Joe Kelly

The Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM) industry continues to not only define what’s possible for marketers, but also helps them realize their vision for true multi-channel marketing.  Interestingly enough, this niche technology category has become very attractive as of late to the major tech giants, including IBM, Oracle, SAP, and NCR, to name a few.  I always felt it was a matter of time before consolidation fully took hold of this space – and it is certainly underway.  It seems like only yesterday when companies like Unica, e.Piphany, SAS, Siebel Systems, Aprimo, Portrait, Metavante and a handful of other niche CRM software providers were blazing the trail during the dotcom bubble years.

The landscape has definitely changed, as most recently evidenced by the bevy of acquisitions (including IBM’s announcement of its acquisition of Unica last week) and the high rankings that Gartner and Forrester have for...