Dear friends and colleagues,

The phrase of the month is "fine tuning." Amidst turbulent times, we're all trying to figure out how best to reorient our agendas. A primary challenge, as Julie Schwartz noted in her recent ITSMA Commentary, is fine tuning our services portfolios and marketing strategies to zero in on clients' needs to maximize the gains from recent technology purchases. For the clients, too, fine tuning is the name of today's game. This month's ITSMA E-ZINE highlights a series of new reports, ideas, data, and events designed specifically to help us get through this rocky transition period. Please read on, pass it on, and let us know how you're faring.

Rob Leavitt, director of member advocacy, editor of ITSMA E-ZINE

What's Hot: ITSMA Europe Goes Live: Interview with Dave Munn

ITSMA launched ITSMA Europe on April 3, 2001, with seven charter members: Accenture, Compaq, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, and Unisys. Based in the United Kingdom, ITSMA Europe will extend ITSMA's global reach beyond North America and Japan to provide European service organizations with a source of market research, advisory services, custom education, public seminars, and strategic insight to the practice of services marketing in Europe. In this interview, ITSMA President and CEO Dave Munn provides an overview of the new organization and its goals, programs, and staff.

Let's start with a quick summary. What is ITSMA Europe all about?

ITSMA Europe is a new operation created to address the unique needs of services marketers in Europe and is part of our objective of truly becoming a global advisor on services marketing practices. The European technology market is obviously quite different than the market in North America, and both U.S.-based multinationals and European-based companies have been asking for our help in Europe. Essentially, they have been looking for a new source of research, education, and advisory services in Europe to help advance their practices and broaden their thinking on marketing, branding, and sales strategies.

ITSMA Europe gives us the opportunity to provide even more assistance to companies and individuals we are already working with, as well as to new firms that need guidance with their European strategies and programs. The interest in our Europe activities has been very strong, and we look forward to expanding our operations there. In that vein, I'd welcome any comments, questions, and suggestions from current members and other E-ZINE readers.

Click here for the complete interview with Dave Munn.

Research Desk

New Report: IBM and Hewlett-Packard Top the Charts in ITSMA's New Brand Awareness Study

For the fourth consecutive iteration of ITSMA's semiannual Professional Services and e-Business Solutions Brand Awareness Study, IBM Global Services ranks first in the industry for unaided brand awareness and is in the top tier for both aided brand awareness and client preference. Hewlett-Packard has the highest level of aided awareness, followed in descending order by Oracle, IBM, Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Along with aided and unaided awareness, the in-depth ITSMA study examined such issues as the favorability ratings of particular firms, market positioning, the importance of various attributes in the selection of firms, critical information sources, and advertising awareness and recall. The ITSMA study is based on a survey of 400 CXOs, vice presidents, directors, and managers representing Fortune 1000 companies, large health-care organizations, government agencies, and dot-coms.

ITSMA's Professional Services and e-Business Solutions Brand Awareness Study, Winter 2001, is available for sale at ITSMA member and nonmember rates. For more information or to order your copy, visit http://www.itsma.com/Research/abstracts/bps0001.htm or contact Rich Staples at +1-781-862-8500, ext. 17, or info@itsma.com.

New Report: Geoffrey Moore on Marketing for Shareholder Value

"As marketers, our only authority comes from representing other constituencies to the corporation. Now is the time to represent the investor to the corporation. As we do that, we begin to build a dialogue around the behavior the corporation can use to improve shareholder value."

ITSMA's latest Viewpoint features comments by Geoffrey Moore, noted consultant and author of Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, and, most recently, Living on the Fault Line. In this excerpt from remarks made at ITSMA's MarketingServices/2000 conference, Moore highlights the importance of investing in long-term marketing programs designed to build sustainable competitive advantage. He also stresses the primacy of outsourcing, both as a measure to recapture precious time and attention for core activities and as a growing market opportunity to capture.

Marketing for Shareholder Value was recently distributed to all member sponsors and delegates. The Viewpoint is also available for sale at ITSMA member and nonmember rates. For more information or to order your copy, talk to your member delegate about online access to ITSMA's Member Research Library, visit http://www.itsma.com/Research/abstracts/v0016.htm or contact Rich Staples at +1-781-862-8500, ext. 17, or info@itsma.com.

