It is time to make the formal and long overdue introduction. Marketing execs get busy meeting the IT gang---for you may not recognize it yet, but you covet their skills. Chances are you are working hard to find who on your team of "marketing scientists" or "marketing artists" can build a savvy requirements document for the very willing, but very underqualified agency of marketing artists you call 'vendor'. They want your project and they will nod their heads they know what you are talking about (even when you guys don't really
know what you are talking about)....but, use your intuition, s
omething is wrong. The agency is taking the requirements from you without any collaboration. It is a one-way.
I am sorry to inform you if you do not already know----they are simply brokering your job to another more sophisticated technology firm. A willing partner adding no value always costs too much. Break it down: First, your own staff. Are you a technically literate marketing team? Do you know what language you want the application coded in? Do you? Do you want your Salesforce expert stretching away from lead creation to become an application developer wanna-be? Next, you are now engaging in a bunch of kindergarten can and string conversations between you---the agency---the real programmer. I see severe and unncessary cost and timeline creep and so do you. But, I also see an end product that will not run on the firm's backbone, the website or the client location.
In fact, I have been there. I have seen it. I have come in to rescue it. You see---
the story goes there was a great idea for an application slated to save on sales training that took thousands of the now dwindling budget to correct. The launch is 7 months behind schedule and there has been no return for the initial investment. I hope this does not sound familiar....because if you do not have the skilled staff today, you are missing today's results.
