The Marketing of IT

I just read a Forrester "Best Practices" report titled: The Marketing of IT. As the article introduced one of the biggest problems facing IT, I kept shouting (quietly, as I was on the subway), "Yes! That's what I keep facing!" Or telling people -- or something like that anyway. The report resonated with me. I'll spare you the details of the resonating -- and because going into the details will open some can of worms I'd rather not get into. Forrester summarizes the problem with:

IT's inability to market effectively cements its cost center role in the enterprise: communicating status but not value, fulfilling requests but not solving problems, and partially deploying technologies but not delivering expected results.

How's that for a loaded gun? IT stumbles -- and it's an industry wide problem. Long, the exclusive domain of the geeks -- and I mean that in with the utmost respect -- the role of IT has changed as business has grown in its dependence of technology. With business reliance of IT greater than ever as the pace of change increases, there has been movement in IT to become a business to serve the business. IT however, has adopted business practices close to home, such as, project management, accounting and other metrics driven processes. While there has been improvements, Forrester points to stumbling that continues:

IT fails to communicate how good they're doing, and so clients are left to form their own opinions.

IT continues to be order takers, delivering, but not necessarily delivering on what is most needed -- innovation and value.

When IT delivers new technologies, the rollout is so slow, if it's ever completed, that benefits are hardly ever realized.

If you buy it or build it, and implement it, they will come -- only a lot of times, they don't come and IT fails.

IT's solution to these problems -- as much problems of perception as they are of delivery -- communicate! Forrester points out that we in the IT industry have been communicating, only no one is listening, or they don't understand the gobbly-gook we're speaking. Guess what? You can yell through a megaphone, but you can't make them listen. Forrester's solution: Marketing. If Marketing can sell you so much of the crap you don't want, it can surely sell IT -- the good stuff organizations really do need. Every IT effort -- be it a project, or a KTLO initiative -- is an opportunity to market IT to its clients. But how often do any of us do it? How often do we tell our clients that we're about to do something, we're doing it, and we've just done it -- and there, things are better off now for our efforts? Hardly! As Forrester points out, we continue to allow ourselves to be a black box. We're our worse enemy. It's not the business fault for not understanding us, and not thinking we amount to much in IT -- it's our own damn fault.

IT marketing according to Forrester, is "the business activity of presenting IT's products, services, and capabilities to constituents in such a way that makes them eager to fund an utilize." The emphasis on "in such a way" is mine. Marketing is great, but if you screw it up, you just end up looking like an idiot at best -- worst, you won't even be noticed. Forrester suggests the following approach:

Develop a Marketing Plan -- Forrester lists the 4 Ps of Marketing. OK, it's Marketing 101 -- Product, Price, Place and Promotion. There are a few more: Participants, Physical Evidence and Process. But let's start with 101 before we head to grad school.

Execute on the Plan -- ie. rollout your marketing campaign. You'll need to know what your objectives, audience, channels, champions and metrics are. Remember that one size does not fit all, and customize your campaign accordingly.

Build Brand Equity -- your brand is the most valuable possession you could have, squander it at your peril. Your brand can be used to create awareness, build lasting trust and attract interest in your organization.

In IT, we're motivated to do the right thing. None of us go into work to be the pointy-hair boss -- yet, that's how we're perceived. We can be perceived for the value we add -- and we can add value. All we have to do is think of ourselves as a business. If we were an outsourced service provider, and not the entitled IT organization, how would we face our clients? You bet your ass we would face them differently -- either that or be out of business. Microsoft, IBM, Oracle ... to name a few ... ever wondered how they became the powerhouses they are? Simple -- they sell stuff.

Related link:

Seven Ways to Bridge Marketing and IT