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Digital progress drives CIO-CMO alliance

Regina Pazvakavambwa
By Regina Pazvakavambwa, ITWeb portals journalist.
Johannesburg, 22 Aug 2014
The merging of technology and marketing platforms requires a digital operational model that will help organisations become more effective, says Accenture's Lee Naik.
The merging of technology and marketing platforms requires a digital operational model that will help organisations become more effective, says Accenture's Lee Naik.

In the digital world, where consumers are using technology to interact and transact with businesses, chief marketing officers (CMOs) and chief information officers (CIOs) are seeing the potential of collaboration.

So says Lee Naik, MD of technology strategy at Accenture SA, who points out technology is now part of the business service delivery model and this has promoted partnerships and greater collaboration among business leadership and CIOs.

According to Naik, CIOs are now being included in the executive leadership team, especially in organisations that have a business-to-customer focus.

As consumers embrace a world where brand and technological experiences are indistinguishable, marketing and IT organisations need to be jointly responsible for owning the design of the customer experience platforms, says Naik.

To gain a deep understanding of the customer experience requires CMOs to partner with CIOs to design and develop omni-channel solutions informed by data analytics and intelligence, he adds.

"The new focus on consumer experience and not just brand awareness by CMOs, combined with the extensive use of digital channels by customers to interact and transact with businesses, has made marketing IT one of the CMO's top priorities," says Naik.

"CIOs view the alignment with CMOs as an opportunity to move out of the traditional roles they have been confined to and demonstrate the power of IT in driving real outcomes from their businesses."

He points out that because of the increased reliance on Web sites and mobile applications as the customer engagement channel of choice, technology and marketing platforms have essentially become one and the same.

This merging of technology and marketing platforms requires a digital operational model that will help organisations become more effective, says Naik.

"CIOs and CMOs must recognise and embrace the need for a full omni-channel experience for their customers by integrating their channels with real-time analytics and proactively responding on the insights they receive. They must also invest in agile technologies which will allow organisations to gain a competitive-edge and remain relevant in an increasingly digital world," concludes Naik.

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