| | May 201719CIOReviewprominent financial institutions. In taking the initiative to better serve the bank's customers, Daniel and the team created an end-to-end technology environment that transforms parts of the organization from the outside in. Most recently, for instance, the company announced that it would be making banking features available via social media messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Twitter and Snapchat. Forrester puts it best in a recent report: "CIOs (must) move beyond IT's traditional focus on technology assets and expand their role as leader of a customer-facing function: responsible for creating superior customer experiences across channels and delivering digital business innovation." 4. We Need the Right Infrastructure and ToolsMarketing teams need to be as productive as possible. They must be able to seamlessly communicate and collaborate, both internally and externally. They need insight into customer data across multiple teams, processes and customer touch points. Our level of efficiency is dependent on whether we have the right infrastructure and tools, supported by the CIO. Understand that we know you cannot eliminate bandwidth issues entirely, but we would appreciate if you did all you could to make them as minimal as possible. We know you cannot completely eradicate security threats, but we trust you are working overtime to ensure we can work as securely as possible. Just as we work to deliver on the promise of amazing experiences for our customers, we need you to deliver on the promise of this experience for us internally.5. Be a True Business Partner What more can I say? Get in the game with us. Dust off your other strategic hats and start wearing them. Start thinking outside of the box to drive the best possible business outcomes and customer experiences. The fact is that, today, the CIO is no longer concerned with simply keeping the network running and phones on. Like it or not, today's CIO has stepped out of the data center and is actively working alongside key areas of business like marketing, sales, R&D and HR. They are now operating as a revenue-generating entity. They are responsible for driving efficiency across the entire organization. Today's smart, digital world has assured that marketing and IT will remain interdependent. The good news is that CMOs and CIOs are increasingly seeing eye to eye, reflecting a willingness of both to prioritize the business over individual goals and objectives. As with all things, though, there is room to do better, there are opportunities to deepen collaboration between these two essential players and across IT and Marketing teams. I just outlined five key areas where I believe CMOs and CIOs can achieve the level of intimacy needed to really thrive and succeed.
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