re: Dear IT: No One Likes Petulant Teenagers
That's great until Marketing wants the system integrated with core ERP and/or CRM applications. Then you have a mess. If a function wants to go it alone, that's fine as long as there is a business case to support the stand alone system, but it should be understood that it will ALWAYS be stand alone and IT will NOT support it. If Marketing later wants integration, then there must be agreement to reevaluate the stand alone solution and throw it away when necessary because Marketing may have made the wrong long term decision considering the corporate whole of systems, integration, data definitions, etc. This kind of problem is the reason why IT does not like having rogue systems and departments. Chris, you are pretty naive if you think its about a contest to see who can spend the most on IT. In all but the most immature of organizations, its about have an integrated solution that serves all parts of the business and follows standards on data definition (e.g., the difference between customers, prospects, and consumers is clearly understood and dictates both data and process usage in systems), tools (so you have a skilled staff to adequately manage the systems), security, etc.
User Rank: Apprentice
8/8/2013 | 2:18:14 PM
It may sound weird, but the more internal IT companies become similar to IT consulting firms and focus on the results of their work instead of the work itself, the more likely they will get called to help with the new tech marketing project.
This is a soft skills and a internal sales/marketing job that most CIOs are clueless about. It isn't about the technology and that mixes up many CIOs.