Marketing and IT BFFs?

Yes, I said Marketing and IT. Really.

With any website or CRM program that has to integrate with a legacy billing system, marketing and IT have to work together and it’s much more fun if you can enjoy the experience. Dealing with data is an exact science. Dealing with data from an old, legacy billing system that was never designed to display the data or use it for customization of any kind, is a big hairy beast of a project that requires patience and collaboration from both Marketing and IT.

I’ve spent much of my career specializing in database marketing strategies. This means I’ve spent hours and hours working with IT and learning about select criteria, data pulls, file layouts, look-up tables, queries, API’s etc. I actually enjoy it. Most data problems are just logic puzzles…kind of like Sudoku. In the words of the very wise Weird Al Yankovic, I’m white and nerdy!

In my current position, one of my biggest projects is managing our replicating websites and shopping cart. I spend alot of my time with the Director of IT. We bonded from day one. He ‘covered’ for me on this project while I was on vacation. How often does IT cover for Marketing?

So yes, the Directors of Marketing and IT are BFFs…he loves soccer, Netherlands is his favorite non-US team, he has a spreadsheet charting all the winners of Survivor, and he drinks Jack and Coke.