Are you looking for a tool that offers marketing planning and budget management? Do you want to be able to manage campaigns and professionalize project management in marketing? Is a central platform for performance measurement on your wish list, too?
Marketing Resource Management software gives you precisely these features – and more.
But the individual MRM providers can differ significantly.
So how do you know which software is right for your business?
We have compared two of the most popular Marketing Resource Management platforms with a strong focus towards budget & spend management to provide you with an overview. We also show you which general aspects to take into account when purchasing MRM software.
Marketing Resource Management Software: What to Consider
Today, companies searching for a project management tool or marketing resource management solution will quickly find numerous options. Independent research firms and platforms like Capterra offer comprehensive software listings, giving companies an initial overview of the range of functions and quality of the tools.
As more businesses lean into free software discovery platforms, they’re finding that when it comes to buying software, it’s not a case of one size fits all.
There are many aspects to consider, such as software evaluation scorecards, before committing to a Marketing Resource Management tool.
Budgeting Made Easy
In an era where software vendors pay keen attention to details, stop wasting time on error-prone spreadsheets.
Instead, manage global budgets and keep on top of your marketing budget with our all-in-one cloud-based software designed for resource management.
Create, manage, and plan budgets, set spending limits, and break them down into allocations for marketing campaigns, channels, and much more.
Automate Forecasts
Generate automated forecasts using predictive analytics presentation tools to see trends at a glance.
Determine if you’re overspending or underspending.
View estimates vs. actuals and let MARMIND, a top-tier management software, calculate the remaining budgets for you.
💡 Tracking features like ROI give you an understanding of where every dollar in your marketing budget goes without diving deep into spreadsheets.
Manage Global Budgets and Spend
With the need to optimize resources and improve speed to market, create multiple budget planning areas using our project management tool. Consolidate and collaborate on global budgets across your organization. Use different currencies, budget groups, and spend types and create seamless workflows to improve your marketing operations and budgeting process.
Software customization
When evaluating software vendors, first you need to do is to find out whether it is possible to customize the software according to evolving business needs.
Customization ensures that you have the flexibility to add additional features later on.
It is, however, also important to ensure that the standard version of the product already provides all the main features you need. That way, not too much customization is needed to meet your requirements. Some MRM solutions involve a great deal of development work from the beginning, meaning that each customer receives an individual solution that is very different from the standard version.
MARMIND is known for its very high level of configurability.
That means that the platform can easily be adapted to a company’s individual requirements without the need for extra development work. Customers can therefore work with the standard solution while still benefiting from customization – without missing out on the advantages of on-going product updates.
Based on these tailoring options built on standard software, MARMIND is more what one would understand as a solution provider than a classic software vendor.
Workflows and Processes
Process optimization is often the key to success in a larger marketing team – and this becomes particularly clear when Marketing Resource Management software is introduced. Efficient resource management simply isn’t possible with chaotic processes.
So, choosing a provider that can also support you in process optimization saves a great deal of time in the long run. Especially the control processes and data workflows between an MRM solution and the financial / ERP systems in place are some of the key aspects of managing marketing budget & spend in real time.
Consulting Services
Professional services like consulting not only help with process optimization but can also provide support for change management.
Software is only ever as good as the person using it.
Choosing a provider with experience in the field of user adoption can help you inspire your colleagues when it comes to using the new software, as well as integrating it in the right way into your existing MarTech stack and future architecture.
Another tip is to take a look at the provider’s own network. Companies with a good network of technology and implementation partners benefit from their partners’ expertise, making them a particularly good source of support when setting up your tools.
Integrations
For enterprise marketers (and not only), integrations are an essential part of any Marketing Resource Management solution. After all, the aim is to create seamless workflows making your marketing processes more efficient, and an important aspect of this is integrating other solutions.
For example, connecting your ERP system to seamlessly transfer budget and cost data to your MRM system.
👉🏻 But that’s not all: Whether marketing automation, social media management, or analytics – the right MRM software allows you to integrate all sorts of different tools, acting as an online hub for effectively manage your marketing.
Pricing
The pricing models of some software are still based on the number of users, while other providers already make use of value-based pricing models that are not affected by the number of users/licenses.
Instead, these models draw on factors such as the number of organizational units to make pricing more transparent, which helps to extend the use of the Marketing Resource Management solution throughout more departments and complimentary user groups besides pure Marketing. Make sure to ask about the pricing model before you make a decision. That way, you avoid any unpleasant surprises later on.
💡 Going through software comparison pages and collecting user reviews can offer additional insights.
Are you interested in learning more about marketing planning and budget management? Read our blog, an invaluable mine of great resources.
