Shifting CCM Ownership to Customer-Centric Teams
Olga Zakharenkava 
January 21st, 2025
As organizations embrace the transition from Customer Communications Management (CCM) to Customer Experience Management (CXM), the question of ownership becomes critical. In this blog, we’ll explore how ownership of CXM is shifting to customer-centric teams and why their proximity to customers makes them uniquely equipped for this role.
From IT-Led CCM to Customer-Centric CXM
Traditionally, CCM resided within IT departments and was focused on compliance-heavy, print-centric transactional communications such as bills and statements. While these systems excelled at accuracy and regulatory compliance, they were never built to handle the complexities of dynamic, personalized, and real-time digital interactions.
As Kaspar Roos points out in his recent LinkedIn article, modern customers expect seamless, engaging experiences, but traditional CCM solutions often lack integration with MarTech platforms and other essential tools for real-time communication. While IT excels at maintaining infrastructure, customer insights and the agility required for CXM demand a more collaborative, cross-functional approach.
Why Customer-Centric Teams Are Taking Ownership
Extending far beyond generating static documents, CXM requires integrations across multiple channels, real-time personalization, and a deep understanding of customer behavior. These capabilities often fall outside the traditional scope of the IT function. Customer-centric teams, by contrast, are naturally positioned to take ownership because they:
1. Understand Customer Needs
Proximity to customer interactions gives marketing and LOB teams a clearer view of pain points, preferences, and expectations.
2. Drive Agility
These teams can respond faster to changing customer demands and market trends, ensuring communications remain relevant and engaging.
3. Leverage Personalization
Marketing and CX teams excel at using tools like AI and analytics to tailor messages and interactions, which is central to CXM.
4. Collaborate Across Functions
Managing CXM effectively often requires input from multiple departments, including compliance, IT, and customer service. Customer-centric teams are better equipped to coordinate these efforts.
These qualities make customer-centric teams better equipped to deliver cohesive, engaging communications. And solutions like MHC NorthStar CCM equip these teams with tools to design and deliver seamless, customer-first communications.
How SaaS Solutions Enable the Shift
The rise of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms has also been a game-changer for CXM. With user-friendly interfaces and scalable solutions, these tools allow marketing and LOB leaders to take direct control of customer communications without relying on IT for support.
Organizations that have reached CXM maturity often see marketing and CX leaders taking the helm, integrating compliance-driven communications into broader engagement strategies. And compliance communications, once IT-driven, have now become part of broader customer engagement strategies, fostering collaboration between teams.
The Role of Digital Change Agents
Customer-centric teams are becoming digital change agents, driving the modernization of communication strategies and aligning them with broader customer experience goals. As such, their key responsibilities include:
Accelerating Time-to-Market – Developing communication strategies that keep pace with changing demands and requirements.
Modernizing Legacy Systems – Upgrading tools to enable dynamic, compliant, and real-time interactions.
System Alignment – Integrating CCM with CRM, MarTech, and other platforms to deliver a cohesive experience.
Digital change agents don’t just implement technology—they champion innovation. For instance, they might lead efforts to integrate MarTech with CCM systems to improve onboarding processes or enhance compliance with regulatory protocols like anti-money laundering (AML).
Collaboration Beyond Marketing
While marketing often leads CXM initiatives as digital change agents, they depend on involvement from the following:
Customer Experience (CX) Teams – Ensuring cohesive customer experiences across all touchpoints and channels.
Line-of-Business (LOB) Leaders – Providing insights into customer processes like onboarding, renewals, and account management.
Support and Service Teams – Offering real-time feedback on customer needs and pain points, crucial for shaping CXM strategies.
A Roadmap to Success
Balancing compliance and creativity, integrating legacy systems with modern platforms, and overcoming organizational silos require significant effort. This means close collaboration between IT and customer-focused teams is essential.
To thrive in a CXM-driven landscape, organizations should:
1. Invest in Training and Tools
Equip marketing and LOB teams with the skills and technologies needed to manage communications effectively.
2. Redefine Roles and Responsibilities
Shift ownership of CXM from IT to customer-centric teams while maintaining IT’s role in ensuring compliance and technical support.
3. Foster Collaboration
Encourage cross-departmental alignment to ensure seamless and compliant customer experiences.
4. Adopt Scalable Solutions
Leverage SaaS platforms to empower non-technical teams and enable agility.
By following this roadmap, businesses can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty while positioning themselves for growth in the CXM era. This is also the topic of our upcoming webinar with Kaspar Roos, President of Aspire CCS. Please register and be sure to join us!
Conclusion
The evolution from CCM to CXM is more than a technological shift; it’s a mindset change that empowers customer-centric teams to lead the way. By placing customer-centric teams at the heart of CXM initiatives, businesses can deliver engaging, compliant, and personalized experiences that meet the demands of today’s digitally savvy customers.
While customer-centric teams will lead the way, they will need to rely on cutting-edge technologies to execute their vision. In the next blog, we’ll dive into the essential tools and platforms—like Communications Experience Platforms (CXPs)—that empower IXM and enable these teams to drive dynamic, compliant, and impactful customer experiences.
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CCM Innovators Series
by Olga Zakharenkava, Head of Marketing at MHC
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Olga Zakharenkava
Olga is a marketing and growth leader with 17+ years of experience in B2B SaaS software. Passionate about making an impact, she builds high-performing teams that drive recurring revenue by being experts in their market and experts in their marketing craft. Olga always puts data first when it comes to building and optimizing marketing strategies, encourages the team to challenge assumptions, and promotes lifelong learning and creative thinking.
