Dear members and colleagues,

Just before New Year's Eve, National Public Radio played a number of alternatives to the traditional year-end favorite, "Auld Lang Syne." Perhaps not surprisingly, the top choice was "Thank God It's Over." It certainly was a tough year for many of us, with deep cuts affecting many members and friends of ITSMA. Looking ahead, though, I'm confident that we will emerge smarter, more focused, and better positioned for success. Our inaugural E-ZINE for 2002 highlights a number of key issues for the year ahead, including marketing CRM services, sales support, and solutions marketing. Please also take a look at our 2002 research agenda, our events calendar, and, if you haven't already, consider signing up for our annual "State of the Profession" briefing on January 24.

—Dave Munn, president and CEO, dmunn@itsma.com

What's Hot: 360° Brand Assessments

The strategic emphasis on brand has been one of the most important developments in IT services marketing over the last five years. Market leaders like IBM Global Services, Accenture, and EDS have been the most visible, but the majority of ITSMA members now dedicate substantial resources to defining, developing, and strengthening their brands. They have all come to understand the connections between building broad awareness and shaping market perceptions on the one hand and generating leads, accelerating sales cycles, and winning deals on the other.

Research is a critical component of any brand initiative. Without research, marketers attempting to evaluate brand strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities fall back on anecdotal evidence and personal perceptions. Surprisingly, though, few if any IT services marketing organizations have created a comprehensive, ongoing brand research program.

Periodic assessments of brand awareness and favorability in target markets are common enough. Many technology firms spend hundreds of thousands of dollars—or more—surveying customers and prospects. But this expenditure yields only a partial view of a brand's true position in the market. Obtaining a broader view requires equal attention to other key constituencies such as employees, partners, and analysts.

ITSMA recommends that companies adopt a "360° brand assessment." This approach would incorporate ongoing research with the six constituencies that most influence a company's brand.

• Existing clients. How do they perceive your company's strengths and weaknesses compared with those of key competitors? How loyal are they? Do they provide positive word of mouth? Do they understand the full range of your company's capabilities? How credible are your attempts to extend the brand into new lines of business?
• Target prospects. What level of awareness exists? How much do prospects know about you? How is your company perceived in relation to key competitors? What attributes do target prospects value most about you and your competitors?
• Employees. In a fundamental way, employees are the brand in a services company. How well do your employees represent core brand promises and messages? How do their perceptions of company strengths and weaknesses compare with the perceptions of existing clients and target prospects?
• Business partners. The growing reliance on partners for services sales and delivery creates new sources of risk and influence for your brand. How well do your partners represent your brand? How do they perceive your strengths and weaknesses in relation to their other partners? In what markets do they show more or less preference for working with you?
• Industry influencers. Journalists, industry analysts, and other experts serve as megaphones, positively or negatively, for your brand. How aware are they of your company and your track record? Do they understand and accept your key messages? How do they stack you up against key competitors?
• Investors. Investors and their representatives, especially Wall Street analysts and institutional investment managers, similarly serve to amplify your brand messages. What do they think? What are they looking for with companies in your markets?

Gathering in-depth, consistent, and usable data from all six constituencies is no small task. But obtaining a broad-based view of all the contributors to your brand's strengths and weaknesses is a vital component of a sophisticated brand management strategy. Without identifying differences in brand perceptions across constituencies as well as within them, it is difficult to fine-tune strategies and messages to increase brand equity. And the key is consistency. Absent a coordinated approach to asking everyone the same questions on a regular basis, identifying problems and opportunities will remain all too limited.

ITSMA brand research with multiple constituencies has often pointed to important perception gaps. One firm's employees had a much more negative perception of the firm's offerings than did clients, thus creating the potential for employees to undermine the brand. Another firm showed significant differences in brand perception among clients and prospects in different markets.

If anything, the value of a strong brand has become clearer since the economic downturn. Buyers are more skeptical of services provider capabilities, and brand strength is a critical factor in generating consideration and preference. Brand research thus becomes even more important in today's market. The challenge is to create a balanced and consistent approach that helps build brand equity among all influential constituencies.

—Rob Leavitt

For more information on ITSMA's 360° brand assessment capabilities, contact Julie Schwartz, vice president of research, at +1-781-862-8500, ext. 12, or jschwartz@itsma.com.

