Dear ITSMA Friends and Colleagues,

A touch of autumn in the Lexington night sky means that it's time to accelerate the rollout of research and education on services marketing trends and best practices. No more lazy summer living! This month's E-ZINE highlights a wealth of upcoming opportunities for services marketers, including the can't-miss ITSMA annual extravaganza in Monterey. Read on for more details, and then please forward the information to interested colleagues. And please send along any comments or suggestions for future E-ZINE issues.

- Rob Leavitt, Associate Director of Research, Editor of ITSMA's E-ZINE

IN THIS ISSUE

What's Hot: Marketing in the E-Millennium

Professional Development Opportunities: Get Smart with ITSMA

Upcoming Services Marketing Events: Sign up online and receive a 5% reduced fee!

  September 10-13, 2000: ITSMA's Accelerated Development Course at Babson College

  October 2-4, 2000: ITSMA's MarketingServices/2000 Annual Conference

  October 21-23, 2000: ITSMA's Accelerated Development Course (London)

  November 13-15, 2000: ITSMA's TelecomServices/2000 Annual Conference: Preview Sign up by September 15 and SAVE 10%!

Next Online Briefing:
  September 19, 2000: Getting the Metrics: Building Accountability for Services Marketing

New Research: Brand Awareness and Sales Effectiveness Hard Data for Marketing Success

Closing the Sales and Marketing Gap: New ITSMA Report Details Priorities for Sales Effectiveness

Member Voices:

 What is your greatest services marketing success story?

A View from the President's Office

Please forward this E-ZINE to interested colleagues!
To SUBSCRIBE a friend or to UNSUBSCRIBE, e-mail our office at siozzo@itsma.com 

What's Hot: Marketing in the E-Millennium

Your Web redesign is hopelessly behind schedule. The sales managers pay no attention to your brilliant new offering. The CFO is haranguing you about next year's budget. And you still can't fill that internal marketing position. What's a stressed out marketing director to do? Why, jet off or drive over to marvelous Monterey for ITSMA's annual services marketing extravaganza, of course!

ITSMA's seventh annual conference, Marketing in the E-Millennium (October 2-4, 2000) has become a must-attend event for senior services marketing professionals across the industry. As the premier organization dedicated to advancing the field of IT services marketing, ITSMA is uniquely placed to bring together the ideal combination of leading thinkers and practitioners to address your most pressing short and longer term needs. The Monterey conference will help you refocus on the strategic big picture, check up on the latest thinking and best practices, network with insightful and sympathetic colleagues, as well as a host of practical new ideas.

This year's conference features an impressive lineup of senior executives, chief marketing officers, and industry thought-leaders from a range of new economy organizations. Keynote speaker Geoffrey Moore, principal of the Chasm Group and author of Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, The Gorilla Game, and Living on the Fault Line, will challenge conference participants to work in wholly new ways with customers to succeed in the new economy. Other conference speakers represent industry leaders such as AppNet, Diamond Technology Partners, Evolve, Exodus Communications, Hewlett-Packard, IDC Research, Oracle Consulting, Scient, Siebel Systems and more.

The conference will highlight breakout sessions on such topics as building brand loyalty, online marketing strategies, increasing sales effectiveness, and value-based pricing. ITSMA will also present its third annual Services Marketing Excellence Awards, recognizing industry leaders in eMarketing Excellence, Sales Effectiveness, Brand Building, and New Services Innovation, as well as graduate the first class of Certified ITSMA Services Marketing Professionals.

The third day of the conference features two interactive workshops, one on "Client-Centric Marketing and Selling" led by Steve Hurley, ITSMA Vice President for Learning and Development, the other on "The Next Wave of Services Branding: Leveraging Your Brand Community" led by brand consultant and author Earl Taylor, Sr. Vice President of Research International.

The conference will take place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Monterey, California, so you might even squeeze in a round of golf or shopping for a day. Conference sponsors include Evolve, Oracle, Aprimo, FORTUNE, and DeepCanyon.

