The rise of shadow IT across marketing departments is forcing the CMO and CIO to re-evaluate their roles in order to adapt to market forces. Victoria Clarke investigates
Technology now infiltrates every aspect of our day-to-day lives – it’s everywhere and used by everyone. Businesses can no longer afford to think that digital is the remit of a single department or job title. Furthermore, the rise of SaaS, IaaS, PaaS and other cloud services, which don’t rely on an organisation’s IT infrastructure nor necessarily need internal IT teams to deploy and manage them, means technology is now more accessible than ever to every business function.
Little wonder then that B2B marketing departments – known among other things for their love of the latest wizardry – are leading the way when it comes to technology procurement. And there’s a lot to tempt them: from marketing automation (MA), social media analytics and email application to adtech solutions, ecommerce and CRM platforms, the marketing technology landscape is mammoth and CMOs are doing their best to exploit it.
The now well-documented stats from Gartner, which forecast marketing technology investment will exceed that of overall IT spend by 2017, highlight this point. Furthermore, a recent study by Squiz revealed 66% of UK marketing managers are now the key stakeholders ahead of IT managers when it comes to making marketing technology purchasing decisions.
All the stats point to the CMO winning the battle for marketing tech ownership. But it would be myopic to think marketing departments should bypass IT entirely. While configuration and management of marketing platforms and applications is often a customer-facing function that requires the experience of the marketing team, increased complexity calls for IT know-how in deploying and integrating divergent systems so they all sync together seamlessly.
In today’s customer-driven and evolving technology landscape, partnership between the CIO and CMO has never been more crucial. As Stephen Morgan, co-founder of Squiz, counsels: “This commitment to collaborate must be a pillar of an organisation’s culture. No one person, nor one team, can be wholly responsible for the advent of digital.”
Historic disconnect
The rise of shadow (or stealth) IT and the associated tensions between CIOs and CMOs are commonplace, with both often reluctant to relinquish control. This need for control is directly related to the way both functions have traditionally viewed their roles; hardly surprising this disconnect has then filtered down to IT and marketing teams.
A recent study by Toshiba, which surveyed 400 senior IT decision-makers across Europe, further highlights the misalignment between IT and marketing staff. Thirty percent of those questioned stated marketers are among the most likely within a company to ignore any regulations put in place when it comes to using IT solutions without official approval.
Neil Bramley, B2B PC business unit director, Toshiba Europe, suggests the c-suite must lead by example when it comes to a collaborative relationship with IT. He insists: “CIOs and CMOs need to work together to ensure employees are using the right technologies in the best way to ensure both maximum efficiency and robust security. With marketing staff often ignoring such protocols, it’s critical they’re educated on how to best use solutions, and this is one area where CMOs need to exert their influence over staff in order to help their CIO counterparts.”
Many industry insiders agree that a top-down approach to cross-departmental education, change management and collaboration is fundamental in helping CMOs and CIOs better align their teams. To achieve any kind of cohesion, CMOs and CIOs first need to consider how they can work together to create better value and drive customer growth in an increasingly competitive marketplace. CMOs and CIOs then need to encourage their teams to work towards a common, shared goal. This kind of collaboration, driven from the top, is crucial to breaking down departmental barriers, and will ultimately result in far greater ROI for the wider business.
As Matt Preschern, executive VP and CMO at HCL Technologies, points out: “Digital-orientated leaders have quickly realised that wearing a ‘marketing hat’ and ‘technology hat’, and attempting to solve partial problems will fail. Both functions need to develop a deep appreciation of each other, sit at the same table and come up with joint solutions. Today, CMOs who appreciate the power of web APIs and mobile technologies and CIOs who understand the challenges of the social marketplace are significantly better prepared to succeed in the 21st century.”
Market forces and the merging of roles
The idea of a shared business language hints at how the roles of IT and marketing are beginning to evolve and gradually merge in some areas. For example, a growing number of IT professionals are seeing their role shift from a purely technical support and management function to one which focuses more on the customer experience. Again, this is highlighted by the Squiz research, which revealed 66% of IT respondents cited ‘improving the 360-degree customer experience’ as their main focus for 2016.
“The good news is that an increasing number of CIOs now see themselves as business enablers rather than system administrators,” says Dan Roche at KPMG. “This increasing commerciality is very helpful for marketers who can now find common ground.”
In the same way that data and innovation are helping CMOs and CIOs speak the same language, so too is shared market awareness and customer centricity. In fact, many argue it’s the changing face of the customer that’s transforming the roles of the CMO and CIO.
Kevin Cochrane, CMO at Jahia, explains: “The customer now guides the entire business ecosystem while expecting technology and operations to remain invisible throughout their experience. Behind the scenes, there are a million little instances of stealth technology that need to come together in seamless integrations to provide omni-channel access, personalised content and relevant, geo-targeted offers. In addition, all need to be provided ‘in-the-moment’ – a mandate that’s dictating the CIO/CMO partnership.”
Cochrane goes on to offer this advice: “It’s in the CIO and CMO’s combined efforts that customers are served seamlessly throughout the B2B lifecycle – from building initial awareness to post-acquisition login. The success of their partnership will be measured in loyalty, advocacy and on-going revenues.”
The rise of the marketing technologist
With customer centricity a growing focus across the entire organisation, many businesses are choosing to recruit a CXO (chief experience officer) to help bridge the gap between IT and marketing. In addition, overlapping skills between the two business areas are giving way to the rise of other new marketing roles such as CDO (chief digital officer), CDS (chief data scientist) and CMT (chief marketing technologist), which according to Alex Gill, senior director at Harte Hanks, can also help create a more collaborative culture.
Gill comments: “Cross interviewing of new recruits across departments can play an important role in building a more cohesive culture. From newly emerging senior positions such as chief data officer and chief customer officer, to rank-and-file marketing and IT roles, it’s crucial to recruit candidates of the right calibre to maximise the performance of marketing-focused technologies.”
According to research by DataXu, 14% of UK marketers say their business is already taking advantage of a CMT, and a majority (70%) believe more companies will begin to recruit for a CMT within the next five years. Thirty-five percent of respondents feel the role has become so vital that it will replace the traditional CMO role.
Berit Block, marketing director Europe, DataXu, agrees roles such as the marketing technologist are the solution to closer cohesion between marketing and IT. “[The marketing technologist] can speak the language of each department and is able to translate marketing needs into technology needs, all while understanding the challenges experienced by IT departments.”
