Your Challenge: IT must stand ready to support and collaborate with Sales. Armed with a robust technology enablement strategy, IT must provide Sales with the applications, data, and supporting human resources to efficiently and effectively carry out their operations. Many organizations are plagued with outdated or ineffective sales application portfolios, poor sales data, and a support structure that is ambivalent towards the time-sensitive requirements of the sales organization. IT must work hand-in-hand with Sales to build a robust strategy for Sales-IT alignment. This involves building a permanent alignment steering committee that can set shared, strategic direction on how best to enable salespersons. Our Advice: Critical Insight IT and Sales should build a program for shared technology governance. IT should build a portfolio of applications that supports all sales processes, using best-of-breed point solutions where necessary. A proactive and corrective program for sales data quality must be implemented and managed by IT. IT should seek innovative, “art of the possible” sales solutions. Impact and Result IT should develop a robust set of applications that address end-to-end sales requirements. This portfolio can be centered on the CRM platform, but will often also include robust point solutions like lead management automation, sales collateral management tools, and social media management platforms. IT should assist the business in auditing sales data and putting in place both preventative measures (i.e. data stewards) and corrective measures (i.e. automated scrubbing tools) to ensure customer and sales data is current, valid, and free of duplicate information. IT should always keep the “art of the possible” on its radar: Internet of Things and Social are two examples.

1. Develop an IT Strategy to Support Sales.
Bring Sales to your side with a rock star strategy for end-to-end technology enablement.
This research is designed for IT Applications Director(s) responsible for successfully supporting the sales department and enabling sales processes. The contents within this research aims to identify points of collaboration between IT and Sales concerning sales-related
business process improvements. The goal should be to strengthen the alignment between IT and Sales with a series of initiatives that augment sales productivity and transform IT into a strategic partner for contributing to sales objectives. If IT fails to adequately support
Sales, the organization’s revenue will be in direct jeopardy. As a result, it’s absolutely imperative that CIOs and Applications Directors work with their counterparts in the sales organization to craft a cohesive and comprehensive strategy for providing world-class technology
enablement that helps – rather than hinders – the sales function.
Components/Aspects of a Well-Aligned Sales-IT Strategy:
Centralized, shared governance between Sales and IT,
Strong communication,
Comprehensive requirements gathering programs,
Strong standard operating processes and procedures,
Strong triaging and application maintenance workflows,
Cohesive, rationalized portfolio of sales applications and technologies,
Strong data governance for sales and customer data.
The Cross-Functional Sales-IT Alignment Team:
Sales Agents and Managers,
Marketing Staff,
IT Staff and Managers,
Customers (via surveys and focus groups),
Call Center and Field Service Agents and Managers,
Components of an Environmental Scan:
Sales and Technology Trends,
Competitors,
Customer Experience and and Sentiment,
Value-Based Market and Product Segmentation,
Value Segments,
Interaction Channel Preferences.
The Various Best-Of-Breed Sales Applications in Support of Core CRM Suites:
· Customer Relationship Management (CRM),
· Sales Collateral Management/Cloud File Sharing,
· Sales Collaboration Management/Collaboration Platforms,
· Social Media Management Platform,
· Sales Force Automation,
· Lead Management Automation (LMA),
· Field Sales/Service Automation (FSA),
· Email Marketing Bureaus,
Marketing Intelligence Systems.

10. http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/develop-an-it-
strategy-to-support-sales