Select a Marketing Management Suite

A best-fit solution balances needs, cost, and capability.

Table of contents

1. Project Rationale
2. Execute the Project/DIY Guide
   • 2.1. Launch the MMS Project and Collect Requirements
   • 2.2. Shortlist Marketing Management Suites
   • 2.3. Select Vendor and Communicate Decision to Stakeholders
3. Appendices

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

Navigate the complexity of a vast ecosystem by taking a structured approach to marketing management suite (MMS) selection.

“Marketing applications are in high demand, but it is difficult to select a suite that is right for your organization. Market offerings have grown from 50 vendors to over 800 in the past five years. Much of the process of identifying an appropriate vendor is not about the vendor at all, but rather about having a comprehensive understanding of internal needs. There are instances where a smaller-point solution is necessary to satisfy requirements and a full marketing management suite is an overinvestment.

Likewise, a partner with differentiating features such as AI-driven workflows and a mobile software development kit can act as a powerful extension of an overall customer experience management strategy. It is crucial to make the right decision; missing the mark on an MMS selection will have a direct impact on the business’ bottom line.”

Ben Dickie
Research Director, Enterprise Applications
Info-Tech Research Group

Phase milestones

Launch the MMS Project and Collect Requirements — Phase 1

• Understand the MMS market space.
• Assess organizational and project readiness for MMS selection.
• Structure your MMS selection and implementation project by refining your MMS roadmap.
• Align organizational use-case fit with market use cases.
• Collect, prioritize, and document MMS requirements.

Shortlist MMS Tool — Phase 2

• Review MMS market leaders and players within your aligned use case.
• Review MMS vendor profiles and capabilities.
• Shortlist MMS vendors based on organizational fit.

Select an MMS — Phase 3

• Submit request for proposal (RFP) to shortlisted vendors.
• Evaluate vendor responses and develop vendor demonstration scripts.
• Score vendor demonstrations and select the final product.

Stop! Are you ready for this project?

Executive summary

Situation

The MMS market is a landscape of vendors offering campaign management, multichannel support, analytics, and publishing tools. Many vendors specialize in some of these areas but not all. Sometimes multiple products are necessary – but determining which feature sets the organization truly needs can be a challenging task. The right technology stack is critical in order to bring automation to marketing initiatives.

Complication

• The first challenge is deciding whether to implement a full marketing suite or a point solution.
• The number of marketing suites and point solutions has increased from 50 to more than 800 just in the past five years.
• IT is receiving a growing number of marketing analytics requests and must be prepared to speak intelligently about marketing management vendor selection.

Resolution

• Leverage Info-Tech’s comprehensive three-phase approach to MMS selection projects: assess your organization’s preparedness to go into the selection stage, move through technology selection, and present decisions to stakeholders.
• Conduct an MMS project preparedness assessment to ensure you maximize the value of your time, effort, and spend.
• Determine whether your organization’s needs will best be met by a marketing management suite or a point solution.
• Determine which use case your organization fits into and review the relevant vendor landscape, common capability, and areas of product differentiation. Consult Info-Tech’s market analysis to shortlist vendors for your RFP process.
• Take advantage of traceable and auditable selection tools to run an effective evaluation and selection process. Be prepared to answer the retroactive question “Why this MMS?” with documentation of your selection process and outputs.

Info-Tech Insight

1. The new MMS market. Selecting a marketing management solution has become increasingly difficult, with the number of players in the marketplace ballooning to meet buyer demand.
2. Direct translation to revenue. Picking the wrong marketing solution has a direct impact on the bottom line. However, the right MMS can lead to a 7.3x greater year-over-year increase in annual revenue.
3. Don’t buy best-of-breed; buy best-for-you. Base your vendor selection on your requirements and use case, not on the vendor’s overall performance.

MMS is a key piece of the CRM puzzle

In order to optimize cross-sell opportunities and marketing effectiveness, there needs to be a master customer database, which belongs in the customer relationship management (CRM) suite.

“When it comes to marketing automation capabilities, using CRM is like building a car from a kit. All the parts are there, but you need the time and skill to put it all together. Using marketing automation is like buying the car you want or need, with all the features you want already installed and some gas in the tank, ready to drive. In either case, you still need to know how to drive and where you want to go.” (Mac McIntosh, Marketo Inc.)

A master database – the central place where all up-to-the-minute data on a customer profile is stored – is essential for MMS success. This is particularly true for real-time capability effectiveness and to minimize customer fatigue.

Understand what an MMS can do for you

Take time to learn the capabilities of modern marketing applications. Understanding the “art of the possible” will help you to get the most out of your MMS.

