Dear friends and colleagues,

Has the ITSMA E-ZINE gotten too long? Last fall you told us you liked the idea of adding short articles, research excerpts, and commentaries. We've continued in that direction in recent months with regular features on ITSMA research findings, professional development issues, and marketing tools and techniques. I like to think the end result is a valuable monthly guide to key issues and new ideas, with enough of a range so that there is something useful for everyone. Of course, I'm the editor; I should think that. So help me out, dear readers. Let me know what you think. Are we still on track? What are you finding useful about the E-ZINE? Thanks very much, and have a great June.

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

What's Hot: Getting Close to the Customer

Politicians are the greatest marketers in the world, according to Sergio Zyman, head of Zyman Marketing Group and former chief marketing officer at Coca-Cola, because they stick incredibly close to their constituents. As Zyman explained to attendees of ITSMA's recent Chief Marketer's Conference, politicians on the campaign trail often complete the entire marketing cycle–plan, execute, measure, and change–every 24 hours. Tight management of the whole cycle makes these candidates superior competitors.

Measurement is the key. Without in-depth and ongoing constituent research, politicians, like marketers, are flying blind. Planning is based on intuition, execution emphasizes inappropriate objectives, and change is driven by the loudest voice in the cockpit.

Amid widespread cutbacks in marketing staff and budgets, many technology firms are increasing investment in customer research, according to ITSMA's recent Marketing Survival Survey. These firms understand that creating faster and more effective marketing cycles requires better customer data. One ITSMA member, for example, recently uncovered significant gaps between what its customers perceived as the firm's most important services attributes, and what the firm's own employees were promoting. ITSMA research is enabling this firm's marketing team to refine brand messaging, educate sales and service delivery staff to focus more effectively on customer priorities, and create a more compelling portfolio of services offerings.

The ITSMA Brand Investment Matrix provides a quick demonstration of the power of customer research. The hypothetical example that follows maps a customer assessment of a services provider's performance related to various attributes against the customer's importance ratings for those same attributes. This type of presentation helps firms understand how best to prioritize development and marketing efforts according to customer perceptions and desires. For example, XYZ's customers place tremendous importance on a collaborative work style from their services provider, but XYZ doesn't rank so highly on that attribute. Clearly, XYZ needs to build and emphasize that strength.

                        Brand Investment Matrix

Customer research is often under-funded in the face of competing demands. But more and more services marketing leaders have realized that managing a forward-looking marketing operation requires ongoing customer research. Like the astute politicians mentioned earlier, companies with active customer research programs are able to emphasize the issues and strengths that are most important to their customers. It's not just about messaging, of course; research needs to drive planning and performance as well. After all, politicians that simply mouth empty slogans to please constituents don't last that long (well, usually they don't).

Tools such as Web-based surveys make it easier and more affordable to conduct customer research on a regular basis. Every 24 hours might be overkill, but given the pace of market change, it is critical to keep as close to your customers as possible.

–Rob Leavitt

Research Desk

Cisco, Lucent, and Nortel Lead in Brand Awareness for Network Services (New Report)

Buyers of network and telecom services think first of three firms–Cisco Systems, Lucent Technologies, and Nortel Networks–according to the findings of a new ITSMA survey. Despite these firms' strong brand awareness, however, the race for mindshare in the network services space remains open to challengers. When asked which company they would most likely call first for network operational or professional services, more than half of survey participants couldn't name a single firm. As important, the industry as a whole falls short of customer expectations in many areas.

ITSMA's Network and Telecom Services Brand Awareness Study, May 2001 assesses brand awareness and market positioning of the major network services firms based on an extensive survey of buyers from the network and telecom service provider market. ITSMA interviewed 300 buyers of network services from 10 segments of the service provider market (e.g., ISPs, CLECs, RBOCs, and wireless) in early 2001. The interviews focused on such issues as aided and unaided brand awareness, market positioning, firm attributes, and useful information sources. The study highlights data on Alcatel, Cisco Systems, EDS, Ericsson, Fujitsu Network Services, IBM Global Services, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks, Siemens, and other leading firms.

