The key to CIO and CMO collaboration? Be customer-centric.

Deloitte Digital recently analyzed 50,000 organic conversations through social media channels. We found that when the CMO and CIO jointly decide to focus on being customer-centric, it helps them create a shared vision and foundation that can minimize areas of conflict.

Key themes that emerged in the study to encourage CMO and CIO collaboration are:

• Shared collaboration leads to evolution. CMOs and CIOs know they must collaborate to lead the evolution of their organization. Mature collaborations follow similar paths of evolution, transitioning from a role-specific focus to broader internal partnerships to integrated teams.
• Shared skill sets support evolved thought leadership. Strong leaders call for both roles to evolve toward converged skill sets. As individuals rise through the ranks, concessions must be made in order to arm staff with necessary tools to make them well versed in customer insights to drive corporate initiatives. Enabling both the CMO and the CIO to focus on what they do best can set the best example for teams.
• Shared vision enables customer focus. C-Suite executives cited clear marketing goals, collaborative technology selection, and a defined governance framework for data and technology access as foundational elements of an effective collaboration. Given access to the right data and technology, together they can surface business intelligence out of marketing data that can benefit the entire organization.
• Shared responsibility builds stronger cross-teams. An informed cross-functional team helps keep slower-moving IT implementation and customer data-driven divisions up to speed with that of a fast-paced marketing team that is nimble to react to real-time opportunities in order to engage consumers. By educating and cultivating a staff of technology-savvy professionals the industry can grow and engage with consumers unencumbered by communication barriers. Test and learn environments are proving conducive to widening that team collaboration.

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