I am not here
to talk about marriages. I am no expert on it and am lucky to be married to a
wonderful lady. What I am talking about comes from my experience of working on
marketing strategies for an IT services firm and some observations. The views
may look a bit premature. I am sure there will be counter opinion and would be
glad to listen to all the constructive criticism and comments around the view.
I have been
hearing a lot about technical consultant, functional consultants, business
analysts et al. I think for most meetings with customers, a combination of
personnel with functional and technical expertise is required to “go for the
kill” or close deals using a consultative approach. This potent combination can
clear all doubts in the customers’ mind and clinch the deal to offer solutions
required by the customer.
But where is
Information Technology moving? It is an era of quick decision, quick
strategies, quicker execution and even quicker results. The time to analyze,
ponder, plan, etc. is hard to find.
With the advent
of Big Data and Analytics, almost all unstructured data can also be put into
formats which will make them meaningful for decision making. Imagine if all
structured and unstructured data is available for decision-making; does it make
life easy or difficult?
It depends on
the human mind to which this is facilitated after all. Let’s leave it at that. Now,
customers of tomorrow with Big Data, social media and the likes will have an information
overload. The meeting of IT Services companies with customers would be to offer
comprehensive IT services from Database to Middleware to Applications, to
Business Solutions to Business Intelligence and this too would be passé in no
time.
Though the last
element in the list, i.e. business intelligence, becomes key to how things may
evolve. Let us take an example, imagine an IT Services company using a
consultative approach to provide solutions for a Pharmaceutical company. While
it will be able to create application, plant management systems, trackers etc.,
it might also offer to predict the best price point at which the new drug
should sell in a particular market?
This is where
the Marriage will happen. Marketing will play a key role in the new generation
IT service firms. How?
The meetings
would have a Technical expert talking on systems, a functional expert talking
on the domain and a marketing expert talking on how to leverage all this and
launch services/ products. It will predict everything from price points, to
time of launch, to target market, avenues to maximize sales.
And that to me
will be the Marriage of the Decade.
IT Services
firms will evolve into Comprehensive IT services players + marketing
consultancies. The following predictions can be made (I am not a thought leader
hence not to be held responsibleJ):
- The IT services providers which are more contemporary and allow this inter-caste, inter-religion marriage will do better than the traditional ones
- Technologies such as Big Data and Business Intelligence will ensure a seamless marriage
- The internet will host the marriage ceremony and all netizens from across the globe will grace the occasion
- IT Services firms which open its doors to this couple will be the pioneers of a new era in IT services
- Now, if we look at this from a career perspective, a thin line will separate marketing and IT. Professionals who have a fair idea of marketing and also understand a bit of IT will be in demand (selfish interest here)
- We will see IT companies playing a major role in test marketing, Product Planning, Marketing intelligence and insights, Market Research, and will give insights into segmentation, targeting, positioning etc.
So, when will this marriage happen? As early
as we allow it, because if we are stubborn and stick to our traditional values,
this very modern and happening couple will elope before we even realize it.
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