It’s a fact: Marketers in Asia purchase digital technologies without involving the tech management department. They do it because they believe that:

  • Digital technologies are key enablers of successful marketing strategies. Customers in Asia Pacific in general, and in Singapore in particular, are always connected and empowered by technology to access the right information in their moments of need. They increasingly value — and do business with — organizations that provide them with experiences that are effective, easy, and emotional across all customer touchpoints. It’s not a surprise, then to see marketing professionals — just like their colleagues in sales, product management, and customer service — source digital technologies to enable such experiences.
  • The tech management department hinders their business success. This is the more worrying part, but if you take a step back, as a technology management professional, you understand why. You work with technology life cycles that are oriented toward core business, back-end systems like enterprise resource planning and therefore are risk-averse and slow. However, marketers need tech management professionals who are open to innovation, experimentation, and moving toward a risk-tolerant, agile life cycle that supports digital experience delivery.

But letting marketers purchase digital technologies on their own is a bad call for Asian organizations. Not only does it discredit the CIO and her team, but this sourcing behavior also leads to siloed technologies, data, and customer insights, which eventually leads to a poor customer experience.

What should CIOs do about this? On August 19, I will present a session on “Understanding Digital Customer Experience Technologies” at Forrester’s Summit For CIOs: Singapore. I will argue that the fast-rising importance of digital experience technologies represent a major opportunity for CIOs and their teams to build the rapport and the trust they currently lack with marketers. By understanding the evolution of the digital customer experience technology landscape, brokering and overseeing these technologies, they can position themselves as key partners for the CMO and her team. I will also provide recommendations on the five things that the tech management department must do to build a conducive and collaborative relationship with the CMO and her team. I look forward to discussing these trends and recommendations with you at the Summit!