Marketing departments claim a growing share of overall technology spend. And that's a good thing. Marketing spend on technology is growing, and may outpace IT spend in the next few years, according to recent research by Gartner. That might sound like a cause for lament, but it should be a cause for celebration. Skeptical? Here are four reasons wise CIOs are pleased to see Marketing’s IT expenditures grow:
- You want projects in Marketing’s budget rather than your budget. Just the other day, a consultant made the case to me that IT’s budget should only cover “keep-the-lights-on” functions, with new innovations paid for by the business units that want them. That approach makes some sense because there’s no surer way to get buy-in from your business contacts than if they’re actually paying for what they’ve requested. Are they wasting IT’s time and resources by not participating fully in setting requirements or testing? Are they driving up costs with a steady stream of new feature requests? Now they’ll suffer consequences in the form of a bigger budgetary hit. Overruns and delays that once were IT’s problem alone are now their problem too.
- Marketing projects usually involve the latest technologies. Innovative projects are fun! Whether or not you feel that way, I guarantee that the people who work for you do. CIOs tell me that the opportunity to work with the newest technologies helps them retain the most sought-after IT professionals. Marketing usually drives the need for new social and mobile applications, and often big data projects as well.
- It will help you tame “shadow” IT. It’s relatively easy to bypass IT if you’re deploying a single cloud-based CRM system or collaboration tool. But when Marketing starts investing millions in (real or virtual) servers and other high-end stuff, they can’t fly under the radar anymore. Chances are the CMO will welcome IT’s involvement since he or she is likely to take these big purchases very seriously. If not, then letting the CFO know just how much is being spent on technology without IT oversight will likely do the trick.
- Top management cares about this stuff. Be honest: Is your CEO excited about virtualization? I didn’t think so. Senior executives may think they don’t need to know about your company’s disaster recovery plans, or databases, or network infrastructure. But it’s a rare top executive who doesn’t care about the company’s social media engagement, or customer-facing mobile interface.
Marketing is near to the heart of nearly every corporate leader, and you can use that to your advantage. If the CMO sees your department as highly efficient and completely indispensable—chances are the CEO will see you that way as well.
