COMMENTS
Good advice that I agree with. If you let IT make the decision about what software to use in a marketing function you are essentially admitting that you don't know what you are doing in regards to marketing. This is similar to letting an engineer design a product for you. Designers design, engineers make it work according to the design. Engineers don't view things from the perspective of a user, their perspective is from an engineer's point of view. Think iPod, this product was not designed by engineers. Other mp3 players were designed by engineers and they will never be as good as the iPod.
The marketing department is the designer in this case. Once you make the decision about what your needs are and how it will work, then give the IT department the heads up. They'll need to ensure that the server requirements are there for your marketing software.
Looking forward to the opposing viewpoint...because I agree wholeheartedly with the view that the IT department should not govern the choice of marketing/comms/PR software (just as it shouldn't be the one choosing accounting, HR, or indeed any other department-specific software); but should instead play a helpful support role.
In my previous incarnation as a comms specialist (in the information dissemination sense), I spent a great deal of time researching viable CMSs, coming up with implementation strategy etc, only to find that the IT department WANTED in - in fact it wanted control. That's where the danger, in my view, lies. If only some sugary treats had been enough to dissuade the department from attempting to become involved beyond the necessary.
There are plenty of forward thinking IT departments today- people who support the line business, stay in the background and make sure security and access issues aren't compromised. SAAS is a great model to reduce IT involvement and deliver value for SMARKETING departments;
Having been on both the IT and marketing sides, let me voice an opinion here.
Let's start with a middle ground. There are really only three popular CMS systems one should explore: Drupal, Joomla and Wordpress. So what is the purposes of a CMS? It's to make adding content easier for users.
It depends on whom is working with the hardware and software. When I was at Motorola, we had engineering departments that would hire the technology folks to work under their department. Thus the website is supported by their own technology team.
Other times the team would go to the IT department for building and maintaining the website. Thus there were certain standards and system in place, to do so.
Yet in the case of a CMS, the marketing department can really create and add content, while the IT department can perform support (i.e. backups, upgrades, etc). In reality, once the CMS is set up (i.e. Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress, etc.), the department has control over what content is added and how.
How sad. If points 1 and 2 are true, then your IT department probably sucks.
I fully agree with Dan Tyre. There are some major changes going on in IT land. Many CIOs are now focused on creating value for the business, which often means more freedom for end users and departments, within certain guidelines (usually security). Adoption of SaaS is also a major factor.
I hope part 2 of this post will give some suggestions on how to collaborate successfully with an IT departments that is not so forward thinking yet.
Let's look at this from a real world perspective. When the content management system that the marketing folks implement breaks, who are they going to call? The help desk! Which is, of course, the IT department.
When someone hacks your CMS system because you implemented it without proper security, who are you going to call? The help desk!
You must involve IT in these decisions. That isn't to say that IT is the decision maker, but that they must have input. They own the network and the security and they need to make sure the options you are considering will 1) run on the network properly, and 2) not open the network to security holes.
And let's face it. Unless the marketing department is going to hire their own tech support for the CMS decision, the maintenance of that system is going to fall on IT.
Oh, one other thing. Marketing folks can make some incredibly stupid decisions when IT isn't involved. One place I worked doing help desk, they decided none of our customers actually used remote install of software for Windows so it wasn't included in our latest release of software. Of course, 90% of our customers remotely installed on their Windows systems. Needless to say, we had pissed off customers on release. Why? Because no one talked to IT when that decision was made.
Okay, enough on the rant. Just please get IT input on your decisions.
IT must be involved. Without IT, the right data connections cannot be built and scaling the solution over time becomes hard due to architecture conflicts ...
IT's job is to make sure that the plumbing works: is the ISP reliable? Are our servers reliable? Etc. Marketers should have the knowledge base to run and pick apps they need to use. How the data is stored and distributed to other departments is for IT to advise and execute, but the top layer marketing app and who hosts it should fall in the marketing domain. However, if a company has draconian security policies, then there will obviously be a problem.
Just as your landlord is responsible for providing plumbing and electricity, ultimately the "tenant" decides what kind of lamp and wallpaper to live with.
Perhaps very simplistic, but a growing need unless Marketers wish to remain dependent on a department that does not necessarily have the same agenda.
Spoken like a true marketing lackey. Sure don't involve IT. Im sure when Susan in marketing can't find "the right click button on the desktop" or deletes all of her "CMS icons" that she'll go straight to the service partner, even after the project has been long completed.
In my opinion, it's a symbiotic relationship. The I.T. department is there to service the needs of the company. Marketing is part of the company, and therefore I.T. NEEDS to work with marketing to make sure they deliver a solution that fulfills the needs set by the marketing department. However the Marketing department IS NOT the entire company, hence their requests/needs need to be prioritize and balanced with the goals of the company.
Sometimes a website redesign, or implementing a new snazzy CMS is just not the highest priority...I mean we are talking about implementing a CMS right, is it really that big of a deal?
As several commentators have said, it's a balance. I agreee with Randy Kemp's assessment of the respective roles of IT and Marketing; essentially, each group contributing according their specific skills and experience. THere's no question that IT should be involved in IT decisions and should be involved in at least first-line ongoing support, but specialist consultants and vendors should be allowed to getting on with doing what they do every day. I wrote about this recently myself and hopefully struck this balance!
http://s246300916.websitehome.co.uk/2009/10/05/what-it-needs-to-do-for-marketing/