ITSMA's Network and Telecom Services Brand Awareness Study, May 2001 is available for purchase at ITSMA member and nonmember rates. For more information, visit http://www.itsma.com/Research/abstracts/bnw0001.htm or contact Matt Leary at +1-862-8500, ext. 52, or mleary@itsma.com.

Network Services Buyers Demand More Responsive Providers (Research Excerpt)

The following is adapted from ITSMA's Network and Telecom Services Brand Awareness Study, May 2001, an in-depth study of how buyers perceive network services firms. The study highlights data on Alcatel, Cisco Systems, EDS, Ericsson, Fujitsu Network Services, IBM Global Services, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks, Siemens, and other leading firms.

How do decision makers select firms to provide them with network operational and professional services? Which attributes do they perceive as most important to a firm's value proposition?

ITSMA's just-published Network and Telecom Services Brand Awareness Study, May 2001 includes survey data from 300 corporate decision makers and buyers in the service provider market. According to survey participants, the most important of a list of 16 key attributes for network services firms are the following:

• Agility and responsiveness to customer needs
• Understanding of customers' business needs
• Providing good value for the price
• High professionalism
• Working collaboratively with customers

More than 90% of participants gave ratings of 4 or 5 to these attributes, rated on a 5-point scale in which 1 equals not at all important and 5 equals very important. Attributes rated less important include such concerns as multivendor competence, understanding how to leverage the full power of the Internet, and strong global presence.

Knowing the importance of key factors is only half the story. Services firms also need to understand how they and their competitors perform in terms of those attributes that are most important to customers. ITSMA also analyzed the areas in which network services firms as a group are meeting or falling short of buyer expectations, and documented a number of gaps between customer importance ratings and customer perceptions of performance. For example, two critical areas of underperformance are:

• Rapid deployment capability
• Cost competitiveness

As network services firms work to build brand awareness and preference, they need to keep these customer priorities front and center. Network services firms that understand the attributes with which customers in different segments are most concerned and understand customer perceptions of how the various players rate on those attributes can gain substantial competitive advantage.

For more information on ITSMA's Network and Telecom Services Brand Awareness Study, May 2001, or to purchase a copy, visit http://www.itsma.com/Research/abstracts/bnw0001.htm or contact Matt Leary at +1-862-8500, ext. 52, or mleary@itsma.com.

C-Level Executives Rank IBM Top e-Business Services Provider in Fragmented Market (New Report)

ITSMA has documented brand awareness, preference, and positioning in the lucrative e-business services space for the last two years. Two surveys each year probe business buyers to assess awareness of and favorability toward leading services firms as well as satisfaction regarding specific company attributes. ITSMA's reports have demonstrated IBM Global Services' strong lead in the market and the relatively modest impression made by most other firms competing for market share.

ITSMA's CXO Perspective: Professional Services and e-Business Solutions Brand Awareness Study, May 2001 includes findings from interviews with 44 C-level executives. The new report confirms IBM's continuing strong lead in brand awareness, preference, and positioning. Survey data also suggest some important distinctions between CXOs and lower-level business and IT managers and directors. Most important, CXOs are more knowledgeable, more opinionated, and more reliant on word of mouth than are their MIS and business director counterparts. Overall conclusions, however, reinforce the message from previous studies in the series: The e-business services market remains heavily fragmented, with substantial opportunity for firms that can meet the high performance standards set by increasingly skeptical buyers.

ITSMA's CXO Perspective: Professional Services and e-Business Solutions Brand Awareness Study, May 2001 is available for purchase at ITSMA member and nonmember rates in conjunction with the Professional Services and e-Business Solutions Study, Winter 2001. For more information or to order your copy, visit http://www.itsma.com/Research/abstracts/bps0002.htm or contact Rich Staples at +1-781-862-8500, ext. 17, or info@itsma.com.

Last Chance! Deadlines Imminent for Professional Services Pricing and CRM Services Brand Awareness Studies

Every services marketing organization needs benchmarks and performance metrics to guide planning and improvement. 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. ITSMA continues to sign up sponsors for two unique and affordable offerings:

• 2001 Professional Services Pricing Study: 15 June 2001 Sponsorship Deadline. With buyers taking a much tougher, results-oriented stance toward contract proposals, pricing professional services to win profitable engagements is more difficult than ever. ITSMA's new Professional Services Pricing Study will deliver qualitative and quantitative data on billing rates, pricing methodologies, target margins, and pricing policies that will give study sponsors an important competitive edge. Participants will also benefit from custom peer-group comparisons and a customer survey on buy-side perspectives and concerns.
  
