Microsoft (MSFT, Financial) and Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE, Financial) have announced new product integrations that will allow the two companies to better compete with Oracle (ORCL, Financial) and Salesforce (CRM, Financial). The news of the integrations came from Adobe's annual users' conference.
The company will integrate further with Microsoft to improve business intelligence and get a better understanding of customer behavior.
The company uses Microsoft's Azure platform.
Adobe's move into data came as the company purchased Omniture for $1.8 billion in 2009. The purchase of the marketing analytics company helped push the image editing powerhouse into marketing data and sales.
The company will unite its advertising cloud, analytics cloud and marketing cloud products into a new product called Adobe Experience Cloud. Kevin Lindsay, Adobe Target's head of product marketing, notes that the new product digs further into other parts of the business allowing for personalization in the products.
Lindsay states that the product helps businesses navigate through "customer journey management."
Advertising cloud is a new product that will allow for cross-channel data and media buys across social, digital video, mobile and television. The product allows for data-driven, linear TV buying with over $3.5 billion in ad spending annually.
The company notes that it's not in the media business but will help its customers buy media across a variety of platforms.
Microsoft Dynamics will integrate tightly into Adobe along with Power Bi and Azure. The Microsoft Dynamics integration will allow for seamless conversation offline and online during the customer lifecycle.
Microsoft's Power Bi will help the company use behavioral data to measure campaign impact and to better understand touchpoints.
The products will be geared at enterprises and marketing firms.
The company's new products will help businesses remember customers across a variety of platforms. Company brand equity is increased every time a business doesn't say "who are you" to customers. Sharing data between systems provides a smooth experience for customers that often get stuck in the sales cycle and feel "forgotten" despite spending a lot of money with a company.
Microsoft's Dynamics is a key component of Adobe's new product and will help spur the combination of sales and marketing software. Dynamics has been a key focus of Microsoft as the company works to expand Dynamics further into the marketplace.
The news did little to change Adobe's stock price on Tuesday, currently down 0.76%. The company's stock price is up over 3% in the last five days and 4.82% over the past 30-day period. Microsoft stock remained down 0.25% on Tuesday following the announcement. The company's stock is largely flat over the past 30-day period, up just over 0.40%.
Microsoft and Adobe's collaboration will better position the companies to compete against customer relationship management, or CRM, leaders Oracle and Salesforce. Microsoft's Dynamics and cloud revenue rose 7% last year with the company's Productivity and Business Processes segment gaining 10.3% year over year.
Integration between the two companies' products will allow the companies to fuel growth while gaining a foothold in the CRM market. The joint solutions will help the companies gain a competitive edge in the B2B software market.
Disclosure:Writer does not own a stake in any of the listed companies.
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