I am pleased to announce TWO new Forrester Wave™ reports for B2C marketers. Today we published the Forrester Wave™: Cross-Channel Campaign Management, Q2 2016 and the Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Marketing Software Suites, Q2 2016. The former will help you compare the 15 leading campaign management vendors, while the latter will help you evaluate 9 vendors that have assembled broader enterprise marketing technology portfolios.

Cross-Channel Campaign Management (CCCM)

Three of the four leading vendors – Adobe, Salesforce, and Oracle – base their CCCM solutions on email service provider acquisitions. All have expanded their cross-channel coverage, and their customer data management and analytics functionality continues to evolve. Conversely, SAS is the only leader among traditional CCCM vendors, because of its customer data management and analytics prowess, as well as evolving digital marketing capabilities.

IBM is a strong performer because of its enterprise CCCM and digital marketing capabilities, but it has yet to fully integrate its acquired assets. Similarly, Selligent is currently integrating its CCCM and digital marketing capabilities for the mid-market. Pitney Bowes and Pegasystems offer solid analytics and RTIM capabilities, though they lag the leaders when it comes to outbound digital marketing. SmartFocus, Emarsys, and Experian are challenging established CCCM and digital marketing vendors with their interaction-focused solutions. RedPoint Global offers customer data management and marketing automation to support CCCM execution.

All three contenders are in the midst of organizational re-structuring that negatively impacts their competitive positioning. Teradata sold its marketing applications business in April 2016, but retains its CCCM and RTIM solutions – albeit without channel delivery capabilities. Marlin Equity Partners paid $90 million for assets that Teradata acquired for at least 6 times that figure, and the resulting Teradata Marketing Applications business must re-group around its digital marketing and MRM tools. SDL is currently looking for a buyer for the CCCM, analytics, email, and social media assets it acquired from Alterian in 2012.

Enterprise Marketing Software Suites (EMSS)

Adobe, Oracle, and Salesforce are not only leaders for CCCM; all three offer extensive marketing cloud portfolios that provide multiple components for B2C marketers looking to assemble their own unique enterprise marketing technology ecosystems. Though similar, the three are by no means equal, so our evaluation calls out the differences.

IBM offers many of the same components as the three leaders, but it still has some work to do in terms of integrating its acquired assets. SAS provides the data management and advanced analytics leadership, but lacks the digital marketing momentum of its larger cloud-based rivals. Experian is proving there is room in the market for a services provider that can build solutions around its own technology assets.

SAP is expanding its technology portfolio and partner ecosystem to attract marketers to its evolving SAP Hybris Marketing solution. The market will also eagerly watch the evolution of Marketo, following today’s announcement that Vista Equity Partners will acquire the firm for $1.79 billion. Similarly – though on a smaller scale – Teradata Marketing Applications is charting its course following last month’s $90 million acquisition by Marlin Equity Partners.

For the complete details, download the Forrester Wave™: Cross-Channel Campaign Management, Q2 2016 and/or the Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Marketing Software Suites, Q2 2016. I will also be conducting a webinar that covers both reports on June 23rd, and you can register here.

If you have questions, feel free to send me an email or set up an inquiry to discuss contextually relevant marketing. If you are considering enterprise marketing technology investments and want to discuss priorities, challenges, or vendor capabilities, we’re here to help.