Marketo announced Marketo Financial Management (MFM), an application to provide marketers with an up-to-date view of marketing spend so that they can forecast accurately, find and reallocate program dollars and spend to plan. MFM’s web-based, automated approach is designed to replace spreadsheets and manual processes to easily share and manage budgets from a single source, according to Marketo officials.
“Marketing organizations need a system for budgets and operational data, just like other departments,” said Kristen Petersen, Director, Marketing Operations at F5 Networks, a provider of application delivery networking services. “Combining budget management and marketing automation in a single marketing platform is a big win for marketers. We expect Marketo’s solution to help marketing improve budget oversight and simplify the relationship between marketing and finance.”
MFM gives the entire organization a view into what they plan to spend, what they’ve committed to spend and what they’ve already spent. This means marketers can make more intelligent decisions about where to allocate money — and work more effectively with the finance department.
“It’s difficult for marketers to answer the finance department’s questions about reconciling invoices and forecasting marketing spend, especially in a complex or global organization,” said Sanjay Dholakia, CMO, Marketo. “Now, marketing teams can use MFM to build credibility with the finance department by tying invoices and purchase orders together with marketing programs and providing more accurate forecasts on marketing spend.”
As part of the Marketo platform and suite, MFM automatically connects marketing spend data with marketing program and campaign data. The application, which built in collaboration with Allocadia Software, is the first product in the Marketo Marketing Management family to address the needs of marketing operations. Additional products will support marketing planning and coordination, and the management of marketing assets.