For more details or to register, visit Marketing in the E-Millennium or contact Dirk Mullenger, +1-661-298-0015, or dmullenger@itsma.com. Sign up online for a 5% discount.

Professional Development Opportunities: Get Smart with ITSMA     [TOP OF PAGE]

"It's great there is an organization focused specifically on services marketing for the IT industry. I've never been to a course that's so focused on exactly what I do day to day." -Karen Brennan, Market Segment Manager, Sales Operations, Sun Microsystems

ITSMA's fall education lineup has something for everyone; courses, conferences, and briefings for services marketers and their staff, across the full range of IT and E-business sectors.

Upcoming Services Marketing Events

Sign up online at www.itsma.com and receive a 5% reduced fee!     [TOP OF PAGE]

September 10-13, 2000: The Accelerated Development Course: Building the Foundation for Services Marketing Success (Boston)

ITSMA's acclaimed MBA-level course for junior marketing managers provides an in-depth examination of the crucial differences between traditional product marketing and services marketing in the information technology sector. The course highlights the unique requirements for successful marketing in IT services, and provides participants with an array of specific tools and techniques to maximize the impact of an integrated services marketing program. This course will take place at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Seating is limited.

October 2-4, 2000: ITSMA's MarketingServices/2000 Annual Conference: Marketing in the E-Millennium (Monterey)

Featuring keynote speaker Geoffrey Moore, for complete details or to register, visit Marketing in the E-Millennium

October 21-23, 2000: Creating Results-Driven Services Marketing Programs (London)

ITSMA heads to London next month to conduct its first professional development course for IT services marketers in Europe. This customized version of ITSMA's highly regarded "Accelerated Development Course" will provide marketing managers with new ideas and data on critical services marketing challenges in the new European economy, such as new services development, market selection, pricing, building customer loyalty, and e-marketing. Program highlights include ITSMA's best practice research, structured peer learning, and action planning to apply the new material to immediate real-world demands. The course will take place at Highgate House, an executive conference center on the outskirts of London.

November 13-15, 2000: ITSMA's TelecomServices/2000 Annual Conference: The Services Agenda for a Networked Economy (Orlando)

Zoom in on the requirements for marketing success in the exploding telecommunications services market at ITSMA's third annual TelecomServices Conference. This year's conference highlights such critical issues as the rise of mobile e-commerce, new opportunities in voice and data convergence, new approaches to partnerships in professional and managed services, and online customer interaction. Join peers and partners for an executive-level program that includes keynotes and presentations from Global Crossing, Nortel, Cap Gemini, Cisco, Lucent, Colo.com, and more. TelecomServices will be held at the Wyndham Palace in Orlando, Florida, and is sponsored by Nortel Networks, Ericsson, ThruPoint, Inc., Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard, and CC News. For more information, visit ITSMA's TelecomServices/2000 Annual Conference or contact Matt Leary at +1-401- 683-7589 or mleary@itsma.com.  REGISTER ONLINE BY SEPTEMBER 15th TO SAVE 10%!

ITSMA 2000 Events Calendar

Next Online Briefing   [TOP OF PAGE]

September 19, 2000, 12:00-1:00 p.m. EST: Getting the Metrics: Building Accountability for Services Marketing (Complimentary for Active Members)

Do you have difficulty explaining the value that services marketing contributes to your organization? The best IT services marketing organizations create a broad range of quantitative and qualitative metrics to assess and present their performance. Join Julie Schwartz, ITSMA's Vice President of Research, for a discussion of best practices among services marketing groups in measuring and communicating their value internally.

Please visit us online to view the technical requirements needed to participate in ITSMA's online briefings. For visitors who register for the briefing, confirmation and downloading directions will be forwarded to you within 24 to 48 hours prior to the briefing. Deadline for Registering is September. 18, 2000 at 5 p.m.

