Large IT groups are hiring marketing personnel to promote the IT
department internally, in an emerging trend.
"We have (placed people in such positions) in Australia and within our
own company," Bill Manning, Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers Global
Human Resources Solutions, told PC Week.
"It's more to do with customer service than marketing," Manning said.
Titles for such personnel include Client Services manager or Marketing
and Communications for Client Services, and they may have "direct charge
of help desk and have an influence on the communications between IT
departments and customer."
Such personnel may also assign priority to IT tasks and improve the
language skills between the department when dealing with the rest of an
organisation, according to Manning, however much of their job description
falls under the marketing mantle.
The trend to place a marketer within IT has drawn a mixed response from
industry members polled by PC Week.
The Commonwealth Bank's CIO Howard Morris believes the concept is
impractical.
"I think it's everybody's role in the IT department frankly," Morris
said.
"IT organisations have had to step up to the mark that they are client
service organisations and all those behaviours that come with that are
important," he said.
"Most recruitment notices now include interpersonal skills, relationship
management skills. These are important. But, if you think about the
day-to-day number of contacts made, it would be very hard for any one
individual to make an impact."
Although IT departments often unfairly suffer blame within organisations,
according to The Australian Graduate School of Management's professor
Susan Ellis, an internal marketing person is not the solution.
"I heard of an incident recently in a two year old organisation, in which
it was never specified what kind of flow-chart software should be used.
Every person in the company used whatever they wanted. Someone e-mailed a
flowchart to the others their team and when no one could open it, she
blamed the IT department. This is an example of how IT can be viewed
unfairly."
However, hiring an internal marketing person "is a bandaid where surgery
is needed," Ellis said.
"There will be a backlash. These organisations will spend good money on
marketing instead of dealing with the end users and making them
understand what the IT department does. I don't think it would do a
business any good."
Most organisations expect department heads to tackle issue of internal
image and promotion, according to recruitment expert Richard Burley of
Drake IT.
"Most organisations delegate that to the director of IT. We expect that
person to be the front man for the department," Burley said.
It's not a surprise that some IT bodies may feel the need for a dedicated
internal marketer, according to IDC analyst Graham Penn.
"It's not just improving the image but also marketing the technical
advances available, which are much broader than the end user's PC
experience. User perceptions tend to be about three or four years
behind," Penn said.
"Government departments might have issues that could benefit...(in some
instances) outsourcing has damaged the relationship with the end users."
"I could think of a number of organisations that would benefit," analyst John Jenner of ITMI said, particularly for those organisations "that have hived off the IT department into separate company."
