Article: Marketing The IT Department
Marketing The IT Department - (Part 1 of 2)
Certainly your IT department is critical. The question is whether it's critical to the success of your organization, or just in dire straits.
IT leaders and their teams work tirelessly to keep software, hardware, and network systems up and running. They solve long-term problems and put out fires, while trying to keep pace with the blistering rate of technological change.
Many IT leaders leave their offices everyday wondering whether or not their team's efforts were noticed or valued by the co-workers they serve.
Unfortunately, employees, managers, and executives in many organizations don’t understand what IT does everyday. These "clients" often don't appreciate the efforts of the IT team, nor do they value them in the same way that the IT team does.
The promising news is that with a different strategy, IT can actively shape the value perceptions its clients have of the department. The tough news is that IT is going to have to learn more about one of its least favorite subjects -- marketing.
Uggh. Next to selling, marketing is the most disliked term in the IT vocabulary. But isn't adapting to constant change supposed to be a core competency of IT? It's best then for IT professionals, to approach the challenge of learning about marketing with the same rigor and intensity that they tackle a network upgrade.
It's no revelation that budgets are tight and that IT is competing for limited resources. In order to be perceived as a valuable organizational resource, the department must be able to demonstrate how its investments have made a positive impact on business results, competitive advantage, and/or cost savings. Ultimately if IT isn't solving problems that other departments deem a priority, the function won't be viewed as an asset.
It doesn't help that constant media coverage of outsourcing, and a deep pool of low-cost foreign resources make it easy for employees to think of IT as a commodity. The message is: "if we don't like the deliverables, we can easily go elsewhere to get better services at a lower price."
Moreover, there is a natural disconnect between the way IT determines value and the way value is measured by others in the organization. Where as IT workers might think their technical work speaks for itself, that's usually not the case for those outside the department.
Because of the cultural and communications differences that exist between the rest of the company and IT, and you have the makings of a "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" case study.
It's not all doom and gloom though. What's facing IT leaders is essentially a challenge that can be bridged by incorporating fundamental marketing principles into the IT strategy.
IT can directly influence the value assigned to its department, by other parts of the business. It can lessen the negative impact that IT related problems and changes create, and stem or even overcome end-user dissatisfaction. The team can build lots of internal bridges within the company that reposition the IT function as a source of competitive advantage rather than a source of consternation.
Improving how IT communicates is going to be a core element of any IT marketing strategy. In fact, communications must be integrated into all IT processes. The goal is to build a strong internal IT brand that demonstrates: responsiveness, good listening skills, clear understanding of business issues and priorities, and high value. The team must establish a healthy dialogue with other departments to uncover hidden needs, requirements, and opportunities.
Building a strong, direct channel of communications will give IT a vehicle for informing and educating peers about how they can best leverage technology for more efficient work, improved productivity, and operational excellence.
Better communications within the IT department will help leaders share their strategy with other team members (e.g., help desk staff and technicians) who often, because of their regular contact, have the most direct influence with other employees.
Because a brand involves perceptions, memories, and recall, it's going to take a steady drumbeat of the right messages and savvy listening to be successful.
"The idea is to get to the point where every time the business looks at innovation, change or improvement, the IT manager is invited to that meeting--because people know IT is a major contributor to success," commented Liz Warren in an article for Computer Weekly.
Conclusion
Making some simple, but fundamental changes in the way IT markets itself within an organization can have profound benefits and elevate the level of perceived value that other employees assign to the IT function.
Marketing The IT Department - (Part 2 of 2)
Part 1 of this series identified some of the reasons why the IT function needs to take active steps to market and communicate its value to the organization that it serves. Part 2 will cover some basic ways IT can start communicating and marketing itself.
It's clear why the perception of value towards many IT departments is low. The core skill set of IT isn't marketing and communications, it's technical knowledge, analysis and problem solving. IT feels most at home developing software applications, configuring servers, and speaking Internet Protocol (IP). In fact, if you were to ask, many IT professionals would probably confide that marketing has little place in their department.
IT leaders aren't necessarily trained in the marketing principles that would help them leverage these concepts to their own benefit. In an article for silicon.com, Peter Judge sums it up well, "And yes, this means marketing the IT department internally, to the rest of the corporation, which is probably one of the most difficult marketing campaigns imaginable."
IT leaders barely have time to read through their e-mail much less embark on a marketing campaign. And it takes time, planning, and resources to understand how other employees (executives, end-users, other managers) assign value to the IT department and to consistently communicate with them.
Here are some basic questions and ideas that can be used to develop an IT marketing plan.
Who's The Target Audience?
The first step in any marketing campaign is to define the audiences you want to communicate with and influence. Who is the target market of the IT department? While there are probably multiple audiences--end users, C-level people, department managers--who is going to be the target of this particular marketing/communications effort?
What Is Important To The Audience?
The next step is to thoroughly understand how the target market assigns value. This will involve active research, Q&A, and from-behind-the-cubicle interaction.
In an article titled "What's in It for Them? Communicating the Value of Information Services," Christine A. Olson points out, "The objective is to gain an in-depth understanding of how members of the target market determine value, what comprises value for them, and how they express it." With this knowledge, you can start to link the work that IT performs to those valuation criteria.
What Should You Communicate That Extends The IT Brand?
This means communicating information about how different IT tasks and projects serve broader business goals. It means sharing content that employees find useful and relevant. To reinforce the brand, IT needs to listen to feedback and demonstrate that it has taken action on that feedback.
What Means Will You Use To Communicate?
Electronic communications offer an efficient, direct, and timely means to communicate with a diverse set of constituents and can serve as the cornerstone of your IT marketing efforts. An e-newsletter, for example, is a simple way to convey the ways IT is delivering value on a regular basis.
How Often Will IT Communicate?
Repetition is key to any marketing effort and you must make a long-term commitment to be successful. Repetition implies process, so you're going to have to set up a process that assures a predictable, outcome. For example, IT might commit to publishing a bi-weekly IT bulletin to kickoff its marketing campaign.
How Will IT Measure Results?
How will IT gauge whether or not it has been successful with its marketing efforts and gather feedback from its audience? Again this involves connecting with other employees regularly.
Who Will Help Manage This Communications Effort?
Inevitably, new "fires" that flame up will pull people away from this marketing effort. Without a commitment to consistency, this communications and marketing effort will sputter. What roles and responsibilities will each individual or group within IT have to insure that this communication project gets completed? Write down a communications/publishing calendar that will encourage accountability.
Develop A Communications Plan
Creating a communications plan is like developing a project plan or statement of work for an IT project. State the problem, propose a solution, develop a list of tasks and responsibilities, define a schedule, and get to work. Build in some time to deal with problems that arise and strive to improve on an iterative basis. So, to get started take all the answers to the questions we've asked above and use them to create your own IT communications plan.
Conclusion
Applying fundamental principles of marketing, branding, and communications can help any IT team shape perceptions about its value internally, and establish worth in the eyes of business peers. Improving IT communications can positively influence end-user satisfaction, minimize frustration, and demonstrate responsiveness. Consistently communicating with different internal audiences will establish a powerful dialogue that will help the IT team improve.
Anita Leto, Director of IT transformation at Ouellette & Associates says, "When I ask CIOs what they think about marketers, they tell me that they don't trust them. But marketing truly is simply creating an awareness of value. We all generate impressions. Don't blame your clients for having the wrong impression of you. That's your problem, not theirs. To create a good impression takes effort. It takes a disciplined thought process. It takes new skills. It takes marketing."
Copyright 2005. Maarga Systems. All rights reserved.
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