There has been an underlying rift between sales and marketing teams since the dawn of the cubicle. Depending on the organization, this rivalry is like Cain and Abel or David and Goliath: one side is working to get the brand recognized while the other is looking furiously for the right sales enabler to talk about products. Thankfully, mobile tools have helped align these two teams in recent years. The importance of inbound and outbound marketing calls for more synergy and cooperation with sales rather than rivalry. As mobility enters the forefront of the enterprise technology spotlight, it is crucial that marketing avoid a clash with a new rival: the IT department.
Choosing a mobile enterprise app is a process that needs specific attention from those who are planning on adopting the “work anywhere, on any device” technology. With marketing using these tech tools in to stay up to speed, they need to be intimately involved in the shopping process. IT wants to be intimately involved in the most secure and compatible aspects of mobility buying. Marketing is driving app selection with IT riding shotgun. Both driver and passenger need to be aware of three things.
What Marketing Needs
Technology drives everything we do, so forward-thinking marketing teams require certain tools to help them stay current. Marketing’s three biggest needs are:
- Efficiency Improvements
- Cross Channel Integration
- Effectiveness Metrics
Whether it is done with a mobile enterprise app or some other technology tool, marketing is on the hunt for the best solution to these problems. In the past, IT has always been the ones to initiate “tech” decisions. However, the lines between technology and core business are beginning to blur. Functional groups need to work together now more than ever to ensure that the technology solutions they adopt are synonyms in their specificity and flexibility. Enterprise solutions need to allow for scalable growth and broad application of use.
By doing this, you ensure that whatever tools are invested in are going to be used. If the decisions are made without the input of the department using them, then you have a good shot at picking something that doesn’t do everything that is necessary to complete sales or create lead-generating content. Or you end up with a tool that is vastly over complicated and could be simpler.
The Right Way to Leverage IT
That being said, IT does need to be involved in the latter stages of your selection process. IT should be there to validate that any new solutions enhance your existing technology environment and can be appropriately integrated. IT has the best overarching view your organizations complex technology landscape and can provide guidance in the areas they should maintain oversight in such as: security, user management and integration with existing systems.
This collaboration makes ensure that the right internal SMEs are involved at the right time and increase the likelihood of success. Fill the growing rift between marketing and IT with clear strategies and determine how to keep everyone internally satisfied. Frustrations can be easily avoided if issues are recognized early, and success is driven by making informed decisions early in the buying process.
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