"Why don't I just get up and go get some coffee?", I said to everyone in the conference room. The VP of Marketing and CIO both stopped their very professional jabbing at each other and looked at me stunned. Being "the consultant" for an marketing and IT acceleration company, I was used to being a referee for heated debates between teams. However on that day, the best course of action was to simply duck and work with whomever was left over after the dust settled. "No, that's okay. I think we're done here", said the VP of Marketing in complete frustration. The CIO and his two lead developers left the room with their chests lifted and with disdain over the fact that the marketing team "wasted" their time.
"Why do those guys make it so hard for us to get our job done?", said the VP of Marketing in a tired and weary voice.
Having sat in between marketing and IT for years, I have heard these words almost every time I parachute into a company for a few days. With the exception of Zappos (they really do have an awesome culture), highly intelligent marketing and IT teams fail to leverage each others talents over a few simple misunderstandings. Take these off the table in the beginning, and both teams can be empowered to do amazingly innovative things together.
Marketers, here are the top 3 things IT people care about and how to speak to their needs:
1. Resourcing - IT teams keep the entire infrastructure of the organization running. From their perspective, you are one of many groups (sales, support, HR, etc) that require their attention. Your requirements for data analytics, tools, segmentation, and integration are massively important to the future of the company and sales growth. IT guys don't get this. They literally see you as another organization asking for their time and attention.
Action Step - Acknowledge IT's burden to get stuff done. Instead of leading with everything you need (like every other group does), ask the IT team how busy they are and seek to understand what is required of them.
2. Security/Compliance/Availability - IT teams are under significant pressure to keep data safe and systems running. This is a VERY hard job in and of itself. When you come at IT teams with any kind of requirement that may even slightly disrupt this balance they have worked so hard for, they will immediately become skeptical and defensive. They may also become offended that you could be so ignorant about data security in your requirements. To a certain degree, this is what they are paid to do. If there is any data breach, they are responsible...not you.
Action Step - Acknowledge IT's burden for security. Seek to understand IT's responsibility for security first. Ask IT about the available data and secure ways to get access to it. Let the IT team know you also respect the need for data security and compliance.
3. Tool Selection - Since marketing teams fail at #1 and #2 above, they often get frustrated and turn to SaaS tools to solve their marketing needs. This is usually without any consultation from IT. The problem here is that most non-IT teams run to a tool without thinking through future integration needs. While the new SaaS based social monitoring tool you been using for 3 months is AWESOME, you come to the conclusion that unactionable data is of limited use. In order for this tool to be more useful, it really needs to integrate with your CRM or email system.
When you approach IT about this (given everything I have discussed so far), they are understandably livid for multiple reasons. They are being asked to integrate a tool that they had no influence in purchasing, that is going to contend for resourcing, and may or may not introduce a security and compliance risk.
Action Step - If you have done #1 and #2 right, then this should not be an issue. If you get the IT team on your side, they can be extremely helpful in tool selection. They are much better at scoping current and future integration requirements. They can see issues down the road that you can't see. They can get a vision and plan for the integration you will eventually need.
A simple conversation goes a long way...
The next time you want IT to get a marketing project done for you, walk into the CIO's office and say the following:
"I know you are a very busy person and our company has placed a huge burden on your team. I don't want to add any liability to that burden. Could you give me an idea about your current priorities? I have a few projects that will move this company forward, increasing all our bonuses, that will require some IT resources. Right off the bat, I want you to know that I don't want to do anything that will risk our data, put more stress on our systems, or consume your development team. Can I review these ideas with you and you make some suggestions on how we could actually get this done?"
If you think I am living a pipe dream, I said this almost verbatim to a CIO 2 weeks ago before asking to install our vendor appliance in his data center. It took less than 5 minutes to get his approval.
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