How NI Drives Impact and Alignment with Allocadia

NI (formerly National Instruments) is a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: NATI) and headquartered in Austin, Texas. They produce automated test equipment and virtual instrumentation software. Common applications include data acquisition, instrument control and machine vision.

The Problem: Too Much Data and No Official System

National Instruments headquarters

When Helena Lewis, Senior Group Manager for Global Marketing Operations and Technology at NI, saw the disconnect between upstream plans and downstream output, she knew things needed to change. 

NI is a $1.3-billion-dollar high-tech company with more than 35,000 customers in 90 countries. Pulling together budgeting and planning on this scale is no small feat. The Global Marketing Operations and Technology team manages the marketing planning process to assist marketers in running marketing like a business. But this was complicated by having many voices involved in the process. They also struggled to consolidate data from all the regions they serve, as they all had their own marketing plans. Helena and her team knew that “without a single ‘system of record’ for all marketing plans and budgets and a way to organize everyone involved…it was a constant challenge to ensure our marketing investments were delivering intended results.” It was time to adjust. 

“Historically, marketing operations hasn’t been part of the budgeting decision-making process. Because of Allocadia, we’re now a key player in providing transparency into our marketing investments. Allocadia empowers us with a common language to talk with business leaders about marketing ROI instead of expenses, fuelling a closer relationship with our stakeholders.”

Helena Lewis, Senior Group Manager for Global Marketing Operations and Technology, NI

The Solution: A New Framework and Outlook

The marketing organization needed to stop planning around the company’s products and instead develop campaigns aligned with the solution approach that customers embraced. “We needed to think about our products the way prospective and existing customers do – as solutions that span the organization,” says Helena. To do this, Helena and her team needed to identify and deploy the right combination of marketing technologies and processes.  

Helena started making small adjustments with SiriusDecisions Campaign Framework to create a framework that would work for hundreds of marketers. Then it was time to add in technologies that would enable marketing to thrive within that new framework. Knowing Allocadia’s capabilities and market perception, the team banked on it being the right solution to complete a best-in-class SaaS solution for marketing performance management

How did Allocadia help the Helena and the NI team gain insight into their marketing budget? Download the full case study to find out!