Finding Digital’s True Home: Where Should the Digital Team Report?

Excerpt from the book B2B Digital for Executives.

Introduction: You Put It in the Wrong Place

When most manufacturers and distributors finally make the decision to invest in digital, the first question is often:
“Where should it sit?”

For years, the default answer has been IT—because digital involves technology.
Or marketing—because it includes things like websites, emails, and content.

But if you’ve followed along in this book, you know our First Principle:

Digital transformation is about helping your customer do their job more easily.

So why wouldn’t the team that owns the customer journey own digital, too?

That’s why the most forward-thinking companies are starting to anchor digital initiatives inside customer success or customer service.

Because when digital lives closest to the customer, it becomes what it was always meant to be:
Strategic. Cross-functional. And experience-driven.

NOTE: For this topic there aren’t any real best practices. There is no right or wrong place to put the organization. However, like the rest of the book, I am trying go help you re-think digital’s role in your organization.

Why IT and Marketing Aren’t Enough (Sometimes)

Let’s start with the obvious.

Yes, digital includes platforms, integrations, and data. That’s why IT is often tasked with leading the charge. But IT’s primary objective is stability and risk mitigation—not innovation, iteration, or customer empathy.

So when digital sits solely in IT, you often get technically sound projects… that no one uses.

Marketing, on the other hand, brings creativity and communication. That’s useful. But in many manufacturing and distribution companies, the marketing team is small, underfunded, and often focused on top-of-funnel activity—not end-to-end customer experience.

In both cases, digital becomes a project instead of a program.

It’s either a tech build… or a lead-gen campaign.
Neither is enough.

The Case for Customer Success

Here’s why digital belongs in customer success (or a customer journey team):

• They’re closest to the pain.
  They hear the complaints. They know where the friction is. They deal with the aftershocks of poor digital experiences every day.
• They understand the end-to-end journey.
  From quoting to ordering, from invoicing to support, customer-facing teams are the connective tissue.
• They’re already cross-functional.
  They collaborate with sales, product, operations, and IT to solve real customer problems. That’s exactly what digital transformation requires.

When digital sits in customer success, the focus shifts from “what do we want to build” to “what does the customer need right now?

That’s the shift that drives results.

Building a Customer-Centric Digital Function

So what does this look like in practice?

• Start with a small, empowered team that sits inside—or works alongside—your customer success or service group.
• Give that team ownership of the customer digital experience:
  ordering, quoting, tracking, invoicing, self-service, and adoption.
• Staff it with people who understand both your customers and your internal systems.
• Connect them to IT for execution. Connect them to marketing for content. Connect them to sales for insight. But let them own the journey.

And most importantly—make sure it reports to someone with influence.
Not buried three levels down in the org chart.
This is strategic. Treat it like it.

Elevating Digital to a Strategic Function

When digital is owned by the customer success team, something subtle—but powerful—happens.

Digital stops being a cost center.
It becomes a growth engine.

Because now you’re building tools that:

• Increase retention
• Reduce cost to serve
• Drive upsell and cross-sell
• Improve onboarding
• And make life easier for both your customer and your team

You’re not “doing digital.”
You’re making your business easier to buy from—and easier to love.

Final Thought

If digital still lives in IT or marketing in your org, that doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong.

But it’s time to rethink the org chart.

Because if the goal of digital is to serve the customer…
Then the team that understands the customer should lead the way.