Fragmented digital systems pose challenges for B2B sales and marketing teams
The loss of information between siloed systems has become an obstacle to sales and marketing processes, from content management to business opportunity tracking.
Knowledge workers spend an average of 84 minutes a day searching for information and another 57 minutes switching between collaboration tools, amid a landscape marked by the fragmentation of companies’ digital systems.
This fragmentation also affects sales and marketing operations, where data, approvals and activity histories can become scattered across different platforms.
A survey by Asana’s Work Innovation Lab, conducted among more than 3,004 knowledge workers in the United States and the United Kingdom, found that employees spend more than 20 minutes reorienting themselves after each application switch. The study also found that 38% work in organizations that use four or more different communication tools.
The fragmentation of B2B operations.
In business-to-business (B2B) sales processes, fragmentation can involve as many as ten systems before a deal is closed. Teams rely on emails, shared drives, pricing spreadsheets, content management systems (CMS) and campaign management tools.
As a result, information such as briefs, approval statuses and negotiation histories can lose continuity across applications that are not designed to communicate with one another.
Against this backdrop, Liferay announced two new modules for its Digital Experience Platform (DXP): Digital Sales Room (DSR), aimed at B2B sales teams, and Content Marketing Platform (CMP), designed for marketing departments.
Specifically, the two tools aim to integrate processes that are typically managed through separate systems, with the goal of reducing information fragmentation across sales and marketing activities.
The more people involved in a B2B purchasing decision, the greater the likelihood that information will become scattered. Each member of the buying organization may need different information at different stages of the negotiation and may not always have access to the full history of the deal.
Tools for sales teams.
DSR allows sales representatives to create a dedicated microsite for each deal, bringing together presentations, success stories, demos and pricing information without requiring assistance from the IT department or relying on the marketing team to prepare these spaces.
The tool also allows sales representatives to see in real time which content each buyer is viewing or downloading. This gives them insight into how participants interact with sales materials and helps them better understand the status of negotiations.
In marketing, fragmentation occurs when content is created in a CMS, while campaign management depends on another platform. Connecting the two systems often requires integrations that must be maintained manually, a situation that can lead to the loss of information about target audiences and approval statuses.
Integrating content and campaigns.
To address this separation, CMP integrates content management with campaign management. Materials created in the CMS are immediately available for use in campaigns, while updates to approval statuses are reflected across both processes without the need for manual reconciliation.
The module also includes a Content Matrix, which allows teams to identify which audiences and stages of the conversion funnel still lack associated materials before a campaign is launched.
Tool fragmentation and scattered information are also part of Liferay General Manager Flávio Moitinho’s assessment of the challenges organizations face in integrating their operations.
“Today, business teams are forced to choose between bringing together fragmented, point solutions or building an operation from scratch”.
The company also draws a distinction between its offering and those of other digital sales room providers, which it sees as focusing primarily on sales enablement and revenue management. Its proposal is built on its experience in e-commerce and its presence in regulated and complex industries, where it combines customer interaction with operational requirements.
Thus, the two modules expand the company’s digital experience management offering with tools designed to connect sales and marketing activities that, in many organizations, still rely on separate platforms.
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