No matter what they say, few marketers are successfully integrating their operations digitally with the sales and customer service departments. The case appears to be very much the same in organizations both large and small. Customer experience is typically poor, and all-powerful CMOs who ride high-velocity digital engines over CIOs' backs are merely make believe. The information technology research company that claims this to be the marketing reality, 451 Research, is comfortable with its conclusions. Why? It didn't ask CMOs like so many studies that cross our desk. It asked software buyers and practitioners—nearly a thousand of them at companies representing a cross section of American business. Their answers were shocking.

A robust (in data terminology) 59% of them said that their companies don't use digital marketing technology and have no plans to start within the coming six months. Only 18% said they were using such tech and planned to continue doing so, while 6% said they'd begin using digital marketing in the coming year. Seventeen percent were unsure.

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