8 of the best data management software tools

Data management software tools, also known as data management platforms (DMPs), help organizations better manage and use their data. For many businesses, DMPs are essential. 

Data management software unifies, organizes, and analyzes data that would otherwise remain siloed in different departments, explains Forbes Technology Council member Thomas Hogan. If a business already has data management software in place, it may not need to hire data scientists.

Marketers also benefit from DMPs, writes Steve Olenski at Oracle. With all of their data in one place, they can make more informed decisions that lead to greater ROI.  

Whether you’re looking to buy your first DMP or want to upgrade your current platform, here are eight of the best data management software solutions.

1. Adobe Audience Manager

Adobe Audience Manager is marketing-focused data management software that merges all of your siloed data sources to significantly improve your understanding of your audience. Find your most valuable or engaged audience segments and send them targeted ads that are more likely to convert. 

Audience Manager will work alongside your existing marketing stack, as well as Adobe’s other products. The DMP itself is part of the Adobe Experience Cloud, a suite of applications that helps businesses improve the customer experience. 

2. Cloudera

Cloudera is an enterprise data cloud platform that delivers self-serve analytics across on-premises, hybrid cloud, and multi-cloud environments. Everything is managed from a single, unified control panel that users across your organization can access. 

Machine learning and custom application capabilities are built into the platform, which is completely open source to prevent vendor lock-in.

This is the perfect solution for enterprise users who need to share significant amounts of data with thousands of users while keeping everything secure. Financial institutions, telecommunications companies, and public sector organizations trust Cloudera to manage and analyze their data. 

3. Lotame

Lotame’s suite of data products provides solutions that help marketers, agencies, and publishers grow, understand, engage, and monetize their audiences. Because of its focus on these industries, the company’s data scientists have been able to improve data quality and the accuracy of audience targeting and measurement. 

As an “unstacked” DMP, Lotame doesn’t offer a one-size-fits-all approach. Rather, customers can mix and match tools and capabilities in a cost-effective manner based on their specific needs. 

Lotame integrates with any and all tech and media platforms, including all leading ad servers, demand side platforms, social media platforms, and activation platforms. With access to the platform’s API, organizations are also free to send their data wherever they please. This makes it the perfect platform if you have a large and diverse technology stack or like to avoid vendor tie-in.

4. Mapp Acquire

If you’re looking for a data management software focused on customer acquisition, look no further than Mapp. Its Acquire platform makes monitoring and optimizing customer acquisition campaigns a breeze.

Acquire integrates with all major platforms and data networks to ensure all of your data is accessible. It also integrates with all major marketing automation platforms so you can use your data to personalize and retarget users. Acquire also focuses on usability and boasts graph-based, real-time dashboards to help you see campaign performance clearly. 

The only issue with Mapp Acquire is the lack of multiuser support, which means the tool may not be the right solution for large or distributed teams. 

5. Oracle DMP

Oracle Advertising (formerly BlueKai) is one of the most comprehensive data management platforms on the market. It lifts the lid on your entire customer journey by combining your original data with billions of online and offline data points. Most important, it does this without breaking cookie or privacy laws. 

We’re operating in an omnichannel world, and Oracle Advertising emphasizes cross-channel, cross-device capabilities. You can source audience data across channels and segment it in a way that allows marketers to personalize messages and increase conversion rates. 

6. Panoply

Unlike other marketing-focused data management software, Panoply brings all of your business data together in one place. This comprehensive solution caters to all three aspects of an organization’s data stack: collection via automated integrations, storage via a cloud data warehouse, and management via AI-driven automation. 

With Panoply, all of your data is available in one place. It connects with over 100 sources and organizes data regardless of the source or format. 

Because Panoply is a cloud-based warehouse, your storage scales with your business, meaning no manual resizing is required and you only pay for what you need. AI-powered data engineering allows your data engineers to focus on the things that matter, rather than managing data sets. 

7. SAS Data Management

SAS Data Management is an enterprise-level DMP and part of SAS’s suite of software products. IT and data professionals can use SAS Data Management to unify all of their organization’s siloed data, standardize and update it, and then carry out their own analysis. 

Data access is a key feature of the SAS Data Management platform. You can create and implement rules across the software to provide a standardized method of integrating and optimizing data. This is particularly useful given the fact the platform specializes in collecting data from legacy systems and Hadoop, an open-source data lake. 

This data management software is aimed at enterprise-level users, but it’s also suitable for startups and small businesses. 

8. Snowflake

Snowflake is a cloud data platform that delivers data management as a service. Everything runs through a single, cloud-based platform that requires little to no maintenance from the end user, while fulfilling the storage and analysis requirements of most businesses.

Because Snowflake is an as-a-service solution, it can separate computing power from storage to significantly speed up data analysis. In fact, it offers unlimited computing power to unlimited users within your organization so you can work as fast as possible. 

While it may be an as-a-service solution, it’s no less secure than the other platforms on this list. All data is encrypted in storage and in motion, while the platform itself supports two-factor authentication.

Size matters when it comes to data management software. Some of the DMPs on this list will be too small for multinational enterprises while others will be prohibitively expensive for small businesses. 

Take into account your IT strategy and your business strategy when choosing data management software, says Alanah Mitchell, associate professor of information systems at Drake University College of Business and Public Administration. The software needs to align with your current IT architecture and with your business needs.