Have you taken the time to look around at what’s happening across many business organizations lately? The typical IT and Marketing departments have gone through a dramatic change. The last few years have been quite a renaissance for these groups. Gone are the IT operations and development groups. Most of these roles have traveled the less-expensive-yet-not-always-faster outsourced direction. Now, there are more clouds than switches.
An interesting barometer to demonstrate how technology has changed and evolved in such a short time would be the answering machine. In the late 90s, it was a machine with a tape inside. Slowly it moved to digital answering, and now, no one really knows where their machine is but rather just the three beeps you get when you pick up the phone.
And of course, it’s not just IT. Most of the creative, (and in some cases the strategic), elements of marketing have been farmed out to an agency. Instead of meetings between the old friends of business and IT, it now includes the new kids on the block with many outsourced agencies. If ever there was a time for precision coordination, it’s now.
So which group now becomes the knight in shining armor to whisk that “princess” of a marketing campaign out the door? That knight has taken the shape of someone who has the technical skills with the business acumen that can balance these two critical components of the business. In most organizations, these roles are referred to as marketing operations. These new hybrid roles are now able to draw the red thread between marketing, operations and external organizations that execute the marketing campaigns.
How does your organization fit within this marketing operations paradigm? I’d welcome your feedback as to what is happening within your organizations.