Sign Up Now! ITSMA's 2001 Multiclient Research Programs

Every services marketing organization needs benchmarks and performance metrics to guide planning and improvement initiatives. ITSMA's multiclient research programs enable services marketers to quantify marketing parameters, identify best practices, and compare their performance with that of industry peers as well as "best-in-class" companies. The ITSMA portfolio for 2001 includes four unique offerings:

• The 2001 Benchmarking Study. This study covers the full spectrum of services marketing issues and offers participants benchmarks, best-in-class comparisons, and actionable performance metrics across such issues as budgeting, staffing, new services development, pricing, sales, and client satisfaction and loyalty. A special section for 2001 will focus on field marketing metrics and trends, including customer preferences and ratings on field marketing programs.
  
• The 2001 Services Sales Effectiveness (SSE) Program. Launched in 2000, this year-long program includes a series of research studies on sales metrics, models, and best practices. Highlights include a field survey of services sales reps and another survey on corporate models and metrics, as well as best practice case studies on services sales, topical updates, and online briefings of research findings. This year's overall focus will be on team selling and selling solutions.
  
• The 2001 Professional Services Pricing Study. New for 2001, this study will deliver both qualitative and quantitative data on billing rates, pricing methodologies, target margins, and policies surrounding professional services offerings. Participants will also benefit from custom peer-group comparisons and a customer survey.
  
• 2001 CRM Services Brand Awareness Study. New for 2001, this study provides customer relationship management (CRM) services providers with critical data on aided and unaided brand awareness, positioning, and favorability for the fast-growing CRM services market. Only a few sponsor slots remain, so sign up now!

A detailed prospectus for each study is available online at http://www.itsma.com/research/research.htm.

To discuss or sign up for multiclient research sponsorships, contact Rich Staples at +1-781-862-8500, ext. 17, or info@itsma.com.

Research Excerpt: Client-Centric Branding for Professional Services

ITSMA's Professional Services and e-Business Solutions Brand Awareness Study, Winter 2001 surveyed 400 buyers of e-business services to uncover client awareness and attitudes toward services providers. This excerpt from the study highlights client perceptions of the importance of, and company performance against, a long list of professional services provider attributes.

Which company attributes do customers look for when selecting professional services firms to help them address e-business challenges? Which firms do they perceive as having the attributes they desire? How can providers of e-business services promote brand identities that better meet customer expectations?

According to the ITSMA survey, the most important professional services firm attributes were the following:

• Delivers what is promised
• Has the ability to transfer knowledge to the client
• Is a firm that will endure
• Has good client references

Analysis of the most important attributes is only part of the story, however. ITSMA also performed a gap analysis to assess where the e-business professional services industry as a whole is meeting or falling short of expectations. By comparing the importance of selected attributes with general ratings of professional services performance, e-business services providers can identify critical strengths and weaknesses in their own brand and focus their brand initiatives on the most opportune gaps in the market.

For example, "has good client references" is obviously important to buyers, but those same buyers also believe that services providers do, in fact, have good references. Although important, this attribute therefore might not rank as a top priority for improvement. On the other hand, even though pricing is not one of the most important attributes, providers clearly have a problem with pricing.

The gap analysis suggests that the four most important areas of brand weakness, industry-wide, are the following:

• Credibility in delivering what is promised
• Price competitiveness
• Ability to transfer knowledge
• Industry expertise

The importance of research on customer perceptions of your brand and those of your competitors cannot be overstated. Without ongoing research, you're flying blind. With it, you're able to refine your value propositions, fine tune your competitive positioning, and respond to prospective clients' top concerns. In tough times, when marketing needs to refocus even more rapidly than normal, such research is especially critical. Brand managers and other marketers that can identify and act upon both the most important attributes to buyers as well as the areas of greatest perceived shortfalls are the most likely to succeed.

ITSMA's new brand awareness study provides extensive data on awareness, favorability, positioning, and advertising recall on such firms as Accenture, Boston Consulting Group, Cambridge Technology Partners, Cap Gemini/Ernst & Young, Compaq, CSC, EDS, Hewlett-Packard, IBM Global Services, KPMG, McKinsey, Microsoft, Oracle, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and others.

For more information on ITSMA's Brand Awareness Study visit http://www.itsma.com/Research/abstracts/bps0001.htm.

