Why the same clients appear on various vendor lists
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
In an upcoming market like MRM you don't expect that companies work with multiple vendors to automate their marketing. One explanation is that these projects are being initiated locally and at small scale. Recently we saw a client of ours at a client list of a competitor with a case description that indicated work that we currently are doing. Have we lost the client I asked myself? Not at all. After indicating this to the client they took action towards this competitor because the work they did had nothing to do with marketing or marketing resource management...
See what MarketingGovernance are reporting about this issue:
Many companies are having a hard time to align marketing operations cross departmental. Read the signs and just have a look at the client lists of MRM software vendors.
How is it possible that many MRM software vendors claim to have the same brand as a client. Isn't that strange? Are they lying?
You know what? They probably do have these brands as a client. Except, they have different "internal clients", e.g. marketing procurement department, different product line, regional or local company etc..
Check the portfolio's of e.g. Elateral, MarketingCentral and Interwoven. They all have Sony as a client.
Xerox shows up in the portfolio's of e.g. Cordeo, Interwoven, MarketingCentral and Mtivity.
Sometimes the reason for this is just poor communication or poor knowledge sharing between departments of the brand owner. Sometimes it's to bypass the IT department. Sometimes it shows the difference between a centralized and decentralized marketing operations.
The common denominator is that they probably all lack one marketing resource management strategy.
See what MarketingGovernance are reporting about this issue:
Many companies are having a hard time to align marketing operations cross departmental. Read the signs and just have a look at the client lists of MRM software vendors.
How is it possible that many MRM software vendors claim to have the same brand as a client. Isn't that strange? Are they lying?
You know what? They probably do have these brands as a client. Except, they have different "internal clients", e.g. marketing procurement department, different product line, regional or local company etc..
Check the portfolio's of e.g. Elateral, MarketingCentral and Interwoven. They all have Sony as a client.
Xerox shows up in the portfolio's of e.g. Cordeo, Interwoven, MarketingCentral and Mtivity.
Sometimes the reason for this is just poor communication or poor knowledge sharing between departments of the brand owner. Sometimes it's to bypass the IT department. Sometimes it shows the difference between a centralized and decentralized marketing operations.
The common denominator is that they probably all lack one marketing resource management strategy.
Wilco Turnhout, 7/10/2007
'Why MRM implementations fail'
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Following post was done by the MRM logiq guys of MarketingGovernance. It proves that an MRM project needs to be initiated using a marketing process strategy instead of buying software and see what that will bring to improve processes. At XEED we share that view. We think a vendor needs to have a marketing communication background and software needs to be flexible enough to be able to support the intended improved processes so the system will help making the redesign of processes more successful instead of guiding the redesign.
MarketingGovernance:
Official figures are -of course- not available. We recorded at least 5 examples in the past 5 months. We can tell you, they are big international names, both MRM vendors and Brands.
Over 70% of IT projects fail, we wrote in July 2006. So, you shouldn't be surprised. What is the remedy for this poor result? The answer is: Implement a marketing solution, not an IT solution.
Many implementations are so-called backward facing implementations (or horseless carriage implementations), missing the benefits of forward facing. Let's explain.
"If I had asked my customers what they wanted,
they'd have said a faster horse"
-Henry Ford-
What Ford asks us is to decide if we want a faster horse or a car. We can automate the way we are working, or we can improve the way we work and then automate. What is not widely understood is that both approaches require the same amount of effort, but in a different way.
These are the characteristics of both approaches:
Backward-facing
MarketingGovernance:
Official figures are -of course- not available. We recorded at least 5 examples in the past 5 months. We can tell you, they are big international names, both MRM vendors and Brands.
Over 70% of IT projects fail, we wrote in July 2006. So, you shouldn't be surprised. What is the remedy for this poor result? The answer is: Implement a marketing solution, not an IT solution.
Many implementations are so-called backward facing implementations (or horseless carriage implementations), missing the benefits of forward facing. Let's explain.
they'd have said a faster horse"
-Henry Ford-
What Ford asks us is to decide if we want a faster horse or a car. We can automate the way we are working, or we can improve the way we work and then automate. What is not widely understood is that both approaches require the same amount of effort, but in a different way.
These are the characteristics of both approaches:
Backward-facing
- Intention not to change company processes
- In reality: Adjusting company processes for software
- High involvement required from staff, because requirements are not clear
- Average of 10-20% savings in costs or Turn around Time
- Definition phase: 25%
- Configuration phase: 75%
- Optimizing way of working, then
- Adjusting software for company purposes
- Low involvement required from staff, requirements are clear from day 1
- Average of 30-60% savings in costs or Turn around Time
- Definition phase: 75%
- Configuration phase: 25%
Wilco Turnhout, 6/23/2007
Gartner positions XEED in the 2007 Magic Quadrant for Marketing Resource Management for the second consecutive year.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Xeed, a leading provider of Marketing IT software and services, today announced its positioning in the Magic Quadrant for Marketing Resource Management, according to a Gartner, Inc. report entitled Magic Quadrant for Marketing Resource Management, 1Q07
According to Gartner Xeed with its robust solution set offers an attractive alternative to large on-premise business application vendors with traditional software license models such as Oracle and SAP, for companies who do not want to make a capital IT investment. "European companies looking for a broad set of MRM requirements should consider Xeed as an alternative provider."
Xeed software solutions and services enables enterprises to optimize marketing processes, provide insight in marketing efficiency, guard brand identity and increase conversion rates. With a recently upgraded architecture it is possible to release configurable deployments in a matter of weeks.
"We are pleased to be positioned in the Gartner Magic Quadrant," said Mr. Wilco Turnhout, Managing Director of Xeed. "We continue to expand our markets, tools, services and consulting support to help organizations of all sizes improve their marketing communications and realize cost savings. We are privileged to work for companies such as KLM, ING and Hagemeyer. Xeed continues to grow and innovate, which we believe is evidenced by the company’s position in this report."
According to Gartner Xeed with its robust solution set offers an attractive alternative to large on-premise business application vendors with traditional software license models such as Oracle and SAP, for companies who do not want to make a capital IT investment. "European companies looking for a broad set of MRM requirements should consider Xeed as an alternative provider."
Xeed software solutions and services enables enterprises to optimize marketing processes, provide insight in marketing efficiency, guard brand identity and increase conversion rates. With a recently upgraded architecture it is possible to release configurable deployments in a matter of weeks.
"We are pleased to be positioned in the Gartner Magic Quadrant," said Mr. Wilco Turnhout, Managing Director of Xeed. "We continue to expand our markets, tools, services and consulting support to help organizations of all sizes improve their marketing communications and realize cost savings. We are privileged to work for companies such as KLM, ING and Hagemeyer. Xeed continues to grow and innovate, which we believe is evidenced by the company’s position in this report."
Wilco Turnhout, 6/20/2007