February 2006

New technology, particularly Internet technology, has impacted every single industry vertical in existence. Different industries have shown different rates of acceptance and adoption of the tools that are presented to them by various vendors. In a great majority of cases, the person or persons within an organization that will actually review new technology is within the IT department…a technical person or engineer by nature. Historically, it has been incredibly difficult for a new technology offering to actually get shown to the person that it will most impact on a day to day basis. This is true with online communications technology.

 

Corporate Communications professionals are in the midst of a ‘crisis of respect.’ They are overworked and underappreciated. They are the first to get blamed. They are not respected by the journalist audience that they serve and they are not respected by their colleagues in the IT or web group within their own organizations. It is in this disconnected and often hostile environment that a communications professional must assess new tools that can help them do their jobs better and more efficiently and present the case to purchase them.

 

Over the past few years, I have been on all sides of this scenario. As a business communicator I have been presented with good technology badly shown. I have developed technology of my own to solve problems that I saw no off-the-shelf solution for. And I’ve moderated hundreds of implementations of online newsrooms for Fortune 1000 clients where in many cases the IT person and the communications person within the same company had never been introduced.

 

It is from this position that I’d like to offer up anecdotal evidence, case studies and factual data that will help communications professional win the respect of their peers and make concrete technology decisions that will help them moving forward. Included in this will be a simple checklist of questions that need to be answered and guidance on how to ask the right questions. Examples include:

1. Is it easy to use?
2. Is it affordable?
3. Does it support my existing brand?
4. Does it support my existing workflow?
5. Does it create real bottom-line ROI?
6. Is it proven in the marketplace?
7. Can I make a decision about this in one hour or less?

An analogy can illustrate the disconnect between communications and IT. A professional race car driver is uncomfortable in the seat of his race car. His hands tend to sweat while in the midst of a race. Scenario 1: Driver pulls together his entire pit crew, including the car’s designers, the team management, race officials and his family. He tells them that he needs to improve his performance on the track and needs buy-in from everyone. Take away items from the meeting include the designer looking at new venting, management scheduling regular massage therapy for the driver, the family stressing about their financial future, and the race officials looking at ways to cool the asphalt better.

Scenario 2: Driver buys a new pair of gloves.