Download Now: Making Your Case for Marketing Investment (Online Briefing)

Investment in internal marketing correlates strongly with high-performance services marketing organizations, according to ITSMA benchmarking research. But only a minority of IT services marketing organizations have a formal internal marketing budget. Without well-designed internal communications programs, it becomes difficult to make an effective case for your total marketing investment. On March 20, 2001, Steve Hurley, ITSMA's vice president of learning and performance excellence, led an online briefing on the most effective strategies to build your internal case with the three most important constituencies: executive management, the sales force, and the service delivery force. Steve presented a balanced-scorecard approach to evaluating marketing investment and outlined specific issues to stress for each internal audience.

Click here to download a PDF version (3.3 Mb) of Steve's slides:
http://www.itsma.com/events/online_briefings/online_032001.PDF

Professional Development: Maximizing Your Training Investments

Training is often difficult to justify amid the crush of daily deadlines. Can you really afford to take two days off for a workshop on leadership? Is it really worthwhile to let your best marcom manager head out of town for a new course on Web marketing? These questions are inevitable even when budgets are flush. Now, with hiring freezes and budget cutbacks the order of the day, training can seem even more like a luxury you cannot afford.

The rub, of course, is that developing your own skills and those of your people continues to be one of the most critical requirements for marketing success. The issue rises toward the top in every ITSMA survey of marketing challenges. Given the relative lack of experience and training in IT services marketing across the industry (see a recent analysis in the February 2001 ITSMA E-ZINE), along with the incredible pace of change in the market and in marketing itself, this is not surprising.

Training is no less important when the economic squeeze is on. Companies often need to change direction quickly, which requires new, just-in-time training across the organization. Furthermore, training often serves as a morale builder, helping ensure retention of your best people.

When budgets are tight, it is vital to take a systematic approach to planning and evaluating training investments. Any and all training must provide both clear strategic value for your team and immediate business impact. In today's environment, "nice to have" training is definitely on the back burner; "need to have" is the name of the game.

ITSMA has developed a structured approach to evaluating training. The following seven questions are designed to help you assess the potential payback of various training opportunities:

• Is the training clearly aligned with the company's goals and objectives?
• Does the training initiative have visible support from executive leadership?
• Is it clear that the training activities match your learning objectives for the participants: gain information, develop skills, change behavior, and/or change attitudes?
• Does the training organization have enough knowledge of your industry and your business to make the learning relevant and immediately applicable?
• Will the training provide participants with specific tools they can use in implementing new initiatives or systems?
• Have you considered the "total cost of learning," assessing such variables such as classroom vs. e-learning, internal vs. partner training, and episodic vs. programmatic approaches?
• Have you put in place measurement systems to evaluate how effectively the new learning is being applied on the job and how much it is contributing to the bottom line?

You probably can't answer every question with absolute certainty. But just asking the questions will provide important insight into the value and immediate payback of a given opportunity. More important, putting in place this kind of structured assessment for training investment will provide a solid foundation for building a more rigorous and valuable training program, regardless of how tight budgets have become.

- Rob Leavitt

Upcoming Events:

April 19-20, 2001: Chief Marketer's Conference (Palm Springs)

An exclusive event for marketers at the director level, vice president level, or above, ITSMA's first Chief Marketer's Conference is designed to address the new role of marketing and its effect on marketing agendas. The conference provides a unique opportunity for peer discussion and networking on the challenges of marketing in the next phase of the "new economy." Featured speakers include Sergio Zyman, former CMO at Coca-Cola and author of The End of Marketing As We Know It, along with top marketing executives from IBM Global Services, Sun Microsystems, KPMG Consulting, Nortel Networks, Sapient, GartnerGroup, Babson College, and ITSMA. If you lead a services or corporate marketing organization, you can't afford to miss this vital program on the next phase in the evolution of IT services marketing.

For more information or to register online, visit http://www.itsma.com/Events/event_desc/E04180101.htm.

May 16, 2001, 12:00-3:30 p.m. EDT: Marketing e-Business and Professional Services:
The Role of Marketing During Turbulent Times - Lessons from Three Market Leaders (Online Forum)

No travel required - Attend from your office - Complementary attendance for the first five registrants from each member company.

Great marketers shine brightest in tough times. The knee-jerk reaction to an economic slowdown is to cut marketing programs and expenses. That response is natural, but the damage can last much longer than the downturn. Now, more than ever, e-Business and professional services marketers need to exhibit leadership to maintain their companies' focus on key marketing initiatives and investments. Join ITSMA's senior staff and industry leaders from IBM Software, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Art Technology Group in a special Online Forum to discuss successful strategies for fine-tuning your services marketing initiatives and capturing new opportunities amid the current market conditions.

