There has been a lot of evidence in the last few months that the B2B Customer Data Platform (CDP) category is maturing. There was the recent Forrester report, the dramatic increase in RFPs and customer adoption of CDPs, and even Salesforce’s recent announcements about the pivotal nature that CDPs will play in their future business strategy.

We have also seen both Radius and Mintigo go away, subsumed into other relatively unrelated businesses. This reflects a trend where, as a category matures less successful players exit — in this case, companies either with limited functionality like targeting SMBs, or a narrow focus on a specific feature such as automated predictive modeling — while more complete platform strategies dominate. We saw similar patterns in categories like Marketing Automation and DMPs over the last decade. This is supported by Gartner’s Hype Cycle mode, where there is a focus on performance and results as a category approaches the “Slope of Enlightenment,” and providers survive by focusing on customer satisfaction.

Salesforce has also played a part in this maturation. They chose to sunset Data.com — which was a single-threaded data provider with D&B & Jigsaw data — to adopt a vendor agnostic, more comprehensive CDP strategy as their go forward plans. However, their focus is on B2C business, so there remains a significant gap in B2B for their customers.

Having been recognized as a leader in this space, we at Leadspace are encouraged by the evidence that the B2B Customer Data Platform (CDP) category is maturing. We’ve long believed that predictive AI and analytics is more a feature of a well-constructed B2B CDP. We’ve preached the value of a robust data foundation, powerful AI, and real-time, cross-channel activations combining in a holistic customer data solution that powers real B2B go-to-market success. And we’re seeing incredible customer success with SAP, HPE, Extreme Networks, and many more of the top (award-winning) B2B marketing and sales organizations.

It seems clear that CDP is becoming a critical component in the B2B tech stack now and into the future. Of course, with any critical and transformational technology, there is complexity and change to deal with. That’s why we’re here, and are committed to helping you take back control of your data, using the power of AI to fuel better engagement and relationships with your customers.