Allocadia vs. MARMIND: Feature Comparison
Do you want to say goodbye to Excel sheets and PowerPoint presentations in marketing? Well, Marketing Resource Management solutions were developed to resolve exactly this issue. ✔️
Allocadia (part of the Brandmaker Group of Companies) and MARMIND are two of the most well-known MRM providers on the market.
Allocadia specializes only in Budget & Spend Management within the Marketing space, and it’s a rather capsuled solution. It is not really offering an overall Marketing Resource Management service.
MARMIND, however, is offering a complete MRM system.
It follows a more comprehensive approach and focuses on optimizing all processes and workflows around planning, budgeting & spend, and performance measurement. The platform also offers all essential features for efficiently managing campaigns as well as for content and digital asset management.
Overall, MARMIND offers a fully-equipped Marketing Cockpit to be able to steer the customer’s marketing as efficient and effective as possible – In real time, which is pivotal in current market conditions!
A Marketing Resource Management solution is defined as a “suite of tools that enables marketers to manage planning and budgeting, project and program management, collaboration and calendaring, content production, asset management, and performance analytics” – by Forrester’s definition in the recently published NowTech Report for Q1, 2022.
PLANS
Keep on top of your marketing activities with an interactive marketing plan.
BUDGETS
Plan and manage your marketing spend from start to finish.
RESULTS
Monitor and track campaign performance across channels, keeping an eye on the overall rating and ROI tracking.
Our feature comparison below reveals the exact differences between the solutions:
| Allocadia | MARMIND | |
|---|---|---|
| Strategic planning | ||
| Marketing calendar (GANTT) | ||
| Campaign planning | ||
| Activity planning | ||
| Media planning | ||
| Budgeting/forecasting | ||
| Cost management | ||
| Automatic calculation of forecasts | ||
| Brand management | ||
| Content management | ||
| Project management | ||
| Work/Task Management | ||
| Collaboration tools | ||
| Review and approval workflows | ||
| Channel management | ||
| Reporting/analytics (overall) | ||
| ROI tracking | ||
| Campaign analytics (overall performance) | ||
| Goal setting/tracking | ||
| Predictive analytics | ||
| Social media integration | ||
| Individual naming conventions | ||
| Capterra reviews | 5.0 out of 5 stars / only 3 reviews | 4.8 out of 5 stars / 26 reviews |
BrandMaker
| Strategic planning | |
| Marketing calendar | |
| Campaign planning | |
| Activity planning | |
| Media planning | |
| Budgeting/forecasting | |
| Cost management | |
| Brand management | |
| Content management | |
| Digital asset management | |
| Project management | |
| Collaboration tools | |
| Review and approval workflows | |
| Channel management | |
| Reporting/analytics | |
| ROI tracking | |
| Campaign analytics | |
| Goal setting/tracking | |
| Predictive analytics | |
| Email marketing | |
| Social media integration | |
| Individual naming conventions | |
| Automatic linking of tasks with campaigns | |
| Automatic calculation of forecasts | |
| Capterra reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars /11 reviews |
MARMIND
| Strategic planning | |
| Marketing calendar | |
| Campaign planning | |
| Activity planning | |
| Media planning | |
| Budgeting/forecasting | |
| Cost management | |
| Brand management | |
| Content management | |
| Digital asset management | |
| Project management | |
| Collaboration tools | |
| Review and approval workflows | |
| Channel management | |
| Reporting/analytics | |
| ROI tracking | |
| Campaign analytics | |
| Goal setting/tracking | |
| Predictive analytics | |
| Email marketing | |
| Social media integration | |
| Individual naming conventions | |
| Automatic linking of tasks with campaigns | |
| Automatic calculation of forecasts | |
| Capterra reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars/24 reviews |
One big advantage of MARMIND is the software’s usability and its best-of-breed approach.
⛔ Allocadia’s UI has already become a little outdated concerning modern UX aspects, while MARMIND has invested a great deal in the further development of its user interface over the last couple of years.
All to make it as easy to use as possible, enhancing the user experience.
One issue with Allocadia is that the software is very focused on pure budget & spend management, lacking functionality around details like marketing planning & overall performance management.
While MARMIND directly connects PLANS, BUDGETS, and RESULTS seamlessly, Allocadia approaches mainly the commercial aspects of marketing, making it harder to keep an eye on the big picture as todays Marketing Cockpits need to incorporate detailed planning and performance information (including external sources) linked to the budget & spend process in order to really spend your Dollars best!
➡️ Our conclusion: Allocadia is the right solution for companies looking for a capsuled solution focusing Marketing Budget & Spend Management.
