Is IT important?

The value of IT can never be understated. One can see its ubiquity,
its presence in virtually all the business processes. There may not be
many industries not depending on IT for its day to day activities.

But has the IT dept got the value it deserves? There are many
effective organizations and leaders whose value has been completely
overlooked due to lack of problems! They have been waylaid by the
perception that "everything works fine, so you guys must not be doing
anything", swiftly followed by the "what have you done for me lately?"
yardstick. They had made the mistake of not marketing themselves to
their internal customers. Their effort for a silent and efficient
operation became the negative perception of their effort and
productivity.

When was the last time you called your local telephone service
provider and thanked them for bringing you a dial tone? When was the
last time you called your local power company to thank them for
keeping your lights on? When was the last time your department was
credited for consistently delivering more value for less money,
regardless of how the rate of consumption increases?

It is highly likely that your own customers, no matter how closely you
work with them, have become habituated to the services provided and
have no understanding of the complexity involved in their delivery.
Assumptions give rise to incorrect or undesired conclusions.

The importance of IT (to everyone) Information technology, while
arguably one of the most important infrastructure elements in a
corporate operating backbone, is also one of the most underpublicized,
undermarketed, and misunderstood components of any corporation. There
are two primary contributors to this lack of understanding. The first
is a complete misinterpretation of the maxim "The customer is always
right." The second is that marketing, in the form necessary to connect
with the customer, is just plain difficult and is viewed as an
inconsequential luxury by most IT organizations, which are already
under constant pressure to perform with declining funding and often
contradictory business directives

So what to do? How to go ahead marketing IT? does it require a plan?
Well, for any formal marketing, a plan is necessary. I'll put that
later.