Research Desk

Challenges and Opportunities for CRM Services Providers (Research Excerpt)

ITSMA's forthcoming report, Customer Relationship Management Services: Understanding Brand Awareness and Positioning in the CRM Services Market, provides essential data on buyer awareness, knowledge, and perceptions of leading CRM software and services providers. Companies featured in the report include Accenture, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, EDS, IBM Global Services, Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, Siebel Systems, among others. The following excerpt from the report highlights the most important CRM services firm attributes, according to Fortune 1000 and government buyers, and the greatest gaps between desired attributes and perceived performance.

Business and government buyers have clear priorities when evaluating CRM services providers. The most important firm attributes include the following:

• Is reputable and financially stable
• Is agile and responsive to its clients' needs
• Is able to integrate new CRM systems with existing systems
• Works collaboratively
• Can customize a solution to meet your unique business needs
• Prices competitively

Of lesser importance are attributes such as leadership in e-business and the Internet, having a broad network of partners, and visionary "out-of-the-box" thinking. Successful marketers will highlight and bolster those attributes of most interest to target prospects and put less emphasis on other attributes.

In addition, marketers should focus attention on those areas where buyers see particularly large gaps between desired attributes and the perceived performance of the industry as a whole. ITSMA analysis reveals that CRM services providers collectively are falling short especially in three areas:

• Price competitiveness
• Agility and responsiveness to client needs
• Ability to keep CRM implementation projects simple

These perceived gaps in industry performance point to specific areas of marketing opportunity and CRM services providers should take address them directly in their marketing initiatives.

Customer Relationship Management Services: Understanding Brand Awareness and Positioning in the CRM Services Market was distributed recently to study sponsors. The report will be available for purchase at member and non-member prices in February 2002.

EMC's Push to Sell Services (New Case Study)

In August 2001, EMC President and CEO Joseph Tucci set a goal of almost doubling the contribution of services to EMC revenue within two years, from 11 percent to at least 20 percent. Like most IT firms in today's economic climate, EMC faces increased competition, margin pressures, and longer sales cycles on the product side. The firm's executives believe that offering a broader scope of services can help EMC strengthen differentiation, better meet customer needs, and increase market share.

One of the firm's biggest challenges in meeting Tucci's goal, according to Cynthia Curtis, director of marketing for EMC Global Services, is building credibility with EMC's vaunted sales force. ITSMA's new Case Study highlights six initiatives that Global Services marketing team has developed to inspire sales force commitment to the new services strategy, including leveraging existing credibility with customer services and building an integrated sales process. The Case Study also highlights several external initiatives for building market awareness of EMC's new approach and discusses initial successes in strengthening services sales and delivery.

"EMC's Push to Sell Services" is available free to ITSMA members only. For more information, visit [http://www.itsma.com/Research/abstracts/cs0001.htm].

From Services to Solutions: Comprehensive Approaches to Solutions Marketing (New Update)

The movement toward "solutions marketing" by IT services providers has become a veritable stampede over the last year. Sales pitches, marketing campaigns, and advertisements these days all highlight "solutions."

While there is great emphasis on solutions, there is little industry convergence on a consistent approach for going to market as a solutions provider. This Update helps clarify key issues and challenges that surround solutions marketing, and outlines three organizational approaches. Solutions marketing examples from Honeywell, IBM, and KPMG Consulting illustrate the three approaches.

From Services to Solutions was distributed recently to all ITSMA member delegates and is now available for wider distribution (to members) and for sale (to nonmembers). For more information or to get your copy, contact your company's delegate, visit http://www.itsma.com/Research/abstracts/u0035.htm.

ITSMA's 2002 Research Agenda

As a member-driven organization, ITSMA relies heavily on its members to provide suggestions and direction for our research offerings. Generally speaking, we orient our research agenda around the ITSMA Services Marketing Framework, which covers all critical aspects of a comprehensive, client-centric marketing program. In that context, we try to zero in on those specific issues that our members identify as their most urgent short- and longer-term concerns.

Here is a preliminary look at some of the topics we'll focus on in the months ahead. Each topic includes one or more areas of special emphasis (noted in parentheses):

• Strategy and market planning (business intelligence, brand development, the role of research)
• Solutions management (new solutions development, portfolio management, pricing and packaging)
• Internal and external communications (thought leadership, Web marketing, internal marketing)
• Relationship management (reference management, account management strategies, loyalty programs)
• Marketing infrastructure (marketing automation tools, staff development)
• Sales support (sales tools, account management, marketing's role in accelerating the sales cycle, customer decision making)
• Business partners (collaborative marketing, partner management)

Members and nonmembers alike can benefit from our research in several ways, including the ITSMA E-ZINE, our membership deliverables, and our multiclient and custom research, as well as our education and training programs.

