Wouldn’t it be great if marketers had a tool that let them plan, manage, and execute marketing activities? I hear this from B2C marketers looking to streamline creative production processes or coordinate campaigns across teams. Thankfully, there’s an entire category of tools that do just that: marketing resource management (MRM).

As I explained a few months ago, MRM struggles with visibility. In a recent Forrester survey, one respondent listed MRM’s top challenge as “knowing what it is.”* Our latest MRM evaluation, “The Forrester Wave™: Marketing Resource Management, Q1 2020,” is live today and sheds light on the tools you didn’t know you needed.

I like to compare MRM to a central nervous system. It’s critical for coordinating marketing operations, but it must integrate with other tools to create a feedback loop, from planning to execution to performance management. Think of MRM as a workhorse that keeps your teams on track, on budget, and on brand.

The range of vendors in this space reflects the different approaches to marketing operations. Some vendors are money management experts; others excel in tracking content production and usage. And some are suites, with modular solutions to help marketers manage any or all of the workstreams that fall under MRM’s purview. Our 32-criterion evaluation looked at 12 vendors — Allocadia; Aprimo; BrandMaker; Contentserv; HCL Technologies; inMotionNow; NewsCred; Percolate, a Seismic Company; SAP; SAS; Wedia; and Workfront — and researched, analyzed, and scored them.

Before you dive into the vendor evaluation, it’s critical to first define the key workstreams you want an MRM tool to oversee: money, people, content, and/or brand. From there, build a shortlist of vendors with expertise in those areas. Keep in mind that the report graphic merely scratches the surface of the full evaluation. Forrester clients should download the evaluation tool to build a custom shortlist tuned to your specific needs. Another critical evaluation factor is integrations — if an MRM tool can’t connect to the systems you use today, it’ll have a limited impact.

To see more detail on how the evaluated vendors stack up, Forrester clients can find the full report here.

If you’re interested in digging deeper into the findings of this evaluation or want to discuss the MRM landscape more broadly, please schedule an inquiry. Or join my upcoming webinar, What’s New In Marketing Resource Management: Lessons From The Forrester Wave™, on March 26 at 11 a.m. ET.

 

* Source: Forrester’s Q1 2020 Global Adtech And Martech For B2C Marketers Tech Tide™ Online Survey