CIO and CMO at Omnichannel Crossroads

Today, organizations are connecting with their customers through well-synchronized, software-defined experiences. Home automation systems from Nest and Honeywell are differentiated not on the physical features and capabilities of their hardware, but on the quality of their software.

Travel companies such as Expedia and Orbitz compete to have the best online experience for booking and buying. And that is just to name a few examples. Innovative businesses today understand that, as Forrester Research says, software enriches their brand.

This dramatic technology shift has put the CIO and the CMO at a crossroads, with important implications.

Over the last few years, research has tried to better understand the dichotomy between the two roles when it comes to technology-driven initiatives.

As a result of all of this attention, the conflict that has arisen between shared interests is beginning to smooth out. In fact, a 2013 CIO study suggested 82 percent of CIOs and 77 percent of CMOs felt their relationship with each other was excellent or good. Yet, all the while, technology continues to rapidly evolve, and data generation multiply, which causes the CIO-CMO issue to resurface over and over again.

To determine the state of their often-examined relationship, as well as the more recent impact of omnichannel, global engineering software firm EPAM teamed up with industry leaders from CIO and The CMO Club to survey a combined group of more than 400 CIOs and CMOs.

The team also conducted several one-on-one interviews with leading CIOs and CMOs to better understand how they actually work together. The study looked at how each group perceives their role, ownership of the digital roadmap, and responsibility around technology funding and staffing.

The paper discusses three critical crossroads that were identified in the study:

1. Miscommunication Harms the Bottom Line
2. Technology Funding is a Tug of War
3. The Omnichannel Flashpoint is Mobile