A Digital Handshake- The CMO & The CIO
A Digital Handshake- The CMO & The CIO
It’s old news in the ears of a lame man that the world is now being driven by technology, and in some cases robots now manage all sorts of processes whilst expected to satisfy basic & specific human needs accurately from ordering a dress after trying it via a VR portal or paying for a service in a fuel station via a brand app with a history of your usual amount top up just before fueling up coupled with personalized promotions. The challenge is these things don’t just run themselves they have to unify among other factors such as data, people, process maps, automation etc. This is pretty much the same with every business leadership in an organization ran by c-level executives which includes a CMO and a CIO.
They all have to work together through vast amounts of data and make key decisions to design products and services that will satisfy the exact customer need.
Defining Both Parties?
The CMO is the Chief Marketing Officer who handles everything & anything marketing; in most cases controls or manages all company branded activities like awareness events, digital campaigns, social media, brand reputation and provides up to date corporate strategy/feedback reports to other C-level executives, while the CIO is traditionally tasked with the responsibility of managing the business infrastructure (IT systems) and in most environments they both work with a silo mentality (not sharing information). Thanks to digital transformation, most businesses are beginning to address this situation but how much of the journey have they covered?, that’s entirely another angle to this story; hence why a connected strategy is very vital rather than just having technology in place according to MITSloan
In the new digital world this has changed significantly as there are heaps of data or information both teams need to arm themselves with and cannot rely solely on singular operations or a monolithic architecture rather a connected enterprise, they have to pull data from all business touchpoints with customers & make key decisions to ensure the brand customer experience is scored above its competitors, this way its not just competitive but also stands as a leader whilst improving business revenue in the short and long term. This write-up is not necessarily explaining the duties and responsibilities of the CMO and CIO but clearly articulating the median relationship which sits within the digital handshake required.
What Is A Digital Handshake In The Workplace?
A digital handshake is that connecting point between two factors through a digital medium, usually with customers and prospects since it’s all about business relationships but in this case, a digital handshake happening internally with marketing/business units and IT, where there’s a complete system unification and access to customer data or support. It’s a point where marketing can work totally independent of IT, yet connected with data in cloud ready application infrastructure, whilst having access to self-service analytics.
A digital handshake is eminent in every organization embracing transformation, As a CMO, the business requires you to be the data supplier or data steward and as the CIO you have to wear the hat of the chief experience officer, although in some cases this role may exist independently but the key traction is both working with information or data that is scrapped, collected, analyzed, appended, enriched and actionable whilst ensuring the right infrastructure is in place to manage the entire process. Throughout my 17yrs career span, it’s no surprise to me that I still see businesses isolating both remits and having IT work completely independent away from marketing/other business teams and only called upon during support or technology installations. In most environments, IT makes the primary decision on what to implement without varying inputs from marketing or other business units. The word ‘independent’ needs to be extremely played down in the digital era if an organization needs to remain a leader in the market space. Organizations need to intimately embrace digital handshakes across all business units by employing highly collaborative systems in place, which I’d call a workplace digital ecosystem. A digital handshake need to be based around these parameters according to Microsoft (Data Unification, Data ownership, Self-service including analytics [SSA], Protection and Compliance). This way you migrate away from a total IT operationalization.
Finally, The Outside In-Inside Out Approach
In Summary, I support the statement-line by Microsoft, ‘a win-win situation is highly required for IT and line of businesses across the organization such as sales, services or marketing’.
The CMO should focus on developing the brand marketing technology stacks and gathering data, while the CIO should focus on ensuring there’s an aligned experience internally and externally, handshaking with the right processes built on a seamless collaborative technology architecture hence creating a unified ecosystem. I would highly recommend each leader to decide on the introduction or acquisition of a CDP/CIP (Customer Data Platforms/Customer Intelligence Platforms) with the customer right at the center whilst ensuring key insights are utilized across board by both parties so the right products & services can be delivered. This is what we call an ‘outside in-Inside out approach’ allowing the customer define the way we sell to them by simply understanding how and why they interact with our brand, being authentic and trustworthy whilst using technology as a vehicle to deliver precise products & services. It has been reported that the CDP industry has grown immensely seeing a 26% rise this year against 2018, with an investment rise-up to $121billion. Organizations are now staring away from single vendor management. According to the CDP research institute, reports conclude about 34% of organizations are looking to adopt this trend in the coming year.
The CMO and the CIO have to constantly sit together and see ‘eye to eye’ on what technology is to be adopted or implemented based on data ganered by the CMO, and once this is securely in place, there is now undoubtedly a 360’ degree view system that clearly reveals what the customer needs and how the business or its employees can effectively respond to every changing demand in its market space.
