Aprimo prepares update to marketing apps suite

Software maker Aprimo Inc. plans to release a major update of its suite of Web-based applications for planning, budgeting and running marketing campaigns.

Aprimo Marketing 6.0, due out at the end of the month, will break the suite’s applications into more modular chunks and features a .Net-based architectural overhaul of the software’s code foundation, according to Joe Meyer, Aprimo’s vice president of marketing and business development. The change is intended to reflect customer feedback about buying preferences, he said.

“(Customers) said they could never deploy all these modules all at one time. They want to buy small chunks,” Meyer said. “The idea is to get people started less expensively.”

Aprimo, based in Indianapolis, aims its applications suite at large firms seeking dedicated marketing software. The company’s 50 customers include America Online Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Bank of America Corp.

Aprimo competes against ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM (customer relationship management) vendors that offer their own marketing applications, but it also integrates with software from many of its rivals, including Oracle Corp., PeopleSoft Inc. and the J.D. Edwards applications now part of PeopleSoft’s portfolio, Onyx Software Corp. and Pivotal Corp., recently acquired by Chinadotcom Corp. Aprimo doesn’t yet interoperate with CRM leader Siebel Systems Inc.’s applications, but that connection is in the works, Meyer said.

One longtime Aprimo customer, Kronos Inc. Director of Direct Response Marketing Daryl Vanderburgh, said a vendor pitching a full CRM suite was on his short list when he went shopping four years ago for a technology to centralize Kronos’ marketing database. He chose instead to buy from Aprimo, and internally handle the occasional integration work needed to let Aprimo’s software draw data from other corporate applications used by Kronos, a Chelmsford, Massachusetts-based human-resources software developer.

Vanderburgh initially used Aprimo to create Kronos’ centralized database and to manage e-mail campaigns. He recently began using its financial management module and plans to use Aprimo 6.0’s new workflow management features.

“The (new) piece that’s really important to us is the project management (module). We see that as a business process in the department that’s really ripe for applying that,” he said. “That’s the enhancement I really saw Aprimo make. Before, it was on an activity-by-activity basis. We have a real need to take a step back and look at the breadth of our programs, and now it lets you do that.”

Aprimo 6.0 is scheduled for release worldwide on March 31. Full translations of the software will be available in French and Japanese, and some modules will be available in an addition 21 languages, including Chinese, Danish, Dutch, German, Italian, Koran, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. License pricing varies by configuration, but starts around $125,000 for five users, Meyer said.