--- title: "2 of 5 customer-intelligence tools we once named were renamed; 1 of 5 prints a price" summary: "What became of the five customer intelligence tools in our 2023 list, which one publishes a price, and what CI should mean for an Indian buyer, as of September 2026." url: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/customer-intelligence-top-ci-tools format: Note desk: "SaaS & business software" published: 2025-10-07 facts_checked: 2026-09-30 author: TechBag (The TechBag Journal) tags: ["customer intelligence","marketing automation","Account Engagement","Marketo Engage","Oracle Eloqua","Acoustic","SAS Customer Intelligence 360","Data Cloud","DPDP","GST"] cover: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/covers/customer-intelligence-top-ci-tools.png --- # 2 of 5 customer-intelligence tools we once named were renamed; 1 of 5 prints a price *What became of the five customer intelligence tools in our 2023 list, which one publishes a price, and what CI should mean for an Indian buyer, as of September 2026.* Note · SaaS & business software · By TechBag · Published 2025-10-07 · Facts checked 2026-09-30 · Canonical: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/customer-intelligence-top-ci-tools Two of the five “customer intelligence” tools we named in May 2023 were already trading under other names when we named them, and four of the five still print no price. Salesforce Pardot had become Marketing Cloud Account Engagement in 2022.[1] IBM Marketing Cloud had been sold to Centerbridge in April 2019 and relaunched as Acoustic that July.[3] The one list price among the five, Account Engagement’s, starts at US$1,250 a month.[2] The question behind the 2023 piece was a buyer’s one: what is customer intelligence, and which tool do I buy for it? The honest answer starts with the list itself. ## What became of the five **Pardot** reached Salesforce through its US$2.5 billion purchase of ExactTarget in 2013 and was renamed Marketing Cloud Account Engagement in 2022.[1] **Marketo** was Adobe’s from a US$4.75 billion deal announced on 20 September 2018[4] and is sold as Marketo Engage in four plans, Growth, Select, Prime and Ultimate, each behind a “Get pricing” button.[5] **IBM Marketing Cloud** is Acoustic, which sells Acoustic Connect and books demos rather than printing prices.[3] [8] **Oracle Eloqua** is Oracle Eloqua Marketing Automation, with no price on its page.[6] **SAS Customer Intelligence** is now SAS Customer Intelligence 360, a cloud marketing platform sold through a conversation with SAS.[7] TechBag countTechBag count Of the five tools in the 2023 list, 2 had been renamed or sold before May 2023, 4 print no price on their own pages as of September 2026, and only 1, SAS, still sells under the words “customer intelligence”. The other four are marketing automation suites. ## The one price, and what it buys Account Engagement prints four editions, each on an annual contract. Growth, Plus and Advanced include 10,000 contacts; Premium includes 75,000.[2] **Figure: The only printed price among the five starts at US$1,250 a month and runs 12 times higher** *Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, US$ list per org per month, billed annually* Growth US$1,250 Plus US$2,750 Advanced US$4,400 Premium US$15,000 | | Value (US$) | | --- | --- | | Growth | 1,250 | | Plus | 2,750 | | Advanced | 4,400 | | Premium | 15,000 | Source: Salesforce Account Engagement pricing page · as of 30 September 2026 · vendor page undated; Premium includes 75,000 contacts, the others 10,000 TechBag countTechBag arithmetic A year of Growth is US$15,000. At an assumed ₹85 to the dollar that is ₹12,75,000, or ₹15,04,500 with 18% GST, before any implementation partner and before the CRM it sits on. ## What customer intelligence should mean in India Customer intelligence is one customer profile that marketing, sales and service all read, plus the analysis run on it. For most Indian mid-market companies that profile already lives in the CRM. Salesforce now sells it separately as Data Cloud, which it also calls Data 360, and builds its newer marketing editions on top of it.[9] Our view Buy the analysis your CRM already includes before a suite priced like a salary. Add a customer-data platform only when two systems hold customer records that disagree and the disagreement is costing sales. TechBag resells Salesforce and HubSpot, so weigh this advice with that in mind. Profiling customers is processing personal data under the DPDP Act, 2023. Its Rules were notified on 13 November 2025, and the substantive duties, notice, consent, security safeguards and breach intimation, apply from 13 May 2027.[10] The Act’s schedule sets a penalty of up to ₹250 crore for failing to keep reasonable security safeguards.[11] A CI project that copies the CRM into a second store doubles the data you must protect; ask where the profile is hosted before you ask what the licence costs. How we did this Figures as of 30 September 2026 The five tools are the ones the May 2023 version named. Product names and pricing status come from each vendor’s own product or pricing page; “prints no price” means the page shows no figure and offers a demo, a form or a quote. The ownership history comes from dated reporting and encyclopaedia entries, cited below. The rupee figure is TechBag arithmetic at an assumed exchange rate, not a quote. India data hosting for these suites was not checked and is not claimed. Spotted an error? Write to us; corrections are published at the foot of the piece. Sources 1. [Wikipedia, Pardot (ExactTarget and Salesforce acquisitions; renamed Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardot) — renamed 2022 2. [Salesforce, Marketing Cloud Account Engagement pricing](https://www.salesforce.com/marketing/b2b-automation/pricing/) — vendor pricing page, undated 3. [AdExchanger, After sale to PE firm, IBM Watson Marketing rebrands as Acoustic](https://adexchanger.com/platforms/after-sale-to-pe-firm-ibm-watson-marketing-rebrands-as-acoustic/) — 15 July 2019 4. [Wikipedia, Marketo (Adobe acquisition)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketo) — announced 20 September 2018 5. [Adobe, Marketo Engage pricing](https://business.adobe.com/products/marketo/pricing.html) — vendor pricing page, undated 6. [Oracle, Oracle Eloqua Marketing Automation](https://www.oracle.com/cx/marketing/automation/) — vendor product page, undated 7. [SAS, SAS Customer Intelligence 360](https://www.sas.com/en_us/software/customer-intelligence-360.html) — vendor product page, undated 8. [Acoustic, home page (Acoustic Connect)](https://www.acoustic.com/) — vendor page, undated 9. [TechBag, Salesforce Marketing Cloud intel page (Data Cloud, Data 360)](https://www.thetechbag.com/salesforce/salesforce-marketing-cloud) — version of 30 September 2026 10. [DPDP Rules 2025, commencement timeline](https://legismith.com/dpdp-rules-2025-timeline/) — notified 13 November 2025 11. [Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, Schedule (penalties)](https://www.meity.gov.in/data-protection-framework) — 11 August 2023 Related on TechBag: the [Salesforce Data Cloud page](https://www.thetechbag.com/salesforce/salesforce-data-cloud) covers the customer-data layer on its own; the [data security and privacy guides](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/data-security-privacy) cover what protecting a second copy of customer data involves. **Disclosure.** TechBag is a software reseller: it earns a margin when a reader buys through it, including from vendors named here. The analysis is TechBag’s own; no vendor paid for or saw this piece before publication. Facts are labelled reported, TechBag count or our view. Go deeper on TechBag - [Salesforce Data Cloud intel page](https://www.thetechbag.com/salesforce/salesforce-data-cloud) — the customer-data layer sold on its own - [HubSpot Marketing Hub intel page](https://www.thetechbag.com/hubspot/hubspot-marketing-hub) — marketing automation on the CRM's own customer record - [Data security & privacy guides](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/data-security-privacy) — protecting the second copy of customer data a CI project creates