New Research: Brand Awareness and Sales Effectiveness
Hard Data for Marketing Success   [TOP OF PAGE]

ITSMA Launches New Brand Awareness Studies: Round Four In E-Business Consulting, Plus New Studies on Telecom/Networking Services and CRM Services

In the race for brand awareness and loyalty, services leaders are investing more than ever in baseline research and analysis. How well do you measure the awareness and preference customers have for your services versus your top competitors? Do you know what attributes they value most when choosing services providers? What sources of information do they rely on most heavily when making decisions about providers?

Over the last two years, ITSMA has provided brand awareness research, to help services organizations assess the effectiveness of their marketing and branding activities. Recent Brand Awareness studies in the E-Business solutions space have highlighted critical data for study sponsors and others, including assessments of aided and unaided brand awareness, relative positioning vis-a-vis key competitors, customer criteria, and influential information sources.

E-Business Consulting Brand Equity Study, Fall/Winter 2000 

On September 1^st ITSMA will open the sponsorship process for the Fall 2000 E-Business Consulting Brand Equity Study. Up to six primary sponsors will have the opportunity to shape the general survey instrument, include three private questions in the phone survey, gain early access to the data, and receive a customized analysis of findings and a phone briefing. Secondary sponsors gain early access to the data, have their name included in the awareness and firm ratings sections, and can discuss their results with ITSMA analysts. The study will include interview data from at least 400 decision-makers, in a mix of business and MIS roles, from FORTUNE 1000 entities, healthcare, and government institutions. Sponsor fees range from $10K to $27.5K.

Contact Paul Gates at +1-781-862-8500, Ext. 15 or pgates@itsma.com to participate or for a study prospectus.

Networking and Telecom Services Brand Awareness Study, Fall 2000

Traditional equipment vendors, systems integrators, old and new professional services firms and a host of other contenders are vying for brand leadership in the exploding networking and telecom services space. Developing hard metrics for brand awareness and measuring the impact of branding initiatives are core components of success in the key enterprise and service provider markets.

ITSMA's new Networking and Telecom Services Brand Awareness Study, Fall/Winter 2000 will offer sponsors a choice of two markets, the Service Provider market, and the Enterprise market.  Early sponsors will have an opportunity to shape the survey instruments and to influence the respondent profiles. Get a jump on your competition with a fast, affordable research program emphasizing critical brand awareness, positioning, equity and effectiveness questions with top potential clients. Armed with the resulting data, study participants will be able to sharpen their marketing plans, directly address customer concerns and priorities, and track the impact of their brand initiatives on an ongoing basis. Sponsor fees range from $12.5K to $35K, per segment and the sign up period begins September 1^st.

Contact Matt Leary at +1-401-683-7589 or mleary@itsma.com to participate or for a study prospectus.

CRM Services Brand Awareness Study, Winter 2000

Like Networking and Telecom Services, the fast-growing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) market is similarly awash in new technologies, new types of services offerings, and whole new business models. Competition comes from all corners, including leading ERP vendors, systems integrators, pure play CRM providers, and ASPs. The rapid rise of online, customer-facing CRM systems in place of more internal, employee-oriented systems, puts a tremendous premium on services providers who understand and identify with the ultimate end users.

ITSMA's new CRM Services Brand Awareness Study, Winter 2000 will create a critical research foundation for all CRM services vendors seeking to better understand the market. Primary and secondary sponsors of the study will gain early and affordable access to fresh data on unaided and aided brand awareness, customer preferences, relative positioning, and other critical metrics in the race for market leadership. Sponsor fees range from $10k to $27.5K and the sign up period will begin October 1^st.

Contact Paul Gates at +1-781-862-8500, Ext. 15 or pgates@itsma.com to participate or for more details.

