“ Now we’re in a world where things are instant — whether it’s data consumption, acquisition or analytics, people expect answers immediately. To deal with this, IT and marketing must get closer.” Michael Golz, CIO Americas, SAP Digital-ready CIOs focus closely on But this is not just about recognition. Digital CIOs also act on this: 59% say they have a very strong relationship with their CMO, 3driving growth — and the compared with just 37% of IT-intensive industry CIOs. Modern CIOs relationships they need to support need to be true partners with marketing and sales, forming an this. alliance whereby the CSO and CMO deliver insights on customer expectations and interests, and the CIO can deliver on these One of the standout points about the digital-ready CIO is that they through new systems and processes that make the most of these are looking toward the front of the business, seeing how technology insights. can help to drive growth by changing the way the company markets Herman de Prins, the CIO at Belgian pharmaceuticals company and sells its wares. The CIO of a major Chinese insurance company UCB, explains how he spends a lot of time helping to facilitate explains how her firm is working closely with the front office to give multichannel marketing — and making sure the front office them the mobile tools they need to boost sales. Building on this, understands what’s possible. “They also need to think differently in she’s working to improve the analysis and mining of data captured, terms of integrating digital activities into their analog activities. You to gain greater customer insights and design more effective sales need to get them to look at their business in a completely new way, campaigns. “We’ve seen a clear increase in sales efficiency already,” not just automating a particular process,” he says. she says. As a result, the executive management team has now The same need for stronger relationships applies outside the tasked her with applying data analytics to generate new customer business too. CIOs must get closer to the firm’s end customers, insights — and then to work with the business to apply those their needs and preferences. Half (52%) of digital-ready CIOs place insights to sales and marketing, and even product design. “All our a strong emphasis here, well ahead of their IT-intensive industry technology will be leaning toward increasing sales productivity, and peers (37%). “Whenever we’ve asked CIOs, we find that those who giving our agents more tools to use when they are in the field,” regularly meet with customers are still very much the exception,” she says. notes InformationWeek’s Preston. Clearly this implies a much closer emphasis on fostering relationships with the front of the business, rather than focusing predominantly on the back office. “We need to understand the company’s business operations deeply and both its front- and back-end processes,” says the CIO of a major Chinese telecommunications operator. Most obviously, while CIOs often fail to realize the value of their company’s external clients to their careers, digital-ready CIOs are far more engaged here. Nearly twice as many (59% versus 33% of IT-intensive industry CIOs) cite end clients as being strongly important to their career. Many others also realize the importance of roles such as the CMO or head of sales to their career. 24 | Born to be digital