Martech Utilisation Levers.

PART 4 — To improve Utilisation, think of these key levers and how you can pull them to your advantage.

The key levers are:

CAPABILITY AND PLATFORM – improving utilisation by expanding use of features, improving data and having the right people.
COSTS – Improve the cost base of your technology platform to realise greater value and offset low utilisation.
OPTIMISATION – undertaking activities to improve efficiency, skills, performance of activity and strategic alignment.

In the table below we have outlined the actions, effort and payback for each of the levers. Including highlighting the one that matters most for each area.

Capability and platform.

Lever: Improving platform application and use.

The one that matters: Have the right people - Invest in correct resources.

Action	Effort	Benefit	Time to Benefit
Expand platform features use	Medium – requires the ability to use the features (data, channel, skills)	Medium – there is no use paying for something and then not using it – leveraging capability is central to utilisation	Short to Medium – certain features (like predictive learning, personalisation) can have immediate returns
Improve data availability & quality	High – an on-going but necessary challenge for organisations	High – data is often cited as a critical challenge and success factor in Martech	Medium to Long – based on effort to integrate and fix data
Invest in correct resources	Low – aligning the right people and skills to capabilities	High – having the right people is paramount in ensuring utilisation is high (assuming they are applied correctly)	Short to Medium – the right skills base can have immediate impact

Cost

Lever: Cost improvements to benefit overall utilisation value ratio.

The one that matters: Choose and implement the right platform.

Action	Effort	Benefit	Time to Benefit
Choose and implement the right platform	Low – proper due diligence for selection and business case to know true costs	High – sets up for success and increases utilisation baseline in addition to right size platform costs	Short – assuming a well-managed implementation
Consolidate or remove (including de-platform or downgrade)	High – shifting of processes and decommissioning technology effort	Medium – improves base costs, support and other areas (as long as utilised customer value is not impacted)	Short to Medium – impacted by speed to consolidate, license terms and process re-engineering
Licensing or Platform costs	High – varies depending on contract and license terms	Low – platforms increase costs with usage unless you can negotiate higher tiers	Short – at the right time – benefits can be immediate
Review resource profile	Low to High – outsourcing, leveraging agencies or reducing staff vary in effort	Medium – outsourcing can impact quality and overheads if not managed well but can reduce costs	Medium to Long – re-organisation or outsourcing takes time
Be better targeted in activity	Medium – improvements in targeting and execution (aka personalisation) take time	Medium – can improve direct line to value, reduce platform & media costs (which are often on a usage basis) and focus teams of utilising platform capabilities better	Short to Medium – certain personalisation activities take time to see customer benefit

Optimisation

Improve performance of processes, people and activities.

The one that matters: Optimise performance.

Action	Effort	Benefit	Time to Benefit
Strive for automation	Medium to High – undertake continual automation of processes	Medium – enables redirection of resources to higher value work	Short to Medium – enables platforms to do what they do best
Optimise performance	Medium – breaking out of the cycle of effort for efforts sake and introducing proper review & optimise activities	High – continual improvement of campaigns or activity can provide large benefit	Medium – embedding behaviours and supporting capabilities takes time
Improve skills	Medium – map and gap skills, undertake training to improve skills	High – a highly skilled team improves utilisation	Medium to Long – skills build takes time to flow through to execution
Strategic alignment	Low – ensure alignment on capability with business outcomes	Medium – helps prioritisation on utilisation and focus on organisation value	Short to Medium – alignment can pay off quickly by enabling teams to stop focus on non value creating work
Process improvement	Low to Medium – depending on the process, effort varies to fix or address process issues	High – good processes improve time to value, efficiency, and team happiness	Medium – tweaks can be immediate but general take a while to improve utilisation