New Research In Action Report – Marketing Resource Management: The Top Global Vendors 2020

Marketing Resource Management (MRM) automation emerges as a high-priority investment for marketing executives as their organizations mature into fully accounted-for revenue centers needing visibility into all project work and all types of resources deployed.

A new Research In Action GmbH global discovers that over one third of businesses are initiating investments in MRM software in the next months with the #1 objective to collect enough data showing the return on marketing investment, closely followed by wanting to identify cost saving opportunities.

The Vendor Selection Matrix™ is a primarily survey-based methodology for vendor evaluation where 62.5 % of the evaluation is based on a survey of enterprise IT or business decision makers and 37.5 % on the analyst’s opinion. The analyst’s input is fed by a combination of intensive interviews with software or services vendors and their clients, plus their informed, independent point-of-view as an analyst. All of this combines to make Research in Action Vendor Selection Matrix™ reports so unique. This approach is one of the key differentiators of Research In Action in market research. For this report we interviewed 1,500 business managers with budget responsibility in enterprises globally. We selected those vendors which achieved the best evaluations scores from the buyers but disregarded those with fewer than 15 evaluations.

Report details can be viewed here:
http://researchinaction.de/wp-content/uploads/VSM-MRM-2020-WWW.pdf

Peter O’Neill, Research Director for Marketing Automation at Research In Action GmbH, comments:

• MRM is used to help to define marketing plans, collect and share marketing assets, execute on campaigns, and track marketing assets across print and digital channels. It also manages marketing budgets, tracks actual costs and supports the campaign planning process. It provides a single unified system for all marketing material, which in turn ensures consistency of branding and messaging. It also enables marketers to create workflows and processes to streamline marketing operations.
• In our survey, we firstly describe the business process and ask business managers to name vendor(s) they associate with the process. The resulting vendor landscape for MRM is a mix of vendors managing some asset types, ones that manage mainly project resources, plus those vendors who do manage the full range of digital assets, talent, budgets and projects.
• There is a clear gradient of project maturity across the landscape. Many marketing departments are still only managing content and digital assets and operating as a cost center. Over time, some organizations mature into fully accounted-for revenue centers where the CMO needs visibility into all project work and all types of resources deployed. This maturity model is reflected within the maturity S-Curve shown in this report: moving from PIM and DAM projects to a more “universal content management” system; then adding costs and talent to achieve MRM; before progressing further with a Customer Data Management project and, ultimately, being able to do full Marketing Performance Management.
• There are generally three broad types of MRM projects: asset and people management, spend management, and workflow management; with four categories of resources managed: cost, talent, content, and brand. The relative importance of each resource category in a planned MRM project will often determine which solution fits best, so our report lists the resources managed by each vendor profiled.
• Who came out on top? The top five vendors rated by the users for MRM in 2020 are (listed alphabetically):
- Aprimo
- BrandMaker
- Contentserv
- Percolate by Seismic
- Workfront
• The vendors Allocadia, Bizible (Adobe), BrandMaster, BrandMuscle, Elateral, Infor, SAS, SAP, Sitecore, and Wedia complete the list of vendors who were named by the 1,500 business professionals.

Vendor Selection Matrix™ Disclaimer:

Research In Action GmbH does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. The information contained in this research has been obtained from both enterprise as well as vendor sources believed to be reliable. Research In Action GmbH’s research publications consist of the analysts’ opinions and should not be considered as statements of fact. The opinions expressed are subject to change without further notice. Research In Action GmbH disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Press Contact:

Research In Action GmbH
Peter O‘Neill
Research Director
Alte Schule
56244 Hartenfels
Germany
Telephone: +49 174 3210020
E-Mail: poneill@researchinaction.de
Internet : www.researchinaction.de

About Research In Action:

Research In Action GmbH is a leading independent information and communications technology research and consulting company. The company provides both forward-looking as well as practical advice to enterprise as well as vendor clients.