Forrester Research released a great report recently, titled The Emergence of the Digital Marketing Service Provider. If you are either in Marketing, Information Technology, or the leadership function of any organization – you owe it to yourself to read this report.
According to Forrester, while Marketing is moving to become ever more digital and therefore reliant on technology, IT organizations are trying to become more focused on strategic drivers of the business and not simply availability of core systems. Those Marketing and IT groups that aren’t making these shifts are leaving their businesses woefully underprepared for the future.
These two forces are driving the inexorable convergence of Marketing and IT. Take it from me: a former VP of Marketing and CMO at an online marketing services provider who is now running technology at Mindjet. I have seen this shift happen from both perspectives and it is very real.
But could there be any stranger bedfellows than these two groups? While Marketing is striving to be creative and “edgy” in the new world of digital and social media, IT groups are often focused first on risk management and system compliance. Marketers are perceived as being all about vision and IT all about action.
How to merge vision and action, seeing and doing? Through better communication enabled by solutions that are specifically designed to bridge that gap. Set the vision, create the strategy, organize the associated knowledge and information, then create a plan of action and ensure execution. When IT and Marketing are able to do this in a collaborative way that is both creative and effectively executed both organizations will be happy and successful.
This “compound approach” of joining IT and Marketing into one unified force will help ensure that organizations achieve their ultimate goal – success in the market. Mindjet looks forward to helping your IT and Marketing organizations make that happen – together.