Technology Buying for Marketers:

Best practices for picking the right vendors

Michael Greene

Director of Research, AudienceScience

Guest speaker:

Bert DuMars

VP & Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

October 15, 2013

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CMOs say they spend 24%*

of their budget on

technology…

*Source: “Tracking The Renegade Technology Buyer”, Forrester Research, Inc., May 6, 2013 2

…but in reality, the number for most marketers is much higher.

How can marketers get more out of their tech vendor relationships?

Forrester conducted in-depth 1 hour interviews with

12 marketing executives & 11 IT executives

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What did we find?

• Companies are taking back control of technology

decisions from agencies

• Marketers’ current technology purchasing and

management processes have room for improvement

• Marketers who create a clear enterprise purchasing

process will get better business results – and fewer

costly problems – from their technology relationships

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The enterprise taking back control of marketing technology.

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© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 6

Marketers are taking back control – place trust in internal tech stakeholders over agencies

Marketers prefer paying for technology, not

burying tech costs in media or service fees

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What is your preferred method for paying

technology vendors?

© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 8

“We like to choose the car and give

the agency the keys to drive it for us.”

- Retail marketing executive

“I am comfortable evaluating technology

as I have an engineering background but

prefer to have a sponsor/partner in the IT

department. I prefer IT to help me

understand what marketing technologies

are already available globally across the

organization.”

- SVP marketing

© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 9

Purchasing may lead the buying process, but marketers need to keep control of business requirements

© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 10

“More parts of the organization have to be

involved in more complex purchases.

Lining up the internal organizations…and

getting over the politics…are the hard

parts.”

- Chief Marketing Strategist, media

company

There is room for a better enterprise

purchasing process

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6 things every marketer can do to make

better tech vendor choices

1. Use a consistent business process

2. Create a business case that considers long-term needs

3. Formulate better requirements by involving IT early

4. Bring in other stakeholders at the right parts of the process

5. Prioritize needs and evaluate vendors using a standard RFP template and scorecard

6. Hire a Marketing Technologist to bridge the gap between marketing and IT

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Marketers need a consistent process for

buying technology

Create a steering committee: Successful

technology buying involves the enterprise at

different stages of the process

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A clear business-case helps ensure

marketing’s needs are met by the buying

process

• What problems need to be solved?

• What new capabilities are needed?

• Will this technology help reduce costs or grow revenue?

• What is the 2+ year strategy for using this technology?

• How will this technology impact the customer experience?

• Will my team be able to use the technology?

• What is the potential ROI?

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Good, comprehensive technology

requirements matter

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IT still needs to be involved in SaaS

purchases

• Data security issues are still in play

• Integrations – and the APIs that power them – still apply

• IT still wants to vet the technology backend to ensure

reliability

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Bad scoping of requirements can have major consequences

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“The business went off and built their

own microsite – it was very cool - but

when they handed off to IT,

performance was horrible (15 seconds

to load). It cost $400K to fix plus ops

and took 3-4 weeks to fix. A $200K

project cost $600K to repair”

- VP of IT, electronics manufacturer

How can IT help marketers develop better

requirements?

• Bring knowledge of integration needs to the table

• Get out ahead of deployment challenges

• Help prioritize between must-haves and nice-to-haves

• Make requirements more granular so vendor differentiation goes beyond just price

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Involve IT early. Time increases the risk of project failure and creates a false sense of urgency.

Finding the right vendors to RFI/RFP

• Review Industry Analyst recommendations

• Review press articles

• Meet with vendors at trade shows and conferences

• Review vendor case studies

• Bring vendors in for demos

• Global capability is not always important initially, but the ability to

go global over time is dependent on the organization

• Speak with vendor recommended customers and other

customers

• Reach out to peers to get other scoop on vendor – can I work

with this vendor?

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Evaluating vendors

• Create a scorecard. Weight all requirements from 1

(nice to have) to 4 (must have).

• Have both marketing and IT evaluate. IT should take

the lead on evaluating technical capabilities and ability to

meet integration requirements.

• Use peer references. “We do heavy reference checks

on vendors. It rules out the good from the bad pretty

quickly.” - Innovation Director, CPG

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Using a standard scorecard simplifies

vendor selection

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Key takeaways

• Smart marketers are taking back technology control. As technology becomes more important, marketers are buying and managing technology in-house instead of relying on agencies.

• Enterprise partnership is key. Marketing, IT, procurement, finance, and legal all have a role to play.

• Process matters. Consistency – from who is involved to what RFP templates look like – creates better results. IT should help guide this process.

• Building good requirements is essential. Marketing needs to involve IT earlier.

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