Review Info-Tech’s vendor profiles of the MMS market to identify vendors that meet your requirements

Use Info-Tech’s MMS implementation methodology as a starting point for your organization’s MMS selection

Contact your account representative or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

Professional services provider engages Info-Tech to guide it through its MMS selection journey

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

Select a Marketing Management Suite – project overview

	1. Launch the MMS Project and Collect Requirements	2. Shortlist Marketing Management Suites	3. Select Vendor and Communicate Decision to Stakeholders
Best-Practice Toolkit	1.1 Assess the value and identify your organization’s fit for MMS technology. 1.2 Build your procurement team and project customer experience management (CXM) strategy. 1.3 Identify your MMS requirements.	2.1 Produce your shortlist	3.1 Select your MMS 3.2 Present selection
Guided Implementations	Understand CXM strategy and identify your fit for MMS technology. Identify staffing needs. Plan requirements gathering steps.	Discuss use-case fit assessment results. Discuss vendor landscape.	Create a procurement strategy. Discuss executive presentation. Conduct a proposal review.
Onsite Workshop	Module 1: Launch Your MMS Selection Project	Module 2: Analyze MMS Requirements and Shortlist Vendors	Module 3: Plan Your Procurement Process
	Phase 1 Outcome: Launch of MMS selection project	Phase 2 Outcome: Shortlist of vendors	Phase 3 Outcome: Selection of MMS

Use these icons to help direct you as you navigate this research

Use these icons to help guide you through each step of the blueprint and direct you to content related to the recommended activities.

	This icon denotes a slide where a supporting Info-Tech tool or template will help you perform the activity or step associated with the slide. Refer to the supporting tool or template to get the best results and proceed to the next step of the project.
	This icon denotes a slide with an associated activity. The activity can be performed either as part of your project or with the support of Info-Tech team members who will come onsite to facilitate a workshop for your organization.
	This icon denotes a slide that pertains directly to the Info-Tech vendor profiles on marketing management technology. Use these slides to support and guide your evaluation of the MMS vendors included in the research.

Select a Marketing Management Suite

PHASE 1

Launch the MMS Project and Collect Requirements

Phase 1 outline

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 1: Launch Your MMS Project and Collect Requirements

Proposed Time to Completion: 3 weeks

Phase 1 milestones

Launch the MMS Project and Collect Requirements — Phase 1

• Understand the MMS market space.
• Assess organizational and project readiness for MMS selection.
• Structure your MMS selection and implementation project by refining your MMS roadmap.
• Align organizational use-case fit with market use cases.
• Collect, prioritize, and document MMS requirements.

Shortlist MMS Tool — Phase 2

• Review MMS market leaders and players within your aligned use case.
• Review MMS vendor profiles and capabilities.
• Shortlist MMS vendors based on organizational fit.

Select an MMS — Phase 3

• Submit request for proposal (RFP) to shortlisted vendors.
• Evaluate vendor responses and develop vendor demonstration scripts.
• Score vendor demonstrations and select the final product.

Step 1.1: Understand the MMS market

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• MMS market overview

This step involves the following participants:

• Project team
• Project manager
• Project sponsor

Outcomes of this step

• An understanding of the evolution of the MMS market space and how it helps today’s organizations.
• An evaluation of new and upcoming trends sought by MMS clients.
• Verification of whether an MMS is a fit with your organization.

Speak the same language as the marketing department to deliver the most business value

Marketing Management Suite Glossary

MMS is a key piece of the customer experience ecosystem

A master database – the central place where all up-to-the-minute data on a customer profile is stored – is essential for MMS success. This is particularly true for real-time capability effectiveness and to minimize customer fatigue. If you have customer records in multiple places, you risk missing customer opportunities and potentially upsetting clients. For example, if a client has communicated preferences or disinterest through one channel, and this is not effectively recorded throughout the organization, another representative is likely to contact them in the same method again – possibly alienating the customer for good. A master database requires automatic synchronization with all point solutions, POS, billing systems, agencies, etc. If you don’t have up-to-the-minute information, you can’t score prospects effectively and you lose out on the benefits of the MMS.

Understanding the “art of the possible”

Expect the marketing department to drive suite adoption, but don’t count out the benefits MMS will also provide to IT

MMS adoption is driven by the need for better campaign execution and marketing intelligence. MMS technologies are adopted to create faster, easier, more intelligent, and more measurable campaigns and make managing complex channels easy and repeatable.

(Source: Info-Tech Research Group; N=23)

The key drivers for MMS are business-related, not IT-related. However, this does not mean that there are no benefits to IT. In fact, the IT department will see numerous benefits, including time and resource savings. Further, not having an MMS creates more work for your IT department. IT must serve as a valued partner for selection and implementation.

Additional benefits to IT driven by MMS

Marketing management suites are ideal for large organizations with multiple product lines in complex marketing environments. IT is often more centralized than its counterparts in the business, making it uniquely positioned to encourage greater coordination by helping the business units understand the shared goals and the benefits of working together to roll out suites for marketing workflow management, intelligence, and channel management.

Info-Tech Insight

Don’t forget that MMS technologies deliver on the overarching suite value proposition: a robust solution within one integrated offering. Without an MMS in play, organizations in need of this functionality are forced to piece together point solutions (or ad hoc management). This not only increases costs but also is an integration nightmare for IT.

Step 1.2: Structure the project

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Determine if you are ready to kick off the MMS selection project.
• Align project goals with CXM strategy and business goals.

This step involves the following participants:

• Core project team
• Project manager
• Project sponsor

Outcomes of this step

• Assurance that you have completed adequate preparation, obtained stakeholder and sponsor buy-in, secured sufficient resources, and completed strategy and planning activities to move forward with selection.
• An approach to remedy organizational readiness to prepare for MMS selection.
• An understanding of stakeholder goals.

