Despite clear recognition of the business need, most IT and marketing organizations are still a long way off from true collaboration, according to a new Forrester study conducted jointly with Forbes, surveying 300-plus marketing and IT leaders.

"It's clear the CMO and CIO haven't reached power couple status quite yet," says Forrester VP and Principal Analyst Sheryl Pattek. "In order to thrive in the age of the customer, CMOs and CIOs must collectively turn their attention to defining a marketing technology strategy that supports the business and delivers the goods — the ability to create a single view of the customer that produces actionable insights and consistent customer experiences."

Survey findings include:

Misalignment in communication of strategic priorities: One of the largest gaps between IT and marketing responses was around the ability of the two organizations to communicate each other's priorities. Some 68% of IT leaders believe they can communicate marketing's strategic priorities, while just 49% of marketers share this sentiment toward IT.

Joint ownership of marketing technology projects: CIOs and CMOs are beginning to see alignment on marketing technology projects, with 70% of IT and more than half of marketing agreeing that "marketing and IT have shared ownership/responsibility for marketing technology projects."

Producing actionable insights based on customer intelligence: CMOs and CIOs have their work cut out for them to establish an acceptable level of customer insights to drive business growth. The disparity of agreement between marketing (42%) and IT (57%) respondents on this topic demonstrated one of the largest gaps in the survey.

A recent Oracle executive survey with Social Media Today and Leader Networks supports these findings. The study of more than 900 marketing and technology executives, titled Socially Driven Collaboration, examined the current level of collaboration present in organizations and found that although both marketing and IT organizations cite strong business benefits from collaborating across departments, there is still room for improvement.

Key Findings:

Marketing and technology roles are changing: Both marketers and IT leaders report seeing their roles evolve due to a greater emphasis on social business activities. Both groups indicate they now have the ability to collaborate more effectively. They also recognize the need to acquire new skills and hire new skillsets to meet the needs of today's evolving digital, mobile and social landscape.

Marketers lead the collaboration charge: Marketing respondents were more likely to report a higher level of collaboration than their IT/technology counterparts.

Current collaboration leaves room for growth: Only 36 percent of marketing respondents and 26 percent of IT/technology respondents report collaborating with each other “frequently” on projects. Slightly more than half of marketing and IT/technology respondents classify their collaboration as “adequate.” Sixteen percent of IT/technology respondents reported that collaboration with marketing is “non-existent.”

Despite challenges, collaboration is better than before: Very few respondents reported collaborating less than they did a year ago. Moreover, 41 percent of marketing and 38 percent of IT/technology leaders indicate improved collaboration from last year.

Collaboration delivers business value: More than two thirds of both marketing and technology leaders stated that they are "more effective" professionally due to increased collaboration. Reported benefits included stronger and more compelling marketing messages, faster speed-to-market, greater product adoption, project cost reductions, and fewer defects in product and services.

Related Links:

Forrester Blog: CMOs And CIOs: The New C-Suite Power Couple?

Accenture Article: The CMO-CIO Disconnect: Bridging the Gap to Seize the Digital Opportunity to Improve Customer Experience