• 2001 CRM Services Brand Awareness Study: Final Days for Sponsor Sign-up. Customer relationship management (CRM) services continue to be a relatively bright light in the slowing technology services market, and IT and professional services firms are converging from all sides with new CRM services offers. ITSMA's new CRM Services Brand Awareness Study will interview 400 senior-level business and IT decision makers to provide study sponsors with critical data on aided and unaided brand awareness, positioning, and favorability ratings that they can use immediately in efforts to capture a larger slice of this still fast-growing market.

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.

Professional Development: Training Fish to Fly? Seven Tips to Convert a Product Sales Force to Solution Selling

Has your company caught the solutions bug? Virtually all ITSMA member companies with a product heritage are pushing hard to pump up services revenues by selling "solutions." The reasons are well known: decreasing product margins, client interest in business solutions rather than the latest box, a desire for deeper client relationships, and so on. In today's world, a product without a strong services component is like a professional services consultant without a 2x2 matrix.

Although many companies have demonstrated success in designing and marketing integrated product/service solutions and accounting departments have added spreadsheet space for presumed new services revenues, the sales force typically fails to get fully behind the new program. Pity poor management, though: Changing veteran product-oriented sales representatives into solutions-oriented problem solvers often seems like training fish to fly.

Complete article

Services Marketing Excellence Awards: Enter Your Submission by 30 June 2001!

Show us your best! Standout performance deserves recognition, and ITSMA's Services Marketing Excellence Awards have recognized special achievement in marketing technology services since 1998. So sharpen your pencils, dig out the data on your star programs, and apply now for the 2001 awards!

Categories for the 2001 awards include:

• Increasing Sales Effectiveness
• Measuring Marketing Results
• Field Marketing Execution
• Solutions Marketing Programs

Awards will be given to the programs that best represent innovation and measurable results.

Past Services Marketing Excellence Award winners have included Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting), Cisco Systems, Eastman Kodak, EDS, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, IBM Global Services, Lucent Technologies, Oracle, and other top IT firms. Applications are due 30 June 2001. ITSMA will notify winners in September 2001 and present the awards during our annual MarketingServices/2001 conference on 15–17 October in Chicago.

For more information, participation guidelines, and application forms, visit http://www.itsma.com/press/sme.htm.

EuroNotes: News and Views from ITSMA Europe

Building a truly "European" marketing organisation is one of the toughest challenges technology services firms must address in creating region-wide success. The continuing progress of the European Monetary Union certainly should help open a few more doors, but the diversity of business cultures makes localisation a continuing imperative. Yet it's not just a matter of hiring local staff in a dozen or more countries, and building mechanisms for collaboration across national borders­although these efforts are both clearly necessary. The ultimate test is leadership: To what extent does your marketing leadership team draw on the best resources from across the continent?

The professional services giant EDS has one answer. Rather than consolidate leadership at a single European headquarters, the firm has spread functional team leaders for European marketing throughout a number of countries to work more closely with country leaders and ensure a multicultural approach to all strategic plans and decisions. Functional leaders remain grounded in the realities of different country and sub-regional needs and nuances. Further, EDS keeps EMEA headquarters staff to a minimum in favour of dedicating most of its marketing resources in Europe to field offices.

The dispersal approach makes a lot of sense, although it no doubt makes some decision making more difficult. What do you think? Can a marketing leadership team based entirely in London or Paris or Geneva manage an effective Europe-wide program? Write to ITSMA Europe and let us know.

–Melanie Oakley <moakley@itsma.com>

For more information on ITSMA Europe please visit http://www.itsma.com/europe/eu_home.htm or contact Melanie Oakley at [44] [01] 1628 527691 or moakley@itsma.com. Meet Melanie at ITSMA Europe's inaugural marketing forum in London on 20–21 June.

Upcoming Events:

19 June 2001, 12:00–1:00 p.m. ET: 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. However, 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 an online 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.

