Marketing and IT - the CMO "talking" with the CIO

Advice on the how the CMO should "talk" with Finance and the CFO has become a cottage industry, what we seldom find is advice on how a CMO should talk with the CIO. This is puzzling since the lack of common vocabulary between Marketing and Finance is supplanted only by the lack of common vocabulary between Marketing and IT.

This deficit in communication does not seem troubling if Marketing is not particularly reliant on data for decision support or if IT is unusually versed in Marketing, unfortunately however, these are exceedingly rare conditions.

What we find is that Marketing accesses some data mart that IT pulled together from the data warehouse, access can be through stored queries (the most often  method) or through some OLAP/cube building technology (the least common option). Ad-hoc reporting requires custom querying and is generally a hassle. Worse yet, some shops rely heavily on SAS for data pulls without needing it for modeling, thus increasing the number of licenses that have to be paid for and maintained.

At the other end of the spectrum, Marketing Analytics' reports become static flat files or reports whose record keeping and accessibility is not the best.

The solution is not simple and requires a good deal of design at the front end:

• Marketing and IT have to spend the time required to design a scalable architecture - scalable means just that, a scalable architecture may be as simple as just a repository of flat files or complex enough to even allow for API-level access to Marketing's analytical modules
• This architecture must clearly distinguish between application and presentation layer - what is analysis and what is end-user reporting
• The application layer may fall under Marketing's oversight but it's output is entrusted to IT for presentation (i.e. Marketing analyzes data but the final reporting is presented to the client through a front end that IT owns)
• Ad-hoc and standard reporting should be handled as much as possible through OLAP or other easy to use reporting front end. Writing one-of queries is not an efficient use of expensive headcount

Maybe someone with the time and inclination will spawn off a new trend of writing about how Marketing must learn to talk with IT (not my cup of tea) but I hope this post is a starting point.

Comments

[David Gerbino]

As a marketer who speaks fluent IT, I agree with most of your point of view. I think Marketing and Finance need to be the major stake holders when it comes to data. IT is just the structure and hardware owner. IT adds little value when it comes to data.

[Adelino de Almeida]

Hi David.

Absolutely! IT does not add much value when comes to data. What we tend to find is that Marketing's inability to communicate properly with IT results in poorly designed infrastructures which lead to processes with a "lot of friction for little fire"

Adelino

[Kevin Hillstrom]

It gets even better when you throw merchandising and creative folks into the mix. Every functional area has its own lingo. I've seen many database marketing departments that have their own cliques of employees that use their own language.

[Ron Shevlin]

I read David's comment, and my first reaction was "wrong!". But then I realized that the comment is wrong in maybe 1 or 2 out of 100 firms...so he's actually mostly right.

So, yes, IT [often] adds little value. Which has always amazed me. No other function in the organization is in as good a position as IT to see how data is used to support business processes and goals.

In my opinion, Adelino, it's IT who needs to learn how to talk to Marketing. In most firms, IT is the service provider. As someone who works in a firm that provides marketing services to other firms, I can't imagine expecting my client to "learn how to talk" to me.

[David Gerbino]

Ron/Adelino,

for all of us and our respective companies, we should learn to learn to migrate to each other's disciplines.

I am also happy to be "mostly right".

[Ron Shevlin]

David --

"he's mostly right" was my awkward to attempt to say I was wr... wr.... wr.... not completely correct.

-- Ron

[E. Long]

I work in an organization that struggles with this scenario. We do not have a CIO role, but it's always been my view that the CIO should bridge the obvious gaps in language and intelligence between Marketing and IT (and any other departments interfacing with IT).

On the marketing side of things, it seems as if marketers take IT's word 100% of the time and never question where or not there's a better way to do deliver the data. Sometimes, they just don't know what to ask for or how to ask for it -- a legitimate problem. What ends up happening is a series of tedious workarounds to truly get what they need. IT may not know the marketer is using or accessing the data in another way than was originally designed -- which makes it very difficult to improve.

On the IT side of things, they will deliver exactly what a marketer asks for and won't necessarily know how or what the data is used for. Many times, an example of how the marketer has seen data used/presented from another application, website, vendor, etc. is an excellent way to communicate to an IT person who is building the custom report. IT may not fully understand the marketing/business needs, but if a marketer provides examples, the how's, and the why's, it'll help them deliver a finished product that better meets the marketer's needs.

A good CIO should approach these situations with "big picture" thinking and be able to assist marketing with their needs (by evaluating the business problem, not by looking at what they think the technical solution should be)...and then translate these needs into specific requirements for IT to execute.