Real-time customer information and the ability to listen to what the online world is saying are becoming critical business requirements, as information technology moves to the very front of the firm. In response, companies are being asked to master a whole new set of previously arcane IT skills such as data analytics, search engine optimization, social media conversations and location awareness.

Consequently, corporate marketing has, in a relatively short period of time, shifted from a mostly low-tech to a very hi-tech, digital profession. Additionally, in order to deliver effective end-to-end services, Marketing must now work much more closely with Enterprise IT organizations that have been steeped for decades in back-office thinking, and are now trying to stretch their budgets and cultures to embrace the extraordinary expansion and revitalization of the IT sector. Nothing will better predict the future of Enterprise IT than how well it fares in these challenges.

On February 1 in London, we brought together senior marketing and IT executives in large organizations to assess the evolving marketing/IT relationship. Over the course of a half-day's discussion, three main themes emerged:

• These changes are inevitable and critical to the future of both Marketing and Enterprise IT. Most firms believe that they have made significant progress in the last few years. But most also admit that they have a very long way to go.
• Debating the appropriate balance between Marketing and IT organizations often seems akin to rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. However, while there is no magic governance model, a handful of distinct patterns are emerging – see the figure below.
• There are enormous personal development challenges on both sides. Marketing professionals who don't keep up with technology are clearly putting their careers at risk. Perhaps more surprisingly, many Enterprise IT professionals have been relatively slow to embrace modern social media and related services. Whether this is due to demographics (age), psychographics (personality) or on-the-job incentives (all risk, no reward), it marks a significant change from previous new generations of IT.

Taken together, these three themes make the relationship between Marketing and IT an important area of LEF research, and one that we will track closely in the years ahead. Since our complete report on this topic won't be available for a few months, we want to give our clients a sense of our thinking so far. The figure below shows the major organizational approaches that we have observed.

The four models above are based on where marketing technology resources are located and/or governed within the firm. Each approach is well represented across the firms we have been working with. The first and third are dependent on Enterprise IT moving well beyond basic infrastructure service provision; the second and fourth are examples of marketing clearly being in charge, one cooperative with Enterprise IT, one much less so.

Don't forget the real world

Perhaps the biggest risk and most important challenge for both Marketing and IT is that if they focus too much on getting their own houses in order, the marketplace may simply pass them by. In just about every area of digital marketing today, aggressive and often highly skilled providers of Technology-Enabled Business Services (TEBS) claim that they can do things faster and better than firms can do themselves. In many cases, these claims are persuasive and even true.

But it's one thing to outsource back-office IT infrastructure, and quite another to put third-party services at the very front of your firm. The competition between (and cooperation among) Marketing, IT and TEBS suppliers is still in its very early stages, and we will watch and assess it with great interest. Best practices and accepted norms may not be visible for several years to come. In the meantime, Facebook is now valued at $100 billion, and the underlying marketing technologies are racing ahead. How well is your firm keeping pace?

Marketing and IT Harmony Assessment

Please complete our short survey which is designed to assess the relationship between marketing and central IT in large organizations.  It will take less than 10 minutes and all respondents will receive a copy of the findings in due course.  Thank you for your time and cooperation.