Why collaboration can get you control and expand your business.
Is your marketing department directing the focus of the selection and purchase of new technology while you in the IT department are left to cope, trying to integrate a plethora of inappropriate systems? Does the competition for resources result in a focus on friction between departments and not on the needs of customers? What if while you are busy dealing with these internal battles, your competitors are busy taking your forgotten customers under their wing? Well with integration and collaboration, you can avoid this situation and concentrate on growth.
Technology spreads through every aspect of your company. The task of maintaining and upgrading existing systems designed for so many different purposes is mammoth. Forrester Research Analyst, Peter Burris has reported that when it comes to the IT budget, ‘70% of spending is on maintaining and upgrading existing systems.’ The danger is that the IT Department are people only seen when things go wrong. In addition to this, with technology so endemic in every area of life, everyone thinks they have to be a technology expert. In fact, according to The IBM Power in Data 2013 Survey, 16% of businesses have actually shifted responsibility for the technology budget to the Marketing team. But as we know, there is a massive difference between knowing how to use technology, and actually understanding technology systems and how they work together (or don’t).
It is vital that your Marketing teams remember that your IT department is more than a maintenance department… that you are a group of highly specialised, creative experts who could help revolutionise their performance rather than struggle to make inappropriate systems work in synergy. And the resistance is not as great as you fear. The IBM Power in Data 2013 Survey showed that 85% of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) ‘feel a need for an integrated cross platform marketing strategy’, and 38% of marketing teams have spent time ‘deepening technology knowledge in the marketing team.’ While the responsibility for the selection and use of technology in marketing is increasingly falling to the CMO, it seems there is confusion and a lack of confidence for the task. As Forrester analyst Sheryl Pattek says ‘With this much complexity, it’s no surprise that many CMOs are ill-equipped to provide the vision and strategic direction required to make sound and effective marketing technology purchase decisions.’
The answer is communication and collaboration between the CMO and the CIO. Is the Marketing team aware of all the technology they could utilise that you could provide? And just as important, have you been given a clear vision of what your CMO wants to achieve? With the IT department retaining control of the systems used in your business, imagine how much more time and cost-efficient maintenance and integration of technology would be. How much budget could be freed up for the acquisition of new technologies? Think how much your CMO could gain from specialist advice on systems that could not only achieve their marketing goals, but perhaps provide far more than they had hoped.
The best decisions are made when they are fuelled with data from more than one perspective. As Marketing Expert, Gil Press has recently professed, ‘In organisations where the CIO is expected only to cut costs and “keep the trains running on time,” the responsibility—and purchasing authority—for the tools enabling the digital transformation will reside with other senior executives. In organisations where the CIO is expected to play a key role or even lead this digital transformation, he or she will no doubt help the CMO—and other senior executives—navigate the complex and rapidly-changing landscape of all emerging digital technologies and tools.’
With less revenue wasted on inappropriate technology and the Marketing team exceeding their goals, there will be plenty of resources left for your most important commodity: your customers.
What are your views on this topic? Are you already working in an environment where departments collaborate in ‘multi-disciplinary’ teams to benefit from a wide range of expertise? What are the benefits and disadvantages of working in this way? We’d love to hear your views. Visit us on Facebook or give us a Tweet @ITRecruitment
