66% of marketing managers now in charge of IT purchases

A study from Squiz has revealed that two-thirds of marketing leaders state they are now in charge of IT spending in their business.  

The survey of 650 marketing managers found that 66% are placed as the key stakeholder for purchasing new marketing software, ahead of IT leaders.

However, marketers find their budgets for IT spending to be prohibitive, with 52% saying that ‘being asked to do more for less’ is the biggest obstacle they face. This is bridging the gap between IT and marketing for many, though, as marketers are working more frequently with IT departments to better integrate the technology they have.

“Marketing and IT managers are really beginning to understand the importance of integrated systems,” says Stephen Morgan, Co-Founder of Squiz.

“Whilst there has been the tendency in the past for marketers to acquire the latest and greatest technologies without much thought for how it will sync up with other platforms, this is changing.

“The fact that over half of marketers now describe their relationship with IT as ‘collaborative’ exemplifies how they are determined to work together with their tech counterparts to build and implement integrated platforms that serve the customer best.”      

Marketing automation tools top the list of software requirements among those surveyed, followed by CMS platforms. 77% are using analytics platforms and 62% using CRM.

According to research from IDC, 89% of global decision-makers see the gap between marketing and IT being bridged further through the appointment of a chief digital officer (CDO).

Despite this, at present, just 28% of organisations have a CDO in post.  

Further reading: Why your CMO and CIO must become best friends