeed provide some basic capabilities within each of the five MRM components but do not excel in any one area. Marketingisland is most capable in marketing fulfillment. MarketingPilot's solution is most capable for planning, budgeting and managing creative processes, with a stronger focus on midmarket customers. nvigorate's solution offers more capabilities in content management and marketing fulfillment. MRM analytics is the

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most-immature area of MRM, and many of these solutions are typically weak in measurement and analysis.

Action: Consider MRM suite providers if you are looking for a strong focus on MRM, marketing usability, a vendor that will work closely to implement a solution or lower-cost alternatives. Depth of capabilities will vary greatly among the vendors for the different components, so making trade-offs in functionality will be required.

Best-of-Breed MRM vendors offer strong capabilities and vision in a particular MRM competency area (see Figure 3). They may offer some capabilities in the other MRM areas, but typically to augment the primary focus area (for example, planning around creative work) rather than broadly supporting the marketing function (for example, budgeting across marketing programs).

Figure 3. Best-of-Breed MRM Vendors' Competencies

NoneUsableCapableRobustBest of Breed

Best-of-Breed MRM Component

Elateral

Veridiem

Plan/Budget

Create/Develop

Collect/Manage

Fulfill/Distribute

Measure/Report

BrandWizardTechnologies

NoneUsableCapableRobustBest of Breed

Best-of-Breed MRM Component

Elateral

Veridiem

Plan/Budget

Create/Develop

Collect/Manage

Fulfill/Distribute

Measure/Report

BrandWizardTechnologies

Source: Gartner (March 2006)

The value proposition for these vendors is to offer advanced capabilities in key areas that typically augment a broader MRM solution from another vendor. We have seen these best-of-breed offerings in three MRM areas: creative development (for example, BrandWizard Technologies), marketing fulfillment (for example, Elateral) and analytics (for example, Veridiem). We expect to see more best-of-breed vendors emerge in the less-mature MRM areas of marketing fulfillment and analytics. These vendors are challenged by resources for growth and development of advanced capabilities by larger, more-viable vendors (for example, marketing and enterprise suites) as the market matures. These vendors are likely acquisition targets by vendors seeking to deepen their MRM capabilities in key areas (see "SAS/Veridiem Deal Will Benefit Both Companies' Customers").

BrandWizard Technologies' solution defines the future of MRM's create and develop competency, which makes BrandWizard a visionary in the MRM market. Its application integrates tightly with the creative process, Adobe InDesign Server 2.0 and Quark DDS server.

The hallmark of the Elateral solution is its marketing fulfillment capabilities, where it sets the visionary pace for the market and boasts some of the largest (thousands) user networks (including sales and distribution). Elateral also provides content and asset management,

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extending this capability to field marketing and sales/distribution partners for dynamic content creation for a particular campaign or offer.

Veridiem (being acquired by SAS) focuses primarily on the analytical aspects of MRM, including dashboards, point-and-click data mining, scenario planning and marketing mix optimization. The solution provides basic planning and budgeting capabilities to enable companies to translate the bottom-up analysis into more-strategic objectives.

Action: Consider best-of-breed vendors when you need advanced capabilities in a particular area to augment your primary MRM solution.

Note 1

Criteria for Level of Functional Capability

To determine the level of capability in each area, we compared vendors' solutions on two dimensions:

Depth or "amount" of functionality within each component

Usability of functionality by marketing users

Best-of-breed (more than 90 percent and highly usable by marketing users)

Robust (66 percent to 89 percent and highly usable by marketing users)

Capable (31 percent to 65 percent and moderately usable by marketing users)

Usable (5 percent to 30 percent and somewhat usable by marketing users)

None (less than 5 percent and limited usability, primarily in conjunction with other MRM components)

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