by Heidi Schwende, Featured Contributor
Fact: marketing and technology intersect, always have
Having started my career in the technology consulting business in a corporate marketing role, I’ve been sitting at the intersection of marketing and technology for the better part of 20 years now. Today, and I suspect in large part because of the silos that these two teams have typically operated within, an ever widening chasm developed between marketing and technology. We need to bridge that chasm, and we need to do it in a hurry.
If we ever hope to deliver high performance marketing in our digitized world, CIOs and CMOs need to get together in all haste. Here’s why; the very underpinnings of business have now been digitized. In 2014, every business is a digital business and to think otherwise in my opinion is a huge mistake. There is a three year window from now until 2017 to get digital marketing right.
Let’s take a look at the role of CIO for a moment
I follow a gentleman by the name of Frank Diana a digital transformation expert. He recently said that “the evolution of the digital enterprise is signaling a change for the CIO from heading the IT department to helping the organization tap into its most valuable asset—information—using cutting-edge technology.” And by the way, the percentage of IT that will be under the direct control of the CIO will be a mere 10% by 2020. Think about it, that’s now under 6 years away.
Now to the role of CMO
There’s clear evidence virtually everywhere that our industrial model of business is in rapid and widespread decline. CMOs need to be able to harness the most important component of our future; technology. The window within which data in the enterprise will double in the next 5 years is 3 months. Yes, data will double every 90 days! Dion Hinchcliffe of Adjuvi has recently said that “by 2020 we will hit a perfect storm of tech change.” Everything will converge at just about the same time. The forces of proliferation will just continue to expand as we move forward toward this convergence and the CMO must be able to create the marketing organization of the future ~ a future resting on a foundation of technology.
I’ve now set up the most basic link between technology and marketing.
What needs to happen for the CIO and the CMO to get aligned?
In a recent report by Accenture, the beliefs of CMOs and CIOs often diverge radically. The report stated that “a large majority of CIOs [61%] feel their companies are prepared for the digital future. Whereas CMOs are more hesitant, with just under a majority [49%] feeling their companies are prepared to leverage digital channels. Moreover, even in their concerns for the future, they don’t share the same reasons for feeling unprepared.
Here is my list of things to get right immediately:
- Get together on marketing technology systems and identify high priority requirements
- Don’t do anything more with data until you can quantify the business value of doing so
- Examine the skills within your teams and agree on how to align and acquire those skills
- Break down the silos that inhibit innovation and integration
- Help each other understand infrastructure
- Undertake a change from the top approach and if anyone isn’t on board, get rid
- To CEOs I say: CMOs and CIOs are your digital power couple
As far back as 2011, IBM’s institute for business value raised the flag with a report entitled CMOs and CIOs, acquaintances or allies. That’s four years ago now. We shouldn’t be grappling with this anymore. If CMOs and CIOs can work together to drive digital engagement and transformation, they will be the dream team of the future enterprise. And I personally think that the first stop for alignment is operational excellence. Start from the ground up where commonality already exists and set everything up for the two to succeed.
