B2B Marketing More Insight and Analysis

Technology has continued to make inroads into the B2B marketing sector with packaged applications providing a platform to design, mount and track a campaign. What has become evident is that more B2B enterprises are turning their backs on off-the-shelf marketing systems. Increasingly, they are favouring tailored applications that offer a precisely targeted set of features that directly correspond to market sector and promotional needs.

No discussion of marketing technology can ignore the dominance of Salesforce.com. Its products and services within the SaaS (Software as a Service) sector have become ubiquitous. However, with the rise of hosted marketing technologies and the drive to HaaS (Hardware as a Service) as championed by Amazon.com's 'cloud' technology, the marketing sector is rapidly changing with more custom technology now on offer.

Chris Sykes

Chris Sykes, managing director of Volume, says, “Off-the-shelf systems provide generic functionality with limited flexibility. Marketing departments utilising packaged applications have to undergo changes to existing processes – effectively shoe-horning the way they do things to suit the new software. Bespoke applications provide the opportunity to gain technology that is fit for purpose. You effectively pay for what you get and only for what you use. Bespoke technology is built around existing processes with the aim of enhancing and streamlining them and it's less disruptive.”

 

 

Bespoke applications

As the B2B marketing sector has developed, platform vendors have become acutely aware that their customers' requirements are now more specialised as the B2B sector is often characterised by very narrow markets. Clint Oram, VP of Sugar Open Source Community Relations, says, “If an off-the-shelf application provides significant functionality that allows the marketing department to accomplish their objectives, then this pre-built functionality is fine. But when an application needs to be moulded to fit the business's specific needs to ensure end-user buy-in and results, the company will – or should – pursue a customisable or tailored marketing application.”

Developing custom marketing applications can be a time-consuming and expensive proposition so it is important to understand the ROI that you expect to gain from the project. Clear goals must be set as without these signposts you will find it difficult to keep your project focused. Chris Lindsey, general manager of business development at BT Business, points out, “Bespoke technology systems can be developed. However, these can often be costly and time consuming. In today's market, there are many best of breed companies who deliver tried and tested innovative applications to meet the needs of customers. As a result, UK SMEs can benefit from services previously only available to larger companies.”

Paul Bates

Paul Bates, MD of email specialists StrongMail, adds, “Companies might take the step and build custom applications if they feel let down by a vendor that has promised them the world but failed to deliver, taking the 'we can't do any worse ourselves' approach. However, companies shouldn't be jaded by one bad experience and should think very carefully before developing their own solution – and taking on the associated responsibilities. The most common reason that companies cite for building or commissioning applications is that they think they'll gain more control over application development, implementation and management – this simply just isn't the case.”

Clearly there is an inherent risk when developing any bespoke system. With an array of components already available you may discover that your bespoke system can be constructed with off-the-shelf sub-systems that together give your enterprise the marketing tools it requires. Before you embark on developing something from the ground up, assess what components are already available. You may discover that with some creative thinking you can develop the system you need quickly and easily with these existing modules.

 

Vendor profile

If you do decide to develop a new marketing platform from scratch this can be a daunting prospect. No two businesses will require precisely the same set of features, which is why most marketing applications are built with a common foundation that is customised to the clients' needs. Again detailed planning is crucially important as your developer must have a meticulous brief to work from.

Sykes says, “Rarely will a solution be built from scratch. There will be a basic architecture and framework in place from inception. Many vendors adopt a modular approach to software development. They possess a rich functionality set that can be used to build applications that are fit for purpose and address a specific need. Other functionality modules can be added as the business requirements evolve.”

Oram also points out that costs can be cut by avoiding commercial development architectures. “Today, open source languages and open standards are coming to the forefront, resulting in supple software architectures and software development models, which in turn has led to more flexible business applications delivered on-demand or on-premise. This has led to new development models such as cloud computing or web platforms, multi-instance architectures for on-demand offerings and open source software.”

 

B2B bonus

Increasingly, integration is becoming more important to B2B enterprises that are realising their marketing systems must interface with the rest of their business. Off-the-shelf marketing applications have, in the past, existed in isolation. With bespoke systems becoming popular, companies in the B2B sector see a chance to vastly improve the other elements of their businesses as they construct their new marketing systems.

“We are seeing more strategic solutions being developed, that bring 'marketing' closer to the wider business enterprise,” continues Sykes. “Historically, marketing applications were developed in isolation. Businesses now recognise that marketing technology has to connect to something. This recognition is manifesting in the development of lead nurturing systems, contact management applications and customer service improvement solutions.”

Oram adds, “Certainly you're looking for a vendor that offers a robust and capable marketing platform, has strong multi-channel capabilities and one that allows the business to easily customise or integrate their solution. Many marketing departments look to integrate their marketing solution with a web analytics solution to deliver multi-channel marketing campaigns. In the context of B2B, this usually requires some sort of customer portal or e-commerce presence, which marketing tracks to gain the pulse of their customer base, so integrating your CRM system with a content management system can be equally important.”

 

Looking to the future

The future of B2B marketing applications looks diverse as each enterprise will adapt technologies to their specific needs. SaaS and the burgeoning HaaS markets will continue to evolve as will more virtual marketing services based on Internet protocols, but as Oram concludes, the future of your business's marketing technology looks increasingly multifaceted.

“SaaS, or Platforms as a Service (PaaS), have become incredibly popular by giving businesses access to mission-critical functionality without having to inherit the costs of IT, but there are limitations that on-premise solutions will always overcome. While SaaS and PaaS solutions will grow significantly in popularity, there will always be certain applications that will require the data and solution to be housed and operated by the business itself,” he says.

Building an entire bespoke marketing system for your enterprise is a monumental task. With the available 'component' technology including development platforms in the SaaS and PaaS sectors, coupled with specialised APIs (see box out) you can draw upon, it is now possible to construct a customised marketing system that will deliver your exact requirements, and integrate into your existing systems infrastructure. If you assess your needs carefully and then look for system components to deliver those requirements, your marketing activity can utilise advanced technology without suffering the pain of development.

If you do discover that you have a very specific need, you can commission the component that will integrate into your existing systems. This modular approach is the future of marketing platforms that will continue to evolve and diversify as the market matures.

 

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