• by Tanya Gazdik , October 31, 2013

Despite a desperate need for cooperation, most IT and marketing departments do not see eye to eye, according to a new Forrester study conducted jointly with Forbes, surveying 300-plus marketing and IT leaders.

CMOs and CIOs still don’t come to the table with an open mind to build a joint strategy. To close the gap, IT must ramp up its marketing chops to understand marketing. In return, marketing must clearly outline its priorities, link them to business results, and then communicate those needs to IT.

The two must engage to develop the most effective strategy for putting marketing technology into practice. Forrester believes that CMOs and CIOs must forge a new path of collaboration by aligning in three key areas: people, process, and technology.

"It’s clear the CMO and CIO haven’t reached power couple status quite yet," writes Forrester Analyst Sheryl Pattek in a blog post. "In order to thrive in the age of the customer, CMOs and CIOs must collectively turn their attention to defining a marketing technology strategy that supports the business and delivers the goods -- the ability to create a single view of the customer that produces actionable insights and consistent customer experiences."

One of the largest gaps is around the ability of the two organizations to communicate each other's priorities: 68% of IT leaders believe they can communicate marketing's strategic priorities, while just 49% of marketers share this sentiment toward IT.

CIOs and CMOs are beginning to see alignment on marketing technology projects, with 70% of IT and more than half of marketing agreeing that 'marketing and IT have shared ownership/responsibility for marketing technology projects.

However, CMOs and CIOs have their work cut out for them to establish an acceptable level of customer insights to drive business growth. The disparity of agreement between marketing (42%) and IT (57%) respondents on this topic demonstrated one of the largest gaps in the survey.