As technology standardizes and becomes ubiquitous, it is the human element of IT that becomes a critical path to customer and user satisfaction -- and IT success.

Today's IT systems and the services they comprise are becoming commodities. As commodities, the hardware and software artifacts composing IT systems get faster, cheaper, and better at predictable pace.

With the increased availability of telecommunications transmission systems such as the Internet and cellular and cable communications, the quantity of businesses and individuals relying upon IT services rises annually. With this increase in usage comes increased dependency, which places significant burdens upon both the consumers and producers of IT services.

IT services and IT service providers have a direct and growing impact on IT consumers who rely upon IT services. Yet the complexity and ubiquity of modern IT services conspire to create a murky situation in which understanding which hardware, software, network and human resource does what, for whom, when, and why is nearly impossible. While it may seem obvious to "focus on the consumer" today even discovering whom the consumer is can be difficult at times.

Still, most IT managers do not make random decisions regarding the allocation of their resources. The responsible manager believes he or she has the best interests of the consumer and user in mind, and the manager usually believes that what he or she is doing is the right course of action. All too often however these decisions by IT managers are made in a knowledge vacuum.

The manager believes he or she knows what is best and understands fully the requirements placed upon him or her, when in reality, the complexity of the IT systems masks the true requirements of the IT service, resulting in dissatisfaction with IT service provider and frustration from IT managers and providers.

IT services are intangible, still, most IT managers continue to think and operate using product-oriented terms. IT managers are only now truly beginning to understand that as IT becomes a commodity the way it needs to be managed has change dramatically. In such a turbulent situation, IT managers need a framework to help them identify where they are most likely to get the best performance from their limited resources -- and that framework isn’t ITIL, COBIT, ISO-anything or project management. It’s marketing and consumer demographics.

Understanding consumer demographics, and measuring IT service quality from the point of view of the consumer is exactly what is required for today's IT service providers to remain relevant and successful.

Companies today demand competitive advantage from their IT investments, but many view their IT as “necessary” -- as in a necessary evil -- and most feel poor IT quality limits the business. As a result most IT managers are frustrated and struggle with strained relationships with their business.

IT managers need concepts, principles, skills and tools to measure quality, analyze results, communicate findings, justify improvements, develop actions, and apply practical solutions to overcome challenges, seize opportunities, and empower business success. And those tools are not based on IT operational metrics or frameworks, or even so-called BSM tools that map said IT operational metrics to business processes.

The kinds of tools IT needs today are marketing tools -- service quality perceptions, consumer value sentiments, demographics and marketplace statistics, service quality analysis based on human factors not operational metrics. In short, today’s IT organization requires a marketing department.