Identify the scope and purpose of your MMS selection process

Info-Tech Insights

Creating repeatable and streamlined marketing processes is a common overarching business objective that is driven by multiple factors. To ensure this objective is achieved, confirm that the primary drivers are following the implementation of the first automated marketing channels.

Activity: Understand your business’ goals for MMS by parsing your formal CXM strategy

INPUT: Stakeholder user stories

OUTPUT: Understanding of ideal outcomes from MMS implementation

MATERIALS: Whiteboard and marker or sticky notes

PARTICIPANTS: Project sponsor, Project stakeholders, Business analysts, Business unit reps

Instructions

1. Outline the purpose of the future MMS tool and the drivers behind this business decision with the project’s key stakeholders.
2. Document plans to ensure that these drivers are taken into consideration and realized following implementation. Example:

   Improve	Reduce/Eliminate	KPIs
   Multichannel marketing	Duplication of effort	Number of customer interaction channels supported
   Social integration	Process inefficiencies	Number of social signals received (likes, shares, etc.)
   …	…	…

If you do not have a well-defined CXM strategy, leverage Info-Tech’s research to Build a Strong Technology Foundation for Customer Experience Management.

Understanding marketing suites

This blueprint focuses on complete, integrated marketing management suites An integrated suite is a single product that is designed to assist with multiple marketing processes. Information from these suites is deeply connected to the core CRM. Changing a piece of information for one process will update all affected.

Understanding marketing point solutions

Determine if MMS is right for your organization

Info-Tech Insight

Using an MMS is ideal for organizations with multiple brands and product portfolios (e.g. consumer packaged goods). Ad hoc management and email marketing services are best for small organizations with a client base that requires only bare bones engagement.

Determine if you are ready to kick off your MMS selection and implementation project

Use Info-Tech’s MMS Readiness Assessment Checklist to determine if your organization has sufficient process and campaign maturity to warrant the investment in a consolidated marketing management suite. Sections of the Tool: Goals & Objectives Project Team Current State Understanding Future State Vision Business Process Improvement Project Metrics Executive Sponsorship Stakeholder Buy-In & Change Management Risk Management Cost & Budget

INFO-TECH DELIVERABLE Complete the MMS Readiness Assessment Checklist by following the instructions in Activity 1.2.3.

Activity: Determine if you are ready to kick off your MMS selection project

1.2.3 30 minutes

INPUT: MMS foundation, MMS strategy

OUTPUT: Readiness remediation approach, Validation of MMS project readiness

MATERIALS: Info-Tech’s MMS Readiness Assessment Checklist

PARTICIPANTS: Project sponsor, Core project team

Instructions

1. Download the MMS Readiness Assessment Checklist.
2. Review Section 1 of the checklist with the core project team and/or project sponsor, item by item. For completed items, tick the relative checkbox.
3. Once the whole checklist has been reviewed, document all incomplete items in the table under Section 1 in the first table column (“Incomplete Readiness Item”).
4. For each incomplete item, use your discretion to determine whether its completion is critical in preparation for MMS selection and implementation. This may vary given the complexity of your MMS project. If the item is critical to the project, indicate this with “Y” in the second column (“Criticality (Y/N)”).
5. For each critical item, reflect on the barriers that have prevented or are preventing its completion. Possible barriers include incomplete task dependencies, low value-to-effort determination, lack of organizational knowledge or resources, pressure of deadlines, etc. Document these barriers in the third column (“Barriers to Completion”).
6. Based on the barriers determined in Step 5, determine a remediation approach for each item. Document the approach in the fourth column (“Remediation Approach”).
7. For each remediation activity, designate a due date and remediation owner. Document this in the fifth column (“Due Date & Owner”).
8. Carry out the remediation of critical tasks and return to this blueprint to kickstart your selection and implementation project.

Step 1.3: Gather MMS requirements

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Understand your MMS use case.
• Elicit and capture your MMS requirements.
• Prioritize your solution requirements.

This step involves the following participants:

• Core project team
• Project manager
• Business analysts
• Procurement subject-matter experts (SMEs)

Outcomes of this step

• Project alignment with MMS market use case.
• Inventory of categorized and prioritized MMS business requirements.

Understand the dominant use-case scenarios for MMS across organizations

Activity: Understand which type of MMS you need

1.3.1 30 minutes

INPUT: Use-case breakdown

OUTPUT: Project use-case alignments

Materials: Whiteboard, markers

Participants: Project manager, Core project team (optional)

Instructions

1. Familiarize your team with Info-Tech’s MMS use-case breakdown from the previous slide.
2. Determine which use case is best aligned with your organization’s MMS project objectives. If you need assistance with this, consider the relevance of the cases studies and statements on the following slides.
3. If your team agrees with most or all statements under a given use case, this indicates strong alignment towards that use case. It is possible for an organization to align with more than one use case. Your use-case alignment will guide you in creating a vendor shortlist later in this project.

Use Info-Tech’s vendor research and use-case scenarios to support your organization’s vendor analysis

The use-case view of vendor and product performance provides multiple opportunities for vendors to fit into your application architecture depending on their product and market performance. The use cases selected are based on market research and client demand.

Determining your use case is crucial for:

1. Selecting an application that is the right fit
2. Establishing a business case for MMS

The following slides illustrate how the three most common use cases (marketing automation, marketing intelligence, and social marketing) align with business needs. As shown by the case studies, the right MMS can result in great benefits to your organization.

