Why We Are Vendor Neutral
Today we made the announcement that we have shifted our strategy when it comes to marketing automation vendor partnerships. What was once an exclusive strategy is now a neutral strategy. Naturally whenever these decisions are made a variety of questions come up. So far, the biggest questions are “Why now?” and “Why the decision to move from an exclusive partnership with Silverpop to one of neutrality?”
We’ll certainly answer those questions, but first, we must call out to our friends at Silverpop and give them a huge thanks! Our move does not change the respect and friendship we have with Silverpop. Over the years we have come to know many of the people behind the company on a professional and personal level. We are very proud of the work we have done together, and are looking forward to continuing our relationship and our knowledge of the Silverpop Engage 8 platform, and following their success in the market.
Now to answer the questions mentioned earlier.
First and foremost the change in strategy is all about customer value. For the last 5 years we have worked with our customers to deliver a full-cycle Lead Management FrameworkTM that greatly improves the return on their marketing and sales investments. As we work with customers and talk with new buyers, one consistent response we hear is that The Annuitas Group value is amazing but would be even more so with a deeper and broader knowledge of the various automation players. We value our customer feedback greatly. So, we reviewed our process offerings and how they related to marketing automation.
Our philosophy with regard to marketing automation is and always has been that the technology serves to enable the lead management process. Technology as a stand-alone will often fail to meet the value promise that was hoped for at the time of purchase. With this in mind, we are also mindful that not all of the solutions are created equal. Some provide enhanced functionality that will better meet certain customer needs over the others. Our customer feedback is that we need to have the ability to provide objective insight to our customers when it comes to which automation platform they should select.
As the B2B market place continues to mature and the customers continue to transform, we will always be looking to see what steps we can take to better to serve them. This shift in strategy is one of those steps. We are excited about this new chapter of working with our customers and look forward to continuing our pattern of delivering high value to them.
