Are Unica IPO, Epiphany Purchase Signs of the Times?

Gwynne Young
Managing Editor, CRMGuru.com
Member

Posted 30-Aug-2005 02:36 PM

Almost lost in the sleepy vacation season was the news that Unica went public in early August, with shares trading on Nasdaq. One report I read said that Unica's IPO coupled with the news of SSA Global's pending purchase of Epiphany represented a shift to the marketing side of CRM.

Would you agree? Or is it just a case of one company losing its way and another being managed well?

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Gwynne Young
Managing Editor, CRMGuru.com
Member

Posted 30-Aug-2005 02:52 PM

[Posted for Donna Fluss, Principal, DMG Consulting, LLC]

Nothing so exciting. Events, such as consolidations and IPOs are "normal" for a maturing market.

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Gwynne Young
Managing Editor, CRMGuru.com
Member

Posted 30-Aug-2005 02:58 PM

[Posted for Paul Greenberg, President, The 56 Group, LLC]

While I'd love to think that all of a sudden there is a shift to the marketing side of CRM, that sounds a little far-fetched. Unica has been a terrific company with a solid product that knows how to market it, sell it, and the customers really like it.

SSA Global is changing its strategy toward a more enterprise applications universe and Epiphany has been having difficulties for a long time--they never quite figured out what markets they were strong in--and they were there for the asking. How anyone extrapolates some big shift based on two moves--that makes no sense at all.

If it IS true, than Quaero needs to be going public now because THAT'S a really well managed company with a great solution and vision and leadership!!!

Paul Greenberg
President, The 56 Group, LLC
Chief Customer Officer, BPT Partners
Author: CRM at the Speed of Light: Essential Customer Strategies for the 21st Century, 3rd Edition
Blog: http://www.the56group.typepad.com

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Gwynne Young
Managing Editor, CRMGuru.com
Member

Posted 30-Aug-2005 03:55 PM

[Posted for Naras Eechambadi, CEO, Quaero]

Unica's successful IPO represents a breakthrough of sorts for the marketing software sector. It is the first software company that is focused on marketing management that has successfully gone public.

It is remarkable that a company the size of Unica has been able to do battle and win against the big boys of CRM, like Oracle, Siebel and SAP as well as analytical heavyweights such as SAS. They are clearly acknowledged as the market leader in the enterprise marketing management space by the leading analyst firms.

As for the comparison with Epiphany, Epiphany long ago stopped being a pure marketing play. They diversified into too many other areas of CRM instead of sticking to their knitting. They were already on the ropes and the SSA purchase just puts them out of their misery.

Score one for discipline and focus. Let's hope other marketing software vendors are able to follow in the path blazed by Unica.

Naras Eechambadi
CEO, Quaero

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Gwynne Young
Managing Editor, CRMGuru.com
Member

Posted 30-Aug-2005 03:56 PM

[Posted for Bob Thompson, Founder, CRMGuru.com]

I think both SSA Global's acquisition of Epiphany and Unica's IPO are signs that the marketing segment of the CRM industry is alive and well.

It's unfortunate that Epiphany didn't "cross the chasm" and become a standalone multi-function CRM vendor like Siebel. But then, neither did PeopleSoft.

Unica now has the chance with IPO funding to continue growth in the marketing arena. The story written to this point is that a company can grow through disciplined management and staying focused.

Key question: How will Unica use the IPO money? Expand its solution footprint? Tackle new industries or geographies? Make acquisitions? Or, heaven forbid, try to branch out into sales or service to become a full-function CRM provider?

An IPO is not the end. It's just the beginning of the next phase. It will be interesting to watch as Unica transitions from being a scrappy upstart to a full member of the marketing automation "establishment" as a public company. So far, so good.

Bob Thompson
Founder, CRMGuru.com
CEO, CustomerThink Corp.

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Gwynne Young
Managing Editor, CRMGuru.com
Member

Posted 31-Aug-2005 02:39 PM

[Posted for Michael Lowenstein, Senior Vice President, NOP]

I think both of your points are correct. ePiphany had multi-year financial challenges and was in a vulnerable position, and Unica has been profitable and growing in enterprise marketing software areas where CRM is clearly trending.

Like the chess game that CRM software and customer focus has become, better strategy and execution will usually win out.

Michael Lowenstein, CMC
Senior Vice President
Customer Management Center of Excellence
GfK NOP

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Posted 06-Sep-2005 11:23 AM

Going back to Gwynne's original question entitled "is CRM shifting to marketing"; I really believe the shift is already in progress. Companies are beginning to take a much more integrated approach to marketing activities rather than treating campaigns, sales force automation activity, customer service feedback etc., as silos. In fact an emerging discipline called marketing operations management (MOM) is beginning to address this opportunity through enterprise-wide marketing planning across multiple channels and by delivering enterprise-wide cross-campaign optimizations.

Check out a company called Assetlink to see how a number of large financial services, pharma and consumer goods companies are transforming their marketing with "Assetlink Marketing Operations Manager".

Chris McCoin

McCoin & Smith

Posted 08-Sep-2005 08:13 AM

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Colin

I fully agree with your observations. I spent 4 years at a global mobile telecoms company running integrated campaigns. however it all fell on deaf ears. The people who make the decisions are old school marketeers, who see CRM as a mystery, hire some wizard to "do CRM" for them and then wonder why they've been struck with the impedimenta curse.

I like the idea of a Marketing Operations Management discipline. Tell me more.