For marketers who walk the walk
You know the theory. Now here's the practice. If you want opinions you can trust, advice you can use and real-world experience to learn from, then there's no better collection of marketing experts than here.
Almost like clockwork, every decade there’s a fundamental shift in technology that transforms both the tech industry and the way that business and consumers work. We’ve seen the march of mainframes, mini computers, client servers, PCs and most recently, the mobile Internet. Each technology shift brings a tenfold increase in users, creating new opportunities for innovation and new challenges for marketers. The best news is that with each shift – innovation and transformational business models thrive.
Cloud computing has been a hot topic in the IT press. Applications and Technology platforms can be delivered over the Internet to allow companies large and small to run their business more efficiently without the cost or hassle of owning, maintaining and upgrading hardware and software. But how can marketing teams benefit from this trend? And as we say in marketing – ‘So What’?
Most organisations already run much of their external facing marketing in the cloud. The company website, product information, search marketing and email communications are typical examples. But many have yet to move internal marketing content, tools and processes such as budgeting, purchasing, campaigns, sales enablement tools and reporting into the cloud. It’s not an unfamiliar sight to see 10MB attachments and customer data in Excel spreadsheets being emailed insecurely around the business.
Real-time data: Accurate and up-to-date data enables marketing to make fast, informed decisions. There’s nothing more fulfilling than pressing the refresh key and seeing your marketing graphs update in real-time. Presenting pipeline and ROI forecasts instead of marketing activity at the board meeting is a game changer if you’re on the hunt for more budget.
Single-source: Storing customer data, internal and external sales and marketing documents and email templates centrally in the cloud ensures everyone has access to and uses the latest version. When sales can’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll often create their own off-brand, off-message version, simultaneously showing off their lack of design skills.
Collaboration and silo-busting: As teams collaborate on campaigns and assets, colleagues from other departments and across the globe can more easily collaborate and share best practice. It’s a great silo-buster for large organisations that have disparate marketing teams working in different locations or time-zones. For example, I can quickly keep up to date with colleagues in HQ on the campaigns they are starting to work on, and follow campaigns to keep updated on their progress.
Technology that’s always current: Cloud applications evolve quickly and there are typically several new version releases a year containing enriched, new features and functionality. Marketers that stay abreast of these developments and take advantage of the valuable, real-time data at their fingertips will become very effective and give themselves a competitive edge. It’s worth investing time to understand and use marketing applications to their full capability.
So where is cloud computing going?
The next wave of enterprise cloud computing is being driven by the trends that we see already in the consumer web, from sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The consumer web is delivering applications that are collaborative, realtime, mobile and intelligent. These influences are driving the next generation of cloud computing applications, and creating opportunities for marketing organisations that take the initiative.
Collaborative Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have brought together people and groups around the world and normalised the public expression of views, interests and status in words, pictures and video. In the same way, enterprise collaboration is breaking down department silos and increasing productivity through sharing of business information and best practice.
Enterprise collaboration
Enterprise collaboration will be a key contributor to sales and marketing alignment and closer working with marketing colleagues across the business and in different time zones.
As target organisations adopt enterprise collaboration, we’ll see greater communication between the various stakeholders in the sales cycle and communications will need to adapt to inspire influencers in these ecosystems.
Real-time
As consumers we expect our information needs to be met in real-time – whether they be on Twitter (“What is happening right now on the web?”), on Facebook (“What are my friends and family doing?”), or with Amazon (“Tell me when the order will arrive before I place it”). Likewise, in business, the days of batch updates, waiting 3 days for a marketing performance report, or stale data warehouses are fading fast. Driven by the consumer world, business users are starting to expect real-time access to information and insights.
Mobile
SmartPhones and mobile working have made executives more productive and accessible for a greater part of the day. A CIO once explained that 9-5 office time is sacred for management and team meetings; but that the train journey to work, the 30 minute delay in the airport lounge or even a short break at Starbucks is the perfect time to catch up with what’s happening in the market. Catching executive decision makers on their mobiles during these opportune moments of open-mindedness can be very effective, especially if the content is touch rather than click-based and harnesses the tactile and more engaging functionality of their mobile device.
Social Intelligence
Again, the consumer web is leading the way. As applications become more social and connected to people, they are becoming more intelligent. Information can be recommended to me based on people I follow, or shared interests that I have. This gives centralised applications like CRM a huge advantage over the traditional spreadsheet driven world of old. For example, a sales person can automatically receive recommendations on marketing materials to use, based on what their colleagues have used in similar sales engagements.
Seizing the advantage
Cloud computing technology and tools are here today and marketers have a small window of opportunity to gain competitive advantage. The only inhibitor is the reluctance to move out of the comfort zone, invest the time to learn, and take the leap of faith into this innovative new era.
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A really interesting and thought-provoking blog. It will be interesting to see how the cloud computing concept affects the marketing of traditional IT software such as MS Office and Accounting packages.
The theory is fine: the practical application isnt.
