Digital Can Learn from Marketing and IT

Despite claims to the contrary, digital is more than just warmed-over and slightly-altered Marketing or IT. It is a distinct discipline which involves understanding how to get the organization’s information, services, and transactions enabled by an array of ever-evolving tools and techniques. It also includes understanding how to analyze the data which is derived from digital transactions and activities and how to best interface with a large number of digital contributors in the enterprise. This is no small task. Still, despite the often unique skill set required to support online development, digital team members can learn a lot from their Marketing and IT colleagues.

Marketing teams know how to pay attention to current activities out in the world and have put into place processes and a culture that allows them to react real-time to news and events that affect their market. This sort of agility is something to be valued by those seeking to create an effective online experience—one that has value to both customers and the business. IT knows how to build a firm operational foundation that provides support for long-term complex goals. This ability to provide long-term and consistent support is often under-valued. Agility in IT doesn’t mean a lack of commitment to any sort of platform, it means considering a services-oriented architecture that will allow the business to grow and change its digital functionality with a minimum amount of internal disruption. If digital teams build for a long-term sustained approach, like IT, but also maintain the flexibility that Marketing culture provides, they should enjoy great success. It’s the best of both worlds.