Use-case alignment and business need

Marketing Automation

Marketing Need	Manage customer experience across multiple channels	Manage multiple campaigns simultaneously	Integrate web-enabled devices (IoT) into marketing campaigns	Run and track email marketing campaigns

The Portland Trail Blazers utilize an MMS to amplify their message with marketing automation technology

Use-case alignment and business need

Marketing Intelligence

Marketing Need	Capture marketing- and customer-related data from multiple sources	Analyze large quantities of marketing data	Visualize marketing-related data in a manner that is easy for decision makers to consume	Perform trend and predictive analysis

Chico’s FAS uses marketing intelligence to drive customer loyalty

Use-case alignment and business need

Social Marketing

Marketing Need	Understand customers' likes and dislikes	Manage and analyze social media channels like Facebook and Twitter	Foster a conversation around specific products	Engage international audiences through regional messaging apps

Bayer leverages MMS technology to cultivate a social presence

Leverage Info-Tech’s requirements gathering framework to serve as the basis for capturing your MMS requirements

REQUIREMENTS GATHERING Info-Tech’s requirements gathering framework is a comprehensive approach to requirements management that can be scaled to any size of project or organization. This framework ensures that the application created will capture the needs of all stakeholders and deliver business value. Develop and right-size a proven standard operating procedure for requirements gathering with Info-Tech’s blueprint Build a Strong Approach to Business Requirements Gathering.

Activity: Elicit and capture your MMS requirements

1.3.2 Varies

INPUT: MMS tool user expertise, MMS Requirements Picklist Tool

OUTPUT: A list of needs from the MMS tool user perspective

Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

Participants: MMS users in the organization, MMS selection committee

Instructions

1. Identify stakeholders for the requirements gathering exercise. Consider holding one-on-one sessions or large focus groups with key stakeholders or the project sponsor to gather business requirements for an MMS.
2. Use the MMS Requirements Picklist Tool as a starting point for conducting the requirements elicitation session(s).
3. Begin by reading the instructions in the template and then move to the “Requirements” worksheet. Read each defined requirement in the worksheet and indicate in the “Requirement Status” column whether the requirement is a “Must,” “High,” or “Low.” Confirming the status is an important part of the exercise. The status will help filter vendors for final selection later on in the process.
4. Decide whether additional requirements are necessary by asking the MMS tool users. If so, add the requirements to the bottom of the “Requirements” worksheet and indicate their “Requirement Status.”

Download the MMS Requirements Picklist Tool to help with completing this activity.

Show the measurable benefits of MMS with metrics

The return on investment (ROI) and perceived value of the organization’s marketing solution will be a critical indication of the likelihood of success of the suite’s selection and implementation.

Info-Tech Insight

Even if marketing metrics are difficult to track right now, the implementation of an MMS brings access to valuable customer intelligence from data that was once kept in silos.

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech Workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team. Info-Tech analyst will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop. Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

1.2.1		Align the CXM strategy value proposition to MMS capabilities Our facilitator will help your team identify the IT CXM strategy and marketing goals. The analyst will then work with the team to map the strategy to technological drivers available in the MMS market.
1.3.2		Define the needs of MMS users Our facilitator will work with your team to identify user requirements for the MMS Requirements Picklist Tool. The analyst will facilitate a discussion with your team to prioritize identified requirements.

Select a Marketing Management Suite

PHASE 2

Shortlist Marketing Management Suites

Phase 2 outline

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 2: Shortlist Marketing Management Suites

Proposed Time to Completion: 1-3 months

Phase 2 milestones

Launch the MMS Project and Collect Requirements — Phase 1

• Understand the MMS market space.
• Assess organizational and project readiness for MMS selection.
• Structure your MMS selection and implementation project by refining your MMS roadmap.
• Align organizational use-case fit with market use cases.
• Collect, prioritize, and document MMS requirements.

Shortlist MMS Tool — Phase 2

• Review MMS market leaders and players within your aligned use case.
• Review MMS vendor profiles and capabilities.
• Shortlist MMS vendors based on organizational fit.

Select an MMS — Phase 3

• Submit request for proposal (RFP) to shortlisted vendors.
• Evaluate vendor responses and develop vendor demonstration scripts.
• Score vendor demonstrations and select the final product.

Step 2.1: Analyze and shortlist MMS vendors

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Review MMS vendor landscape.
• Take note of relevant point solutions.
• Shortlist vendors for the RFP process.

This step involves the following participants:

• Core project team

Outcomes of this step

• Understanding of Info-Tech’s use-case scenarios for MMS: marketing automation, marketing intelligence, and social marketing.
• Familiarity with the MMS vendor landscape.
• Shortlist of MMS vendors for RFP process.

Familiarize yourself with the MMS market: How it got here

Info-Tech Insight

As the market evolves, capabilities that were once cutting edge become default and new functionality becomes differentiating. Some features, like basic CRM integration, have become table stakes capabilities. Focus on advanced analytics features and omnichannel integration capabilities to get the best fit for your requirements.

