Marketing operations is in the midst of a major revolution. While the tools of marketing have changed dramatically over the past 25 years, the operational systems and processes have remained relatively stagnant. Most organizations use desktop productivity tools and e-mail to plan, deliver, and ultimately execute their marketing activities. This is not necessarily a best practice, but a kind of “stalwart tradition” that has been passed on from marketing department to marketing department through the decades.

The good news is that companies all over the world are moving from paralysis to action. Most of these companies will start small and take a crawl, stand, walk, run approach that will ultimately grow their investment based on the return they glean from their initial efforts.

As companies take the first steps along this path, they look for ways to assess where they are starting from and how to define a path that aligns with the best practices already proven to be effective in the real world. A useful tool for this assessment is a framework called a maturity model. These have already been developed for a wide variety of technology and business processes. They aggregate the experiences that many organizations that have gone through from the growth curve of ad hoc and unstructured processes to a highly optimized end state. The Marketing Operations Maturity Model developed at my company provides the following benefits:

· It communicates to everyone involved that improvements in marketing operations come through a systematic and multiphase approach.

o A single “process improvement project” will not deliver the value that is sought after.

· It gives everyone a place to start.

o Oftentimes organizations that have severely broken operational processes are overwhelmed by the task ahead. The model breaks the mountain down to a series of steps that can be conquered over a period of several years.

· It provides a framework for prioritizing actions.

o Organizations are always faced with the challenge of allocating resources to these types of efforts. The model helps to focus these investments on steps that will allow the achievement of next steps.

· It allows organizations to understand the experience and challenges that other companies have faced in their journey to marketing effectiveness.

o The knowledge gained from other companies tackling the maturity model should be used to expedite your efforts. You shouldn’t blaze trails that have already been cleared.

· Finally, the Marketing Operations Maturity Model provides a means of assessing an organization’s success.

o The accumulated data allows comparisons across multiple companies to provide a benchmark from which to measure success.

Organizations that begin a journey of this type will face numerous challenges and obstacles before they reach their ultimate success level. In talking with companies all over the world, the struggle for progress is universal and can sometimes be overwhelming. With average tenure of a Chief Marketing Officer now under two years (and shrinking), the need for operational enhancements to provide transparent value is higher than ever before. When new leadership arrives on the scene, process owners can show how they are aligned to one of the steps in the Marketing Operations Maturity Model. When other organizational changes occur–ranging from tactical reorganizations all the way to broad consolidation of multiple marketing organization–huge pressure are placed on the marketing organization to move in a new direction. Again, the model can serve as an anchor to stay the course in turbulent times.

Our Model for Growth

The Marketing Operations Maturity Model is based on the ISO 9000 marketing framework that has been used extensively by companies to evaluate the efficiency of their processes relative to a global standard of proven value and excellence. Thus, the framework uses the same basic steps starting with chaos and ending in a fully optimized state.

Ad hoc	Ad hoc is the raw state of marketing without any explicit attempt to automate the processes. These organizations depend on the heroic efforts of a few individual to survive.
Repeatable	Marketing organizations usually reach a repeatable level after they have made their first significant effort to document their process and implement some type of MRM software to ensure that new processes are followed.
Managed	The Managed level of maturity is really a refinement of the gains that were established in the Repeatable level. Organizations reach this plateau after they have extended their investments in marketing technology and process improvements.
Optimized	Very few marketing organizations have achieved the Optimized level. Typically, this level of achievement requires three to five years of continued investment and focus on improvement in process and measurement.

The reality is that most marketing organizations find themselves at the Ad Hoc level. In many cases, this initial “point of departure” is not a pretty one. Many companies describe a particular event or situation that finally forces them to make a serious commitment to improving their marketing productivity. One of our customers described an event referred to as the Valentine’s Day Massacre where a large campaign designed to go live for Valentine’s Day resulted in a series of expensive and stressful missteps. The marketing operations team used this event as a focal point to study the cost of operational ineffectiveness. The results of this investigation were used as a business case to justify the beginning of their journey and leave the world of operational chaos behind.

Expected Results

Companies that embark on a journey through the process can achieve substantial results measured by productivity, marketing effectiveness and employee morale. Investments in moving through the process typically return a positive ROI within 18 to 36 months after making the initial investment. Hard returns are usually derived from decreased waste, such as rush charges and reduced head count. Broader and more strategic returns derive from strategic alignment to marketing objectives, improved flexibility of process and greatly reduced cycle time.

Michael Emerson is the Chief Marketing Officer of Aprimo. For more information on the Marketing Operations Maturity Model, please contact Michael at Michael.emerson@aprimo.com. Company: Aprimo