As I work with companies to create or update their new web sites, I frequently encounter a misconception that I find puzzling. It seems that many companies are of the mindset that their IT departments should be 100% in charge of their web site. Not so… in fact, Marketing should be the group overseeing or at least very involved in the corporate web site. Most IT departments are overworked as a result of supporting infrastructure and workstations and don’t have the time to devote attention to the company web site nor should they take on all these responsibilities.

The old-fashioned way of building web sites did involve getting messy with custom code and building custom “back end” interfaces and also involved hosting sites in-house. Today, however, there is no reason (with a few exceptions) for companies to build, host, and maintain web sites in-house. Modern web sites should be built on a content management system or application framework that removes the need for custom coding and messy development. When we design and deploy web sites at SpinWeb, we focus on the marketing and business development aspects of the site, rather than the technology. The technology should operate seamlessly in the background, leaving us free to be creative and focus on business goals.

This means that IT really should not be the only group with a role in the design, deployment, or management of the web site. Today’s modern tools allow the marketing team to handle all these activities with ease. This leaves IT free to provide better support for systems that is within the scope of their training. Everybody wins.

Are there exceptions? Absolutely. At SpinWeb we recently deployed a new web site for a prominent local credit union and we were working directly with the IT team and it was a very successful project. This was because the IT team saw the value of outsourcing the technology related to the web site and opening up control to Marketing, thus providing better service. When this is the goal, it’s a win-win for everyone. I would say that in this case, the IT team was wearing a partial Marketing and Communications hat during the project, in addition to IT responsibilities.

Remember that a web site is a marketing and communications tool – typically not an IT project.