Familiarize yourself with the MMS market: Where it’s going

Review Info-Tech’s vendor profiles of the MMS market to identify vendors that meet your requirements

Vendors & Products Evaluated

Table stakes are the minimum standard; without these, a product doesn’t even get reviewed

Take a holistic approach to vendor and product evaluation

Almost – or equally – as important as evaluating vendor feature capabilities is the need to evaluate vendor viability and non-functional aspects of the MMS. Include an evaluation of the following criteria in your vendor scoring methodology:

Info-Tech Insight

Evaluate vendor capabilities, not just product capabilities. An MMS is typically a long-term commitment; ensure that your organization is teaming up with a vendor or provider that you feel you can work well with and depend on.

Advanced features are the capabilities that allow for granular differentiation of market players and use-case performance

Advanced features are the capabilities that allow for granular differentiation of market players and use-case performance

Use the information in the MMS vendor profiles to streamline your vendor analysis process

Review the use-case scenarios relevant to your organization’s use case to identify a vendor’s fit to your organization’s MMS needs. L = Use-case leader P = Use-case player
Understand your organization’s size and whether it falls within the product’s market focus. Large enterprise: 2,000+ employees and revenue of $250M+ Small-medium enterprise: 30-2,000 employees and revenue of $25M-$250M
Review the differentiating features to identify where the application performs best.
Colors signify a feature’s performance.

Adobe Marketing Cloud

		FUNCTIONAL SPOTLIGHT Creative Cloud Integration: To make for a more seamless cross-product experience, projects can be sent between Marketing Cloud and Creative Cloud apps such as Photoshop and After Effects. Sensei: Adobe has revamped its machine learning and AI platform in an effort to integrate AI into all of its marketing applications. Sensei includes data from Microsoft in a new partnership program. Anomaly Detection: Adobe’s Anomaly Detection contextualizes data and provides a statistical method to determine how a given metric has changed in relation to previous metrics.
USE-CASE PERFORMANCE Marketing Automation Marketing Intelligence Social Marketing L L P	MARKET FOCUS Small-Medium Large Enterprise ✔

Adobe’s goal with Marketing Cloud is to help businesses provide customers with cohesive, seamless experiences by surfacing customer profiles in relevant situations quickly. Adobe Marketing Cloud has traditionally been used in the B2C space but has seen an increase in B2C use cases driven by the finance and technology sectors.

FEATURES

HubSpot

		FUNCTIONAL SPOTLIGHT Content Optimization System (COS): The fully integrated system stores assets and serves them to their designated channels at relevant times. The COS is integrated into HubSpot's marketing platform. Email Automation: HubSpot provides basic email that can be linked to a specific part of an organization’s marketing funnel. These emails can also be added to pre-existing automated workflows. Email Deliverability Tool: HubSpot identifies HTML or content that will be flagged by spam filters. It also validates links and minimizes email load times.
USE-CASE PERFORMANCE Marketing Automation Marketing Intelligence Social Marketing P P P	MARKET FOCUS Small-Medium ✔ Large Enterprise ✔

Hubspot’s primary focus has been on email marketing campaigns. It has put effort into developing solid “click not code” email marketing capabilities. Also, Hubspot has an official integration with Salesforce for expanded operations management and analytics capabilities.

FEATURES

IBM Marketing Cloud

		FUNCTIONAL SPOTLIGHT Watson: IBM is leveraging its popular Watson AI brand to generate marketing insights for automated campaigns. Weather Effects: Set campaign rules based on connections between weather conditions and customer behavior relative to zip code made by Watson. Real-Time Personalization: IBM has made efforts to remove campaign interaction latency and optimize live customer engagement by acting on information about what customers are doing in the current moment.
USE-CASE PERFORMANCE Marketing Automation Marketing Intelligence Social Marketing L L P	MARKET FOCUS Small-Medium ✔ Large Enterprise ✔

IBM has remained ahead of the curve by incorporating its well-known AI technology throughout Marketing Cloud. The application’s integration with the wide array of IBM products makes it a powerful tool for users already in the IBM ecosystem.

FEATURES

Marketo

		FUNCTIONAL SPOTLIGHT Content AI: Marketo has leveraged its investments in machine learning to intelligently fetch marketing assets and serve them to customers based on their interactions with a campaign. Email A/B Testing: To improve lead generation from email campaigns, Marketo features the ability to execute A/B testing for customized campaigns. Partnership with Google: Marketo is now hosted on Google’s cloud platform, enabling it to provide support for larger enterprise clients and improve GDPR compliance.
USE-CASE PERFORMANCE Marketing Automation Marketing Intelligence Social Marketing P P P	MARKET FOCUS Small-Medium ✔ Large Enterprise

Marketo has strong capabilities for lead management but has recently bolstered its analytics capabilities. Marketo is hoping to capture some of the analytics application market share by offering tools with varying complexity and to cater to firms with a wide range of analytics needs.

FEATURES

Oracle Marketing Cloud

		FUNCTIONAL SPOTLIGHT Data Visualization: To make for a more seamless cross-product experience, marketing projects can be sent between Marketing Cloud and Creative Cloud apps such as Dreamweaver. ID Graph: Use ID Graph to unite disparate data sources to form a singular profile of leads, making the personalization and contextualization of campaigns more efficient. Interest-Based Messaging: Pause a campaign to update a segment or content based on aggregated customer activity and interaction data.
USE-CASE PERFORMANCE Marketing Automation Marketing Intelligence Social Marketing P P P	MARKET FOCUS Small-Medium Large Enterprise ✔

Oracle Marketing Cloud is known for its balance between campaigns and analytics products. Oracle has taken the lead on expanding its marketing channel mix to include international options such as WeChat. Users already using Oracle’s CRM/CEM products will derive the most value from Marketing Cloud.

