Telecommunications issues: the marketing managers’ viewpoint

Reports the results of a survey of marketing managers with respect to the importance of telecommunications issues and the quality of their telecommunications training. The responses of the marketing managers identified three categories of issues: standard or clerical applications, such as e‐mail or voice mail; advanced applications, such as conducting business on the Internet and EDI; and managerial and technical issues, such as the use of telecommunications to gain a competitive advantage. Surprisingly, marketing managers rated the standard applications as the most important. The explanation was found in the quality of their training. Marketing managers expressed major dissatisfaction with all areas of telecommunications training, but especially in the advanced applications and managerial issues. Rather than placing emphasis on the strategic, more training effort was spent on telecommunications training in the clerical functions. Without knowledge about the advanced or cutting‐edge applications, marketing managers do not understand the potential of these applications and issues in the organization.