European technology companies today face a number of challenging market
conditions, including:
Sluggish, uneven market growth across countries and sectors
Increasing competitive pressure from both global and local players
Growing client demand to work across internal silos and beyond company
boundaries to win or retain deals
Where cost cutting and operational reform were key to achieving high
levels of profitability and growth in recent years, today they are no
longer enough.
Today, top-line growth is coming from the ability to leverage capabilities
and expertise across the business—internally and externally—to
create multiple points of differentiation and make every part of the
business better and more competitive. But achieving and sustaining this
level of collaboration is an extremely difficult task, particularly for
the large enterprise, and many companies have not yet found a way to “institutionalise” collaboration.
In mid-May, ITSMA brought together some of the best and brightest European
IT services marketers to explore best practices in collaborating with
customers, partners, influencers, and colleagues. Highlights from the
session are described here.
Make It Real—Collaboration is not just a marketing
platform; if your company is not particularly collaborative, you
must work to change corporate culture before touting this message.
Capgemini has done a good job of delivering on its promise to provide
its clients with a “collaborative business experience.” George
Miller, Capgemini’s marketing director for the U.K. and Ireland,
shared examples such as the Accelerated Solutions Environment workshops
that Capgemini uses to scope projects with prospects over several
intensive days together. When it has taken this collaborative approach
in the U.K. and Ireland, Capgemini has never lost a bid.
Be Crystal Clear—Knowing when and how to collaborate
with partners is fundamental to your partner strategy, because any
inconsistency around this decision can lead to sour relationships
and channel conflict. Maureen Vontz Doolan, head of business strategy
at Microsoft Europe, highlighted the importance of external partners
to Microsoft’s service strategy. With a focus on “blue
sky” projects, Microsoft’s own service team is clear
about its remit, which amounts to just 7% of all potential service
revenues from Microsoft technologies.
Keep It Fresh—Finding new ways to collaborate with
existing contacts is key to advancing innovative new thinking—and
growth!—to your business. Richard Grove, group marketing director
of LogicaCMG, constantly strives to evolve and change the nature
of LogicaCMG’s marketing relationships with both internal and
external constituencies. He regularly uses his finance director to
make sales calls when the company is targeting the FD of a prospect
or client organization as part of a sales process. This practice
has not only brought marketing and finance together in a new way;
it has also improved relationships with prospects.
Plan Together—Per Kristiansson, Lucent’s director
of marketing and strategy for the EMEA region, underlined the importance
of bringing together international teams and different functions
to plan for future business growth. Recognizing a need to establish
a more structured process for growing the business, the company brought
together the services, product sales, business intelligence, and
business planning divisions to reassess the market and rethink where
to allocate resources to maximise sustainable growth and outperform
the market. A centralized budget allocation ensures that resources
are allocated only to key focus areas going forward.
Go Above and Beyond in Times of Stress—Terry Corby,
director of global marketing at Accenture, explored the many ways
in which marketing and human resources need to work together every
day to build a strong services brand, recruit the right people, and
reinforce the right behaviors. He also noted that exceptional situations
such as mergers and acquisitions require an even deeper level of
collaboration between marketing and HR teams to ensure that the M&A
is leveraged beyond the straightforward blending of physical assets.
Techniques that work here include:
Working together to communicate early and often with
staff in each organization
Recognizing the differences and acknowledging the strengths
of each organization
Finding a few things the “acquired” team
does right and adopting those techniques into the new parent company
Most of all, involving employees in the decisions taken
around the future business
Ultimately, the most important thing to keep in mind is that collaborative
relationships are just that—relationships. They’re living,
breathing things that change all the time, making flexibility and adaptability
critical to success. So be firm in your commitment to collaboration,
clear in your terms, experimental in your approach, structured in your
planning, and dedicated in times of difficulty—and don’t
forget to let us know about the progress you're making!
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.