FEATURES

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

		FUNCTIONAL SPOTLIGHT Einstein: Salesforce is putting effort into integrating AI into all of its applications. The Einstein AI platform provides marketers with predictive analytics and insights into customer behavior. Mobile Studio: Salesforce has a robust mobile marketing offering that encompasses SMS/MMS, in-app engagement, and group messaging platforms. Journey Builder: Salesforce created Journey Builder, which is a workflow automation tool. Its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to automate responses to customer actions.
USE-CASE PERFORMANCE Marketing Automation Marketing Intelligence Social Marketing L P L	MARKET FOCUS Small-Medium ✔ Large Enterprise ✔

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is primarily used by organizations in the B2C space. It has strong Sales Cloud CRM integration. Pardot is positioning itself as a tool for sales teams in addition to marketers.

FEATURES

Salesforce Pardot

		FUNCTIONAL SPOTLIGHT Engagement Studio: Salesforce is putting marketing capabilities in the hands of sales reps by giving them access to a team email engagement platform. Einstein: Salesforce’s Einstein AI platform helps marketers and sales reps identify the right accounts to target with predictive lead scoring. Program Steps: Salesforce developed a distinct own workflow building tool for Pardot. Workflows are made of “Program Steps” that have the functionality to initiate campaigns based on insights from Einstein.
USE-CASE PERFORMANCE Marketing Automation Marketing Intelligence Social Marketing P P -	MARKET FOCUS Small-Medium ✔ Large Enterprise ✔

Pardot is Salesforce’s B2B marketing solution. Pardot has focused on developing tools that enable sales teams and marketers to work in lockstep in order to achieve lead-generation goals. Pardot has deep integration with Salesforce’s CRM and customer service management products.

FEATURES

SAP Hybris Marketing

		FUNCTIONAL SPOTLIGHT CMO Dashboard: The specialized dashboard is aimed at providing overviews for the executive level. It includes the ability to coordinate marketing activities and project budgets, KPIs, and timelines. Loyalty Management: SAP features in-app tools to manage campaigns specifically geared toward customer loyalty with digital coupons and iBeacons. Customer Segmentation: SAP’s predictive capabilities dynamically suggest relevant customer profiles for new campaigns.
USE-CASE PERFORMANCE Marketing Automation Marketing Intelligence Social Marketing P L P	MARKET FOCUS Small-Medium Large Enterprise ✔

SAP Hybris Marketing Cloud optimizes marketing strategies in real time with accurate attribution and measurements. SAP’s operations management capabilities are robust, including the ability to view consolidated data streams from ongoing marketing plans, performance targets, and budgets.

FEATURES

SAS Marketing Intelligence

		FUNCTIONAL SPOTLIGHT Activity Map: A user-friendly workflow builder that can be used to execute campaigns. Multiple activities can be simultaneously A/B tested within the Activity Map UI. The outcome of the test can automatically adjust the workflow. Spots: A native digital asset manager that can store property that is part of existing and future campaigns. Viya: A framework for fully integrating third-party data sources into SAS Marketing Intelligence. Viya assists with pairing on-premises databases with a cloud platform for use with the SAS suite.
USE-CASE PERFORMANCE Marketing Automation Marketing Intelligence Social Marketing P L	MARKET FOCUS Small-Medium Large Enterprise ✔

SAS has been a leading BI and analytics provider for more than 35 years. Rooted in statistical analysis of data, SAS products provide forward-looking strategic insights. Organizations that require extensive customer intelligence capabilities and the ability to “slice and dice” segments should have SAS on their shortlist.

FEATURES

Consider alternative MMS vendors not included in Info-Tech’s vendor profiles

1. Our clients must be talking about the solution.
2. Our analysts must believe the solution will play well within the evaluation.
3. The vendor must meet table stakes criteria.

Additional vendors in the MMS market:
See the next slides for suggested point solutions.

Leverage Info-Tech’s WXM and SMMP vendor landscapes to select platforms that fit with your CXM strategy

Web experience management (WXM) and social media management platforms (SMMP) act in concert with your MMS to execute complex campaigns.

Social Media Management Info-Tech’s SMMP selection guide enables you to find a solution that satisfies your objectives across marketing, sales, public relations, HR, and customer service. Create a unified framework for driving successful implementation and adoption of your SMMP that fully addresses CRM and marketing automation integration, end-user adoption, and social analytics with Info-Tech’s blueprint Select and Implement a Social Media Management Platform.

Web Experience Management Info-Tech’s approach to WXM ensures you have the right suite of tools for web content management, experience design, and web analytics. Put your best foot forward by conducting due diligence as the selection project advances. Ensure that your organization will see quick results with Info-Tech’s blueprint Select and Implement a Web Experience Management Solution.

