The Big Data-Driven Business

Chapter 4The Marketing Stack—Why CMOs and CIOs Are Working Together

Marketing automation software. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Data management platforms. Analytics tools. These are the weapons in a marketing arms race; these are the technologies that provide marketers with the data they need to gather insights into their customers and prospects and to measure the impact of their marketing programs. When these technologies are integrated together in what is called the marketing technology stack, the data they generate can be even more powerful.

The elements of the marketing technology stack enable marketers to see what their prospects and customers are doing online, to read their digital body language. With the transformative changes to the buyer's journey, these software programs are the radar and the night-vision goggles of the marketing world, tools that allow marketers to see their targets in conditions where before they could see very little.

In this new era, having a data-driven CMO who understands IT is critical to success. That's because marketers need technology to be able to collect and process the data that helps them target prospects, communicate with customers, and measure marketing program performance. Motorola Solutions believes that IT is so crucial to marketing success that Eduardo Conrado, who holds the title of senior vice president of marketing and IT, oversees both departments.

To take advantage of data, marketers must now understand IT ...