In the past, large CRMs have been tentative about working social media into their product offerings. However, just in the last week, some of the largest players have made drastic moves toward making their CRMs more social.
A little over a week ago, Oracle bought Vitrue, a service for managing social relationships. In response, Salesforce.com swiftly acquired Buddy Media, a company focused on social enterprises. Not wanting to fall behind, Oracle confirmed a second deal to acquire Collective Intellect, a company specializing in social intelligence. Overall, the last week has witnessed more than a billion dollars spent on social acquisitions.
The recent surge in acquisitions has finally brought a social CRM within reach. Let’s take a look at the acquisitions that have moved both companies to this point:
Many of last year’s acquisitions have already been turned into products, but the latest ones will need more time to be fully added to each platform. As two of the biggest CRMs, Oracle and Salesforce.com are expected to influence competitors like Microsoft Dynamics and SugarCRM. Look for several more acquisitions in the coming months.
Marketing automation solutions like Pardot have been building robust social integration into their products for years in anticipation of a more social CRM and sales process. In the near future, expect to have more impact and influence over your social networks than ever before .
We are the midst of a very exciting time for sales enablement technologies. What do you think of this recent string of acquisitions? Are you excited to see your CRM become more social? Let us know!
Download this infographic.
Embed “The Social CRM Arms Race: A Timeline” on your site: copy and paste the code below.
<img src="http://www2.pardot.com/socialCRMinfographic" width="600">
<p>The Social CRM Arms Race: A Timeline - An infographic by the team at <a href="http://www.pardot.com/blog/">Pardot Marketing Automation</a></p>
Read more: Do’s and Don’ts of Social CRM