Insights Blog

With the latest economic news, CTOs and CIOs are once again seeking opportunities for short term cost savings. Outsourcing critical services to specialized vendors has been a favorite strategy of the CIO under pressure to reduce costs and improve service. Now CMOs are looking to steal a page from their business team rivals. Progressive CMOs are reexamining the productivity of dedicated marketing teams for SEO, content development, social media, web support, eMarketing and eCommerce, and are reducing costs by outsourcing these specialized business functions.
CIOs turned to outsourcing in early 1990, and again in 2001 and 2008, seeking an alternative to providing business services in-house, particularly when those services are not considered to be within the core competency of their business. IT executives have allowed third parties to work closely within the business units to provide expertise, meeting a clearly defined service level. As a result, the IT department could reduce fixed headcount while preserving the option to add staff externally as business changed. This flexibility allowed for greater efficiency. And in most cases, the specialized management of the process provided improved service.

This time, CMOs are seeking the same opportunity for a wide variety of functions now caught in the soft area between the IT function and the marketing organization. These functions require technical skills, proven processes and dedicated teams. Outsourcing combines the advantages of the work being done by an agency with specialized skills and the close working relationship and knowledge retention achieved with in-house teams. CMOs gain an advantage by outsourcing these specialized business functions to a new type of professional services firm.

Recently, CIO Magazine advised CIOs to avoid fast-tracking sourcing negotiations and invest savings to improve operations while shedding old processes that don’t help the brand. At Trellist, we think this is sound advice for the CMO, as well. An analysis of marketing operations will allow the CMO to determine which functions will achieve the greatest gains through outsourcing.

CMOs now get it, and they are looking very closely at this new approach to productivity and flexibility. To support this demand, Trellist Resource Management Division provides Outsourcing for more than 30 different professional service functions within the Trellist core competencies. This segment is the fastest growing area inside the Resource Management Division. Now both CIOs and CMOs have access to specialized outsourcing teams to leverage creative cost reduction within their business units.