How do you market IT services?

Angel Dobardziev, Practice Leader, IT Services

Recently we attended a conference which focused exactly on this theme. It was an extremely well attended gathering with speakers including senior marketing executives from companies such as Accenture, CSC, HP, LogicaCMG, TCS and Unisys. One player that was conspicuous by its absence (as speaker) was IBM.

The key theme, which appeared time and again in the various vendor speeches, was that of innovation. Today it seems mandatory to include a reference to innovation in anything vendors say, much in the same way that you couldn't go to a vendor briefing a year ago without a reference to agility. Yet, many vendors admit to widespread customer confusion as to what agility means to them, and no doubt many are confused and sceptical about the current push to innovation. We certainly didn't get a clear view as to what some of the vendors would actually deliver to customers when they showcased their innovation capability and worldwide R&D 'centres of excellence'.

To us, this lack of clarity goes to the core of the marketing challenge that many IT services vendors face today: CIOs and CxOs may be moving away from cost reductions towards initiatives aimed at delivering revenue growth, but in virtually every case they seek a clear link between IT investment and a delivery of measurable business value. We believe vendors are no closer to addressing this challenge until they are seen to show a clear understanding of the customer pain points, and demonstrate a clear link in their marketing messages between their capabilities and customers' business, not just IT, problems. As one CIO at the conference put it, "there are no major IT projects anymore, there are business projects with IT as part of the solution".

Another key theme was the balance between global and local marketing on one hand, and the link between sales and marketing on the other. One of the key messages from that debate was that although we operate in an industry with global delivery models that does not equate to uniform global marketing. Marketing messages have to be localised - as one speaker put it, "Try approaching the French government with the UK messages on outsourcing". The link between the sales and marketing operations of services players is an interesting issue. Many vendors were keen to point to their processes and initiatives to align the two, but when we pressed two of them to grade this alignment on a scale of 1 to 10, it was obvious that there is lot to be done in this respect: one said they are at 6 today and another suggested that they are 8-9 in some areas and 2-3 in others.

We believe marketing and the correct alignment within the other elements of IT players' value chain (i.e. sales and delivery) will play an even more critical role in the maturing UK SITS market, and Holway@Ovum research going forward will reflect this. Watch this space for research, analysis and opinion on the best (and worst) practices in this area.

Angel Dobardziev is the IT Services Practice Leader, managing Ovum's advisory business in the IT Services area. In this role Angel leads Ovum's research on IT services market trends, vendor strategies, and IT user priorities, delivered as both reports and tailored client engagements.