Managing information technology (IT) is a major challenge within organisations. Despite the proliferation of IT in business there are still major IT developments needed and barriers that must be overcome before the full potential of IT can be achieved. This paper presents research findings from a recent study into IT assimilation within the marketing departments of a selection of the top 500 companies in Ireland. The study enriches our understanding of IT assimilation in general and for marketing specifically. At the core of this research study are multi-disciplinary frameworks, one from the IT literature and one from the marketing literature. This research expands and builds on our knowledge of both marketing and IT theory and practice by adding an IT perspective to the transactional to relational marking framework and within the IT field adds a marketing dimension to the stages theory. The major finding of this study is that despite the enormous pressure on marketers to introduce and utilise a vast myriad of ITs, little is known within this field about the impact of these ITs, optimum usage and how to overcome the major internal and external barriers that exist. The findings suggest that marketers that appreciate the learning curve of IT assimilation and challenge the IT applications to deliver marketing-orientated solutions will ultimately reap the benefits of IT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]