Helping clients unlock value from Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) is a key part of our consulting work, and the challenges usually begin even before a vendor is selected. One of the most common early hurdles comes in the form of a question:
“Why do we need a customer data platform? We already have a data lake.”
Ironically, having a well-managed data lake is one of the strongest predictors for success with a customer data platform (CDP); it’s a sign of organizational, technical, and operational maturity where data is concerned. A client with strong governance and well-developed processes for using their data lake is better prepared than most to turn their first-party data into even greater positive outcomes. If this describes your business, congratulations on being ahead of the curve. If your organization is “AEP curious” but fears that acquiring it would be redundant, ask yourself these four questions:
How are you stitching identities in your data lake? And by this I don't mean “what are your foreign keys between the various tables in the data lake?” I mean: “How do you know when a unique individual engages with your site, then walks into your brick-and-mortar store? What about those who wind up in your customer relationship management (CRM) system or contact your call center? How are you identifying the same user across multiple channels?” AEP allows you to tie together omnichannel activity and share that resolved identity back into your data lake. AEP doesn’t replace the lake—it “purifies” the lake’s “water” and makes it ready to use so you don’t have to boil it one pot at a time.
How are you “sessionizing” behavioral data and tying it to customer profiles to create a journey? Knowing what your customers might want next requires a clear understanding of where they are in the sales and customer lifecycle.
How is the data in your lake consumed, and who’s using it? Is data from the lake being used to automate processes like personalization? How long does it take to integrate a new MarTech tool or provide reports and data extracts for requests from various parts of the organization? If the answer is measured in months or even weeks or if new requests and initiatives are always dependent on developer availability, AEP can greatly improve marketing agility and ultimately save your business time, money, and effort. You'll still have to do the initial work to implement the platform and invest in maintaining it, but AEP becomes an ecosystem where once you get the data into it and you have your semantics and your modeling right, you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time some vice president decides they need a relatively obscure insight to support a campaign.
How are you handling governance and privacy for data use across systems, especially when it comes to marketing and personalization? Is your data lake built to handle the ever-increasing requirements of regional and industry-specific compliance?
If any of these questions are hard to answer, consider talking to us about how AEP can complement and enhance your data lake.
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