MARMIND, with its value for money approach and emphasis on strategic planning, is more deeply integrated and concentrates on processes and workflows in the overall marketing ecosystem. It makes it an ideal platform for companies aiming to optimize their marketing processes and spending their money best.
One issue with Allocadia is that the software is very focused on pure budget & spend management lacking functionality around details like marketing planning & overall performance management. While MARMIND directly connects PLANS, BUDGETS and RESULTS seamlessly, Allocadia approaches mainly the commercial aspects of marketing, making it harder to keep an eye on the big picture as todays Marketing Cockpits need to incorporate detailed planning and performance information (including external sources) linked to the budget & spend process in order to really spend your Dollars best!
Our conclusion: Allocadia is the right solution for companies looking for a capsuled solution focusing Marketing Budget & Spend Management. MARMIND is more deeply integrated and concentrates on processes and workflows in the overall marketing ecosystem, making it an ideal platform for companies aiming to optimize their marketing processes and spending their money best.
Allocadia vs. MARMIND: Integrations
MARMIND was developed using the best-of-breed approach.
Why?
With more than 8000 marketing tools worldwide, an all-in-one approach makes little sense – after all, Marketing Resource Management software with hundreds of features from different functional software clusters will never be as good as an MRM solution connected to a professional DAM, PIM, Analytics, Work-Management or any other system.
Because it includes numerous integrations, MARMIND can bring together the best martech technologies on the market to create a comprehensive solution building up a Marketing.
➡️ Here is an overview of MARMIND’s integrations divided into MarTech categories.
Allocadia, on the other hand, offers a Module named “Allocadia Connect” for integrations. According to the company’s website, the martech stack can be connected to Allocadia Connect, but it is unclear which options are available besides pure API based integrations, which are complicated and effortful.
Based on the website and various other sources, Allocadia offers a handful of different integrations like Armanino Adaptive Insights, Asana, Expensify, Marketo Engage, Microsoft Power BI, SAP Concur, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Tableau, etc.
MARMIND, in comparison, follows an extensive “best of breed” integration strategy and offers multiple ways of integrating different tools. Especially for the example of connected planning marketing processes with solutions like Workfront, Airtable, etc., which need to be integrated with the MRM.
MARMIND offers extended file-based integration options, including custom naming conventions, API based integrations, as well as the newest option of using our IPaaS Platform option via Workato, where hundreds of standard interfaces can be set up very quickly and data imported to MARMIND.
BrandMaker, a German Company, has also recently bought Allocadia and Hive9, and any impact these takeovers may have on the product and consolidations of the solutions remain unknown to customers. However, many software buyers prefer to rely on providers that can offer both the main product and professional services.
Allocadia vs. MARMIND - FAQs:
To finish off, we have put together the answers to a few of the most commonly asked questions about Allocadia and MARMIND.
How is the usability of the tool?
MARMIND has invested extensive effort into the part of user experience of the software to make processes, especially within Budget & Cost Management as easy as possible. All the modules in MARMIND are seamlessly connected and can be customized easily in the application.
Allocadia seems to be a bit more complex to use based on a few of the reviews at Capterra. Anyhow there is not that much user feedback to rely on at Allocadia – Capterra with only 3 reviews.
How long does software implementation of MARMIND take?
MARMIND, however, is known for its quick, professional implementation. Many customers use the standard version, which is extremely flexible and can deal with complex processes. Any further customization can then be undertaken very quickly directly in the application.
In addition, customers appreciate MARMIND’s consulting services, which help them to avoid the many stumbling blocks typical for IT projects.
Packaging and paper enterprise Mondi was just one company to benefit from quick implementation thanks to MARMIND’s marketing knowledge.
For which company size is the software a good investment?
MARMIND is the right choice for companies with 10 or more employees in marketing scalable up to very big enterprises – reference customers include Deutsche Telekom, Mondi, AAA and Invesco.
Allocadia focuses on the midmarket and enterprise segment – the software is suitable for companies with 50 or more employees in marketing.
Which software plans are available?
MARMIND offers three different plans, depending on customers’ needs: Essentials, Professional, and Enterprise. Always with unlimited users based on a value pricing approach. See MARMIND’s pricing page to find out the differences between the three options.
Allocadia does not provide any information on the plans available. The pricing is user based and so doesn’t offer that much flexibility in scaling the solution throughout the organization.
Our Conclusion
MARMIND offers more flexibility, better features, and with its adaptive insights into the market, ensures greater customer centricity.
Do you want to find out more? Then get in touch for an obligation-free chat and discover more about MARMIND!
Author
Peter Fechter
Peter is Digital Marketing Manager at MARMIND and is mainly responsible for website and lead management. When he's not busy creating content, he creates new campaigns.