1) 90%+ of the economy is made up of small business. Small businesses cant afford to develop expensive proprietary cloud systems
2) I run a business of 75 people across 12 locations. I have a real need for the theory of cloud computing to deliver for me in practice.
3) Besides the new media (Twitter, LinkedIn and the like) there is still a real need for the old tools: our business would not function is it were not for ‘old technology’ spreadsheets, presentations and documents.
4) We tied to build company access/ collaboration around Google Apps. It was a disaster because functionality is hugely lacking.
i am still in search of nirvana in the clouds.
Great article. I think cloud computing is getting more and more popular. As now your office is now mobile, so working can be done at home, or even abroad. I think the future is mobile cloud computing.
No doubt we have a wide variety of ‘marketing, sales and service in the cloud’ experiences already from our day-jobs alongside our personal roles on the IDM’s B2B Advisory Council. Perhaps I can share some of mine that seem completely unique….
As an independent I work closely with suppliers that aim to innovate jointly with their clients, not only in developing new delivery technologies, but also new business cases for boards, solutions to tough problems (both opportunities and compliance), and multi-channel / customer experience improvements.
A recent project involved working with Capgemini’s startling new multi-application cloud service immediate.capgemini.com – This was a development for the Royal Mail Group to completely replace its traditional systems and to tightly integrate social media and other new digital channels alongside Post Offices, contact centres and more. The launch happens to be due about now, providing substantial new marketing, sales and services capabilities alongside a potential 50% operational cost reduction. Watch this space for results!
My own role was to find ways to address new FS industry issues, such as the FSA’s retail distribution review (RDR) which will inevitably cause major re-alignments of traditional and direct channel usage within the 2012/2013 time period. In the USA similar regulation has reduced non-direct financial advice to just 30% of the market, with 70% being direct. Prof Merlin Stone (an IDM Fellow and economist) is currently leading a UK research programme which highlights the ‘unintended consequences’ for consumers of the FSA’s tampering with behavioural finance & behavioural economics via poorly challenged regulation.
Through my own work with others, multi-application cloud has now been demonstrated to help address the major shifts in FS consumer preferences for advice, sales and service resulting from RDR, where it appears almost impossible to correctly estimate consumer volume reaction and to develop board business cases for major channel and systems developments, or to put fixed-cost volume processing infra structure in place (which is generally the approach with traditional channels and systems).
A mix of around 20 marketing, sales and service apps are already available that can be readily integrated and configured (far reduced effort to being customised) into integrated end-to-end processes that link with traditional intermediated (e.g. Agency), direct and even corporate / employee channels. These include best-of-breed solutions such as Salesforce, Eloqua, Lithium and more…. many of which enable younger generation buyers (Y gen) to be addressed through Facebook, Twitter and other commonly used social media applications.
Of course there is a need for a common approach to requirements, process design, configuration of the integrated cloud solution, common levels of security, shared customer data and good non-functional service governance (security, business continuity, simplified common billing, business and systems management MIS etc)
It is ‘early days’ yet, but already these industry thought leaders are already considering how entirely new solutions can support completely new business cases to boards, which start to address issues that seemed unaddressable.
Just think back to the most recent major changes in the pensions market (late 80’s/early 90’s) when The Prudential and L&G were notable in being able to take advantage of market changes to soar ahead of their competitors, while a top 3 player that failed to respond then sunk quickly to number 10 and later exited the market.
Thanks to Lisa for highlighting some of the ways that Cloud can make a real difference, of course my own view is that you have to get really close to a substantial industry issue to achieve the innovation impact that is possible.
Sorry that I cannot say more!
24 hours later and I thought I would add a short comment to highlight the B2B perspective (as some of us are IDM B2B Advisory Council members) of my own response.
Financial Services, like many other industries, is dependent upon successful value chains to address end-markets via intermediaries (i.e. B2B2C – to consumers, e.g. financial planning) and corporates (B2B2E – to employees, e.g. corporate pensions etc).
Direct communications are often used to complement intermediated channels rather than replace them. How many times have we heard the demise of intermediaries being predicted – and while some do die the best morph to find new ways to deliver value.
My example outlines some ways in which marketing, sales and service capabilities which are cloud supported could be closely integrated with traditional value chain channels, processes and systems.
Cloud computing is certainly not only about B2C communication, there are numerous emerging uses in what we call the B2B world too – although B2B is perhaps a simple name for what is often a complex market environment.
Nick Parker – I’ve found that small businesses can benefit a lot from cloud computing.
I’m using an online CRM system (Capsule CRM), an online accounting and invoice system (FreeAgent) – the two of them integrate. And I use MailChimp which integrates with Capsule.
But I suppose if you are looking for something really bespoke then you’re going to have trouble finding that online, but I think it will just be a matter of time before software companies switch to offering you cloud apps instead of installable ones.
(I should point out that those links above are my affiliate links).
An excellent response from Salesforce re security and governance for the Cloud.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/salesforce-apra-cloud-warnings-not-bad-339307676.htm?tag=mantle_skin;content