For more information or to register online, visit http://www.itsma.com/events/event_desc/E05160101.htm.

May 22, 2001, 7:00-8:10 a.m. PDT: Marketing Survival: Turning the Corner (San Francisco)

How are your peers adapting their marketing agendas to the "new" New Economy? Join ITSMA's Breakfast Briefing with Julie Schwartz, ITSMA's vice president of research, and Lori Weiner, ITSMA's director of research to hear the latest from ITSMA's research on strategies and tactics for marketing your way through the downturn. Julie and Lori will provide fresh insights on marketing priorities and CMO perspectives, as well as exploring new resource allocation strategies and decision models designed to maximize return on investment. ITSMA's briefing leads the second day of the Dataquest ServiceTrends conference, and it could be the most valuable breakfast you'll have all year.

For more information or to register online, visit http://www.itsma.com/events/event_desc/E05220101.htm.

June 19, 2001, 12:00-1:00 p.m. EDT: Adventures in Field Marketing: Getting Close to the Customer (Online Briefing, free for ITSMA members)

The best performing IT services marketers centralize marketing strategy and processes but build strong field capabilities to execute locally. Striking the right balance between headquarters and the field is not easy. But all the electronic tools in the world mean little if you don't continue to get as close as possible to your customers. Join Rob Leavitt, ITSMA's director of member advocacy, for a discussion of best practices and benchmarks for field marketing strategies and tactics. Rob will present ITSMA's latest research findings on field marketing and will highlight specific examples of how IT services marketers are working to increase field marketing efficiencies and returns.

For more information or to register online, visit http://www.itsma.com/events/event_desc/E06190101.htm.

Event Sponsorship Opportunities

As the premier industry association for IT services marketing, ITSMA offers event sponsorship opportunities to member companies throughout the year. Event sponsors benefit from direct access to services marketing executives and managers from the world's leading IT services firms as well as the broader association with ITSMA.

For more information on event sponsorship opportunities, benefits, and costs, visit http://www.itsma.com/events/other_desc/01_sponsorprg.htm or contact Rich Staples at +1-781-862-8500, ext. 17, or info@itsma.com.

Click here to view ITSMA's complete events calendar for 2001:
http://www.itsma.com/aspfiles/Events/calendar.asp

Toolbox: Effective Client-Focused Presentations

Each month ITSMA highlights a new idea, book, application, or other type of tool that services marketers can use immediately to strengthen their programs and organizations.

Effective communications is the core of any successful marketing initiative. With it, clients are more satisfied with our efforts and more inclined to buy from us again. Without it, the greatest services in the world lie unused.

A system to support effective communications makes our own work much easier as well. Having a well-defined methodology to create compelling presentations, for example, eliminates marathon writing sessions and false starts. It helps ensure quality team-produced deliverables.

A great presentation is at least a little like great art. It is hard to define, but you know it when you see or hear one. How often do your presentations inspire comments like this: "What a great story!" "Excellent, I have only a few little changes to suggest." "Can you do the same job for another division?" Or do you instead hear this: "I'm confused, what's the main point?" "There are too many unsubstantiated statements." "The case is not persuasive at all."

ITSMA's tool for creating effective, client-focused presentations provides specific guidelines for addressing the most important client questions, building a logical case, and creating reader-friendly documents.

Member Voices: Fine Tuning the Services Agenda

The most recent ITSMA Commentary, "Fine Tuning the Services Agenda," addressed strategies to survive the current downturn. As Julie Schwartz wrote:

"To survive the transition, IT services providers need to take a fast, hard look at their offering portfolios and marketing and sales strategies. Does your current portfolio map to the immediate needs of your target client base? Do your marketing messages and value propositions address the pain that is being felt now (as opposed to last year or even last quarter)? Is your sales organization promoting the most appropriate services? How long will it take you to adapt?"

Click here if you missed the original commentary:<http://www.itsma.com/press/commentary/finetuning_agenda.htm>

Julie's commentary inspired a number of responses.

Click here to read comments from Doug Johnson at Tactica Technology Group and Shawn Miller from the medical systems sector: <http://www.itsma.com/press/member_voices/mv_0301_2.htm>

Reproduction or disclosure of this or any other ITSMA document, in whole or in part, to other parties shall be made according to the ITSMA Citation Policy <http://www.itsma.com/press/press_newsfromITSMA.htm#citation>.

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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.