Closing the Sales and Marketing Gap: New ITSMA Report Details Priorities for Sales Effectiveness   [TOP OF PAGE]

News flash: Selling services is more difficult than selling products. Shocking findings from ITSMA study confirm that sales reps find selling services more challenging. Hmm, I guess we knew that already. The real question for services marketers is how to help the sales force do a better job. At the risk of sleeping with the enemy, ITSMA surveyed almost 1,700 services sales reps to get their perspective on how marketing can support increased sales effectiveness.

Key findings from the study include the following:

• Sales reps believe that brand awareness and credibility are critical; marketing needs to pave the way for the sales process to begin with a foundation of interest and credibility

• Current sales tools are not adequate; marketing needs to develop more sophisticated tools and messages that help communicate a clear and quantifiable value proposition to customers

• Corporate intranets are the preferred sources of information and tools; marketing needs to invest more in creating in more comprehensive, easy-to-use intranets

• Sales training is highly valued, but is best done on-the-job, and should focus especially on the use of sophisticated sales tools and the effective presentation of services offerings and benefits

Closing the Sales and Marketing Gap is available now to all companies participating in ITSMA's Services Sales Effectiveness Program. The report will become available publicly on October 1^st. For more information or to pre-order the report, or contact Paul Gates at +1-781-862-8500, Ext. 15 or pgates@itsma.com.

Visit Services Sales Effectiveness program for more information on the , or contact Paul Gates at +1-781-862E8500, ext. 15 or pgates@itsma.com.

Member Voices: What Is Your Greatest Services Marketing Success Story? [TOP OF PAGE]

Each month we ask members to sound off on a critical services marketing issue, and then publish a selection of their responses.

THIS MONTH'S QUESTION:  "What is your greatest services marketing success story?"

Arlene Paterson, Marketing Manager, Lotus Professional Services:  "A lot of our senior level customers didn't even realize that Lotus had Professional Services, so we needed a campaign to make sure we would be considered when they were thinking about services. We produced a series of topical webcasts featuring our own experts and a respected business journalist. The journalist helped with credibility by bringing some third party objectivity, and the style of the webcasts helped position us as a partner, with a consultative approach versus a hard sell. We got a lot of bang for the buck on a limited budget, including much greater recognition with customers and internally, and a number of qualified leads for Professional Services."

Susan Appel, Manager, Services Marketing Programs, RSA Security: "Our most gratifying successes have been internal marketing wins. In a product-focused company such as ours, the Services Marketing staff is a relatively small piece of the total marketing effort (and budget!)  With resource limitations, building internal 'respect' for Services' value is a long, rocky road. Signs that we're making progress include:

• Significant increases in Services Marketing headcount and budget

• Equal consideration of Services during corporate re-branding (resulting in Services' first full-blown, full-color brochure)

• Increased responsibility for Web design (Services now manages a large piece of the corporate Website)

• Growing strategic recognition of Services among other organizations (such as Product Marketing and Public Relations), and a greater willingness to help 'spread the word' "

ANSWER NEXT MONTH'S MEMBER VOICES QUESTION: "How can the leading research firms do a better job of serving the needs of IT services marketers?"

A View from the President's Office 

"In today's ever changing landscape it is so important to stay up on current trends, network with peers, learn new marketing skills, and hear from industry players. Take a few days off from your busy schedule and invest in your career by attending our upcoming MarketingServices/2000 Conference in Monterey on October 2-4, featuring Geoffrey Moore. It's shaping up to be one of our strongest conferences yet. I hope to see you there!"
- Dave Munn, President and CEO, ITSMA

***Reproduction or disclosure in whole or in part to other parties shall be made according to the ITSMA Citation Policy. Reproduction prohibited. 

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About ITSMA
ITSMA specializes in helping companies market and sell services and solutions more effectively. As a membership organization, we provide research, consulting, and training to the world's leading technology, communications, and professional services providers to generate increased demand, strengthen customer relationships, and improve brand differentiation. ITSMA is based near Boston, and has offices in London and Tokyo. Learn more at www.itsma.com.