Redmond, Washington — In an attempt to meet the needs of growing social, email, and mobile channels, and just ahead of its Q2 2013 earnings announcement, Microsoft on October 17, announced that it has completed the acquisition of marketing automation software company ‘MarketingPilot’ for an undisclosed amount, which now becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft.
Microsoft presented its second quarter earnings on October 18. By the way, the Evanston, Ill.-based MarketingPilot, which now becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft’s Business Solutions division, provides software for marketing departments and ad agencies to help them better understand their customers and manage and execute their marketing campaigns.
Microsoft says it has a vision for integrated marketing solutions that aligns with its own. Also, it seems that MarketingPilot’s offerings will be integrated with Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM solutions, according to this Microsoft blog post.
“MarketingPilot provides Integrated Marketing Management solutions that empowers marketing organizations to better understand customers, manage and streamline marketing operations and devise automated multi-channel marketing campaigns,” says Microsoft Dynamics CRM Corporate Vice President Bob Stutz. “This acquisition is a very exciting step forward for us, and will accelerate our ability to better meet the needs of CMOs …and better enable marketers to successfully plan, execute, monitor, and optimize customer interactions across digital, social, and traditional channels, and measure ROI,” added Stutz.
Stutz further quoted an IDC forecast that marketing automation will be the fastest growing segment of the CRM space over the next four years and that by 2017, chief marketing officers (CMOs) will have a bigger IT budget that chief information officers (CIOs).
“More and more, marketers are being asked to drive the overall strategy and execution of customer interactions across multiple channels and touch points, and to measure ROI on those interactions,” Stutz wrote.
The company further described the acquisition as part of a wider industry trend among enterprise software companies that are building up the CRM application portfolios by acquiring cloud-based marketing companies this year, typically ones that incorporate social media features into their offerings.
The software behemoth also stated, “MarketingPilot has a comprehensive vision for Integrated Marketing solutions that aligns closely to our vision. In addition, they have a talented management team and an innovative product suite built on Microsoft technologies available both in the Cloud and On-premises. We are committed to taking care of MarketingPilot customers, and we welcome them to the Microsoft family. We will be communicating directly with individual customers over the coming days and weeks.”
More so, “We are excited to join the Microsoft team,” says MarketingPilot CEO Ken Kornbluh. “We think it will be great for MarketingPilot users and the broader marketing community. The acquisition will enable us to more fully realize our vision to create powerful and innovative integrated marketing management solutions. The acquisition by Microsoft should enable us to accelerate our pace and deliver even more innovation to marketers.”
Besides, MarketingPilot’s current products, which are largely targeted at marketing and advertising agencies, are an integrated marketing-management system; lead management; ad-buying management; and its own CRM system.
Stutz also writes on the Microsoft Dyanmics blog:
Microsoft, along with our partners, has been helping marketing organizations for several years now. Existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers include Volvo Construction Equipment and the Portland Trailblazers basketball team to better attract and retain their customers. We are committed to helping marketers plan, execute, monitor and optimize customer interactions across digital, social and traditional channels and measure the impact on revenue. With this acquisition, we believe we will be well positioned to deliver highly valuable marketing automation solutions to new and existing customers.
Details of the acquisition were not disclosed.