As marketing goes increasingly digital, marketers are tasked with buying more marketing technology than ever before. But for many marketers today, vetting, selecting and onboarding new technologies can be a complicated, time-consuming, costly process – and one that doesn’t always end with ideal results. Still, there’s a better way for marketers to approach buying technology. By using enterprise best practices honed over decades by colleagues in IT and procurement, marketers can create a better, quicker, and more cost-effective buying process. Key points will include: - Why marketers need to engage IT early in the technology buying process and what risks come from delaying IT involvement. - What role finance, procurement and other enterprise stakeholders can best play in the buying process and how marketers can make the most of their expertise. - How to best gather business and technology requirements and how to craft an effective RFP template.

1. 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
1

2. CMOs say they spend 24%*
of their budget on
technology…
…but in reality, the number for
most marketers is much
higher.
*Source: “Tracking The Renegade Technology Buyer”,
Forrester Research, Inc., May 6, 2013
2

3. 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
3

4. 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
4

5. The enterprise taking back control of marketing technology.
5

6. Marketers are taking back control –
place trust in internal tech stakeholders
over agencies
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
6

7. Marketers prefer paying for technology, not
burying tech costs in media or service fees
What is your preferred method for paying
technology vendors?
7

8. “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
“We like to choose the car and give
the agency the keys to drive it for us.”
- Retail marketing executive
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
8

9. Purchasing may lead the buying
process, but marketers need to keep
control of business requirements
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
9

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
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
10

11. There is room for a better enterprise
purchasing process
11

12. 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
12

13. Marketers need a consistent process for
buying technology
13

14. Create a steering committee: Successful
technology buying involves the enterprise at
different stages of the process
14

15. 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?
15

16. Good, comprehensive technology
requirements matter
16

17. 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
17

18. Bad scoping of requirements can have major
consequences
“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
18

19. 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
Involve IT early. Time increases the risk of project
failure and creates a false sense of urgency.
19

20. 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?
20

21. 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
21

22. Using a standard scorecard simplifies
vendor selection
22

23. 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.
23