20–21 June 2001: ITSMA Europe's Inaugural Forum: Marketing Technology Services in the New Millennium (London)

ITSMA Europe kicks off its new events program with a two-day marketing forum and workshop that combines discussion with industry leaders with a workshop on managing and marketing the customer experience in Europe. Featured presentations will highlight Accenture's brand launch in Europe, IBM Global Services' comprehensive Web marketing initiatives, Hewlett-Packard's new sales and marketing model, Ericsson's strategy for marketing services in a down market, and Microsoft's efforts to balance direct and channel sales for enterprise services. Christine Carrol, CEO of the Global Future Forum, will also discuss the benefits of thought leadership marketing and a host of practical ideas on turning intellectual capital into competitive advantage. The London Forum is designed specifically for mid- and upper-level managers involved in the creation and/or implementation of services marketing programs and strategies.

For more information or to register online, visit http://www.itsma.com/events/event_desc/e06200101.htm

17 July 2001, 12:00–1:00 p.m. ET: Solutions Marketing: Is It Really Different? (Online Briefing, free for ITSMA members)

Is "solutions" just a useless buzzword, or is marketing solutions really something different, requiring a different approach from marketing products or services? Many ITSMA members are grappling with just this question and struggling to figure out how best to market and sell complex packages of products and services that address specific business needs. Among other things, the firms are improving capabilities to support cross-selling, team selling, and collaborative marketing and selling with partners. Join Julie Schwartz, ITSMA's vice president of research, and Steve Hurley, ITSMA's vice president of learning and performance excellence, for a discussion of the best practices, skills, culture, and behaviors required to succeed in marketing complex, technology-based business solutions.

For more information or to register online, visit http://www.itsma.com/events/event_desc/e07170101.htm

22–23 August 2001: ITSMA's Annual Services Sales Forum (San Francisco)

Sales force productivity tops the hit parade for most technology firms these days. With revenue targets under tremendous pressure, all eyes are on the sales force. Sales, marketing, and business development managers can ill afford to ignore any new idea that might help bolster services sales performance. For the third year in a row, ITSMA will bring together executives and managers responsible for generating and supporting services sales from a wide range of technology and professional services firms. ITSMA's two-day program combines discussions with industry leaders with a special workshop on client-centric selling. Join industry experts from Cisco, IBM Global Services, NCR, BMC Software, and other firms to discuss such critical concerns as managing and growing large accounts, developing effective interactive sales tools, managing sales automation and CRM systems, and leveraging the Internet to increase sales efficiency.

For more information or to register online, visit http://www.itsma.com/events/event_desc/e08220101.htm

Event Sponsorship Opportunities

As the premier industry association for IT services marketing, ITSMA offers event sponsorship opportunities to 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.

Events Calendar for 2001: http://www.itsma.com/aspfiles/Events/calendar.asp

Toolbox: The Customer Pyramid

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.

That customers vary in terms of profitability is not exactly news. But segmenting customers in terms of their contribution to profits remains an underutilized approach in technology services marketing. The Customer Pyramid tool, developed by services marketing experts Valarie Zeithaml, Roland Rust, and Katherine Lemon, can be used to identify, serve, and create profitable customers.

View Customer Pyramid and the complete tool description

Member Voices: It's Never Too Early to Sell a Client on Becoming a Reference

Neil Baron, marketing head, ATG Global Services, Art Technology Group:

No one would question the importance of customer references to services marketing. But getting good and useful references from your best clients can be extremely difficult. Getting a testimonial from a small company is fairly easy. Obtaining one from General Motors or IBM or Citigroup is a whole different story. For one thing, everyone is trying to get these companies to be references, so they will be selective in saying yes. Perhaps even more important, the process can be quite involved. How do the public affairs people feel? Is there an outside PR agency to deal with? Do they want to issue a joint press release? Are you dealing with several different business units?

Given the complexities of dealing with large organizations, it is never too early to begin the process. The best time is right when you start the actual engagement. Plant the seed at the beginning. Ask the project manager how the process works. Find out who you should talk to. It may take just as long to go through the reference system as it does to do the project itself. It also helps the delivery process to have everyone know that you are hoping to make this a reference account. Creating high visibility in both organizations as you do the work is a great motivating factor to make sure the project is a success.

For more information, contact Neil Baron at nbaron@atg.com.

More Member Voices

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 at 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.