InsightaaS: Regular readers of Across the Net are aware of our respect for Michael Krigsman, well-known IT expert and author of the widely-read Beyond IT Failure blog on ZDNet. We appreciate Krigsman’s tendency to base his posts on extensive research, and to present a distinct (and informed) point of view on subjects that we consider important. In May, we reviewed a Krigsman post on CIO strategy, and in early July, we featured another Krigsman post entitled “Is ‘marketing’ ready for digital transformation?.” This piece finds him looking across both the marketing and IT functions. Using Bain & Co. research on the gap between internal and external perceptions of brand leadership as a starting point, Krigsman states that “evidence suggests similar kinds of business dissatisfaction with IT performance,” adding that “Overcoming the delivery gap between IT’s brand promise and negative customer perceptions requires the CIO to do a better job meeting customer expectations.” He presents a model that highlights the importance of IT acting to “innovate, communicate, engage, and collaborate,” concluding that “the CIO has much to learn from counterparts in marketing.”
A recent study of 10,000 conversations about luxury brands reveals that “brand promise is the most important benefit category” for consumers. Functional appeal and product experience rank below brand promise in this analysis. Obviously, this research has meaning for marketers, but there are profound implications for the CIO and IT organization.
In a previous post, I described the gap between how brands view themselves and consumers’ perceptions. As summarized in this diagram, it’s extraordinary to see that fully 80 percent of companies think they provide a superior proposition while only 8 percent of consumers agree. The data is from relevant research by consulting company Bain…
Although these numbers refer specifically to the gap between brand promise and customer perception among consumers, evidence suggests similar kinds of business dissatisfaction with IT performance. This crisis of confidence has led to a significant shift of technology spending (about 40 percent) away from IT into the business.
In other words, when IT does not deliver what the business expects, the business bypasses IT and buys its own technology – it’s the reason why shadow IT exists…
Read the entire post: https://insightaas.com/ATNJuly24-link