Upcoming Events

January 24: Services Marketing 2002: State of the Profession (Online Briefing; free for ITSMA members)

It's that time of the year again: Time to take stock of 2001 and look ahead to 2002. Join Julie Schwartz, ITSMA's vice president of research, as she reviews the most prominent trends and issues affecting services marketing and sales today. Highlighting ITSMA's latest research results as well as six years of extensive benchmarking data on services marketing and sales practices, Julie will discuss the current state of the profession and provide a road map for success in 2002.

For more information or to register online, visit http://www.itsma.com/events/event_desc/e01240200.htm or contact Lore Griffith at +1-781-862-8500, ext. 19, or lgriffith@itsma.com.

March 13-14: Creating Market-Focused Growth, Workshop with Dr. Lynn Phillips (San Francisco, CA)

Lynn Phillips is back with a perennial ITSMA favorite. Thriving in today's market depends not only on targeting the right customer segments but also on delivering a profitable value proposition to those segments better than any competitors. Creating Market-Focused Growth is designed to help marketers deal with many of their biggest challenges, including defining and delivering better value to current customers, attracting new customers with superior value offerings, and providing and communicating value to their customers more effectively and efficiently.

For more information or to register online, visit http://www.itsma.com/events/event_desc/e03140200.htm or contact Lore Griffith at +1-781-862-8500, ext. 19, or lgriffith@itsma.com.

Complete 2002 Events Calendar: http://www.itsma.com/aspfiles/Events/calendar.asp

EuroNotes: Terry Hannington and the 2002 Euro Programme Agenda

ITSMA is excited to announce the appointment of Terry Hannington as managing director of ITSMA Europe. Hannington will be responsible for expanding ITSMA's presence and capabilities in Europe and overseeing all of ITSMA's European research, training, consulting, and thought leadership events.

"I am extremely pleased to have someone of Terry's character and background leading ITSMA's growing European organization," said Dave Munn, president & CEO of ITSMA. "Terry has more than 30 years of services marketing, strategy, sales, consulting, and operations experience with a range of leading technology companies in Europe, which gives him a unique vantage point to advise marketing leaders working with ITSMA Europe."

"ITSMA members in Europe are at the forefront of the IT services industry," stated Hannington. "To fulfil our promise of helping companies improve marketing results, ITSMA Europe must provide insight on how marketing is evolving and pointers to where marketers need to guide investment to have the greatest impact."

"We're extremely excited about our 2002 plan," Hannington continued. "We look forward to an ambitious programme of research, briefings, and events designed to keep marketers at the forefront of marketing practices in Europe."

Specific research questions and areas of interest for ITSMA Europe include the following:

• How are marketing groups communicating internally both up and down the organisation to influence results?
• How are European marketers measuring marketing programmes and performance?
• What do internal customers expect from marketing and where are the gaps?
• How does successful brand management turn a company's brand into a sustainable reputation?
• What technologies will have the most profound impact on service organisations in the coming years?
• What marketing, branding, and sales factors most influence purchasing decisions for services?
• How do buyers of IT and telecom services choose among qualified providers?

"Above all," said Hannington, "ITSMA Europe must facilitate dialogue between members to spread best practices and innovative ideas. I intend to be accessible to members and non-members, and I welcome any contact that helps me to understand your needs better."

Toolbox: Marketing Performance Audit

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

With all eyes on marketing to drive revenue and results, accountability for marketing performance is at an all-time high. Notwithstanding the difficulties in measuring marketing performance, senior marketers are on the hot seat to demonstrate that scarce dollars are indeed being put to good use.

To help marketers respond to heightened expectations, ITSMA is now offering all corporate members a free Marketing Performance Audit. The audit provides members with a strategic review of marketing performance based on critical benchmarks in areas ranging from profitability to client satisfaction and loyalty.

Read ITSMA's Marketing Performance Audit for a description of the tool and a guide to the implementation process.

In the News: ITSMA's Pricing Study

• Consulting Alert: Study: Price Not Dealmaker on IT Professional Services Work (PDF)
• eWeek: Survey: IT Controls the Tech Budget
• CIO.com: Behind the Numbers: Companies Say Vendors' Technical Skills Matter

Do you have a services marketing question?
Visit Ask ITSMA to access our experience, insight, and research results.

(c) Copyright 2002, ITSMA

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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.