Consider point solutions if a full suite is not required

Email Marketing

Consider point solutions if a full suite is not required

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Consider point solutions if a full suite is not required

Demand-Side Platform (DSP)

Consider point solutions if a full suite is not required

Customer Portal Software

Select a Marketing Management Suite

PHASE 3

Select Vendor and Communicate Decision to Stakeholders

Phase 3 outline

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 3: Plan Your MMS Implementation

Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks

Phase 3 milestones

Launch the MMS Project and Collect Requirements — Phase 1

• Understand the MMS market space.
• Assess organizational and project readiness for MMS selection.
• Structure your MMS selection and implementation project by refining your MMS roadmap.
• Align organizational use-case fit with market use cases.
• Collect, prioritize, and document MMS requirements.

Shortlist MMS Tool — Phase 2

• Review MMS market leaders and players within your aligned use case.
• Review MMS vendor profiles and capabilities.
• Shortlist MMS vendors based on organizational fit.

Select an MMS — Phase 3

• Submit request for proposal (RFP) to shortlisted vendors.
• Evaluate vendor responses and develop vendor demonstration scripts.
• Score vendor demonstrations and select the final product.

Step 2.1: Analyze and shortlist MMS vendors

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Build a response template to standardize potential vendor responses and streamline your evaluation process.
• Evaluate the RFPs you receive with a clear scoring process and evaluation framework.
• Build a demo script to evaluate product demonstrations by vendors.
• Select your solution.

This step involves the following participants:

• Core project team
• Procurement SMEs
• Project sponsor

Outcomes of this step

• Completed MMS RFP vendor response template
• Completed MMS demo script(s)
• Established product and vendor evaluation criteria
• Final MMS selection

Activity: Shortlist vendors for the RFP process

3.1.1 30 minutes

INPUT: Organizational use-case fit

OUTPUT: MMS vendor shortlist

Materials: Info-Tech’s MMS use cases, Info-Tech’s vendor profiles, Whiteboard, markers

Participants: Core project team

Instructions

1. Collectively with the core project team, determine any knock-out criteria for shortlisting MMS vendors. For example, if your team is executing on a strategy that favors mobile deployment, vendors who do not have a mobile offering may be off the table.
2. Based on the results in Activity 1.3.2, write a longlist of vendors. In most cases, this list will consist of all the vendors that fall into your organization’s use-case scenario. If your organization fits into more than one use case (e.g. your organization has both product-centric and service-centric MMS needs), look for the overlap of vendors between the use cases.
3. Review the profiles of the vendors that fall into your use-case scenario. Based on your knock-out criteria established in Step 1, eliminate any vendors as applicable.
4. Finalize and record your shortlist of MMS vendors.

Use Info-Tech’s MMS Request for Proposal Template to document and communicate your requirements to vendors

3.1.2 MMS Request for Proposal Template

Activity: Create an RFP to submit to MMS vendors

3.1.3 1-2 hours

INPUT: Business requirements document, Procurement procedures

OUTPUT: MMS RFP

Materials: Internal RFP tools or templates (if available), Info-Tech’s MMS Request for Proposal Template (optional)

Participants: Procurement SMEs, Project manager, Core project team (optional)

Instructions

1. Download Info-Tech’s MMS Request for Proposal Template or prepare internal best-practice RFP tools.
2. Build your RFP:
   1. Complete the statement of work and general information sections to provide organizational context to your longlisted vendors.
   2. Outline the organization’s procurement instructions for vendors, including due diligence, assessment criteria, and dates.
   3. Input the business requirements document as created in Activity 1.3.2.
   4. Create a scenario overview to provide vendors with an opportunity to give an estimate price.
3. Obtain approval for your RFP. Each organization has a unique procurement process; follow your own organization’s process as you submit your RFPs to vendors. Ensure compliance with your organization’s standards and gain approval for submitting your RFP.

Establish vendor evaluation criteria

Vendor demonstrations are an integral part of the selection process. Having clearly defined selection criteria will help with setting up relevant demos as well as inform the vendor scorecards.

EXAMPLE EVALUATION CRITERIA
Functionality (30%) Breadth of capability Tactical capability Operational capability	Ease of Use (25%) End-user usability Administrative usability UI attractiveness Self-service options
Cost (15%) Maintenance Support Licensing Implementation (internal and external costs)	Vendor (15%) Support model Customer base Sustainability Product roadmap Proof of concept Implementation model
Technology (15%) Configurability options Customization requirements Deployment options Security and authentication Integration environment Ubiquity of access (mobile)	Info-Tech Insight Base your vendor evaluations not on the capabilities of the solutions but instead on how the solutions align with your organization’s process automation requirements and considerations.

Vendor demonstrations

Examine how the vendor’s solution performs against your evaluation framework.

What is the value of a vendor demonstration?

Vendor demonstrations create a valuable opportunity for your organization to confirm that the vendor’s claims in the RFP are actually true.

A display of the vendor’s functional capabilities and its execution of the scenarios given in your demo script will help to support your assessment of whether a vendor aligns with your MMS requirements.

What should be included in a vendor demonstration?

1. Vendor’s display of its solution for the scenarios provided in the demo script.
2. Display of functional capabilities of the tool.
3. Briefing on integration capabilities.

