Marketing resource management (MRM) vendor Aprimo snatched up ADAM Software, which bolsters Aprimo’s digital asset management (DAM) capabilities and reinforces the consolidation and convergence that we predicted. 
 
There are a lot of small DAM vendors, but there has been a move to consolidate. Specifically, the capabilities of MRM, DAM, and content marketing platforms (CMP) continue to blur. MRM vendors like Aprimo help marketers assign tasks, track resources, budget, and review materials. But they stop short of organizing large libraries of content, integrating with upstream creative workflows, and delivering content downstream. The clear benefit of this merge is that now marketers will have one solution across the entire content lifecycle. 
 
Other large vendors in the market have taken a similar approach. Adobe has built out its offering to include DAM, web content management (WCM), analytics and other capabilities. Multinational conglomerate Danaher purchased MediaBeacon to merge under product-packaging software vendor Esko. Shutterstock bought WebDAM to give Shutterstock a viable story for stock image management.
 
ADAM’s purchase comes as no surprise. Their strength in DAM, noted in our Forrester Wave, and relatively small size made them an attractive acquisition target. 
 
What does Aprimo’s acquisition of ADAM mean for the market?
 
  • It signals the shift that DAM is moving more towards enterprise use cases. DAM was once a static repository of content used specifically by marketers. Now DAM has much broader use cases and marrying DAM and MRM capabilities means that the review and approval process across an enterprise should be easier. 
 
  • Consolidation will be good for the users of the technology. Rather than create a patchwork of applications that address different needs and functionalities, this acquisition will mean less work trying to integrate disparate systems. It also means consistent tools and usability, which drives adoption.
 
  • Smaller vendors must increase their capabilities or risk losing viability. Vendors that offer not much more than cloud storage must watch out. Unless they innovate to provide additional capabilities and value to their clients, they’ll become irrelevant. We’ll highlight emerging trends in our upcoming DAM vendor landscape.  Vendors must capitalize on them or risk their business.