Operational Independence and the Modern MarTech Stack

• Market-facing organizations require operational independence to stand up programs and deploy critical customer tools and communications.

• Therefore, marketing needs operational control over key marketing technology platforms.

• These technologies are most effectively delivered via managed services, accessible by nontechnical users without the involvement of the IT group.

Q: Let’s start by defining terms. What do we mean by “operational independence”?

Eric: We talked last time about marketing’s role in supporting customers in challenging, disrupted times – an essential capability for a resilient business. Operational independence enables marketing to move quickly to safeguard customer relationships without burdening or relying on IT.

Q. How does marketing do technology without involving IT?

Eric: By leveraging managed services, such as SaaS [solutions as a service] platforms for content management, email, social media, analytics and things like that. And by having the right mindset, staffing and partner relationships.

Q: Those services are what we call the MarTech stack?

Dan: Yes. The MarTech stack makes operational independence possible. Everything is cloud-based, accessible via API, designed for nontechnical users. The stack enables you to create functional components that can be assembled in various ways and reused. Think of it as Lego blocks: today you build a car, tomorrow you rearrange the pieces to build a rocket.

Q: How does that work, using the same pieces to build different things?

Dan: Ah … This brings us to the concept of decoupling. Separating data from functionality, separating content from presentation. We actually have a whitepaper on this topic. When you build this way, you have tremendous flexibility.

Your MarTech stack helps give marketing the operational independence to safeguard
customer relationships.

Q: Are most marketing organizations ready to be operationally independent?

Eric: This model is already in place at modern, tech-focused companies. Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Microsoft. Fintech and HealthTech companies too. Where the marketing group can go to market with mobile apps and tools and dashboards without involving IT.

Q: Are CMOs actively seeking operational independence?

Eric: Any CMO who sees herself as an agent of change, who wants to move at digital speed and operate more like a tech-based business … that CMO has to implement this model. IT works in 12- or 18-month strategic cycles. But marketing needs something in 18 weeks or 18 days. This is not a knock on IT … they have enormously complex and sensitive roles, and their planning horizons are different.

Q: And for the record … operational independence is not the same as having no controls, correct?

Eric: Correct. The CMO and the marketing group need to know where the boundaries are. What is marketing authorized to do on its own? When do compliance and risk management need to be involved? Are there guidelines governing content? What’s the approval cycle? The parameters need to be agreed upon in advance. Not relitigated each time.

Q: So, IT is out of the critical path?

Eric: Yes, with regard to systems of engagement [technologies used to personalize and facilitate the customer experience]. IT is very much involved in the governance process and is part of a wider cross-functional group. Marketing’s tech stack has to satisfy IT’s security standards, performance guidelines, API model, etc.  Marketing isn’t going rogue.

Dan: For context … Businesses are forever in “action – reaction – synthesis” cycles.  The “action” was the wide adoption of big, tightly coupled platforms like Adobe AEM. The “reaction” was to reject those platforms in favor of multiple independent cloud-based MarTech platforms. The “synthesis,” where we are today, is that marketing can control systems of engagement, while systems of record [core business data, e.g., accounting] remain the domain of IT.

Marketing’s tech stack has to satisfy IT’s criteria. Marketing isn’t going rogue.

Q: I’m wondering how IT feels about not controlling the MarTech stack – it is, after all, tech.

Eric: I don’t think we can or should generalize. At some organizations, IT doesn’t necessarily want to do marketing work. They generally don’t like the iterative, “test-and-learn-in-production” nature or how it conflicts with more traditional systems-of-record priorities. It is worth noting the large volume of marketing technology leadership roles that companies are recruiting for these days. Businesses are looking to augment traditional IT with more market-focused marketing technology leaders and digital technologists.

Q: If this model makes more sense … what (if anything) is holding it back?

Dan: Well, there’s always a presumption – not just by IT – that if you’re taking something away, that’s bad. It can get very territorial. We find the smaller the IT group, the more enthusiastic they are about this model.

Q: Does reusing pieces stifle innovation, in that you’re not making new stuff?

Dan: I’d say the opposite is true. It lets you focus on your value-add, your core IP. If you can stand a quick story … I heard an IBM executive at a conference talk about having dinner guests … He bought high-end pizza dough and gourmet pizza sauce, he bought imported cheese and artisanal pepperoni. He assembled it, stuck it in the oven for 20 minutes, and when his dinner guests told him he was great pizzamaker, he said, “I’m not a pizzamaker … I’m a pizza integrator.” His value prop, if you will, was knowing which ingredients go together, selecting a best-of-breed cheese solution … and focusing on the guest experience. The wine, the music, the conversation, the ambience – that’s where he added value. Not by, I don’t know, curing his own pepperoni.

Characteristics of a modern MarTech stack

Resilience requires operational independence – and that requires a modern MarTech stack. That stack is:

• Modular Components are easily configured and reused. So applications can be built in days, not months.

• Decoupled Data and applications, content and presentation are separate, not interdependent. So pieces are easily swapped in and out.

• API-based Services are in the cloud and easily accessed by API call. So application hosting and maintenance is someone else’s problem.

• Scalable Solutions (and associated costs) are easily scaled up or down, making them cost-effective.

• Automated Solutions function with minimal involvement by personnel, freeing up resources for higher-value work.

• No-code or low-code Solutions can be implemented by nontechnical users, so the business is largely self-sufficient.