Are You Ready to Add Integrated Marketing Management to Microsoft Dynamics CRM?

Microsoft's 2012 acquisition of MarketingPilot has the potential to put a full spectrum of integrated marketing management (IMM) tools into the hands of Dynamics CRM customers this year. According to Microsoft, the provider's second quarter Gemini release will introduce the "Microsoft Dynamics Marketing" branding and will begin to integrate some of MarketingPilot's features into Dynamics CRM Online, including collaborative project and digital asset management, social media, analytics, and campaign management.  

But with IMM tools still so new to so many, will Dynamics CRM users be ready to take advantage of the capabilities?

Key IMM Drivers

IMM focuses on planning, budgeting and spending  by marketers with a goal of executing campaigns that directly tie marketing investment to business results.  IMM and its related competency of marketing resource management (MRM) are becoming a "mission critical area for most enterprises," says Brad Koontz, director of product marketing at CustomerEffective in Greenville, S.C. "Most people in the CRM space have heard the claim that either now or in the near future, a CMO's IT budget will exceed that of the CIO."

Kim Collins, research vice president, CRM, at Gartner in Stamford, Conn., says the firm is seeing more interest in MRM and that accountability is a key driver of that trend. "Many marketing organizations are starting to realize that they have to be more accountable," says Collins. "Gone are the days when you could just keep spending and spending on advertising and get away with it."

Increased use of mobile and social are also pushing companies in the direction of MRM, according ...