Activity: Invite top performing vendors for product demonstrations

3.1.4 1-2 hours

INPUT: Business requirements document, Logistical considerations, Usage scenarios by functional area

OUTPUT: MMS demo script

Materials: Info-Tech’s MMS Vendor Demo Script

Participants: Procurement SMEs, Core project team

Instructions

1. Have your evaluation team (selected at the onset of the project) present to evaluate each vendor’s presentation. In some cases you may choose to bring in a subject matter expert (SME) to evaluate a specific area of the tool.
2. Outline the logistics of the demonstration in the Introduction section of the template. Be sure to outline the total length of the demo and the amount of time that should be dedicated to the following:
   • Product demonstration in response to the demo script
   • Showcase of unique product elements, not reflective of the demo script
   • Question and answer session
   • Breaks and other potential interruptions
3. Provide prompts for the vendor to display the capabilities by listing and describing usage scenarios by functional area. For example, when asking a vendor to demo financial and accounting management capabilities, you may break scenarios out by task (e.g. general ledger, accounts payable) or user role (e.g. finance manager, administrator).

Info-Tech Insight

Challenge vendor project teams during product demonstrations. Asking the vendor to make adjustments or customizations on the fly will allow you to get an authentic feel of product capability and flexibility, as well as of the degree of adaptability of the vendor project team. Ask the vendor to demonstrate how to do things not listed in your user scenarios, such as change system visualizations or design, change underlying data, add additional datasets, demonstrate analytics capabilities, or channel specific automation.

Use Info-Tech’s MMS Vendor Demo Script template to set expectations for vendor product demonstration

MMS Vendor Demo Script

Leverage Info-Tech’s vendor selection and negotiation models as the basis for a streamlined MMS selection process

Design a procurement process that is robust, ruthless, and reasonable. Rooting out bias during negotiation is vital to making unbiased vendor selections.

Vendor Selection Info-Tech’s approach to vendor selection gets you to design a procurement process that is robust, ruthless, and reasonable. This approach enables you to take control of vendor communications. Implement formal processes with an engaged team to achieve the right price, the right functionality, and the right fit for the organization with Info-Tech's blueprint Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process.

Vendor Negotiation Info-Tech’s SaaS negotiation strategy focuses on taking control of implementation from the beginning. The strategy allows you to work with your internal stakeholders to make sure they do not team up with the vendor instead of you. Reach an agreement with your vendor that takes into account both parties’ best interests with Info-Tech’s blueprint Negotiate SaaS Agreements That Are Built to Last.

Step 3.2: Communicate decision to stakeholders

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Collect project rationale documentation.
• Create a presentation to communicate your selection decision to stakeholders.

This step involves the following participants:

• Core project team
• Procurement SMEs
• Project sponsor
• Business stakeholders
• Relevant management

Outcomes of this step

• Completed MMS Selection Executive Presentation Template
• Affirmation of MMS selection by stakeholders

Inform internal stakeholders of the final decision

Ensure traceability from the selected tool to the needs identified in the first phase. Internal stakeholders must understand the reasoning behind the final selection and see the alignment to their defined requirements and needs.

Activity: Prepare a presentation deck to communicate the selection process and decision to internal stakeholders

3.2.1 1 week

INPUT: MMS tool selection committee expertise

OUTPUT: Decision to invest or not invest in an MMS tool

Materials: Note-taking materials, Whiteboard or flip chart, markers

Participants: MMS tool selection committee

Instructions

1. Download Info-Tech’s MMS Selection Executive Presentation Template.
2. Read the instructions on slide 2 of the template. Then, on slide 3, decide if any portion of the selection process should be removed from the communication. Discuss with the team and make adjustments to slide 3 as necessary.
3. Work with the MMS selection committee to populate the slides that remain after the adjustments. Follow the instructions on each slide to help complete the content.
4. Refer to the square brackets on each slide (e.g. [X.X]) to identify the activity numbers in this storyboard that correspond to the slide in the MMS Selection Executive Presentation Template. Use the outputs produced from the corresponding activities in this deck and populate each slide in the MMS Selection Executive Presentation Template.
5. Use the completed template to present to internal stakeholders.

Info-Tech Insight

Documenting the process of how the selection decision was made will avoid major headaches down the road. Without a documented process, internal stakeholders and even vendors can challenge and discredit the selection process.

Vendor participation

Vendors Who Briefed with Info-Tech Research Group

Professionals Who Contributed to Our Evaluation and Research

• Sara Camden, Digital Change Agent, Equifax
• Caren Carrasco, Lifecycle Marketing and Automation, Benjamin David Group
• 10 anonymous contributors participated in the vendor briefings

Works cited

Adobe Systems Incorporated. “Bayer builds understanding, socially.” Adobe.com, 2017. Web.

IBM Corporation, “10 Key Marketing Trends for 2017.” IBM.com, 2017. Web.

Marketo, Inc. “The Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation.” Marketo.com, 2013. Web.

Marketo, Inc. “NBA franchise amplifies its message with help from Marketo’s marketing automation technology.” Marketo.com, 2017. Web.

Salesforce Pardot. “Marketing Automation & Your CRM: The Dynamic Duo.” Pardot.com, 2017. Web.

SAS Institute Inc. “Marketing Analytics: How, why and what’s next.” SAS Magazine, 2013. Web.

SAS Institute Inc. “Give shoppers offers they’ll love.” SAS.com, 2017. Web.