One of the first challenges John Leonti encounters when he is asked to help a new company sift through its marketing operations is technology. There’s either too much overlap or too many gaps. Regardless of where the chips fall in the equation, Leonti, who consults on marketing operations like complete funnel analysis, optimizations and technology analysis, likes to take a deep dive into the company’s goals and objectives. The process typically involves sitting down with the stakeholders and players across the organization, honing in on their wants and needs, and how they measure success. Over the years, the longtime marketing operations leader has worked feverishly to transform marketing frameworks and lead-to-revenue processes using integrated innovative technology and sophisticated data analytics. “The biggest and continuous impact of evolution has been in the technology now offered to support marketing. Twenty years ago, you had just a few options; 10 years ago you had a couple of thousand marketing technologies and now that number has grown five-fold.”

In the end, Leonti says your marketing operations are only as strong as the integrated strategy, technology and execution you employ across different teams and stages of the marketing supply chain. “A strong marketing operations function bridges the divide between sales and marketing, creating an ecosystem that enhances both sales and marketing as it relates to demand generation. The creation of a strong working agreement (SLA) between marketing and sales is key to drive alignment.”

For example, a marketing operations leader should have a strong process background and be able to sift through the noise to define the resource requirements to manage the platform, understand what technology is needed to improve the business and enhance the process by which it is executed. Lastly, it takes vision for how to scale.

“Data is the key,” Leonti says. “Understanding who your customer is critical. I see a trend where experience is really needed to have a steady hand on the wheel, but the reality is companies see the role as necessary, but not necessarily strategic and hence don’t get the experience really needed. In many cases, a marketing operations leader is at the tail end of building a marketing team and ecosystem, when it should be made a top priority. This would allow the proper foundation to be constructed early on.”

When Manny Cuevas looks at the marketing landscape, he no longer sees a world where you simply reward the funnel with a lunch date or a dozen of bagels on Friday morning. Today, we live in (and it is continually changing) a distributed and global workplace. For example, when it comes to areas like event marketing, a merch kit with custom packaging and personalized note needs to arrive quickly and in white glove shape.

In a time when processes are being driven by technological forces, the involvement of “operations team members” continues to grow as it relates to marketing teams accessing materials. From ALMADEN’s perspective, marketers are noticing that inclusion of operations is a powerful thing—not only with sales and leadership, but also with internal teams that touch their “tech stack” and facilitate the marketing automation and revenue motion process.

What started out as one individual joining a call to facilitate a single intellectual bridge has now become an important part of the vetting and implementation of service provider programs. “We’ve observed the role of marketing ops supporting a marketing team with tech stack and CRM requirements is now only a portion of the ecosystem,” says Cuevas, VP for the marketing supply chain services provider. “While conjecture on my part, I feel that speed to field is the motivating factor. Marketers don’t have time to wait. Revenue is king.”

Take the growing landscape of event marketing, where marketers are still learning to perfect the delicate balance of ordering, shipping and monitoring promotional and marketing materials. ALMADEN, which combines technology with manufacturing, distribution and professional project management, understands the importance of utilizing a technology tool to facilitate logistics.

“Getting signage, collateral and promos out to the field and back is critical to scale and build efficient campaign management,” Cuevas says. “You also need real-time reporting, which includes gathering data from campaign splash pages or gifting platforms to make fact-based decision-making.”

Ask any marketing team and they will tell you that hurdles still exist, including decentralized vendor networks and acute pain tolerance. Many times, ALMADEN will hear stories about departments that are far too busy to address the issues, and have to settle for poor customer service and outdated tools. There also are horror stories about having the bandwidth to reduce and/or centralize vendors, mostly with promotional product providers. Additionally inventory management is non-existent.

“We’ve seen Fortune 500 companies with marketing materials in office storage closets, under desks and in employee garages,” Cuevas says. “Marketers suffer through a lot because they don’t have a managed marketing supply chain. It comes down to being good listeners. Then, you try to understand three things: users, SKUs and business rules. Once we understand the ‘as is,’ we can share how we conduct business—provide use case examples and success stories. Our key strategy is to stay in a consultative state of mind and offer value—don’t try and sell something that is not needed or scalable.”

As marketing operations continue to evolve, the role of technology and strategic integration will become more critical than ever. By prioritizing the integration of marketing operations early in the process, companies can overcome logistical challenges, streamline their supply chains. That will mean more impactful, data-driven marketing strategies that resonate in today’s fast-paced, global marketplace.